Through three-and-a-half hours of a stop-and-start first half thanks to a pair of lightning storms, the Navy defense couldn’t make a stop Saturday.
UAB players glided past missed assignments and butterfinger tackles. Blazers collected double-digit plays in wide-open spaces. If not for the Navy defense, the Mids offense easily could’ve carried a hefty lead into halftime. Instead, the two teams went in deadlocked at 24.
But that was the first half. And, if not for the Navy defense, quarterback Blake Horvath doesn’t secure a go-ahead touchdown in the second and the Mids potentially don’t win.
Midway through the third quarter, UAB looked to convert a third down from the red zone. Blazers receiver Iverson Hooks took a pass and screeched toward his touchdown — just as Navy corner back Phillip Hamilton lunged at him, forcing the ball loose.
Redshirt sophomore Isaiah Crozier filled in behind him to recover the ball. The Mids offense assumed its position at their foe’s 29 and promptly scored, setting the course to a 38-24 victory.
Plays like that were what spun a very different story for the Navy defense in the second half on Saturday.
“We started playing our style of football. Like [coach Brian] Newberry said, momentum’s not really our thing. We just have to go 1-0 on every play,” senior captain and nose guard Landon Robinson said. “We started to execute and become the defense we know we can be.”
No one had a day more representative of those night-and-day halves than Hamilton. He complimented his forced fumble with an interception as well as two pass interference calls and a block in the back penalty.
Frustration has never been far from Hamilton when he feels he’s not doing his best. But his teammates didn’t let him take blame.
During one of the lightning breaks, Robinson took the sophomore aside and encouraged him to relax and remember all the success he’d had in camp.
“When the coaches and guys could maybe rope me off and say ‘This is Phil’s fault,’ they lifted me up,” Hamilton said.
In the second half, the UAB offense only averaged 4.2 yards per play – exactly the same as VMI did on Aug. 30.
But in the first half, Blazers gobbled up an average of 10.1 yards a play. By the end of their third drive, the UAB offense felt comfortable enough against the Navy defense to go for a 25-yard pass on fourth down – and score. That particular pass was one of 11 double-digit plays by the Blazers, three of which resulted in a touchdown. UAB scored on all four first-half drives.
Don’t worry about it, the defensive leaders told the members of their unit. Overthinking in the first half made them “antsy, tense.” Forget the weather and the mistakes. Move forward. Be like a pilot light in a furnace, Robinson said, quoting linebackers coach Ricky Brown – always on but ready to turn up the heat if needed.
Making tackles before the Blazers moved the chains would’ve undoubtedly helped the defense. But more than anything, the Navy defense needed to “Get Six.”
In 2019, Newberry’s first season at defensive coordinator, the Mids went 8-0 when securing “Six” — a combination of six three-and-outs, fourth down stops, turnovers and/or defensive touchdowns.
In the third quarter, Robinson (10 tackles) dragged down UAB running back Isaiah Jacobs in the red zone for Navy’s first tackle for loss on third down, which ultimately led to a missed field goal.
One point for the old “Get Six.”
“Getting a stop was big. When Landon made that tackle, I know it fired me up, fired the guys up,” Hamilton said. “It gave us our mojo back.”
The Navy defense marked the Blazers’ next campaign with its first turnover – a first-career fumble recovery off a first-career forced fumble, Navy’s first defensive turnover of the season, a second point toward “Get Six” and a precursor to the Mids’ go-ahead touchdown all in one. Next, the defense forced the Blazers into a three-and-out — point number three.
It was time for MarcAnthony Parker to earn his own.
The sophomore linebacker sat the first half after suffering a targeting call last week. In the latter quarters, he racked up four tackles, and more notably, picked off Blazers quarterback Jalen Kitna on his first play of the fourth.
“I was gonna do whatever I needed to do in the first half to help them out – coach ‘em, hype ‘em up,” Parker said. “But yeah, I was foaming at the mouth for that second half.”
Hamilton later thanked him with an interception of his own, abruptly stopping the Blazers’ most promising drive of the fourth quarter from the end zone.
Point number five.
The sixth point wasn’t as flashy. Four incomplete passes for a fourth down stop. But Navy did, indeed, “Get Six” – and only in two quarters.
“They’re a resilient group that’s not gonna lay down for anybody, that’s for sure,” Newberry said. “I’m proud of the way they found a way to win.”
Have a sports tip? Contact Katherine Fominykh at kfominykh@baltsun.com or DM @capgazsports on Instagram.