ANNAPOLIS, Md.—Navy (3-0, 2-0 in the American Athletic Conference) piled up 566 yards and 56 points on just 53 plays as the Mids shocked No. 23 Memphis (3-1, 0-1) 56-44 in front of 31,268 fans at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. It is the first time that Navy has started 3-0 since 2017.
"I'm exhausted. Physically and emotionally," said Navy head football coach
Brian Newberry. "First of all, hats off to Memphis. That's a really good football team. They're going to win a lot of games moving forward. We were up 19 points at one point in the fourth quarter. They kept fighting, clawing and got their way back into it. Hats off to them, they are a well-coached football team.
The Tigers, who gave up just 12 points last week on the road at Florida State, had no answers for the Navy's millennial Wing-T as junior quarterback
Blake Horvath rushed for 211 yards and 4 touchdowns on 12 carries, while completing 9 of his 12 pass attempts for 192 yards and 2 touchdowns. Horvath had touchdown runs of 5, 3, 7 and 90 yards and touchdown passes of 39 yards to
Eli Heidenreich and 46 yards to
Brandon Chatman. He is the first Navy player to produce 6 touchdowns in a game since Malcolm Perry did it against East Carolina in 2019.
"I hope we have some believers now," said Horvath. "I am sure with Temple and Bucknell, people were not 100-percent sure what our offense could do. We knew what we could do the whole time. Coming into this game, we didn't want to be overzealous, but we had a lot of confidence in ourselves. We have playmakers with Alex (Tecza), Daba (Fofana), these two guys (
Eli Heidenreich and
Brandon Chatman), and our offensive line worked their butts off. To put up 56 points to a team that just let up 12 points against Florida State, I don't have much more to say other than kudos to every single guy that got into the game today on offense."
"It was clearly not the night we wanted in any way, shape or form.," said Memphis head coach Ryan Silverfield. "It hurts, it's painful, it's frustrating. I'm really, really not happy with the result, and it started with the way we did things. I told the team in the locker room postgame it's my fault. Obviously, I didn't have them prepared. Clearly, we had no answer for the triple option and Navy's offense. The quarterback (
Blake Horvath) crushed us, we gave up explosive plays and we got to go back and figure out."
Horvath's 6 combined touchdowns are the most by a Navy player since Malcolm Perry combined for 6 in 2019 against East Carolina, while his 403 yards of total offense is the third-most in school history. Horvath's 90-yard touchdown run to put Navy up 49-30 with 8:22 left is tied for the fifth-longest run in school history.
Memphis led just twice in the game as they took first quarter leads of 7-0 and 14-7 on a 7-yard touchdown run by Mario Anderson Jr. and a 57-yard run by Brandon Thomas. Thomas finished the day with 125 yards on 12 carries, while Anderson rushed for 117 yards on 17 carries.
Navy battled back to take a 21-14 lead on Horvath's 39-yard touchdown pass to Heidenreich and Chatman's 12-yard touchdown run with 9:37 left in the second quarter. Chatman's touchdown run marked the first time all year that Memphis had trailed.
You can argue that Navy won the game on the next 3 possessions. Memphis put together a 15-play drive down to the Navy 12, but the Mids were able to hold the Tigers to a field goal when Seth Henigan's third down pass to Roc Taylor fell incomplete.
Navy got the ball back with 2:14 left in the half and moved 75 yards on 9 plays with Horvath scoring from the 3 to give the Mids a 28-17 lead at the half.
Navy got the ball to start the second half and promptly went 75 yards on 5 plays with Chatman catching a short pass from Horvath and rumbling 46 yards to give Navy a 35-17 lead.
"I was wide open," said Chatman. "I feel like everything that we've been doing was going to set that play up. Coach Cronic (offensive coordinator Drew) is a mastermind. All we were doing was setting that play up. Every play builds off the previous play and makes magic happen."
Memphis would battle back to cut the Navy lead to 5 at 35-30 on a 37-yard touchdown pass from Henigan to Taylor and a 5-yard touchdown run by Anderson, but the Mids would answer right back with a 4-play, 75-yard drive that was capped off by a Horvath 7-yard touchdown run and then, after the Navy defense stopped Memphis on fourth down from its 10 yard line, Horvath was off to the races on a 90-yard touchdown run on the very next play to give Navy what looked like an insurmountable 49-30 lead with 8:22 left. It was the fifth time this year that Navy scored a touchdown on the first play of a drive, the most in the FBS.
Memphis would answer quickly, as they went 80 yards in 1:25 with Henigan hitting Marcello Bussey with a 36-yard touchdown pass and then, after a Navy punt, Memphis went 80 yards in 13 plays, taking just 3:03 off the clock to score on an Anderson 1-yard touchdown run to make the score 49-44. Memphis went for 2, but Koby Drake could not hold on to Henigan's pass in the back of the end zone and the Mids still led by a very important 5 points instead of 3.
Memphis squibbed an onside kick on the ensuing play that Navy's Rayuan Lane initially recovered, but then lost and Memphis kicker Caden Costa fell on it at the Memphis 46.
The Tigers moved down to the Navy 26, but on second down Lane stepped in front of a Henigan pass and returned it 86 yards for a touchdown, setting off a wild celebration in Annapolis.
"We definitely talk about going 1-0, whether that is a game or a play," said Lane. Being able to have the next play mentality. You can put the ball down anywhere and we are going to have the confidence that we are going to make the stop. Going out there with that confidence and being able to play free. I never thought they were going to score."
The two teams combined for 100 points and 1,225 yards of total offense. Navy's 143 points in the first 3 games of the year are the most by a Navy team since 1918 when the Mids ran up 150 points in the first 3 games.
"We throw around the word Brotherhood a lot, but I think it really means something here," said Heidenreich. "It is something we talk about a lot. Our coaches bring it up a lot. Our players bring it up a lot. It is looking to the left and to the right and knowing that those guys are going to do anything that in their power to make sure you are successful and the team is successful. Having that trust promotes that confidence in one another."
Navy travels to Birmingham next weekend to take on the UAB Blazers (1-2) in a 12 noon start (11:00 AM in Birmingham) that will be televised by ESPN2 or ESPNU.
