Mids make it close late, but Irish prevail in rivalry classic, 35-32

Baltimore, MD – Coming off a 20-10 loss last weekend at Cincinnati and with their hopes of going to a bowl hanging by a thread, the Navy Midshipmen fell behind early once again, and despite a late rally, came up short against rival Notre Dame, 35-32, on Saturday afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium.

Saturday’s game marked Notre Dame’s first trip to Baltimore to take on their long time rival since 2008, a game the Irish won 27-21.

The two schools aren’t scheduled to play here again at least until 2026, with the next two meetings scheduled for Dublin, Ireland (Week 0 next year with Notre Dame serving as the home team) and East Rutherford, New Jersey in 2024, making this meeting in front of 62,000 in Charm City a rare treat for fans in the DMV.

Despite the Naval Academy being just 30 miles away, Irish fans clad in emerald and gold were well represented, and their team did not dissapoint.

On the first Notre Dame posession, quarterback Drew Pyne marched down the field, connecting all four passes, including a 30-yard score to running back Audric Estime to put the Irish up early.

Navy’s subsequent drive resulted in just 23 yards before the Midshipmen were forced to punt the ball back to Notre Dame.

Pyne capitalized yet again, connecting on an out of this world 38-yard touchdown grab by wide receiver Braden Lenzy, who grabbed the pass from behind a Navy defender on the score.

Down 14-0, Navy rallied as quarterback Xavier Arline, starting his second game after Tai Lavatai was lost for the season against Temple, led the Midshipmen downfield on a 5-play 75-yard drive that was capped off by a 36-yard scamper by fullback Daba Fofana, cutting the Irish lead to 14-6 after kicker Bijan Nichols missed the extra point.

But the Irish brought the “Fighting” with them from South Bend today, as Pyne drove the Notre Dame offense down the field, passing for his third touchdown in as many drives to open the game, this time connecting with running back Chris Tyree on a 5-yard touchdown pass to increase their lead to 21-6.

Navy would answer yet again, as Arline ran it on from 2 yards out on the Midshipmen’s next drive, capping a 7-play 80-yard drive to keep them in the ball game.

However, following some trickeration, Kai Puailoa-Rojas forced a pass that Notre Dame’s Clarence Lewis stepped in front of, giving the Irish the ball back with a short field in front of them.

After Irish running back Audric Estime peeled off a 28-yard scamper to the Navy 11-yard line, Pyne took it the rest of the way, scoring on a run of his own on the very next play.

On Notre Dame’s final posession of the half, Pyne found Jayden Thomas for a 37-yard touchdown to give the Irish their biggest halftime lead since their week 8 matchup with UNLV.

Trailing 35-16 at halftime, the Midshipmen came out of the locker room knowing they needed to score to remain in the game, and that’s just what they did, going on an 16-play 72-yard 10-minute drive that resulted in a 26-yard field goal from senior Bijan Nichols, his first attempt of the season.

Navy’s defense, which looked attrocious in the first-half, began the third quarter by forcing a Fighting Irish punt before intercepting quarterback Drew Pyne on Notre Dame’s subsequen drive.

That interception led to a touchdown pass from quarterback Xavier Arline to Mark Walker. The Mids went for two, succeeding on the attempt – an Arline scramble – cutting Notre Dame’s lead to eleven.

After sacking Pyne three times on the following posession, Navy got the ball back two more times, punting the ball away on both posessions, before the Navy defense gave the offense one final posession to keep the Mids in the game.

After replacing Arline, who left with an injury, senior quarterback Massai Maynor led the Midshipmen down field, capitalizing on a pourous second-half defense by the Fighting Irish, as Maquel Haywood scored on a 20-yard pass from Maynor to make it 35-30.

Another successful two-point conversion attempt cut the Irish lead to three with just over a minute left in the game, but Navy had burned all three of their second-half timeouts, forcing the Mids to attempt an onside kick.

Unfortunately for Navy, it was recovered by Notre Dame, and Pyne took a couple kneel downs to run out the rest of the clock.

Today’s loss dropped Navy to 3-7 on the year, meaning a season that began with such high hopes after two long COVID plagued campaigns, will end without a bowl appearance once again.

It will also add fuel to fire being stoked by those who believe coach Ken Niumatalolo’s time as head coach at Navy should come to an end after three years of dissapointing football.

The Midshipmen have a trip to Orlando to take on American Athletic Conference rival Central Florida at FBC Mortgage Stadium next week, followed by a long hiatus until their season finale against service academy rival Army in Philadelphia on December 10.

Navy looks to rebound against Temple on Senior Day at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium

Annapolis, MD – On Senior Day when the Midshipmen will honor 26 members of the team who will go on to serve their country in the United States Navy and Marine Corps at this time next year, the Mids are expecting a big win.

Favored for the first time since their season-opening loss against Delaware, and after a crushing debacle last weekend against Houston that left head coach Ken Niumatalolo in visible agony during his postgame press conference, a visit from the 2-5 Temple Owls, may just be the medicine the doctor ordered.

While Navy has had its share of struggles this season, Temple hasn’t faired much better.

Since beating UMass on September 24, the Owls have gone on a three-game losing streak – all against American Athletic Conference opponents – including a 27-16 loss to Tulsa last week at Lincoln Financial Field.

They are led by E.J. Warner, son of Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner, and receiver Jose Barbon, who is eighth in the conference with 484 receiving yards.

