Army beats Navy for 2nd year in a row, this time on missed kick at the buzzer

0:00. The most important football moment of Bennett Moehring’s life:

Army sings second for the second straight year and wins its first Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy since 1996.

0:03. On fourth-and-ballgame, everything goes wrong for Navy ... and the Midshipmen convert anyway. Perry drops the snap and turns a run to the right into a naked scramble to the left. He gains 12 yards to the 25.

And then things go wrong again. Navy commits two false starts and gains three yards in two rushes. On third-and-16 from the 31, Perry is stuffed for no gain. Oy. Navy calls timeout with three seconds left, tasked with either attempting a 48-yarder in the snow or throwing a Hail Mary.

2:08. After one of the worst kickoff shanks you’ll ever see, Navy starts at its 35. Two Perry rushes move the chains, but on first down from the 45, the ball is snapped before Perry is ready; Darryl Bonner collects the ball and somehow manages to turn the play into merely a two-yard loss, and then Perry turns a likely called pass into a 13-yard scramble up the middle.

With crisis averted, Navy goes back to leaning on Perry. He gains six yards in two carries, but he’s stopped for a one-yard gain with 2:08 left.

5:10. Army 14, Navy 13. Army goes back to basics: Bradshaw for 12 yards, Bradshaw for 12, Bradshaw for nine, fullback for three, Bradshaw for five, fullback for three, Bradshaw for two and a first down, Bradshaw for five, fullback for four, Bradshaw for one and a first-and-goal. The clock creeps under seven minutes, which almost forces Army into a TD-or-nothing situation.

On second-and-goal, after Bradshaw is stuffed on first down, he makes a tough pitch to John Trainor wide; Trainor does a great job to stay in bounds, spin away from a tackler and nearly lunge into the end zone.

Bradshaw takes it in from there on third down, and despite doing almost nothing offensively since the first quarter, Army leads.

12:50. First-down penalties’ll kill you, especially with these offenses. Navy goes three-and-out thanks to a false start, and Army will start at its 35.

#PossessionWatch is canceled again.

14:55. Blake Wilson misses the field goal, and it remains a six-point Navy lead.

That was the 11th possession of the game, by the way. If the teams combine for just two possessions the rest of the way — like they did in the first and third quarters — this game will at least tie for the fewest in a game since 2005. #PossessionWatch

0:00. ARMY PASSED. And it will go in the books as a completion no matter how ugly it was in getting from Bradshaw to Calen Holt for a 20-yard gain. Here’s proof:

That stuns Navy as much as me, and it loosens the defense up a bit. Bradshaw rushes for 21 yards inside the Middies’ 40, and five straight fullback runs move the chains twice. Like Navy, though, Army stalls out in the red zone. A false start creates third-and-long, and a reverse attempt fails. The fourth quarter will begin with a 35-yard field goal attempt.

9:16. Navy 13, Army 7. Navy begins the second half by leaning on Perry some more. He carries the ball four times in the first five plays of the second half and rips off a 46-yarder to the Army 11.

From there, though, the Black Knights stop High for four yards and stuff Perry twice. Bennett Moehring makes a 23-yarder, but Army has to feel pretty happy about only being down six. Perry has 206 rushing yards, but Navy only has 13 points.

Some stats:

Total yards: Navy 172, Army 109.
Yards per play: Navy 7.1, Army 4.6.
Third downs: Army 1-for-5, Navy 1-for-6.
Army quarterback Ahmad Bradshaw has nine carries for just 22 yards. Walker has four carries for 40 yards, but his success came on the first drive. Woolfolk has eight carries for 39 yards.
Navy actually threw the ball! Sort of! Abey was 1-for-1 for two yards, and Craig Scott, the trick play passer, is 0-for-1.
Perry has been the difference in the game. He has 15 carries for 146 yards and a score. Chris High has five carries for 14 yards, and Abey has two for three.

0:00. Navy kills most of the clock and converts a fourth-and-1 but stalls out around midfield, and that’s that for the first half. The Middies lead by three.

5:22. The defenses have adjusted masterfully. Army moves the chains once but quickly punts again. This has turned into the field position game one would have expected given the weather.

7:33. TRICK PLAY. Navy calls timeout facing a third-and-6 and comes out with a double-reverse pass. It’s exciting. It’s also incomplete. Navy punts, and it’s downed at the Army 37.

Projected total possessions at the current rate: 16.0. #PossessionWatch is officially canceled.

9:13. Uh oh, an Army three-and-out. Navy’s defensive front is starting to get penetration, and the Black Knights come up a couple of yards short on third down. Navy will start at the 33, hoping to go up two possessions.

11:28. Navy 10, Army 7. Okay, that’s not how you set a record for possessions. Perry, still carrying the lion’s share of the load, rips off a 68-yard touchdown. Perfectly executed in every way. IT’S A TRACK MEET!

Projected total possessions at the current rate: 13.0. Boo.

