Northeastern 14 – Navy (#78) 31 (NCAA Chronicles 2005, Season 1, Week 3)

Another week, another infraction to take care of; this time CB #23 was recommended for a 3 game suspension due to academic infractions (bad grades). I said the heck with that – this is Navy, so I only suspended the guy for a quarter.

I did not know what to expect with Northeastern. I figured it would be easy, but that never seems to be the case with my games. I let them stick around a little longer than I should have, and once again my experimentation at the end of the game (once in hand) almost cost me. With that said, there were really no worries with this one.

Week 3
#5 Georgia 20 – South Carolina 12
USC remains #1

It is obvious by now that I can run the ball and control the clock. The risk of running an option attack is playing from behind, having to come from behind. Luckily we outclassed our opponent, so we did not have to worry about coming from behind. I do worry about our ability to come back if and when we are trailing somewhere down the road.

The game was rather mundane, but a scary moment happened when my starting QB (#6) went down with an injury in the 2nd quarter (he later returned after the half). My backup came in cold off the bench – 3:18 to play in the half, 16 yard line, 4th and 10. My back (QB #2) easily took the ball in for a TD on the next play. Looks like I may have a capable backup.

I should have had 3 more points, but my kicker was slightly short on a FG attempt at the end of the half, clanking the ball off the crossbar. And it was a resounding clank. At this point I was up 24-7 so the game was as good as over so I decided to let the backups see some action, and to experiment with some of the lesser used plays in my playbook.

               1st   2nd   3rd   4th   |  Final
Northeastern   0     7     0     7     |  14
Navy           10    14    0     7     |  31

Once again I did well passing, but the passes are really there to help with the run; I mostly roll out looking to run and rarely throwing unless my target is very open. My offensive line is giving up way too many sacks; this will hurt me at some point down the road.

                   Northeastern   Navy
Score              14             31
1st Downs          11             21
Total Offense      241            356
Rush-Yards         15-(66)        47-231
Comp-ATT-TD        9-32-1         8-15
Passing Yards      175            125

Sophomore SS #25 was named Defensive Player of the Week (for Independents) – 2 Tackles, 2 INTS, 1 TD

My starting QB (#6) continues to do a bang up job of leading our option attack. He had a 123.3 QB rating, and while he was only 8-15 passing, there were 2 recorded dropped passes.

We really improved on 3rd downs, and we easily won the turnover battle. We have to get better in the redzone – I have to make sure I do well in the red zone because each drive is important when you run a ball control offense.

Other interesting Navy stats/figures/numbers
7-13 (53%) 3rd down efficiency
6-3-1 (66%) in the redzone (redzone-TD-FG)
TOP 8:08 – 15:52
Turnovers 4 – 1 in Navy’s favor
Next up: Navy travels to #74 Tulsa (1-1)
Combined Opponent Record: 2-5
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