A week after giving up a Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium record-tying five touchdowns and 261 passing yards to Clayton Tune, shutting down the connection between Warner and Barbon will be key to Navy ending Senior Day on a high note.

Navy’s own quarterback, Tai Lavatai, is looking to rebound following a disastrous performance against Houston, where he completed only eight passes, two of which ended up in the arms of Cougar defenders.

Look for Navy to lean heavily on Daba Fofana, the sophomore slot back who ran for his fourth touchdown of the season last week, and is hoping to replicate his performance against Tulsa from three weeks ago when he ran for a season-high 159 yards on 21 carries, three of which resulted in a trip to the endzone.

The Navy defense will also look to turn it around against Temple after giving up 38 points to Houston and 40 points at SMU two weeks ago. Led by senior linebackers John Marshall and Nicholas Straw, the Midshipmen defense has shown its capability to shut down high-powered offenses, but that double-edged sword has also seen the Mids give up no fewer than 20 points in each conference game this season.

The Owls have struggled to put up points in conference play, going 0-3, while putting up no more than the 16 points they scored against the Golden Hurricanes last week.

Contributing to their struggles are Warner’s inability to make good decisions with the ball, having thrown four interceptions and fumbled the ball once last week against Tulsa, while completing no more than less than half of his passes the last three games.

Prediction: Navy’s defense comes up big and secures three turnovers from the Owls, as the Mids win it 34-10.

Inconsistences and turnovers plague Navy again, as Mids fall to Houston, 38-20

Annapolis, MD – Despite forcing three turnovers, including a strip-sack fumble of Houston quarterback Clayton Tune that cut the Cougars lead to seven midway through the third quarter, Navy’s own turnovers and inconsistencies got in the way again as the Midshipmen fell to Houston 38-20 on Saturday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

A week after falling behind Southern Methodist 13-0, Navy once again dug itself a deep hole to begin the game, allowing the Cougars to get out to a 14-0 lead before a 25-yard rushing touchdown by Daba Fofana cut Houston’s lead to seven.

The Cougars responded on the very next drive after seemingly being held to a field goal attempt before Navy was called for an illegal formation penalty that gave Houston a first down, which quarterback Clayton Tune cashed in for a touchdown, connecting on a 3-yard touchdown pass to tight end Matt Byrnes on the very next play.

Navy’s final drive of the first half resulted in 41-yard field goal attempt by Daniel Davies that was blocked by Nelson Caesar. Davies later missed a 47-yard field goal wide left on the Midshipmen’s second drive of the third quarter.

Quarterback Tai Lavatai struggled once again under center, throwing his second and third interceptions of the season, stalling drives that could have put Navy back in a position to either tie or take a lead in the game, but the offense once again struggled, mustering 283 yards of total offense, but only 20 points to show for their troubles.

Meanwhile, Clayton Tune tied the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium record late in the fourth quarter with his fifth passing touchdown of the game, connecting on a four-yard pass to Sam Brown for six, Brown’s second touchdown of the game.

Tune’s fifth passing touchdown tied him with former Virginia quarterback Bobby Goodman, who threw five touchdowns against Navy in a 53-0 shutout of the Mids to open the 1992 season.

Navy would score a late touchdown, cutting the Houston lead to 18, but it was not enough as Navy fell to yet another American Athletic Conference opponent.

More to come…

Houston – Navy preview

Annapolis, MD – The key to winning is consistency, and consistency is exactly what the Navy Midshipmen could use right about now.

After throttling Tulsa, 53-21, two weeks ago at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, the Mids fell behind early last Friday against SMU and couldn’t complete a late rally against the Mustangs.

At 2-4 with half of their season in the rearview mirror, Navy must go 4-2 the rest of the way in order to reach their first bowl game since 2019.

A tall order considering trips to Cincinnati, Central Florida, and a date with longtime rival Notre Dame next month in Baltimore remain on the schedule, making Saturday’s game against Houston all the more important.

After starting out the year ranked No. 24, the Cougars have fallen on hard times, going 3-3 through their first six games, losing two Big 12 contests to Kansas and Texas Tech, as well as an overtime game against Tulane in late September.

But they’re coming off a bye and a come from behind 33-32 victory over Memphis two weeks ago, led by senior quarterback Clayton Tune. But by all accounts, the signal caller from Carrollton, Texas has underperformed this season, throwing just 12 touchdowns against 4 interceptions.

He’ll need a big day for the Cougars to come out of Annapolis with a win.

History is on Houston’s side, as they’ve won six of eight previous matchups with Navy, including two of three at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, including a 37-21 trouncing of the Mids back in 2020.

In their way is a Navy team, that while having played much better their past four games, is still looking for the hallmark consistency that led them to bowl games in 11 of Coach Ken Niumatalolo’s first 15 season’s on the job.

Earlier in the week ESPN senior writer Adam Rittenberg questioned whether Niumatalolo’s recent tenure – 23-31 in the past four seasons – has potentially put him on the hot seat, a recently unfathomable proposition considering Niumatalolo is the program’s all-time winningest coach, and the fact the program has only had four full-time head coaches since 1990, not to mention how unstable the program was before Niumatalolo and his mentor Paul Johnson got to Annapolis and turned Navy football around.

But Navy has fallen on hard times so to speak in recent years, failing to get as much production out of quarterback Tai Lavatai than recent Midshipmen quarterbacks Keenan Reynolds and Malcolm Perry.

