ANNAPOLIS, Md.—USF (3-2, 2-0 in the AAC) quarterback Byrum Brown completed 26 of his 34 pass attempts for 338 yards and 3 touchdowns to lead the Bulls to a 44-30 victory over Navy (1-3, 0-2 in the AAC) in front of 29,789 fans at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
 
Brown, who entered play as the #1 rushing quarterback in the nation (87.8 yards per game) was held to minus 27 yards rushing thanks to a Navy defense that recorded 6 tackles for a loss and 4 sacks, but was able to hurt the Mids through the air including an 88-yard touchdown pass to Sean Atkins that gave USF its first lead of the game at 21-14 with 8:20 left in the second quarter.
 
"I thought we did some good things defensively," said Navy head coach Brian Newberry. "We turned them over three times today and put ourselves in some good situations. We had opportunities down in the red zone and had some short fields and couldn't take advantage of it. We couldn't really sustain anything offensively so we have to be better on that side of the ball and can't give up big plays on defense. They had the one big shot play, we should have been in pretty good shape there and weren't.
 
The game couldn't have started any better for Navy as USF muffed a punt after Navy went three-and-out on its opening possession and the fumble was recovered by a hustling Rayuan Lane. Four plays later Tai Lavatai scored on a quarterback sneak from the 1 to make the score 7-0.
 
On the ensuing possession, the Bulls surprisingly went for it on fourth-and-1 from their own 30 and Brown was stoned by the middle of the Navy defense with Colin Ramos and Mbiti Williams finishing him off for no gain to give Navy the ball back.
 
Once again it took just 4 plays for Navy to score as Daba Fofana ran for 20 yards on third-and-four from the USF 24 and then Lavatai scored from 4 yards out to give Navy a 14-0 lead.
 
"The game couldn't have gotten off to a better start," said Newberry.  "We felt pretty good up 14-0. We had a few short fields and took advantage of it like you should, but after that we had some three-and- outs and couldn't sustain drives."
 
USF would answer with 21-straight points on three-straight drives as Brown hit Atkins with a 1-yard touchdown pass, Nay'Quan Wright scored from 10 yards out early in the second quarter and then Brown hit Atkins with the bomb to make it 21-14 Bulls.
 
The Mids would answer with a good drive of its own thanks to runs of 20 yards by Brandon Chatman and 19 by Daba Fofana.  Navy was set back on the drive thanks to a false start by Cody Howard, but still got in position to go for it on fourth-and-four from the USF 25 but Fofana was stuffed for a 1 yard gain.
 
The defense would get the ball right back.  On third-and-four, Xavier McDonald sacked Brown, forcing a fumble that was recovered by Luke Pirris to give Navy the ball back at the USF 22-yard line.
 
After a 14-yard run by Alex Tecza got the ball down to the 6, the Mids would only gain 4 yards on the next 3 plays to set up a fourth-and-goal at the USF 2.  Horvath rolled left and evaded 2 USF defenders to hit a wide-open Anton Hall Jr. with a 2-yard touchdown pass. 
 
Disaster struck, however, on the tying extra-point as the snap by freshman Rayne Frye was a tad high and holder Kellen Grave de Peralta was unable to catch it. USF's Jhalyn Shuler picked up the errant snap and took it to the end zone for 2 points as the Bulls maintained a 3-point lead at the half 23-20.
 
The Navy defense came out on fire to start the second half and Brown was dropped for a 2-yard gain on first down and was then sacked on back-to-back plays by Pirris and Will Harbour on second and third down to force a USF punt.
 
After a 13-yard punt return by Amin Hassan, the Mids took over on the USF 39-yard line with a chance to take the lead. The Mids could gain just 12 yards on the drive and had to settle for a 44-yard field goal by Nathan Kirkwood to tie the game at 23.
 
After both teams traded punts, USF would regain the lead on a third-and-eight pass from Brown to Michael Brown-Stephens for a 15-yard touchdown.  Brown-Stephens was well-covered, but outleaped the Navy defender to high point the ball and give USF the lead.
 
The Navy offense would put together its best drive of the night on the ensuing possession driving to the USF 28-yard line, but on third-and-one the Mids would mishandle the snap between Brent Self and Horvath on a quarterback sneak and Tramel Logan picked it up and returned it 70-yards for a touchdown to make the score 37-23.
 
The Navy defense would set the offense up once again late in the fourth quarter when McDonald recorded another sack and forced another fumble, this time he recovered his own forced fumble to give the ball back to the MIds at the USF 45-yard line.
 
After Alex Tecza rumbled for 28 yards on first down to the USF 17, the Mids would lose 9 yards on the next 3 plays and Kirkwood would miss a 44-yard field goal attempt.
 
That missed field goal took the sails out of Navy as for the first-time all-night USF easily moved down the field for an 11-yard touchdown run by Michael Dukes to make the score 44-23.
 
"We got a little tired on defense," said Newberry. "They go fast and it's a lot on defense when you can't sub and they're going 100 miles an hour. When you go three-and-out and don't sustain drives your defense has to go right back out on the field so that's tough. I don't ever remember ever playing that many snaps in a half and we had the ball first so that's not the formula for us to win. We have to possess the ball, we have to move the sticks and get first downs to keep our defense off the field against a team like USF and weren't able to do it."
 
The Mids would get a late touchdown on a 68-yard touchdown pass from Horvath to Eli Heidenreich, but wouldn't get the ball back after committing another special teams gaffe as Nazir Rogers roughed the punter after the defense forced a three-and-out.
 
Navy rushed for 240 yards on the day led by Tecza with 82 yards on 13 carries.  Horvath completed 4 of his 6 pass attempts for 83 yards and 2 touchdowns, the long pass being the 68-yard touchdown to Heidenreich.
 
Defensively, Harbour led Navy with 11 tackles, 1.5 tackles for a loss and 1 sack, while Colin Ramos had 10 tackles and McDonald recorded 7 tackles, 1 sack, 1 tackle for a loss, 2 forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.
 
Navy will be at home again next Saturday when the Mids take on North Texas at 3:30 p.m.