Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/200019
Game Preview: Navy Leveling Off The Midshipmen stumbled recently after a fast start to the season T By Dan Murphy hrough the first third of the regular season, head coach Ken Niumatalolo and Navy looked like they were headed to one of their best years together since he took control of the program in 2008. In recent weeks, though, a slew of uncharacteristic mistakes and some untimely injuries have brought the Midshipmen back to Earth. Navy reached the halfway point with a 3-3 record and meetings with Pittsburgh and Notre Dame on deck. Niumatalolo's team gave up 35 and 45 points in recent losses to Duke and Toledo, which is too much for a grinding, triple-option offense to keep pace. Big plays have been the big culprit in those losses. In a surprising 35-7 blowout, the Blue Devils completed three passes of at least 20 yards, one of them for a 27-yard score, and had six runs go for at least 10 yards. The next week Toledo squeaked out a 45-44 double overtime victory thanks to touchdown runs of 52 and 44 yards. The game-winning score was a 20-yard touchdown pass. Bill Wagner, who covers the Midshipmen for the Capital Gazette in Senior inside linebacker Cody Peterson averaged a team-best 10.0 tackles per game during the first half of the season. photo courtesy navy Annapolis, said Navy's success on defense is predicated on bottling up game-changing plays. "Navy is always going to be undersized and not quite as big, fast, strong