They’ve won just two Commander-in-Chief’s trophy since 2014, and despite Coach Ken and his players insisting they don’t pay attention to the outside noise, in today’s world, even with the loaded schedule that comes with being a Midshipman at the United States Naval Academy, that’s virtually impossible.

Getting consistent production from one of the nation’s top running games will alleviate some of the pressure off Lavatai, allowing him to execute the Navy offense without the pressure to produce big plays every down.

Being back home at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in front of their home fans for the next two games should go a long way towards determining the trajectory for the remainder of their season, and whethere or not it’s a story of redemption or it’s another crash and burn campaign like 2020 and 2021.

Prediction: Houston 34 Navy 20

Tulsa – Navy preview

When: 3:30 p.m. EDT Saturday October 8, 2022

Where: Navy – Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, Annapolis, MD

Line: Tulsa – 4.5 O/U 46

With a quarter of Navy’s football season already in the books, this weekend’s matchup with the 2-3 Tulsa Golden Hurricane almost feels like a must win for the Midshipmen.

After two losses at home to begin the season, it looked as if Navy had used their Week 3 bye to adjust an offense that had scored just 20 points in eight quarters to begin the season, as the Mids put up 23 in a double-overtime victory two weeks ago at East Carolina.

But last weekend at Air Force, Navy struggled once again, reaching the end zone just once, as the Midshipmen lost 13-10 to their service academy rival.

Returning home to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium for the first time in a month, against a Tulsa team that has dropped two in a row may be just what the Midshipmen need to turn their season around.

The Mids have had success against the Golden Hurricane, leading the all-time series record 7-2, including a 6-1 record since Navy joined the American Athletic Conference back in 2015.

But in order for Navy to push that record to 7-1, quarterback Tai Lavatai needs to have a breakout game and the Midshipmen offense needs to score.

Tulsa has scored at least 20 points in four of their five games, and Navy has reached that threshold only once this season.

The Golden Hurricane have allowed nearly 200 rushing yards per game this season, and for a Midshipmen offense whose success is contingent on a successful run game, getting running backs Anton Hall Jr. and Daba Fofana, as well as Lavatai going may prove critical to whether Navy can pull out a second win on the season or not.

But Navy’s defense, which has looked good at times, must be on guard against the Tulsa passing attack led by quarterback Davis Brin who is tenth in the nation with 1,555 passing yards, and nineteenth in passing touchdowns with 12.

Brin has been dealing with an ankle injury but should be good to go on Saturday.

His favorite target, Keylon Stokes has been a thorn in the side of defenses all season, accounting for 37 receptions, 613 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns.

The 5’10” senior from Manvel, Texas has shown the ability to make big plays, and during their last home game against Memphis, Navy was succeptible to giving up the long ball.

Prediction: Tulsa 27 Navy 13

Midshipmen miscues give Delaware an upset victory to start the season

Annapolis, MD – Hoping to put a couple of dismal seasons in the rearview mirror, the Navy Midshipmen began their 2022 campaign against Delaware on Saturday afternoon in Annapolis.

It did not go well.

Despite entering the game as a 12.5-point favorite and holding the Blue Hens to 14 points on 202 total yards, the Midshipmen offense couldn’t get much going, and Delaware held on to upset Navy 14-7 in front of 30,542 fans at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

Two plays after receiving the opening kickoff, quarterback Tai Lavatai fumbled the ball, setting up Delaware with excellent field position on Navy’s 21-yard line.

The Blue Hens capitalized two plays later, as quarterback Nolan Henderson found wide receiver Bryce De Maille for a 6-yard touchdown after a Navy pass interference penalty gave Delaware a first-and-goal.

Navy’s defense held Delaware in check for most of the afternoon, registering twelve tackles for loss, five sacks and two forced fumbles, recovering one.

But the Midshipmen offense, in their second season with Lavatai at the helm, fumbled the ball four times, losing posession three times, with Lavatai accounting for two of those turnovers.

Evan Warren, filling in for kicker Bijan Nichols, who was dealing with a leg injury, missed his first career attempt from 45 yards out midway through the first quarter.

Despite it all, Navy trailed just 7-0 at the half, and never by more than 14 points at any point in the game, as Delaware’s kicker Brandon Ratcliffe also missed a field goal, and the Blue Hens turned the ball over on downs twice.

After each team punted twice to begin the second half, Delaware cashed in on a 5-play 78-yard drive, with Henderson finding Chandler Harvin for a 51-yard touchdown after a Navy roughing the passer penalty kept the Blue Hens drive alive.

On the ensuing drive, the Midshipmen offense responded with their best drive of the game, going 10 plays on 56 yards, culminating in 2-yard touchdown run by Lavatai.

Navy’s defense held firm and Delaware didn’t score the remainder of the game, but the Mids offense could not put the ball in endzone again, coming up just short on their final drive of the game.

Trailing by seven with 3:16 to go, Lavatai connected with Maquel Haywood for a 34-yard gain, putting the ball in the red zone on Delaware’s 15-yard line.

But two Daba Fofana one-yard runs, and a four-yard pass from Lavatai to Mark Walker left Navy with a 4th and 4 from the four-yard line. Lavatai scrambled out of the pocket looking for Haywood, but the pass fell incomplete allowing Delaware to run out the clock and seal up their season-opening road victory.

Asked after the game how his team was doing following one of the most gut-wrenching losses Navy has suffered in recent memory, coach Ken Niumatalolo conveyed how hurt his team was feeling.

“We got to find a way to get a W.”

