Army 1-1

It takes a game like that to kind of snap ourselves back into reality. This as Army's first loss since September 22 last year. It takes a road game to ranked Michigan to knock this team off their game. This was a winnable game, in a long, long line of winnable games. There were some coaching decisions that hurt Army's chances of winning,

Michigan's 4th down fake was pretty snappy. Army showed the same pressure after the UM penalty on 4th so the Wolverines audible into a little pass play.


I would really rather talk about what Jeff Monken and company have done for the fortunes of Army football. It's amazing.

I don't know if you could ask for a more exciting ball game either.

With such a great run of success Army football has sort realized some other measures of their success. It's a strange measure to mark these twin OT losses to Oklahoma and Michigan as Army's measuring stick simply because they are, after all, losses. This game just like Oklahoma last season should be a valid measuring stick by which to judge Army football. It's no wonder why I believe ties are a good thing for football. You won't be able to convince me that the institution of overtime is a good thing for college football.


What a second half. Army gets Michigan to go 3 and out to open the half. They get a 2 yard run from Slomka and then Artice Hobbs pulls in a 34 yard catch and run that set Army up for what would have been a go ahead score. Army works the ball down to the Michigan 1 yard (2nd and 1) line before a penalty turned the situation into a 3rd and goal from the 6. It's rare for the offense to go into panic mode but panic set in on 3rd down - timeout called and then Army comes in and tries to throw when they know they have 2 downs to score. Army has pounded the ball and dominated possession for the last two years. I think if the coaching staff had a chance to call that 3rd down again they would probably run Slomka and another keeper with Hopkins.
 
Michigan played solid defense out of the 3-3-5 stack. Not every team can succeed against Army's option with the 3-3-5, but Michigan's defense played alright. The Michigan Defensive Coordinator said they played out of the stack and blitzed every down. I thought Army kept it pretty simple on offense.

What might we take away from another loss like this one?
Well, for one we can look forward to dealing out some pay back as soon as Oklahoma comes calling next year.

Other than that it's Army's first loss in a year, OT loss - probably should have been a win.


Here's the Michigan Army story, stats, highlights and replay.







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