UAB Holds Off Navy's Ground Game 24-20
Navy ran the ball 58 times for 249 yards and lost. Fumbles are the reason to look at first: the Midshipmen coughed it up twice, and UAB, which ran 33 times for 118 yards, needed no more than that to win 24-20.
UAB struck first on a 10-yard run by Braylon McReynolds, and Navy answered on a 4-yard run by Jackson Gutierrez. After that the first half was a trade. A Jonah Delange field goal made it 10-7, Nolan Bartley kicked one back to tie it at 10, and Ty Mims caught a 56-yard touchdown from Ryder Burton with 1:11 left in the half to make it 17-10. Navy took the last word before the break with a 31-yard Bartley field goal, so it was 17-13 at halftime.
Navy went in front 20-17 on a 7-yard run by Vic Listorti late in the third quarter, and that held through the end of the third. Then McReynolds broke a 48-yard run with 10:36 left in the game, and that was the final score. Neither team scored again, and Navy's 353 total yards could not find the four points back.
The passing game was where the two sides split in an odd way. Navy threw for 104 yards (Gutierrez was 4 of 13), UAB for 174, and Burton gave one back with an interception. Both defenses lived in the backfield, UAB with six sacks and Navy with four. Take away the two lost fumbles and I like Navy's chances a lot more, but I do not get to take them away.
UAB moves to 2-2. Navy falls to 1-2. For fantasy, the Navy quarterback was the top scorer on the day with 23.6 points, almost all of it on his legs.