Army's path to Thursday's Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl

[smupony94]

Army's path to Thursday's Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl at SMU
Posted at 7:38 AM on Mon., Dec. 27, 2010 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz
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Army became bowl eligible for the first time since the mid-1990s by winning six of its first 10 games, the sixth win being 45-28 at Kent State on Nov. 13. To that point, the Black Knights let a couple close games slip away, losing at home to Hawaii 31-28 at Rutgers in overtime 23-20.

At 6-4, they traveled about 50 miles down to Yankee Stadium to play Notre Dame for the first time since 2006 and lost 27-3. Then came the traditional regular-season finale against Navy, at Philadelphia. Not only had Army not beaten Navy since 2001, the Cadets had not scored a touchdown against the Midshipmen since 2006.

The Knights ended that drought in the second quarter and was playing Navy even late in the half. In position to score again and pull within 17-14 in the last two minutes of the second quarter, sophomore quarterback Trent Steelman had the ball stripped on first-and-goal at the Middies' 3. Navy senior safety Wyatt Middleton grabbed the ball and raced 98 for a touchdown and a 24-7 lead instead. Navy went on to build a 31-10 lead and win, 31-17.

Army moved the ball (outgaining Navy 337 yards to 325) but couldn't capitalize when it counted most. Four trips inside Navy's 20 resulted in only two scores. An offense that relies heavily on third-down conversions went 6-for-15 on third downs and 1-for-2 on fourth-down plays.

Army's second-year coach, Rich Ellerson, said yesterday he believes his team has put the emotional defeat behind it.

"Listening to the voices around Army football, there was less of a sense of they were disappointed IN us; they were disappointed FOR us," he said. "As a team, we felt like we could stop 'em and move the ball. We felt like we competed throughout. We were better than that. We were better than that scoreboard indicated.

"We expected to win. We expected to win at halftime. We expected to win in the third quarter. There was a sudden sense of disbelief at the end when we hadn't."

[ponyboy]

This Army team will not be a pushover.

[BIGHORSE]

We must crush them, if we get up on them, we need to keep scoring and scoring and scoring!!!

[Stallion]

ooops stumbled across a football related thread. Carry on.

[ponyboy]

Lol.

[smupony94]

ooops stumbled across a football related thread. Carry on.

I apologize.