Navy will get a chance to do just that next Saturday when they open conference play at home against the Memphis Tigers.

After waiting off to the side looking dejected while Coach Niumatalolo took questions, offensive lineman Kim Frankland told reporters that’s just what he and the brotherhood of players on Navy’s roster plan on doing.

“We’re gonna get better and beat Memphis.”

It’s time for Toronto’s inconsistencies to come to an end

There are two professions in America where you can be “wrong” a majority of the time and still keep your jobs: meteorologists and Major League Baseball players.

Meteorologists can tell you it’ll be a bright sunshiney day, and two minutes after leaving your office, you’re soaking wet from a thundershower they didn’t see coming.

Major League Baseball players can either strike out, pop out, foul out, fly out or ground out (I think I got them all…) 70 percent or more of the time, bat anywhere from .200 to .330 and still keep their jobs.

And we’re not even counting errors…

But baseball is finnicky. You can win one night by ten runs, and lose the next night, with the same lineup, by ten runs.

The reason great teams make the postseason, while others finish with 100 losses, boils down to one word – consistency. Making sure the little things don’t become big things, that two-game losing streaks don’t manifest themselves into a 1-6 road trip, and if you don’t know where I am going with this, you have clearly never seen this show before, to quote a certain British comedian.

Following their disastrous 1-6 road trip, including losing 2 of 3 to a team that had won just eight home games in three months, the Toronto Blue Jays managed to steal a win against the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday evening. Jose Berrios, despite giving up three earned runs, also tied his career-high in strikeouts with 13.

The Jays, behind a surprisingly resurgent Ross Stripling, managed to defeat that same Phillies squad 8-2 on Tuesday evening, just hours after letting manager Charlie Montoyo go.

Midway through that game, word broke that the Kansas City Royals, who are battling not to lose 100 games on the season, would be without TEN players on their 26-man roster, including All-Star Andrew Benintendi and Whit Merrifield.

As if a two-game win streak, and a crippled cellar-dweller wasn’t enough good news to hope for in Toronto, the Jays were at home where they have dominated since returning north of the border last summer following a nearly two-year absence.

But wait, there’s more, as late night advertisements so often love to tell us, Kevin Gausman, who had missed a start after being hit with a line-drive to the ankle against the Rays two weeks ago was ready and would start, allowing the Jays to only have to use one non-Alek Manoah, Berrios, Stripling or Gausman starter through the finale against the Royals on Sunday.

And yet, somehow, depleted and featuring players who just a day before were either in AAA Omaha or AA Northwest Arkansas, including starting pitcher Angel Zerpa who thoroughly dominated Jays batters, the Kansas City Royals, defeated the Blue Jays on Thursday night, 3-1.

This is becoming an all to common occurance for a Blue Jays team that had high hopes coming into the season, and more than halfway through the year, is barely treading water, just a bad weekend series against the Royals, coupled with a Orioles sweep of the Rays from going into the All-Star break in last place in the American League East.

Against “cellar-dwellars” – that is teams in the bottom third of the American and National Leagues – the Blue Jays are just 15-8 on the season. By contrast, the New York Yankees, who lead the American League East by 13 games over second-place Tampa Bay, are 21-5 against such teams.

These are teams “winners” rack up wins against left and right, padding their position in the standings, while teams that miss out on the playoffs fail to capitalize, leaving them on the outside looking in come October.

Last season against cellar dwellars, the Tampa Bay Rays won the American League East going 37-18 against these teams, while the Blue Jays went 34-19. It may not seem like much of a difference, especially considering the Rays won 100 games total and the American League East division crown by 8 games, but you have to remember, Toronto missed the playoffs by losing one game too many last year, and just one more win against last year’s cellar dwellars (Tigers, Royals, Twins, Rangers, Orioles — and in the National League both the Rays and Blue Jays faced the Marlins and Nationals) would have propelled the Jays to their second-consecutive playoff appearance.

Which brings me back to my point.

Toronto, somehow, someway, is still hanging onto a playoff position at this hour.

But they have plenty of teams – the Red Sox, Orioles, Guardians, etc. – on their heels and there is no more room for error if they want to make it to October, let alone make it past the Wild Card round.

With Charlie Montoyo fired after a 236-236 record, there is no more room, no scapegoat for these players to hide behind.

I get it, it’s July, it’s hot, there have been stretches where this team hasn’t had an off-day and played more games than days, and that players like George Springer are getting nightly bumps and bruises from foul balls galore, and I believe the All-Star break will allow most of the team – save for Manoah, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk who have work to do at next week’s All-Star Game – to heel up, for an overtaxed bullpen that was used too heavily in the first half of the season to get four-days rest before beginning the “second-half” of the season next weekend in Boston.

But there is still work to be done before they can rest. The Blue Jays MUST take the remaining three games against the Royals, capitalizing on a team missing its entire core thanks to lackluster medical advice and decisions, and rack up three more wins to head into the All-Star break at 50-43.

This is a team that usually gets “hot” after the All-Star break, and with expected trades to bring in another starter, some much needed bullpen relief, and maybe another bat, there is no reason to think this team can’t do what it did last year and go all out the final two and half months of the season to vie for a playoff spot. But if the 2022 Toronto Blue Jays want to avoid dissapointing their fans, and falling as short as they did last season, they need to suck it up, and go out there and obliterate the Kansas City Royals.

Margaritas and white sand beaches can wait.

