Navy football is unbeaten no more.
The Midshipmen, looking to start the season 8-0 for the first time in 99 years, failed to get the one thing missing from their current resume, a signature win, as Caleb Hawkins rushed for 197 yards and four touchdowns to lead North Texas to a 31-17 victory in Denton, Texas, on Saturday.
The Mids (7-1, 5-1) are now one of three one-loss teams in the American Conference and their search for a statement win will face a much more significant hurdle next Saturday night against No. 12 Notre Dame.
As for this game, Navy had no problem moving the ball into North Texas territory, but unlike their opponent, the Mids couldn’t finish drives mostly because of turnovers. Navy coach Brian Newberry lamented the offensive miscues and poor tackling.
“The storyline is the turnovers, and we have to be able to stop the run to win this football game and we weren’t able to do that effectively… we didn’t tackle well,” he said. “I thought they were the more physical football team today. They got a lot of yards after contact, [and] turning the ball over three times just kills you.”
It also didn’t help that Navy’s defense, which kept the Mean Green’s prolific passing attack mostly in check, couldn’t stop Hawkins even when they had multiple opportunities to tackle him. North Texas finished with 424 total yards, including 190 on the ground.
It didn’t take long for North Texas (8-1, 4-1) to find the end zone — two minutes and 59 seconds to be exact. The Mean Green marched right down the field on their opening drive and on their eighth play, Hawkins went pretty much untouched for a 13-yard touchdown run for a 7-0 lead.
Navy’s first possession got off to a good start as the Mids were able to convert two first downs, but a holding penalty on Hoke Smith II and a negative play on a well-read screen pass from Blake Horvath to Alex Tecza led to a 53-yard punt by Jacob Carlson two plays later.
North Texas’ second possession looked a lot like their first one as Hawkins met little resistance as he walked into the end zone to cap a 10-play, 86-yard drive in just over three minutes to give the Mean Green a 14-point advantage.
The Mids faced a similar deficit on the road earlier in the season against Tulsa as they fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter, but this time Navy couldn’t come all the way back.
Navy’s second drive got off to another promising start as Horvath, who finished with 112 rushing yards on 19 carries, broke two tackles on a 37-yard run on first down and converted a third-and-9 on a 12-yard pass to Eli Heidenreich at the North Texas 28. However, two plays later, a bad exchange between Horvath and Brandon Chatman led to a fumble that was recovered by the Mean Green.
“At some point the message has been we prepare the right way … but it’s gotta translate into Saturdays and it hasn’t for a large part of the season,” Newberry said. “When the bullets are flying, we make mistakes we don’t typically make.”
North Texas’ third drive featured increased pressure by Navy’s defense, including the first career sack by junior linebacker Marcus Bleazard and good coverage by the Mids’ secondary that led to a Mean Green punt.
Navy’s ensuing drive put the Mids in North Texas territory for the third consecutive time, as Horvath carried the ball six out of the 12 plays. However, they were unable to convert a third-and-6 and had to settle for a 26-yard field goal by Nathan Kirkwood, which cut the lead to 14-3.
After the field goal, Newberry opted to attempt an onside kick, but a heads-up play by North Texas’ Baron Tipton, who called for a fair catch on Kirkwood’s boot, led to a penalty as safety Giuseppe Sessi crashed into him.
“It was probably a bad decision by me to do the surprise bloop onsides,” Newberry said about his first such attempt as Navy’s coach. “They smoked that out pretty good — put us in a bad situation [with a] short field, but we were pressing to get the ball back.”
With the 10-yard penalty, the Mean Green got the ball at the 31. Five plays later, it was Hawkins again finding the end zone, this time exposing some poor tackling by the Midshipmen to give North Texas a 21-3 advantage.
Navy found the end zone for the first time on its next drive as a good block by Tecza (10 carries for 59 yards) on third-and-6 helped launch Chatman 31 yards for his second rushing touchdown on the season.
Needing a stop before halftime, Navy’s defense bent but didn’t break. After back-to-back elusive runs by Hawkins, Drew Mestemaker’s 33-yard pass to Cameron Dorner gave North Texas a first down at the Mids’ 18. However, Mestemaker’s pass on third down from the 3-yard line fell short and the Mean Green settled for a 21-yard field goal.
Navy’s first possession in the second half featured three consecutive carries by Heidenreich, doubling his rushing attempts at that point in the game, which put Navy into the red zone. And on fourth down, Horvath kept the ball on an option read for a 13-yard touchdown to make it a one-score game, 24-17.
On North Texas’ first drive of the second half, Mestemaker (19 of 24 for 234 yards) found a wide-open Dorner for a 39-yard completion all the way to the Navy 35. However, the defense held, aided by a sack by Griffen Lewis, which gave the Mids the ball back.
But once again, Navy’s offense was its own worst enemy. Two plays after a false start by Chatman, Horvath tried to get the ball to Jake Norris on third-and-long and North Texas linebacker Quinton Hammonds made a one-handed interception at midfield.
“He may have forced that one a little bit,” Newberry said of the errant pass from Horvath, who finished 8 of 14 for 80 yards through the air.
North Texas capitalized on the Navy miscue and once again it was Hawkins finishing off a drive with a touchdown to put the Mean Green ahead by two scores, 31-17.
Navy had two more chances to make it a one-score game, but its next two drives, sandwiched by a defensive stop in the fourth quarter, ended in a familiar place on this day — the red zone.
Horvath failed to convert a fourth-and-2 at the North Texas 9 on the first drive and threw an interception in the end zone on the next. Newberry said that Horvath had Chatman wide open over the middle on the play.
“He just misread it,” Newberry said. “He doesn’t play perfect all the time, but obviously you can’t afford a turnover especially down in the red zone, we’re going down to score and make it a seven-point game at that point. That was the dagger, right there.”
After Notre Dame, Navy has back-to-back games against No. 25 Memphis and South Florida — which means the Mids are still in the thick of the American Conference championship race. That fact was not lost on Newberry.
“Let’s take ownership [of this loss] and move forward because everything is still out in front of us, but we’ve got to play much better moving forward — our guys know that,” he said.
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