BALTIMORE — Some people don’t get it.
That’s OK. Not everything is for everyone.
Some people think the second Saturday in December is a wasted date on the sporting calendar that would be improved with first-round College Football Playoff matchups or a law change that allows for the NFL to play Saturday games a week earlier.
The rest of us know that this day is one of the best days on the entire sporting calendar and look forward to it all year and are almost never disappointed.
On paper, it was a 17-16 win for Navy. Those football fans in the first camp who watched the game probably think it was ugly if not downright bad football.
Those of us in the second camp know that it was anything but. It was wonderful. It was beautiful. It was absolutely everything you’d want from an Army-Navy game.
Where do you even start with this game? Do you start with a first quarter that was played in 25 ACTUAL minutes and went by before both teams could even have one full possession each? Or the next 20:21 of game play, which proved disastrous for the Midshipmen? (They went three-and-out and committed two sloppy turnovers in their next three possessions as a 7-0 lead turned into a 16-7 deficit.) Or how in the last 24:39 of the game, Navy’s defense completely clamped down, allowing MINUS-1 YARD the rest of the way to give the offense the opportunity to come back?
Or how you could tell the story of the game through those very compelling storylines alone and if you did, you’d be leaving out the most significant and amazing sequences of the game?
You know, like the sequence in which the Mids were just 1 yard away from completing a multi-score second-half rally (not an easy thing to do in a service academy game) when quarterback Blake Horvath fumbled just before the goal line. With less than seven minutes left, it appeared to be a backbreaker as Army linebacker Eric Ford was about to scoop the ball up with wide open real estate in front of him. But two of Horvath’s fellow seniors — Pittsburgh-area natives Alex Tecza and Eli Heidenreich — had other ideas.
“I’ve been talking to the defensive coaches, hopefully they try me out on defense against Cincinnati,” Tecza said, referring to Navy’s Liberty Bowl opponent. “I just went to tackle the guy. It was obviously a quarterback sneak and I wasn’t worried about the ball. Blake I guess saw it pop out, obviously he was carrying it, and said, ‘Get on the ball, get on the ball,’ and then I look to my left and there it is. And I thought maybe I could get there first, but the defender picked it up and I just tried to tackle him. I guess my hand got on the ball or I don’t know, maybe he just dropped it, but then I saw Eli and I was in shock. It was just a bang-bang play. Two yinzers trying to get the ball.”
Tecza, completely out of the play, dove in and didn’t just prevent Ford from a scoop and score, he got the ball back out. That allowed Heidenreich to fly back to the 8-yard line and recover the fumble to keep the drive alive. But things didn’t look much better one incompletion later, as the Mids were faced with a fourth-and-goal from the 8-yard line. Given the low-percentage nature of the situation and there being 6:37 still to play, it felt like a no-brainer that Navy would kick a field goal to cut it to a three-point game.
The Mids’ coach had other ideas. Brian Newberry kept his offense on the field. Despite Horvath having completed just 6 of 13 pass attempts with two turnovers (and centimeters from a third two plays earlier), his coach trusted him with the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy on the line. That trust was rewarded. Army spied two linebackers to take away a quarterback scramble, leaving Heidenreich (who earlier in the game became the school’s single-season receiving leader to go along with his career receiving record) one-on-one in the end zone. Horvath delivered a touchdown strike.
“He’ll make a mistake and come back and make an exceptional play,” Newberry explained. “I trust [Blake Horvath] as much as much as I trust any player in our program. He’s done it the last two years. When we need a play, he makes them. There was no hesitation asking him to throw the ball in that situation.”
There was still another harrowing moment to be had when Horvath had to recover his own fumble on the Mids’ final drive of the game and nearly fumbled it a second time on the play (the officials actually ruled a second fumble at first). There was one more fourth-down conversion needed at the end to ice it away.
It was gripping. It was theater. It was an ugly, awesome win in the greatest rivalry in all of sports. It gave The American regular-season co-champions their second straight Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy title and their second straight 10-win season (a first in program history). It was truly a football spectacle.
“Just couldn’t be more proud of these players,” Newberry said after the comeback victory. “Their fight, their toughness, their grit, all those things. These are the guys you want as potential war fighters for your country, there’s no doubt about that.”
And yeah, I’ve made it this far in the column without really diving in on the pomp and circumstance and pageantry that comes with an Army-Navy game. That’s how much I enjoyed the football game.
So yeah, not everyone will get it. And maybe at some point in the future the sport will bully the game off the date in favor of an expanded playoff. But the rest of us will continue to be grateful for days like this, watching tremendous football games between remarkable young men who are choosing to protect our country. I’m grateful we had it back in our city. I’m grateful it still gets the standalone spot on the calendar that it deserves.
And Navy fans are grateful for that toughness and grit their team showed on a wonderful day (other than the traffic) in Baltimore.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox