The Tulsa Golden Hurricane storm into Annapolis to square off against the Navy Midshipmen on Saturday, November 11th. The battle for first place in the American Athletic Conference West Division begins at 12:00 ET and can be seen on the CBS Sports Network. The Midshipmen are slight -2 point favorites and the games over/under is at 69.
Last week against East Carolina, Tulsa used a balanced offensive attack to defeat ECU 45-24. Once again, quarterback Dane Evans led the way for the Golden Hurricane. He opened up the ECU defense, throwing for three touchdowns and 274 yards. The Tulsa running attack answered with its best performance of the season, pounding the Pirates for 342 yards.
Tulsa (7-2):
Tulsa sports the 9th-ranked offense in the nation, averaging 512.1 yards per game and score a whopping 42.4 points per contest. Dane Evans has been a stud, throwing for just under 2,250 yards and 18 touchdown tosses with only eight picks.
When you think of the Golden Hurricane offense, your first thoughts probably aren’t the running attack. Well they should be, running backs James Flanders and D’Angelo Brewer are having themselves quite the year. Together, the explosive backs have well over 2,000 yards rushing between them and 19 touchdowns. Flanders has found himself in the back of the end zone on 14 occasions this season.
Dane Evans has three wide outs that he consistently feeds the rock to. Combined, they have reeled in almost 150 passes for another 2,000 yards and 18 scores. Senior Keevan Lucas has been producing for years at Tulsa and this year is no different. Lucas has 837 yards receiving and nine scores.
Tulsa gives up 177 yards per game against the run, and will be challenging Will Worth and company. Even though Navy doesn’t pass the ball often, maybe they should against the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa’s secondary is 90th in the nation, surrendering almost 250 yards a contest.
Navy (6-2):
The Midshipmen took their triple-option attack to Jacksonville, Florida and defeated Notre Dame 28-27. Quarterback Will Worth led the way, with 175 rushing yards and two touchdowns. As a result, coach Brian Kelly’s nightmare of a season was made even more miserable.
Will Worth has filled in for Navy’s starting quarterback Tago Smith admirably. Tago went down before the season really even got underway, and Worth stepped in and the Middies haven’t skipped a beat. Worth has toted the rock 190 times for 791 yards and 15 touchdowns. He also has passed the football for over 1,000 yards with six scores and three interceptions.
When Will Worth isn’t tucking the ball and running, he hands it off to a platoon of backs out of the back field. As a squad, they have amassed over 1,300 yards and 12 trips to the promised land. Chris High leads this group with 473 yards and five end zone appearances.
Navy doesn’t throw the ball around a lot, but when they do Will Worth looks to wide out Jamir Tillman to get the job done. Tillman has responded, catching a team-high 23 balls for 362 yards and a touchdown.
There’s no question that the Midshipmen are under-sized whenever their defense takes the field to compete, but they held their own against the Irish last week. That being said, the Navy ranks 70th in the nation, giving way to 28 points a contest. It could be along day for the Midshipmen’s secondary, because they are 87th in the nation, allowing 247 yards per contest.
Trends and Notes:
The Golden Hurricane are 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games overall.
The Midshipmen are 6-2-1 ATS in their last 9 games overall.
The Over is 6-1 in the Golden Hurricane last 7 road games.
The Over is 6-0 in the Midshipmen last 6 home games.
Game Prediction:
The Tulsa Golden Hurricane need to come out of Annapolis with a victory and cement themselves atop the AAC standings. Navy feels the exact same way, and will give Tulsa all they handle in front of there fellow Midshipmen.
Both schools should be able to score on each other with little to no resistance. In fact, this could be one of the most high scoring games of the weekend. Fans of these teams should be prepared to watch their schools go up and down the field in an exciting shoot-out on Saturday.
Throw the line in this game out the window, two points either way is not going to matter in this one. Just lay your bet on the over 69 and watch a fun-filled offensive football match on Saturday.
