New York, N.Y. – On Saturday, two determined and disciplined football teams met on the field of play at Yankee Stadium. The group with the more talented players led throughout and took the victory.
In a nutshell, that was the story of Notre Dame’s dominant 49-14 win over Army. With the win, the Fighting Irish (10-1) all but locked up a place in the FBS playoffs. Army (9-1) saw its playoff hopes disappear with the loss, though it can look ahead to its final regular-season game next week when the Black Knights host Texas San Antonio, and then play Tulane for the American Athletic Conference Championship Game on the night of December 6 before taking on their archrival in the 125th Army-Navy Game on Saturday, December 14.
“What a great football team we played tonight,” said Army Head Coach Jeff Monken. “They are very athletic and extremely well coached. Tonight they outclassed us in every phase of the game. Congratulations to (Notre Dame Head) Coach Freeman and their team. We wish them success as they go forward.
“I’m proud of the effort – our guys continued to fight the entire game. We pride ourselves on that. It’s been able to get us into victory circle more often than not lately, but tonight we just faced a great team. Collectively, we didn’t do what we needed to do to win the football game. So much of it was due to them – it wasn’t that we missed a bunch of runs or we had a bunch of missed assignments. We couldn’t sustain (our) blocks in the interior or on the perimeter, and we couldn’t get off of their blocks. That’s the fundamentals of football and they did that much better than we did.”
Saturday night had few bright spots for the Black Knights. They lost the coin toss, took the opening kickoff, started on their own 26, and quarterback Bryson Daily (39 carries for a game-high 139 yards and both Army TD, 4 completions on 8 passes for 26 yards) had three runs that gained a total of 8 yards before having to punt. Many of the crowd of 47, 342 had not even settled into their seats when Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love (7 carries for a team-high 130 yards and 2 TD) charged through a gap to gain 13 yards on the first Fighting Irish offensive play. Four plays later, QB Riley Leonard (10 completions in 14 attempts for 130 yards and 2 TD) went deep and found Jordan Faison, who pulled in the ball on the Army 2 and was tackled into the end zone to give Notre Dame a 7-0 lead with 10:24 left on the first-quarter clock.
It got worse for Army on the ensuing drive. Three rushing plays gained a net two yards for the Black Knights and James Wagenseller came in to punt. He couldn’t get a solid handle on the snap and took an extra half a second to drop the ball towards his foot; that was long enough for Notre Dame’s Bryce Young to break through and block the ball almost straight up. Love recovered the ball on the Army 8 and dashed the final 24 feet into the end zone to give the Fighting Irish a 14-0 advantage.
Though Daily executed a solid 12-play, 75-yard TD drive to cut the margin to 14-7 on Army’s third possession, Notre Dame soon figured out how to adjust and stymied almost everything Army tried the rest of the way. Notre Dame started six its first nine possessions in Army territory and Black Knights’ defenders could do little to contain the Fighting Irish running game, allowing the team from Indiana to steadily pull away, scoring 14 more points in the second quarter, 14 in the third and 7 in the fourth. During halftime, Army tried to revise efforts to get the Black Knights’ usually effective running game started, but the power and quickness of the Notre Dame defense could not be overcome. Army added another 75-yard TD drive over the final 10 minutes of the game, but by then the final result was assured.Key statistics show the level of dominance displayed by the Fighting Irish. For the game, Notre Dame gained 462 total yards (273 rushing, 189 passing) to Army’s 233 (207, 26). The Irish also led in fewer penalties 2 to Army’s 5), turnovers (0 to Army’s 1 fumble), and time of possession (39:49 to Army’s 20:11). The Army Head Coach still found some positives about Saturday’s game
In a nutshell, that was the story of Notre Dame’s dominant 49-14 win over Army. With the win, the Fighting Irish (10-1) all but locked up a place in the FBS playoffs. Army (9-1) saw its playoff hopes disappear with the loss, though it can look ahead to its final regular-season game next week when the Black Knights host Texas San Antonio, and then play Tulane for the American Athletic Conference Championship Game on the night of December 6 before taking on their archrival in the 125th Army-Navy Game on Saturday, December 14.
