The Memphis Tigers dropped to 8-4 (4-4) in a 28-17 loss at home to the Navy Midshipmen 9-2 (7-1) Thursday night at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, ending the chances of a double-digit win season.
In front of a reported crowd of over 27,000 on Thanksgiving night, Navy dominated in the second half, to give the Tigers a third consecutive loss.
“It pisses me off, I’m frustrated, I’m angry, it’s not good enough...” said Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield after the game.
The Tigers performed very well in the first half offensively and outgained Navy 253-128, splitting the ball up well, stacking 100+ yards on the ground and through the air each. Both teams took some time to get started with four punts in the first quarter, and the score going into the second quarter was 3-0 Memphis.
Navy would score the first touchdown of the game at the start of the second quarter, and this opened the floodgates for both teams with 28 combined points scored in this quarter alone.
Both teams scored two touchdowns each, with Navy’s being the result of their infamous triple option offense, one an impromptu shovel pass from Blake Horvath and the other being a run from Alex Tecza. Memphis’ touchdowns came from a 1-yard pass to Matt Adcock and a 38-yard ball that got contested and tipped and eventually caught in spectacular fashion by Cortez Braham Jr. for another Tiger touchdown.
“Cortez had great focus and concentration and made another fantastic play on the ball,” said Silverfield.
The score going into halftime was 17-14 Tigers, and Navy got the first possession of the second half. It was the longest of the game at 10 minutes and 3 seconds long. This drive didn’t come with a score, but the next drive for Navy after a Memphis 3-and-out did, making it 21-17 Navy.
The Tigers struggled on offense immensely in the second half due in part to Navy taking so much time off the clock with their first drive in the second half. Following the touchdown Memphis failed to respond with a second consecutive drive ending in a punt, and Navy, much like their first drive of the second half, burned minute after minute on the clock, taking 8 more minutes off the clock and scoring another touchdown making it a 2 possession game with just under 6 minutes left to play.
“I feel like one thing that went against our offense was the time of possession with, you know Navy getting it straight off the 2nd half, I mean I think they held the ball for like almost 10 minutes.” said running back Greg Desrosiers Jr. “That does something when we’re on the bench cold, especially in the weather you know, a lack of heating up and warming up and things like that.”
With the knowledge of the Tigers being down 11 and in a time crunch, Navy was able to stifle Memphis’ offense knowing they would have to pass to score in a timely enough manner to win the game.
Brendon Lewis completed only 5 of his 16 passes, and the Tigers were outgained 172-53 in the second half. Memphis just couldn’t close distance on the lead and after two turnovers on downs, lost the game.
The Tigers experienced a hard November going from 8-1 before the Tulane game and projected to make the CFP, to 8-4 and tied for 6th in the conference.
With three straight losses, the Tigers find themselves out of reach of a conference championship or a playoff berth but remain bowl eligible for the 11th season in a row, the longest stretch of any non-Power 4 team.
The Tigers look ahead to their bowl game where Ryan Silverfield will look to win his fifth bowl game with the program and turn in a 9-win year and his third best season since taking the helm.
