Navy offensive coordinator Drew Cronic was walking away from the visiting locker room at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium when he spotted this reporter.
I had just finished doing interviews down on the field and was heading back up to the press box to finish writing my game story. Cronic was on his way to the tunnel to greet his family when he hollered at me.
“That second half was a lot better than the first half,” Cronic said.
Yes, it most certainly was! Quarterback Braxton Woodson and the Navy offense exploded for almost 300 total yards and scored all of the team’s points during a wild second half on the way to beating East Carolina, 34-20, Friday.
Woodson directed five touchdown drives as the Midshipmen shredded an ECU defense that had pitched a shutout in the first half. Cronic got on a roll as a playcaller and kept the Pirates off-balance with a nice mixture of passing and running plays.
Woodson rushed for two touchdowns and passed for another during the impressive onslaught, which saw Navy mount three touchdown drives of 75 yards or more.
“You’ve got a backup quarterback who is trying to find himself and he did that in the second half. Braxton started playing the way we all know he is capable of playing,” Cronic said. “I think everyone around Braxton started playing better, which is important. We got things going and built some momentum.”
It all started on the opening possession of the third quarter as Woodson led a methodical 14-play, 76-yard march that took almost eight minutes off the clock. Woodson was 5-for-5 passing on the drive and those series of short completions clearly boosted his confidence.
The Midshipmen converted third-down situations four times during the drive with a pair of Woodson passes moving the chains. Navy went no-huddle the whole way downfield with snipe Brandon Chatman capping the statement-making possession with a 16-yard touchdown run off a jet sweep.
Woodson was much more decisive running the ball during Friday’s game and a 16-yard scramble on third-and-9 set up Navy’s next touchdown. Snipe Eli Heidenreich scored on a highlight reel run of 36 yards that saw him take a jet sweep to the left and make two sharp cutbacks in weaving his way to the end zone.
Woodson added a 61-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Nathan Kent and scoring scampers of 38 and 10 yards off option keepers. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound sophomore finished with career-highs for both passing (165 yards) and rushing (125 yards).
“I’m really proud of Braxton. What happened in that second half was big for that kid and big for the program,” Cronic said. “It’s such an important position … maybe the most important position in all of sports. If that guy is feeling good and doing well it changes everything. We looked a little tight in the first half. Braxton made some plays early in the second half and everyone loosened up.”
Chatman, Heidenreich, Kent and fullback Alex Tecza all made key contributions as the Mids amassed 458 total yards. It was maybe the best game for the offensive line in the second half of the season as the skill position players had huge holes to run through. Sophomore Hoke Smith II made his first career start at right guard and performed well as the line gave Woodson plenty of time to throw.
Navy drove into East Carolina territory three times during the first half and came away with nothing. The Mids failed to convert on fourth down twice, while kicker Nathan Kirkwood missed badly on a 21-yard field goal attempt.
Cronic was disappointed the offense left a lot of points on the field by failing to execute at critical moments. He was asked about the message the offensive coaches delivered at halftime.
“We talked about playing with confidence and it was good to see us go out and do that. It’s amazing when you’ve been struggling for a while and you break through,” Cronic said. “Hopefully, having that breakthrough we had in the second half will build everyone’s confidence and carry over into the next game.”
Cronic was of course referring to the annual showdown against archrival Army, being held Dec. 14 at Northwest Stadium in Landover. Head coach Brian Newberry expects starting quarterback Blake Horvath to be available as the Midshipmen and Black Knights battle for the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy.
Newberry held Horvath out of the East Carolina contest to give him more time to heal from a nagging rib injury. Thanks to a pair of bye weeks surrounding Friday’s game, Horvath will have three full weeks to get healthy.
“I just don’t feel Blake is 100% healthy and don’t want to put him in jeopardy of making it worse,” Newberry said after Friday’s game.
A big part of Newberry’s calculus was Woodson performing so well in practice the previous two weeks. He got all the first-team repetitions and ran the offense well, instilling the entire coaching staff with confidence.
Then came the first half shutout down in Greenville and the critics on social media were out in force with complaints about the backup quarterback. Woodson and the offense changed the narrative big-time during that delightful second half.
“For Braxton to come out and execute the way he did in the second half and beat a good football team is huge for his growth and development,” Cronic said. “You could see all our guys were really fired up for Braxton because they wanted him to have success. We all know the kid is very talented and we saw flashes of that today.”
While the second-half performance of the offense took center stage, the tremendous play of the defense cannot be overlooked. Inside linebacker Kyle Jacob and safety Ray Lane led the way as Navy shut down a high-powered East Carolina attack that had averaged more than 500 total yards during a four-game winning streak.
The Midshipmen dug deep to limit the Pirates to just a field goal on three trips inside the red zone during the first half. ECU punted six times, turned the ball over on downs twice and tossed an interception.
Lane recorded nine tackles, while Jacob notched seven stops and made the interception that set up Navy’s last touchdown. Inside linebacker Colin Ramos contributed eight tackles, nose guard Landon Robinson and linebacker MarcAnthony Parker both registered sacks, while cornerback Ira Oniha made a big pass breakup on third down during an early goal-line stand.
I cannot emphasize enough how critical Friday’s win was for Navy (8-3, 6-2), which finished tied with Memphis for third place in the American Athletic Conference. The Midshipmen had been picked 11th out of 14 teams in the preseason poll of media members.
At halftime at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, Navy was facing the prospect of going into the biggest game of the season having lost four of its last five due largely to a struggling offense. Instead, the Midshipmen have renewed confidence in the offense, which operated during the second half against ECU the way it did through six games to start the season.
“The first half didn’t go great. We struggled to get anything going offensively,” Newberry said. “I thought we responded really well. Nobody pressed, nobody flinched. We just kept playing and good things happen when you do that.”
Now Navy has two weeks to prepare for Army (10-1, 8-0), which is hosting Tulane in the American Athletic Conference championship game this Friday. With a bowl game looming, the Midshipmen have an opportunity to reach double-digit wins for only the sixth time in program history.
“Our goal was to win out for the rest of this season. Now that this game is over, we have our eye on one goal and that’s to beat Army,” Jacob said. “For the next two weeks we are going to breathe, sleep and eat Army. This is a great feeling, but we’re going to celebrate it for 24 hours then we’re going to move on to Army.”
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