Army leads the nation in rushing, averaging 312.5 yards per game. So the obvious key when facing the Black Knights is to contain their explosive triple-option offense. Yet when Tulane (9-3, 7-1 AAC) visits Army (10-1, 8-0) in Friday’s American Athletic Conference Championship, a secondary key will be to not allow the Army passing game to make a substantial difference.
The passing game?
Army will enter the game last in the FBS in passing yards per game, 89.2 per contest.
Of course, that is a misleading statistic because Army usually only passes out of necessity.
As far as Army head coach Jeff Monken is concerned, if the Black Knights don’t attempt a single pass, he will be more than happy.
Yet, he had to go to the passing game more than any game this season during last week’s 29-24 home victory over UTSA that clinched Army’s unbeaten mark in AAC play in the program’s first season in the conference for football.
Quarterback Bryson Daily, who ran for 147 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries, also attempted a season-high 17 passes. He completed 10 of 17 throws for a season-high 190 yards, one touchdown, and no interceptions.
Yet if Monken has his way, we won’t be seeing Air Army very much in the title game.
“You get a lot of third-and-longs, you will be punting most of the time,” Monken said during a Zoom press conference with both head coaches previewing the championship game. “It’s hard to convert those. We made some plays, and Bryson made some plays.”
Still, it’s not Monken’s preferred way to navigate his way toward the end zone.
“That is not something we’ve ever felt like we could make a living on, dropping back and throwing the football,” Monken said. “If we are throwing the ball more than we are running it, we are behind and trying to play catch-up. We are a running football team and want to be good at that and that is how we’ve gotten ourselves positioned where we are.”
All of that is true, but Army might be forced to throw the ball, and last week the Black Knights were more than up to the challenge.
On the season, Daily has completed 43 of 76 passes (57%) for 860 yards, eight touchdowns, and just one interception. Daily is averaging 20 yards per completion.
“When they are converting those pass plays like the way they did last week, it is very difficult to stop them,” Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall said. “We are different schematically from them, but we are similar in that we want to run the ball and take play-action shots. That is what they are doing.”
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Sumrall was impressed with the way Daily delivered the ball.
“That quarterback is a frigging warrior,” Sumrall said. “I have a lot of respect for Bryson Daily. He throws the ball efficiently. You can see that last week in their game with UTSA.”
Sumrall was most impressed when Daily and the Army offense were forced to pass on third down.
“The third-down throws he made last week to get one-on-one, and the guys went up and won the ball, he made nice throws,” Sumrall said. “I think they throw the ball more efficiently than people recognize.”
Against UTSA, the top Army receiver was Casey Reynolds, who had four receptions for 81 yards, both season highs. Reynolds has a team-high 17 receptions for 417 yards and three touchdowns on the season. Running back Tyrell Robinson added three receptions for 46 yards and a score. Robinson hauled in a 41-yard TD pass from Daily for the first score of the game.
That early touchdown set the tone. Against UTSA, Army rushed for 217 yards, 95 below its average, but the passing game more than made up for that. It could also be a major factor in the championship game.
Monken hopes it won’t come down to the passing game, but at least he saw last week that his team has the ability to move the ball through the air if the game dictates it.
