Navy vs. Air Force: Predicting the winner, game time, and TV/live stream info

Army looks like a beast for the second straight year. Navy is Navy. So does Air Force have a legitimate shot to take home the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy for just the third time since 2002 this fall? Or will the Falcons be shut out against its fellow service academies like it was in 2017?

Air Force’s journey to the trophy begins Saturday when it welcomes Navy to Colorado Springs. Neither team has gotten off to the start it hoped for at the dawn of the 2018 season. The Falcons are 1-3 with only a win over FCS Stony Brook to their credit — and it’s not as though they’ve faced a murderer’s row to start the year. Air Force has lost to Florida Atlantic, Utah State, and Nevada so far.

Navy has the better record at 2-2 and a slightly better resume, but the Midshipmen’s lack of defense could be their fatal flaw. They gave up 59 points in an opening week loss to Hawaii and 31 in last week’s defeat against then-1-3 SMU. That leaves Navy vulnerable in Colorado — and a win Saturday could be just the spark Air Force needs.

The S&P+ rankings ranks Navy as the nation’s No. 77 team — which is bad! But a 1-3 Air Force team slides in at 117, which is a much higher number. The preseason ratings saw this as a four-point win for the defenders of our oceans, and that number sounds about right.

A handful of second class (junior) Midshipmen and Cadets switch places each semester. They continue to wear their service’s uniforms. They live in the massive dormitory complex with everyone else. They know full well that come Air Force, Army, or Navy week, they are going to be the brunt of numerous pranks, from having all of their uniforms stolen, to having their furniture moved outside, to having their room filled with sand and their bed turned into a beach, to someone buying fox piss and putting it in their closet, to shaving cream bombs through the ceiling, and the list goes on and on. Generally, the freshmen are the ones pulling these pranks with encouragement from the upperclassmen. And, for the most part, the administration is on board.

Isaiah Sanders has started a pair of games for the Falcons this fall, but a concussion kept him from the field in last week’s loss to Nevada. He’s been practicing with the first team in the lead-up to Saturday’s intra-academy showdown, but if he can’t play his duties will fall to Arion Worthman and Donald Hammond III ...who have completed a combined 12 of 31 passes so far this season.

So yeah, getting Sanders back for the Navy game would be huge for the Falcons.