It’s not time to fire Charlie Montoyo…yet

Coming off an absolutely disastrous final West Coast road trip that saw the Blue Jays drop two of three at RingCentral.com (Seriously…that’s the name) Coliseum to the Oakland Athletics, before suffering a four-game sweep at the hands of the Seattle Mariners, in front of tens of thousands of Western Canadian Blue Jays fans who had made the annual pilgrimage to Seattle for the first time in three years, the calls for Charlie Montoyo to lose his job are growing louder.

There is arguably no other manager in the past four years who has been given the roster talent, financial commitment and desire to win from ownership and upper management than Montoyo has, and arguably no manager has under delivered more than Montoyo.

The team missed the playoffs his first full year at the helm, after taking over for John Gibbons who resigned from managing the Blue Jays rather than sticking around for a rebuild.

Toronto made the playoffs in the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season, before getting trounced division rival Tampa Bay in the Wild Card round.

After adding George Springer and Marcus Semien two offseasons ago, gave the team hope it could build off its success in 2020 and take the next step along the way to winning a World Series title.

Despite Semien’s, All-Star campaign, despite Robby Ray winning the CY Young Award, despite Vladimir Guerrero finishing a respectible second to Shohei Otani in the American League MVP voting, and despite adding Trevor Richards, Adam Cimber and Jose Berrios (who finished fifth in the AL Cy Young Award vote) before the trade deadline, Toronto missed the playoffs by a game.

Coming into 2022 expectations for this team, which replaced Ray with Kevin Gausman, Semien with Matt Chapman, and added pieces like Yimi Garcia and Yusei Kikuchi to the roster, expectations were high, with many projecting the Jays to win the American League for the first time in 29 years.

But the past week has all but eliminated picking up the necessary 16.5 games just to catch division-leading New York, and Toronto is closer to last place Baltimore, who just won their eighth game in a row after sweeping the Angels at Camden Yards, than they are to the Yankees.

Suffice to say, it feels as if yet again, the Blue Jays are a sportscar being driven off a cliff, not down a highway.

The team has the talent. Let’s be clear.

Alek Manoah, despite two losses on the road trip, is still one of the American League’s most dominating pitchers, and will make his first All-Star Game appearance next week at Dodger Stadium.

Last year’s ASG MVP, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., will make his second-consecutive start at first, along with Alejandro Kirk, who was selected to his first All-Star Game by the fans last week. Joining them will be George Springer, selected as an outfield alternate after coming up just short of starting in the ASG vote last week. Names like Jordan Romano, Kevin Gausman also could have seen their names called, while Bo Bichette and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. who began their seasons with tough stretches before rebounding nicely in recent weeks/months were also finalists to represent the American League in Los Angeles.

There are injuries and inconsistencies, which every team goes through during the course of the season, but teams that contend for championships find ways around them.

Hyun-Jin Ryu is gone for the season, and likely most of next year, after having Tommy John surgery on his elbow, and Yusei Kikuchi, signed to replace Steven Matz, struggled mightily before being placed on the Injured List a week ago. George Springer has dealt with nagging issues that have kept him out of the lineup more than he probably would like, and Kevin Gausman missed a start last week after being hit in the ankle on a line drive during the Jays last homestand against the Rays.

And somehow, despite all of it, and I mean ALL of it, the Blue Jays still sit in a tie with the Seattle Mariners for the last Wild Card position as of Monday afternoon.

While some teams would say, “enough is enough” and “stop the bleeding before the patient dies” there is a right moment to either continue with Motonyo for the rest of the season, or move on from the fourteenth manager in franchise history.

Too much is going on at the moment for cooler heads to prevail; notably the loss of first base coach Mike Budzinski’s daughter Julia in a boating accident two weeks ago, along with next week’s All-Star Game.

But there is a date on the horizon that the team and fans should look at as the benchmark on whether or not Montoyo has earned enough capital to remain his job: July 31.

Toronto has 12 of its next 15 scheduled games at home, sandwiched around next week’s All-Star break and a three-game series at Fenway against the division rival Red Sox. The Jays have played well at home, going 25-18 at Rogers Centre, compared to just 20-24 away from home this season.

This week the Jays wrap up the symbolic “first-half” of the season with a two-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies and a four-game series against the Kansas City Royals.

While Toronto enjoys an off-day this afternoon after completing their West Coast road-trip, the Phillies will play the finale of their series in St. Louis against the Cardinals. They’re currently one game ahead of the Cardinals for the National League’s third and final Wild Card slot, and come into the day with a record of 46–40, 1.5 games better than the Jays.

Then come the Royals, the team every Blue Jays fan loves to hate for knocking them out of the 2015 American League Championship Series, but these Royals are currently 20 games under .500 and have a -109 run differential. They’re still rebuilding, but as they proved in the finale of their three-game set at Kaufmann Stadium earlier this season, just because they’re a “bad” team, doesn’t mean they can’t steal a win from you.

After the All-Star Game the Jays have a quick three-game series in Boston, before returning to Fenway, and while the Red Sox have played well as of late, overcoming early season struggles to vault themselves into the playoff standings, and ahead of the Blue Jays in the American League East, Toronto currently has a 7-3 record against the Red Sox on the season.

Then comes another two-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals, who split the two-game set at Busch Stadium with the Jays earlier this season, before a four-game set against the Detroit Tigers to close out the month of July, and before the Jays head out on a nine-game, three-city road trip to Tampa, Minnesota and Baltimore.

