It’s the final regular season game of the year. And they always save the best game for last. Sure there are a ton of great games during the season, the fight for Paul Bunyan, the Iron Bowl, Big Game, Bedlam or the Good Old fashioned Hate. Those are all great rivalries.
But for pure pageantry, intensity, traditions and history, nothing compares to the Army Navy game. A game so big it gets its own weekend.
The uniforms are the best. This year the Army will honor the First Armored Division and the 80th anniversary of Operation Torch, the WWII Allied invasion of North Africa. The uniform and helmet feature mud splatters that look like the armored vehicles in the operations in North Africa.
But for pure pageantry, intensity, traditions and history, nothing compares to the Army Navy game. A game so big it gets its own weekend.
The uniforms are the best. This year the Army will honor the First Armored Division and the 80th anniversary of Operation Torch, the WWII Allied invasion of North Africa. The uniform and helmet feature mud splatters that look like the armored vehicles in the operations in North Africa.
The Navy will honor the 54 Navy astronauts. The uniform is meant to copy what a spacewalk suit looks like and uses the NASA “meatball” logo. the helmet features an astronaut on a spacewalk and the cleats were designed to mimic shoes worn in space. They’re all white with shiny dots to represent stars.
Your team may have great alternative uniforms but they don’t compare to what Army and Navy can roll out.
As far as the game, the line opened at Army -2.5 but more and more money has flowed in for Navy such that they are 2.5 favorites. That is a huge swing.
The reason? Well, it’s a service academy game so you know what you are going to get, plenty of triple option. And the stats reflect the strategies. Army is 2nd in rushing behind just the other service academy, Air Force. Navy is 7th.
The difference is defending the rush. Navy is incredibly stout, ranking 4th overall. Army? Try 115th.
Both teams have been playing their best ball down the stretch. Army got quarterbacks Tyhier Tyler and Cade Ballard back from injury in recent weeks — both will play, along with Jemel Jones in a three-quarterback rotation — and finished the season by clobberring UConn and UMass.
Navy lost two of its final three games, but they were close losses to Cincinnati and Notre Dame, and it beat ranked UCF.
The Midshipmen will not get starting quarterback Tai Lavatai back from injury and will be rolling with Xavier Arline in this game. Arline was the starter in 2020’s loss to Army, and was injured on his first play in this game in 2021. This game means extra for him.
Of course I’m taking Navy but under the expanded Big Al rules I won’t be laying any quatloos.
As far as the game, the line opened at Army -2.5 but more and more money has flowed in for Navy such that they are 2.5 favorites. That is a huge swing.
The reason? Well, it’s a service academy game so you know what you are going to get, plenty of triple option. And the stats reflect the strategies. Army is 2nd in rushing behind just the other service academy, Air Force. Navy is 7th.
The difference is defending the rush. Navy is incredibly stout, ranking 4th overall. Army? Try 115th.
Both teams have been playing their best ball down the stretch. Army got quarterbacks Tyhier Tyler and Cade Ballard back from injury in recent weeks — both will play, along with Jemel Jones in a three-quarterback rotation — and finished the season by clobberring UConn and UMass.
Navy lost two of its final three games, but they were close losses to Cincinnati and Notre Dame, and it beat ranked UCF.
The Midshipmen will not get starting quarterback Tai Lavatai back from injury and will be rolling with Xavier Arline in this game. Arline was the starter in 2020’s loss to Army, and was injured on his first play in this game in 2021. This game means extra for him.
Of course I’m taking Navy but under the expanded Big Al rules I won’t be laying any quatloos.
If you do want to bet you might want to take a look at the under. Between Army and Navy, the under has cashed in 16 straight games. The game has not gone over since 2005.
The reason for this is fairly simple. For starters, these two triple-option teams run the ball nearly exclusively. These two teams face a triple option offense every day in practice. These defenses know exactly how to stop it and get to practice stopping it every day since camp opened. Add in a new NCAA rule change, eliminating below-the-waist blocks on the perimeter have hampered these offenses.
Sure, this number keeps getting lower and lower. In fact, this is the lowest the total has ever been in the Army-Navy game. But the games between the service academies so far have been Air 13 Army 7 and Air Force 13 Navy 10 and there is every reason to expect a similar low scoring game.
Sing second Navy
The reason for this is fairly simple. For starters, these two triple-option teams run the ball nearly exclusively. These two teams face a triple option offense every day in practice. These defenses know exactly how to stop it and get to practice stopping it every day since camp opened. Add in a new NCAA rule change, eliminating below-the-waist blocks on the perimeter have hampered these offenses.
Sure, this number keeps getting lower and lower. In fact, this is the lowest the total has ever been in the Army-Navy game. But the games between the service academies so far have been Air 13 Army 7 and Air Force 13 Navy 10 and there is every reason to expect a similar low scoring game.
Sing second Navy