For all that Army has accomplished, this season will always be considered good, but not great.
That’s the standard that coach Jeff Monken placed upon the importance of winning the Army-Navy game and the Black Knights came up short with an uncharacteristic performance.
A career-worst three interceptions by senior quarterback Bryson Daily and a season-low 113 yards by the leading rushing team in the nation contributed mightily to a 31-13 setback to Navy (9-3) on Saturday. Army was a 6.5-point favorite.
AP No. 19 Army (11-2) had turned the ball over only five times through the first 12 games.
Navy jumped out to a 14-0 lead, and Daily admits he started pressing. “That led to bad decisions,” he said. “I take full responsibility for that.”
Notably, Daly overthrew Hayden Reed late in the first quarter and on the same series a throw to Casey Reynolds was picked off by Dashaun Peele. In the third quarter, he bounced a third-down throw intended for Noah Short at the 2-yard line. On the opening play of the fourth, Reynolds was left open in the end zone and Daily threw too high for his leap and outstretched hands. Down 15 in the fourth, Daily was flushed left and tried to throw all the way across the field only to get picked. And Daily Navy’s Luke Pirris stepped in front of Samari Howard for a third turnover.
“We didn’t hit the plays we needed to,” added Daily, who finished sixth in the Heisman Trophy voting “They (Navy) hit the big plays … and I turned the ball over too much – that’s how you lose games: not executing, giving the other team the ball and not hitting big plays when you need them. It’s really a bunch of self-inflicted wounds.”
“It hurts. We just got our butts kicked,” Monken said. “They (Navy) blocked better, tackled better. Did it all better. They just outplayed us, out-coached us. It hurts to lose this game.”
Most of the credit goes to Navy junior quarterback Blake Horvath, who has overcome numerous injuries to play the steadiest game of his season. He had 25 carries for 204 yards, scoring on a pair of 1-yard dives, and threw for two more scores to Brandon Chatman and Eli Heidenreich – on the latter, Army’s Donavan Platt missed a tackle at the 40, allowing Heidenreich to complete his 52-yard score for a 21-10 lead.
“I’m very emotional, honestly” Horvath said as he sat among his fellow Midshipmen in the stands. “To go on through everything we’ve gone through the past few years, and to play against a great Army team like this and to come out with the CIC and for our seniors, the school, for everybody, it’s awesome.”
“He just played his game,” said Navy second-year head coach Brian Newberry of Horvarth. “He’s been doing it all year … he’s been a little bit banged up but he was just tough today, and the (offensive) line played well.
“It was a great team effort. We played complimentary football. I couldn’t be more happy with the way we did it today.”
This is the first time Navy has won the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy since 2019.
“I tell you what … we still got a football team in Annapolis,” Newberry said. “So I’m really happy for these players. I don’t think a lot of people gave us a chance, and it just shows the character of our players. I’m so happy for these guys, especially these seniors, and all that they’ve been through. Just their toughness and their grit, and they played lights out today. I couldn’t be more proud.”
Army football: Hard to celebrate
The Black Knights have played a remarkable season, opening the season with nine wins (extending the nation’s longest win streak to 13 games), and culminated with a home-playoff clinching win over Texas San Antonio and a dominant win over Tulane to win the American Athletic Conference championship in their first season of membership.
“I am sorely disappointed,” Monken said. “As excited and proud we were eight days ago, we’re as disappointed as we’ve ever been. It’s hard to lose that game, that one hurts a lot, especially when the (CIC) trophy’s on the line … we had a chance to keep that trophy at West Point and we didn’t do it.”
Monken said he was going to tell his team that he loves them and felt for his 28 seniors.
“We’ve got a great brotherhood,” he said. “These guys fought. We just didn’t play well enough tonight. What do you say? It’s the biggest game of their careers, the most disappointing night of their lives to this point.”
“Our guys did fight all the way to the end and we just didn’t perform very well. We have to do that if we’re going to have a chance to win, so credit to the other team.”
Monken added: “I’m just sorry we didn’t represent all the soldiers better than we did tonight.”
Hard numbers to swallow
The 113 rushing yards was the worst Army effort since gaining only 78 in a loss to Air Force in 2022. The 178 total yards was also the worst since that same game. The three interceptions were matched in the 2023 blowout loss at Louisiana State and one shy of the four interceptions by North Texas in 2016. It was Army’s largest loss to Navy since a 31-7 drubbing in 2019. The Midshipmen lead the all-time series 63-55-7. Army has not repeated as CIC champion since 2017-18, its only double since the Trophy Series was established in 1972. The 2017 meeting was the last time that the winner of the Army-Navy game would win the trophy. Navy won 17-13 as a seven-point underdog in 2021.
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Next up: A new foe
It was a strange day for all of college football. Marshall had 26 players enter the transfer portal following the resignation of its head coach last Sunday. With a depleted roster, the Thundering Herd elected to pass on playing Army in the Dec. 28 Independence Bowl. The bowl had to delve into a pool of 15 schools that finished 5-7 this season (one below the normal six-win threshold) and Louisiana Lafayette was selected as Army’s bowl foe.
X / Twitter: @KenMcMillanTHR
