An ugly game of football was played on an ugly day in Birmingham.
The undefeated and AAC-leading Navy Midshipmen marched into Protective Stadium on Saturday morning and left with a 41-18 victory against the UAB Blazers.
UAB, coming off a near-upset of the Arkansas Razorbacks in week three, felt like they were due for another good game considering what happened in Fayetteville just a few weeks ago.
Those thoughts were quickly put to rest.
Navy’s offense continued their hot streak, putting up over 450 yards of offense. UAB continued their rush defenses woes, giving up 227 yards on the ground.
The Blazers only touchdowns on the day came on a 39-yard pass by Jacob Zeno and a short touchdown in the fourth quarter with the game already out of reach.
Zeno struggled today, only completing 14 of 21 passes for 202 yards and the touchdown and two interceptions. The offense in its entirety put up 390 yards on the day.
The Blazers dropped to 1-3 on the season.
Here’s the takeaways from Saturday morning’s game
The Blazers’ offense has taken a sizable step back since 2023
Despite the 4-8 record in 2023, the UAB offense was a not a problem. Setting an array of school records for the entire offense’s production as well as individual accolades. After an offseason of adding new pieces, it looked like the Blazers were ready to have another impressive season on that side of the ball. So far, it’s been anything but that.
The loss of Tejhaun Palmer last offseason to the NFL Draft was always going to leave large shoes to fill to whoever was next up, but UAB looks to be completely lacking in deep threats this season.
Wide receivers only touched the ball 7 times the entire game. Amare Thomas, who was projected to be having a breakout season by this point, caught one pass for eight yards, and Kam Shanks added 16 yards on four catches. The Blazers needed to have a strong game in the pass game today to hang with a clock-controlling team like Navy. It didn’t happen.
One of the only bright spots on the offense continues to be Lee Beebe Jr., the redshirt sophomore running back rushed for 82 yards on 15 carries and the touchdown.
Undisciplined play continues UAB
Down 7-0 in the second quarter, the UAB defense stuffed a run to stop a driving Navy offense on 4th and 1, after the play UAB linebacker Michael Moore was charged with a personal foul which resulted in Navy getting new life moving half the distance to the goal line, scoring on the next play.
In the third quarter, UAB defense looked to finally be slowing the Navy offense on a drive where they’d gotten past mid-field, but safety Ray Thornton took out some of his frustration on a late hit out of bounds on Blake Horvath, which gave the Midshipmen an extra 15 yards.
Those are just a couple of the many instances where the Blazers shot themselves in the foot today. In totality, the team racked up 11 penalties which handed Navy an additional 104 yards.
Four fumbles today were luckily recovered by the offense or fumbled out of bounds, but they could’ve just as easily ended up in the hands of a Navy player. The only turnover on the day came from a bad deep ball by Zeno who was trying to hit Kam Shanks on a corner route, but was undercut and intercepted by Navy’s Mbiti Williams Jr.
The Blazers will face Tulane at home next week followed by road trips to Army and USF. They absolutely must play with more discipline over this stretch, or a tough season may get worse.
Navy’s offense is going to take the Midshipmen a long way
Navy’s Horvath passed for 225 yards on 9 completions with two touchdowns and added another touchdown along with 78 yards on 12 carries on the ground, good for the leading rusher of Navy’s offense.
Navy receiver Eli Heidenreich caught three passes for 108 yards, including a 74-yard touchdown on a 3rdand 9 screen play where he slipped by multiple UAB defenders in the third quarter.
They’ve now scored over 30 points in every game in 2024 and face Air Force and Charlotte next. If this offense and Horvath continue to play at this level, we could be talking about Navy as not only an AAC contender by the end of the season, but as the potential Group-of-Five bid for the 12-team playoff.
