Penalties an Unlikely Issue for Midshipmen

Discipline, needless to say, is something of a hallmark at a military academy. Yet you wouldn't know it by watching a tape of Navy's 41-17 win over UConn on Saturday. The Midshipmen, who routinely finish amongst the least penalized teams in the country, committed a staggering 12 penalties for 110 yards. That's more penalty yards then the Mids had in the first four games of the season combined (101), which in and of itself was already fairly high by Navy standards. So what's going on here? Head Coach Paul Johnson didn't even need to be asked about the issue after Saturday's game, skipping right to the problem in his opening statement.

We had 12 penalties in four games coming in and we had 12 today. We have to get that corrected. I didn't even know what team I was watching. That's not like us. I think on the couple of holding calls we had on offense, their defensive ends are really good players and we had a hard time blocking them. We challenged our guys. Connecticut was supposed to be pretty good on defense and I think they are. It was a challenge for our guys to answer the call.

I noticed this as well. Most of the holding calls came in passing situations. Despite playing poorly against the run, it was obvious that UConn's down linemen were studs, and big Matt Pritchett and Zach Gallion were having some difficulty in pass protection situation (also apparent with two sacks on Hampton.) Hopefully this will work itself out, but I'd watch this situation closely, especially against teams with strong defensive lines (ie. Rutgers, Notre Dame, and even Duke.) Looking at the tape a second time, it looks like this pressure also contributed to the false start calls, with Navy's guards trying to get a step on the defender.

The more concerning penalties were the personal fouls, in particular the two late, helmet-to-helmet hits. Both were really unnecessary, and came from defenders making a cardinal sin on defense- leading with your head. This is a basic facet of the game, and hopefully this was only a one time deal which won't rear it's ugly head again. Had Navy lost this game, the story here would have been penalties, and how they killed Navy drives and extended UConn drives. It's not often that you can beat another team so soundly with those kind of penalty yards, especially when you're playing against an opportunistic team. Navy will not be so fortunate the next time team discipline breaks down.