This would give Charlie Montoyo 15 games, including 12 at home in front of Blue Jays Nation, and eight against teams with losing records, to right the ship. To prove the seven games in Oakland and Seattle were a fluke, and that he can turn things around, especially if he can stabilize the rotation behind Manoah, Berrios, Gausman, Stripling, and potentially Yusei Kikuchi if he manages to turn things around while rehabbing his neck and taking some time to decompress after a distarous first-half of the season.

If he can’t, Toronto has every right to do what the Angels and Phillies have already done in firing Joe Maddon and Joe Girardi earlier this season. They can’t let the final two months go on like business as usual, with this team chock-full of talent being wasted like last year.

Unlike many teams that might wish they could fire their manager, but wouldn’t have a clue who could replace him midseason, the Blue Jays have bench coach John Schneider who is well liked by the team, and spent years in the Jays minor league system coaching up guys including Bichette, Guerrero and Cavan Biggio. Whenever Charlie Montoyo has been away, Schneider has filled in for him. It would provide a perfect two-month job interview to see if Schneider would excel in the role, or if the team would need to look outside the organization for its 2023 manager.

Either way, the clock is ticking on the 2022 Blue Jays, and Charlie Montoyo.

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

Rangers – Blue Jays Takeaways

On a weekend where Scottie Scheffler won his first career Green Jacket at the Masters, the Blue Jays broke out their signature celebration blue jacket seven times against the Rangers, taking two of three games against Texas to open their season.

As is the case following each series this season, let’s look back at their series and look ahead to their series with the Yankees.

Will the real Toronto Blue Jays please stand up …

For a team with World Series aspirations, Friday’s season opener was a reminder why the Blue Jays expect to contend for their first world championship since 1993.

Down 7-0 to a Rangers team that lost 102 games a season ago, and with starting pitcher Jose Berrios pulled from the game before he recorded a second out, the Jays looked disastrous to say the least. But the thing that distinguishes clubs from World Series favorites and not bottom feeders, is the ability to recognize there’s a lot of baseball between the first and ninth innings.

After Berrios was pulled, the bullpen stopped the bleeding, allowedint Toronto’s powerful offense to start coming back, eventually tying the game at 7 a piece in the fifth inning on a 3-run home run by Teoscar Hernandez. Toronto pulled away from there and held on to beat the Rangers 10-8.

But as was the case with the 2021 Blue Jays, you can’t expect to contend for a World Series if you’re going to get a lead and blow it against teams like Texas or Baltimore. If Toronto is going to represent the American League at the Fall Classic this October, they cannot let what happened Sunday become a regular occurance in 2022.

After Toronto jumped all over Rangers starter Spencer Howard, slugging four home runs and putting six runs on the board in the first three innings, Jays starter Hyun Jin Ryu imploded, and after being relieved by Tayler Saucedo in the top of the fourth inning, two more runs came in to score, leaving the game tied at 6. Texas tacked on six more runs and beat the Jays 12-6, avoiding a sweep at Rogers Centre.

It wasn’t long ago that Ryu was considered the team’s ace, having opened the COVID-19 shortened season in Tampa as well as last year against the Yankees. But his stat line quietly fallen off since the second-half of last season, and despite winning 14 games a season ago, tied for the most in his career, Ryu has shown a regression from the player he was in his first year and a half with the team, as well as his time with the Dodgers. If Toronto is going to succeed in 2022, they will need him to be the pitcher he was then, not lately.Against the Rangers, no Blue Jays starter lasted longer than Kevin Gausman who went five innings and was charged with three earned runs on Saturday.

That has to stop. Now.

Toronto cannot afford to have their starters last as long as Ryu and Berrios did without forcing their bullpen to pick up the pieces so early in ballgames, so early in the season. At that pace, by the time the Dog Days of August roll around, they’ll be pitching on fumes.

Having lost Robbie Ray to the Mariners and Steven Matz to the Cardinals, Toronto is expecting Gausman and former Mariner Yusei Kikuchi to step into the starting rotation and plug those gaps.

That makes Toronto’s next series at New York incredibly important. Jays fans will get to see Alek Manoah, who went 9-2 with a 3.22 ERA a season ago, make his season debut, along with Kikuchi, as well as Berrios and and Gausman’s second turns in the rotation. Can these starters relieve a beleagured bullpen that’s already pitched 18.1 innings in three games?

Dome sweet dome…

For the first time since 2019, Toronto will have a full 81-game home schedule at the 40,000+ seat Rogers Centre.

Over the weekend attendance in three games versus Texas was 119,957, and if you saw any of those games, you heard Blue Jays fans loud and proud.

After spending the 2020 season at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, and splitting the first four months of their 2021 campaign between TD Ballpark in Dunedin and Sahlen Field, the Canadian government lifted restrictions that prevented the team from re-entering the country. The Ontario provincial government then agreed to let a limited number of fans into Rogers Centre – provided they wore facial coverings – during the final two months of the season. But no Jays home game from July 30 through October 3 had an attendance over 29,942 – the season finale against Baltimore – after attendance restrictions were further loosened.

In many of their “home” games, particularly against New York and Boston during games in Buffalo, and New York, Boston and Tampa in Dunedin, Jays fans were noticeably outnumbered, with chants of “Let’s go Yankees!” and “Let’s Go Red Sox” along with cheers for opposing player home runs regularly registering at a higher decibel than “Let’s Go Blue Jays!” or cheers for their home runs.

