If Joey Jones never sees another triple-option team on the sideline opposite his South Alabama Jaguars he will be a happy man.
Saturday, Navy added to Jones’ unhappiness in demonstrated all-too-clearly with him, his team and Jaguar fans exactly what the offense is capable of doing when run by a team that understands it and executes the offense well. The Midshipmen rolled out 519 total yards in slapping the Jags with a 42-14 loss at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium Saturday.
Two seasons ago, Cal Poly, also employing the triple option, handed the Jags a 41-10 loss, still the worst defeat in school history.
South Alabama, now 3-6 on the season, had no answer for the Midshipmen’s style of play, even though they were fairly effective against Navy in the first half, trailing by just six points at intermission. But the second half belonged to Navy, which scored 22 unanswered points, beginning with the opening drive of the half, while South Alabama’s offense failed to score.
“They’re a better football team probably, for sure tonight,” Jones said. “You feel like you get behind them and you feel like you’re playing catch up the whole game; they keep the ball and keep driving down the field. I think we stopped them twice the whole game.
“They’re a very good football team. We knew that coming in; they almost beat Notre Dame, they beat Pittsburgh, they’re a seasoned team. They’re probably a better team than us right now. … When you play a team like this you’ve got to score points to beat them and we didn’t. For whatever reason, we just didn’t. When teams beat them, they scored 30-something points.”
…………What they did to South Alabama was rush for 351 yards on 51 carries (and average of 6.9 yards per carry) and pass for 168 yards on 17 tries, well more than the Midshipmen’s average of 94 passing yards a game.
…………..“It was almost like they knew what we were doing at times, throwing when the cornerback was coming up for run support.
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Photo: Joshua McKerrow
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