Defensively, I think this was a better game than it might appear at first glance, with 35 points sitting on the scoreboard. Obviously, the defense wasn’t responsible for 7 of those points. They did give up 376 yards, but that is about average for SMU. Buddy Green’s game plan took away most of SMU’s short passing game, forcing them to either throw long– which Bo Levi Mitchell wasn’t able to do with any accuracy– or run. The Mustangs were able to run the ball a bit, thanks to Miami transfer Shawnbrey McNeal. But McNeal only had 15 carries. Consistently running the ball just isn’t what SMU’s offense was designed to do. If you’re forcing June Jones to run the ball, then you’ve won the battle.
There is a good description in this Article on how Navy adjusted in the second half to allow their Option to break free.....we obviously had a good plan in the first half and this article has a good break down on that as well....