To their credit, the Jays never complained, and patiently played the schedule they were given, at the stadium they were given for nearly two seasons, all the while eagerly awaiting their return to Toronto, where veterans of the 2019 campaign knew what kind of welcome lay in store for them from Toronto’s incredibly loyal fanbase.

This season brings with it another advantage. While the entire Blue Jays roster is currently vaccinated against COVID-19, many players on other rosters have yet to get the jab.

While Toronto played at a decidedly disadvantage in 2020 and most of 2021, it’s now their opponents who will face the disadvantage.

The same Canadian government that prevented the Blue Jays from playing at home for a season and a half, will now prevent any other team’s player from entering Canada if they are not vaccinated.

Medical records and privacy aside, there are a handful of players, including the Yankees Aaron Judge who have not declared whether or not they are vaccinated against COVID-19 or not, and after last year’s Aaron Rodgers’ “immunized” fiasco, it’s safe to assume any athlete who sidesteps the question of whether or not they’re vaccinated, likely isn’t, because if they were, why wouldn’t they just come out and say so?

Whether or not Judge or any non-Blue Jays player is unvaccinated will come into clarity soon enough when American League teams begin making their annual pilgrammages to Toronto, along with visits from the Cubs, Cardinals, Phillies and Reds later this season. If they’re unvaccinated, and if, like Judge, they’re a consequentual player, their teams will face the consequences of their unwillingness to get vaccinated, because there is absolutely no reason to believe the Canadian government will ease its stance on unvaccinated persons entering the country before the conclusion of the 2022 MLB season.

Look Ahead

The Blue Jays begin a four-game series in New York against the Yankees on Monday night, before returning home to the Rogers Centre this weekend to face the Oakland Athletics.

Probable Starting Pitchers

MONDAY: Alek Manoah (0-0 0.00 E.R.A.) vs. Jameson Taillon (0-0 0.00 E.R.A.)

TUESDAY: Yusei Kikuchi (0-0 0.00 E.R.A.) vs. Nestor Cortes Jr. (0-0 0.00 E.R.A.)

WEDNESDAY: Jose Berrios (0-0 108.00 E.R.A.) vs. Gerrit Cole (0-0 6.75 E.R.A.)

THURSDAY: Kevin Gausman (0-0 5.40 E.R.A.) vs. Luis Severino (0-0 6.00 E.R.A.)

Georgia: The new king of college football’s mountain

Let me start by saying Nick Saban isn’t going anywhere for a while.

He may have just turned 70 back in October, but if you’ve ever seen him coach, either live at Bryant-Denny Stadium or while watching the SEC on CBS, you know how fired up he can be. Say nothing of the fact he and the Crimson Tide just played in their ninth national championship game since Saban returned to the college ranks back in 2007, or the fact he agreed to a contract extension that runs through 2028 just before the season began.

But 2021, despite another 11-win regular season, SEC Championship and shellacking of Cincinnati in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic will go down in Alabama history as the year Saban’s former assistants started fighting back.

Until this season, none of his protégés had taken down the master; and that list is extensive.

But back in October, Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher became the first former Saban assistant to beat him, as the unranked Aggies took down the No. 2 Crimson Tide, 41-38 in College Station. Alabama would right the ship, making it to Atlanta for a second consecutive season where they absolutely throttled Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, 41-24.

The Bulldogs, coached by yet another Saban protégé in Kirby Smart, hadn’t beaten Alabama since way back in 2007, and kudos if you can name the two quarterbacks who started that game.

It was Matthew Stafford and John Parker Wilson in case you were wondering.

Despite the fact Georgia was a 3-point favorite, and had dominated common opponents to a greater degree than Alabama, consensus outside the Peach State had Smart and the Bulldogs getting throttled for a second time in 37 days at the College Football Championship presented by AT&T.

But this game was much closer, staying within one score the entire way until Bulldogs cornerback Kelee Ringo intercepted Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young and took it to the house, putting Georgia’s first national championship in 41 years on ice.

For Saban to lose not once, but twice to protégés in the same season might mean nothing, but it could be the start of something.

Texas A&M is currently atop 247 Sports 2022 recruiting class rankings with Alabama and Georgia trailing close behind.

Kirby Smart’s win may be too late to impact his 2022 recruiting class, but the repercussions from last night’s win over Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide will reverberate for years to come.

No longer is Georgia the little brother, second-fiddle, can’t win a title neighbor to the east.

The Bulldogs have come to play and if Nick Saban wants to get back to the mountain top, he’ll have to knock Kirby Smart off to get there.

Urban Meyer doesn’t need a pink slip, he needs a mirror

Earlier this week NFL Network reported that Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer had referred to members of his coaching staff as “losers.”

This afternoon, Meyer took time out of his postgame press conference following a 20-0 shutout loss to division rival Tennessee to tell reporters, “if there is a source, that source is unemployed.”

Maybe Meyer was telling the truth, maybe he wasn’t, but one thing is for certain if that story proves true; he wouldn’t need a pink slip, he would need a mirror.

Ever since he retired from coaching The Ohio State University football program in 2019, Meyer had been linked to seemingly every high-profile head coaching vacancy, whether the position was vacant or not. He was seen at FedExField two years ago during the Washington Football Team’s home finale against the New York Football Giants, leading some to wonder if Dan Snyder would pluck a coach from the college ranks for the second time after Steve Spurrier’s disastrous tenure in the nation’s capital. Meyer’s day job as a college football analyst for FOX, where he worked alongside Trojan legends Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush, at the network’s studios a short drive from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum led to speculation and daydreaming from USC faithful that he could bring a national championship to Southern Cal, all the while Clay Helton continued coaching the Trojans until September of this year.