13:00. Army gets a little fancy to start the second quarter, and it backfires. A counter handoff to John Trainor loses yardage, then Walker gets stuffed on the outside. The first punt of the game is downed at the Navy 26.

Projected total possessions at the current rate: 10.6. #PossessionWatch

0:00. Since 2005, the fewest possessions in a single game has been 13. It’s happened four times: 2008 Navy-NIU, 2016 Navy-Notre Dame, 2017 Army-Air Force, and 2017 Stanford-Cal.

We’re currently on pace for about nine or 10. POSSESSION WATCH is on. Army will start the second quarter with a first down at its 42.

0:55. Army 7, Navy 3. Well this is a pretty fun wrinkle. QB-turned-slotback Malcolm Perry starts at quarterback for Navy and rushes five consecutive times, mostly behind the fullback sharing the backfield with him, for 46 yards.

With regular starter Zach Abey at QB, the Middies convert a fourth-and-1 to the Army 18, then it’s back to Perry. Army stiffens, however, and forces a fourth-and-2. Navy goes against brand and elects to settle for 28-yard field goal. Holy crap, the first quarter’s already almost over. This is going to be the shortest live blog ever.

8:06. Army 7, Navy 0. Army, in uniforms matching the snow on the field, gets the ball first after Navy wins the toss and defers. Starting from the 32 after a short kick, the Black Knights grind out exactly 10 yards (and not an inch more) in three plays between the tackles, then Kell Walker gets the ball on the edge and goes 33 yards.

Then it’s back to grind mode: seven rushes (mostly between the tackles), 25 yards, a fourth-and-1 conversion, and a touchdown run by Darnell Woolfolk. That was everything Army wanted to establish on its opening drive.

These uniforms (which have a lot of meaning) are gonna look amazing against each other.

And we got a snow game, y’all. Expect it to keep coming down for the entirety of the game.

A week after most college football teams played in their rivalry game, the Army Black Knights will face off against the Navy Midshipmen for 118th time on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET on CBS (live stream).

College GameDay will be in Annapolis for the matchup, in which these teams will be competing for the Commander-in-Chief Trophy — the first time since 2012 it’s come down to the these two teams. Air Force is the current holder of the CIC trophy, with the Midshipmen last winning it in 2015, and Army’s last claim over the prestigious award back in 1996.

Last year’s rivalry matchup between these teams ended with the Black Knights finally breaking a 14-game losing streak to the Midshipmen, with a 21-17 victory. Both teams have used last year’s game as motivation, with one team looking to start their own winning streak, and the other trying to get their’s back.

Time: 3 p.m. ET
Location: Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia
TV: CBS
Streaming: CBS Sports | FuboTV
Odds: Navy opened as 3.5-point favorites.

The specialty of the 10th Mountain Division is to conquer the land. They fight on the harshest terrain, in any climate, anywhere in the world, to protect and defend the United States of America. We honor the past by re-telling the story of the "Climb to Glory."

"This tribute to the Blue Angels reflects the enthusiastic pride and appreciation we have for the Navy's premier flying team and the motivation they convey to Navy football and the fleet at large," Navy AD Chet Gladchuk said.

Army’s head coach Jeff Monkin knows his team might not be as big physically as their opponent, but they’ve done some different things to make up for it.

"We're not the most athletic, fastest, or biggest team most weeks that we play. I know Ken (Niumatalolo) would tell you the same thing about his team. They're as long, as big, and as athletic as they've ever been at Navy. They've got a great looking football team. We are not like that. We have to mix enough things up on defense and kind of be like how we are on offense, where we do something different than everyone else to give ourselves a chance and I think that's what Jay has done. But, our kids have to execute it. Most of the time we've done pretty well. Last time out against North Texas though, they scored 52 points in regulation. That's a lot of points. There's times we don't do it very well."

Get ready for a lot of running in this matchup.

Aside from being service academies, both Army and Navy run the triple-option offense, which for opponents can be daunting. Relying so heavily on the run has limited the Black Knights to just 335 total passing yards (between two QBs) with only 60 total attempts. The Midshipmen tend to throw a little more often, totaling 1,003 passing yards on the season against 99 attempts.

On the ground however, the two teams are much more impressive. The Black Knights offense has amassed 4,049 rushing yards this season, with running back Ahmad Bradshaw claiming 1,472 of those (and 11 touchdowns). Despite almost halving Bradshaw’s yardage, Darnell Woolfork has almost seen the endzone 11 times this season.

The Midshipmen’s version of Bradshaw is running back Zach Abey. The rusher leads the team with 1,322 yards and 14 scores. With a penchant to throw it here and there, it stands to reason that Navy’s overall rushing yards would be just shy of Army, totaling (a still impressive) 3,822 yards.

It’ll be a ground and pound afternoon with limited numbers of passes to break things up, but ultimately the Midshipmen get a win in Philadelphia and once again claim the Commander-in-Chief Trophy.

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