But the premise is that modern offenses can run roughshod through an undersized academy defense. Army picked off Murray and stopped them from scoring from 3-1 and 4-1 in that half. Army’s D hung with one of the best offenses of the year that game.
But can you imagine what TCU’s D would look like if Patterson only had to defend 5-6 drives a game. With Sewo at FB and Jet, Barlow and Foster at HB last year?
ou ran 40 plays in that game and gained 355 yards, they never had an offensive series that lasted longer than 4:30
their first 3 drives of the game went 6 plays and 68 yards for a td, 6 plays for 65 yards for a td, and 4 plays for 66 yards and a td. those three drives lasted barely 6 minutes and their only other series in the 1st half started inside their 20 with less than a minute to go in the half.
ou did run roughshod through the army defense in the first half. the problem was ou defensively couldn't get army off the field in a more timely fashion.
2nd half starts with an 8 yard gain and then murray throws and interception. their long drive took 9 plays to go 78 yards and last just over 4 minutes and that was followed up by a drive in which ou missed what would have been the winning 33 yard field goal.
their is no doubt the army style of offense benefits their defense and they benefit from teams preparing for an offense they don't see on a regular basis.
teams that see them on a regular basis don't have the same struggles and byu benefited from playing navy in their opener