Army and Navy faced off in Philadelphia on Saturday, and on a related note, here’s an interesting fact about the forward pass in college football.
Army-Navy was in the snow, so of course the game only had 3 pass attempts
We went 22 minutes without anyone even trying one.
Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Enthusiasts of grunt-heavy football were thus understandably disappointed to see Navy quarterback Zach Abey’s pass arrive complete to Malcolm Perry for two yards on second-and-8 midway through the second quarter.
This happened with about eight minutes remaining in the second quarter, which means that Army and Navy played 22 minutes of American college football with nary a forward pass even attempted. The final 22 minutes of the game, coincidentally, would play out the same way.
Perhaps spurred by some newfound confidence, Abey returned to the air on the very next play for a rather optimistic attempt down the seam.
So. At halftime Abey was 1-of-2 passing for two yards; that was his passing line for the entire game. The midshipmen led at the break, 10-7.
Not to be outdone, Army completed a pass of their own 16 minutes of game time later.
Check out this ambitious 20-yard effort from the Golden Knights’ Ahmad Bradshaw to Calen Holt.
The miracle of Bradshaw even managing to get that thing off is matched only by Holt’s amazing ability to haul it in while diving his way backward in heavy traffic. That grab came in the service of a long drive that culminated in a 35-yard missed field goal for the Knights.
The days’ major inflection points for both teams collectively: six punts, two missed field goals, three touchdowns, three pass attempts, two completions.
Army scored late in the fourth quarter to take a 14-13 advantage, and Navy would go on to miss a game-winning field goal attempt to send the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy back to West Point.
This is all very on-brand for service academy football, and it can be devastatingly effective.
Army beat Air Force without attempting a pass not four weeks ago, in fact. It also makes for compelling football, because with so much rushing moving the ball forward and the clock more consistently running, the games tend to wrap up faster.
All that rushing also allows for possession origami such as this:
Each team had five possessions in the first half, so it would appear that POSSESSION WATCH is off the table. For shame.
The Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy is also very on-brand.
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