Army 3-1

It's never ideal to get to the 3rd QB by game 4, but it seems like the system is already in place to have the younger QBs succeed. Jabari Laws got the start and almost made it to the end of the first quarter when he was sidelined by a tackle that was deemed a targeting penalty. That's tough luck for Laws. Christian Anderson came on to finish the game and performed pretty well. It wasn't 137 yards in his first start, but  75 yards in 3 quarters of play is nice. Zero turnovers is a good clean start too.

It seemed like Army moved away from live reads with Anderson, relying mostly on the dive play - which is just a handoff, not a read. They used a lot of alternate motion and play design, but there was an awful lot of plays with no live read, whether it was attacking the edge with the rocket toss or inside using Slomka power. Anyway, Anderson came on and within one quarter Army was in the lead 24-14. In the second half we saw a couple of good option plays.


With 4 penalties in the first 5 minutes, Morgan State got off to a pretty bad start but overcame their play with a couple of big plays.
Morgan State's first score was a 3rd and 13, 72 yard heave.

Their second score was set up by a Jabari Laws fumble deep in Army territory.


Coach Monken went ape after the second MSU touchdown. That's the only time Army has trailed a game in regulation this year. The jolt worked and the team pulled together 31 point blowout featuring 403 rush yards.


Elijah Riley said this after the game "We came out in the first half and second half with low energy, not really focused on the task at hand. Couldn’t tell you the reason for it   "We shouldn’t come out any game with low energy. Going forward, we’re just going to have to lock it in, not allow another game like this to take place." 

It's important to recognize that, and let's be glad that we're figuring that out in the first 1/3 of the season.


Simply put there needs to be better focus in all phases. Army seems to get dunked on in every game - it's one thing to have that happen on 4th down in the Big House, it's another to give up that kind of stuff at home against a 1AA squad. Again, no disrespect to Morgan State - they'll get their share of wins with Tyrone Wheatley as coach.

Jabari Laws got the start and almost made it to the end of the first quarter when he was sidelined by a tackle that was deemed a targeting penalty. We may not know the status of any of the QBs until next week. Christian Anderson came on to finish the game and performed pretty well. It wasn't 137 yards in his first start, but  75 yards in 3 quarters of play is nice. Zero turnovers is a good clean start too.
So the team is down 14-7, Anderson steps on the field and  - within one play the game is tied. It took just one more quarter and Army had a 24-14 half time lead.

It seemed like Army moved away from read option with Anderson, relying mostly on the dive - which is just a handoff, not a read. They used variations in motion and play design but there were lot of plays with no live read, whether it was attacking the edge with the rocket toss or inside using Slomka power. Hey, simpler is better is some cases. I still think it's amazing how the offense can go back into such a small base set of plays and still dominate.


Army football now has one week off before facing Tulane at Michie Stadium. I'd say it's a pretty good time for a bye week. Connor Slomka carried for a career high 110 yards and a TD, Artice Hobbs carried the ball once and caught one pass - so mark him down for 89 yards and 2 touchdowns.


So it's 3-1 for Army who now have 15 straight home wins. The Jeff Monken era has brought incredible success for Army football and particularly their play at home.




Here's the Morgan State Army story, stats, highlights, and replay



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