Memphis Football: Tigers hit the road to take on Navy

Memphis football didn’t seem to mind their new faces on offense, blasting Mercer in Week 1. Will the results be the same against Navy in Week 2?

The Memphis Tigers (1-0) are looking to follow up a dominant 66-14 beatdown of Mercer with a win over a Navy Midshipmen (0-1) who are looking to find their first win after a loss to the sensational Run-and-Shoot offense of the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors on the road.

Memphis’ key storylines leading into the season was “how are they going to replace Riley Ferguson and Chicago Bears receiver Anthony Miller?” It seems that they got their answer last week when Brady White stepped in and threw for over 300 yards and five touchdowns while wide receiver Damonte Coxie caught four passes for 79 yards and a score.

Offensively, the Memphis Tigers have a bright future going forward in 2018. Defensively, they allowed 60 yards to Mercer on the ground last week, but how much have they improved since giving up 314 rushing yards to Navy a season ago?

Navy looked incredibly overwhelmed in the first half against Hawaii last week. The Midshipmen found themselves unable to stop the dynamic Run-and-Shoot offense and went down 38-14 before halftime and ultimately lost 59-41.

The offense should look business as usual with the duo of quarterbacks Malcolm Perry and Zach Abey pulling most of the weight. Navy has similar questions to Memphis as to their defense. The Midshipmen allowed 436 passing yards and six touchdowns through the air to Hawaii and Memphis doesn’t look too much easier to stop. Can they get enough out of their secondary if the offense struggles early?

With the Week 1 flashback done, let’s look into the matchup between these two very different offensive minded teams.

Date: Saturday, September 8, 2018
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
Location: Annapolis, MD
Venue: Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium
TV: CBS Sports Network
Live Stream: Navy All-Access

Players to Watch

Memphis

• QB, Brady White
• WR, Damonte Coxie
• RB’s, Darrell Henderson and Patrick Taylor Jr. 
• LB, JJ Russell
• K, Riley Patterson

Navy

• QB’s, Malcolm Perry and Zach Abey
• RB, Nelson Smith
• LB’s, Elan Nash, Taylor Heflin, and Evan Fochtman

Keys to Victory

Both teams have really similar paths to victory in this matchup.

Memphis needs to simply stop the run. Take a page out of what Hawaii did last week and stop the run for as long as possible. The Memphis defense looked solid last week but Navy is an entirely different beast than Mercer.

Also, score through the air and do it quickly. Hawaii looked so dominant last weekend because their passing attack was unstoppable. If Memphis can use it’s wealth of talent at the skill positions to dominate the Navy secondary, they stand a great chance of winning.

Now for Navy. The Midshipmen have to do what they couldn’t last weekend and stop the pass. Memphis has been a passing squad for years now and Brady White’s five touchdown passes a week ago didn’t leave me thinking otherwise for 2018. If you can hold up the pass the just enough to get your offense going, you’re off to a good start.

Offensively, Navy has to strike far earlier than they did against Hawaii. The Midshipmen didn’t get their first points on the board until 6:52 left in the second quarter and were down 28-0 going into that drive. You can’t let Memphis get that much cushion if you want to earn the first win of the season.

Betting Odds

Points Spread: -4 Memphis

Over/Under: 69

Prediction

This one is going to be high scoring and incredibly entertaining. But in the end-all-be-all, the Memphis Tigers will emerge victoriously. The Triple Option is effective no doubt, but the Navy defense gave me zero hope in their ability to stop a more athletic Memphis team’s passing attack. Memphis goes 2-0 to begin the season.

Final Score: Memphis 42 Navy 31