A Look Ahead: Navy

Well folks, this one has scared me since the beginning when I saw Navy give Ohio St. a scare. Navy has always been a tough running team with the option, but they now have probably the best passing QB they've had since I've followed football. QB Ricky Dobbs (pictured left)has rushed for 16 TDs. However, Dobbs missed the Wake Forest game 2 weeks ago with a knee injury and barely played this week. Sounds like the biggest stories going into this week will be injury reports. Armando Allen, Clausen, Michael Floyd, and Dobbs all make a pretty big difference! Looks like Navy's defense has been average. They seem to struggle against the run. They have given up decent yards vs. the pass as well. I like that ND seems to play better run defense than pass in this match-up. Navy comes in at 6-3 with a good win over Wake Forest. One of their 3 losses was to Ohio St. 31-27. One of their other losses was to Pitt. The only bad loss they have was this week to Temple, but Dobbs was out. ND comes in ranked #22 in the BCS. It would be so exciting to see a healthy Michael Floyd and Armando Allen with Hughes, Kamara, Tate, Rudolph, Riddick, and Parris! That is flat out scary. I expect to see the Wildcat hurt Navy pretty bad too. This is huge because if we win this, Penn St. plays Ohio St., and that's the only likely help we'll get, but we could move up as high as #19 or so. The early line has ND favored by 11. My prediction: ND 35 Navy 28