ANNAPOLIS — The crowd inside Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium fell silent as it watched Tramel Logan race 70 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter. The South Florida defensive end capitalized on a mistake, something that the Bulls were able to do on Navy’s home field for most of the afternoon Saturday.
The score on a fumble return put Navy in a 14-point hole in what would become a 44-30 loss. The Mids (1-3, 0-2 American Athletic Conference) led 14-0 in the first quarter but allowed 37 of the next 46 points to USF (3-2, 2-0).
Missed tackles, falls in coverage, botched snaps, missed wide open receivers, a delay of game penalty and a missed field goal were too much to overcome.
“At the end of the day, our margin for error is small. We can’t beat ourselves,” Navy Coach Brian Newberry said. “I thought we did that today, and that’s not taking anything away from USF.
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“There are good things that you can build on, that you can pull out of a game like this. But you don’t feel good about it, that’s for sure. At some point it’s got to click. At some point we have to have a breakthrough.”
Navy trailed by only seven points when the third quarter ended and was deep in South Florida territory when quarterback Blake Horvath never received the snap on third and one from the 28-yard line. Seconds later, Logan had the ball and was sprinting in the other direction. That gave the Bulls a 37-23 lead against a Navy team not exactly built to erase large deficits. After a three-and-out, a USF fumble recovered by Xavier McDonald gave the Mids a second chance to pull back to within one score, but the offense stalled after reaching the red zone, and Nathan Kirkwood missed a 44-yard field goal wide right. Michel Dukes scored on an 11-yard run on the Bulls’ ensuing possession to make it 44-23 and essentially put the game away with 7:45 remaining.
“We cannot shoot ourselves in the foot against good football teams and expect to win this game,” Newberry said. “And that’s not fair, but that’s the way it is.”
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Navy went back and forth at quarterback with Horvath subbing in for senior starter Tai Lavatai. Neither exactly shined. Lavatai finished with 21 rushing yards on eight carries, though he did score two touchdowns, and he completed just 1 of 5 passes. Horvath ran for 52 yards on 10 carries and completed 4 of 6 passes for 83 yards and two scores. Alex Tecza led Navy with 82 rushing yards on 13 attempts.
Newberry said he would like to settle on a quarterback, and both players have good qualities and limitations. Horvath was playing in just his third game and has a lot to learn. Lavatai has to be “damn near perfect” on his reads and throws, Newberry said. The first-year coach said he will talk with his staff and figure out a way forward, also mentioning that true freshman Braxton Woodson could be a factor.
“So when we’re switching, it is a little difficult because you want to find a rhythm, you want to be comfortable when you’re out there,” Horvath said. “… But it’s not an excuse to why we can’t execute. When the other guy’s out on the field, we have to be locked in. See what the defense is giving us. And when we get out there, we have to be able to run [the offense] smoothly.”
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Byrum Brown threw for 338 yards and three touchdowns for USF, and Sean Atkins had four receptions for 116 yards and two scores. Michael Brown-Stephens caught a 15-yard touchdown pass over a Navy defender to take a 30-23 lead with 4:22 remaining in the third quarter after a Kirkwood 44-yard field goal tied the score at 23, and the Bulls led the rest of the way. The game was a matchup of opposing styles; the Bulls snapped the ball as fast as possible and aired things out throughout the night. Navy always wants to control the clock with a deliberate running game. USF outgained Navy 435-330, and Navy’s advantage in time of possession was a narrow 31:08 to 28:52.
“There’s four or five plays we want back that could change the game, change the outcome of the game,” said Navy linebacker Will Harbour, who finished with a game-high 11 tackles and recorded one of the Midshipmen’s four sacks. “… They’re a really good team. They’ve got a lot of great athletes. Played hard. Just a couple of miscues on the defense, out of place on a couple plays, and this is what happens.”
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