“What a great football team we played tonight,” said Army Head Coach Jeff Monken. “They are very athletic and extremely well coached. Tonight they outclassed us in every phase of the game. Congratulations to (Notre Dame Head) Coach Freeman and their team. We wish them success as they go forward.
“I’m proud of the effort – our guys continued to fight the entire game. We pride ourselves on that. It’s been able to get us into victory circle more often than not lately, but tonight we just faced a great team. Collectively, we didn’t do what we needed to do to win the football game. So much of it was due to them – it wasn’t that we missed a bunch of runs or we had a bunch of missed assignments. We couldn’t sustain (our) blocks in the interior or on the perimeter, and we couldn’t get off of their blocks. That’s the fundamentals of football and they did that much better than we did.”
Saturday night had few bright spots for the Black Knights. They lost the coin toss, took the opening kickoff, started on their own 26, and quarterback Bryson Daily (39 carries for a game-high 139 yards and both Army TD, 4 completions on 8 passes for 26 yards) had three runs that gained a total of 8 yards before having to punt. Many of the crowd of 47, 342 had not even settled into their seats when Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love (7 carries for a team-high 130 yards and 2 TD) charged through a gap to gain 13 yards on the first Fighting Irish offensive play. Four plays later, QB Riley Leonard (10 completions in 14 attempts for 130 yards and 2 TD) went deep and found Jordan Faison, who pulled in the ball on the Army 2 and was tackled into the end zone to give Notre Dame a 7-0 lead with 10:24 left on the first-quarter clock.
It got worse for Army on the ensuing drive. Three rushing plays gained a net two yards for the Black Knights and James Wagenseller came in to punt. He couldn’t get a solid handle on the snap and took an extra half a second to drop the ball towards his foot; that was long enough for Notre Dame’s Bryce Young to break through and block the ball almost straight up. Love recovered the ball on the Army 8 and dashed the final 24 feet into the end zone to give the Fighting Irish a 14-0 advantage.
Though Daily executed a solid 12-play, 75-yard TD drive to cut the margin to 14-7 on Army’s third possession, Notre Dame soon figured out how to adjust and stymied almost everything Army tried the rest of the way. Notre Dame started six its first nine possessions in Army territory and Black Knights’ defenders could do little to contain the Fighting Irish running game, allowing the team from Indiana to steadily pull away, scoring 14 more points in the second quarter, 14 in the third and 7 in the fourth. During halftime, Army tried to revise efforts to get the Black Knights’ usually effective running game started, but the power and quickness of the Notre Dame defense could not be overcome. Army added another 75-yard TD drive over the final 10 minutes of the game, but by then the final result was assured.Key statistics show the level of dominance displayed by the Fighting Irish. For the game, Notre Dame gained 462 total yards (273 rushing, 189 passing) to Army’s 233 (207, 26). The Irish also led in fewer penalties 2 to Army’s 5), turnovers (0 to Army’s 1 fumble), and time of possession (39:49 to Army’s 20:11). The Army Head Coach still found some positives about Saturday’s game
“What an awesome night for our guys,” Monken said. “None of our guys got recruited by Notre Dame or any of the Power Five schools, but they got to play Notre Dame here at Yankee Stadium. Not many guys ever get the chance to do that – this is one of the most iconic sports venues in the world and they got to compete out there on that field. It’s awesome that we got to compete out there tonight – I just wish we could have played better, I wish we could have found a way to be more competitive in the game. It’s an awesome experience for our guys and it’s something they’ll remember, that they played at Yankee Stadium.“We’ll regroup and try to get better for next week. Next week’s a big game and the one after that’s a big game and the one after that, well, there’s not a bigger game than that one on the schedule. We’ve got a lot to look forward to and a lot to play for. ” Now Army looks to next Saturday when the Black Knights have the chance to go undefeated in the AAC by defeating visiting UTSA, which would likely give Army home field for the December 6 championship contest against Tulane. Game time is set for noon at Michie Stadium.(-CaMMVets Media-)