Army Football Preview: at Kent State

Last week was a tough week for Army football fans.  The Army team has played a number of close games this season, but last week's game against visiting Rice was not one of them.  Army got beat badly, especially on the defensive side of the ball, and if you watched the game, you could easily see why.  Rice's O-Line must've outweighed Army's D-Line by an average of fifty pounds or more per man.  It was tough sledding.  This is a new week, however, and Army has a chance to rebound at Kent State.

This is a game that Army ought to win.

Army: The Black Knights

After last week's loss, the Black Knights remain in last place--128th--in passing in the FBS at 83.7 yards/game.  The team also dropped from 2nd to 4th in rushing, averaging 323.5 yards/game.  Still, that's an entirely respectable number overall.  Army is 85th in scoring at 27.5 points/game, and that's not bad, either.  However, the team is also 106th in points allowed, at 36.3 points/game.  It's tough to win when you're giving up that many points.  In terms of P-Wins, the team has dropped to 35.6% or 4.27 wins in a 12-game season.  This is not great, but it's a marked improvement over last season.

Annectdotally speaking, Army continues to move the ball well, even against good teams.  However, even in this past game when I thought Army's offense played well, we still saw a crucial quarterback fumble at the start of the second half.  Yes, the team was outmatched overall, but Rice scored on the next play, and it was this sequence which really ended any chance of an Army comeback.  Army let Rice receivers go uncovered across the middle of the field several times last week, and Rice made them pay.

Bottom line, I'm sure Coach Monken felt he had issues to correct in this week's team meetings.

Kent State comes into this week's game at 0-6.  Their key stat is 11.8, which is the average number of points the Golden Flashes are scoring per game.  That's good for 127th in FBS football, and no, you can't win if you only score eleven points per game.  Kent State has lost close games to South Alabama and Northern Illinios, but they've been beaten badly by most everybody else, including a blowout loss last week to UMass.  Quarterback Colin Reardon is 118/216 (54.6%) for 1,227 yards, 6 TDs, and 8 INTs.  This is a little misleading, though, because he went 30/41 (73%) in Kent State's opener but hasn't been above 55% completion rate since.  Moreover, UMass snapped a 12-game losing streak to beat Kent State last week.  Ouch.

Send Me!

I don't want to belabor the obvious, mostly because I'm running short on time this morning, but this is a game that Army should win handily.  It's time for Army's defense to show up, force turnovers, and make it happen.

This week's game is on the CBS Sports Network, and Army will wear the 3rd Infantry Division patch.  Hooah!  I'll be watching.