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Army has never played as many as 13 football games in a season, nor a six-game late-season stretch that offered no byes and seemed to ramp up in intensity and pressure with every week. Still, the senior leadership for the Black Knights were not buying into any excuses following a crushing defeat to arch-rival Navy on Saturday.
Army (11-2) hasn’t seen a bye week since October 26. What followed was the stoked rivalry game with Air Force; a rugged road outing with North Texas; a bruising out-matched game with powerhouse Notre Dame; a crucial home finale with surging Texas San Antonio in a bid to clinch home field for a playoff; and, the American Athletic Conference championship win over Tulane. Along the way, three defensive players were lost and late-season bumps and bruises only got worse. All that to set up the most important contest of every season, the Army-Navy game.
Head coach Jeff Monken said the preparation was good and the emotional state was right this week. But following a 31-13 setback to the Midshipmen, the postmortem was the same by coaches and players: Army did not handle blocking and tackling well enough on either side of the ball and just did not play well enough overall.
Army offensive lineman Connor Finucane (60) stands with safety Max DiDomenico (6) for the West Point alma mater after a 31-13 loss against Navy in the 125th Army-Navy game in Landover, Md., on December 14, 2024.
The arduous six-week stretch was the first thing mentioned to Army quarterback Bryson Daily.
“We talked about that all week,’’ he said. “Those are just excuses that we could have used but we didn’t. That’s not the reason we lost today … we just didn’t execute.’’
Senior co-captain Cody Winokur said battling the circumstances is what these officers-in-training do for a living.
“Sometimes, that’s what it takes,…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/ken-mcmillan-army-football-leadership-041700222.html
Author : Times Herald-Record
Publish date : 2024-12-15 04:17:00
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