Meyer’s collegiate coaching resume was indeed something every coach who working their way up the ladder from graduate assistant should strive for.

He succeeded everywhere he went, from Bowling Green, where he turned around a Falcons team that had won just two games the year before he arrived, to Utah and Florida, where he oversaw the development of the first-overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, Alex Smith, and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. After leaving Gainesville, Meyer came out of retirement for the first time to guide the Buckeyes to their first national championship since 2002, restoring a program that had fallen on hard times in the wake of program sanctions stemming from Jim Tressel’s tenure as the head coach in Columbus, before he retired a second time following the 2019 Rose Bowl.

But every step of the way, Meyer would have learned football is a sport built around “what have you done for me lately” and “each level of competition leaves more and more in the dust,” bringing me back to the mirror analogy.

Not everyone who can play or coach Pop Warner football can succeed at the high school level, and not every high school superstar can make it on the college level, and still fewer can make it to the NFL, with only an elite group ever making it to the pinnacle of the sport, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

If Meyer indeed called members of his coaching staff “losers” and asked them “what they’ve won,” as was reported by ProFootballTalk’s Michael David Smith, perhaps he didn’t vet the guys he brought in to help turn around one of the worst franchises in the league as closely as he should have.

Offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell has certainly faced his share of criticism from fans around the league, but he was the Packers quarterbacks coach when the team drafted Aaron Rodgers, and later the Seahawks offensive coordinator when they went on a tear after drafting Russell Wilson in 2012. Together, Wilson, Bevell and Pete Carroll throttled the Peyton Manning-led Denver Broncos, 43-8, to win Super Bowl XLVIII, giving him a Super Bowl ring, something Meyer won’t come close to attaining if he doesn’t figure out a way to stop “being tough on his coaches” and start figuring out a way to keep quarterback Trevor Lawrence upright.

Defensive coordinator Joe Cullen came from the Baltimore Ravens, having spent five seasons as the team’s defensive line coach under one of the best in the business, John Harbaugh. Cullen’s teams made the playoffs three out of five years, including back-to-back AFC North crowns in 2018 and 2019. He also coached several Pro Bowl linemen while in Baltimore, including Matthew Judon, Brandon Williams and Calais Campbell.

Special teams coordinator Nick Sorensen made his return to Duval County earlier this year, having been a Jaguars special teams captain all four seasons he was with Jacksonville during his decade long NFL career. Sorensen was also a member of the 2001 St. Louis Rams team that nearly took down Tom Brady in his first Super Bowl appearance, and he earned a ring while serving as the Seahawks assistant special teams coach alongside Bevell.

So to answer what have Urban Meyer’s coaches won?

Quite a lot actually, which is why they’re coaching in the NFL.

It’s abundantly clear Urban Meyer’s first season coaching in the NFL hasn’t gone according to planned, and for someone used to winning, and turning things around rather quickly wherever he goes, this season must feel like pure hell for Meyer.

But the worst thing he or anyone in Jacksonville can do is start lashing out.

It literally helps no one accomplish anything.

What Meyer, the rest of the Jaguars coaching staff and players can do is use this humbling experience and their final four games to set the tone going into the offseason, beginning with next Sunday’s matchup with the Houston Texans, who are going through a season from hell of their own, albeit, for very different reasons.

Getting a win against a division rival may hurt your draft position, but it will give the players and coaches something positive to build on as they look to improve a team in desperate need of it in hopes of a better future and brighter days in the Sunshine State.

Late comeback and Navy fall short, 27-20

Annapolis, MD – Coming into today, almost no one game Navy a chance to take down No. 2 ranked Cincinnati, and yet it, took a late interception from Arquon Bush for the Bearcats to escape Annapolis with a 27-20 victory, preserving their perfect season and chance to be the first team outside the Power 5 to make the College Football Playoff.

Navy entered the day 1-5, their only victory coming after a fourth-quarter comeback against Central Florida three weeks ago, and Vegas sportsbooks had the Midshipmen pegged as 28-point underdogs.

But the Mids held their own, capitalizing off two Cincinnati three-and-outs to begin the ballgame.

Quarterback Tai Lavatai then led Navy on a 13-play, 79-yard drive that culminated in a 2-yard quarterback sneak for a touchdown from Lavatai, giving them a 7-0 lead.

Cincinnati responded with a quick 3-play drive of their own, leading to a 37-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Desmond Ridder to receiver Josh Whyle.

The game’s fortunes, which seemed to favor Navy in the first half, changed just before halftime after kicker Bijan Nichols had a 51-yard field goal blocked by the Bearcats, a field goal that would have given Navy a 13-10 lead going into the half. Instead, the kick was returned by Deshawn Pace for 20 yards to the Navy 34-yard line, setting up a Bearcats field goal to give them a 13-10 halftime lead.

Navy hung on, despite giving up two third quarter touchdowns, a 43-yard dash from running back Jerome Ford and a 3-yard pass from Ridder to Whyle, who caught his second score of the game, to give the Bearcats a 27-10 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Navy cut into the lead after Nichols connected on his second kick of the game, this time from 27 yards out, before the Midshipmen defense got the ball back for the offense following another Cincinnati three and out.

Deep in the shadow of their own goal line, the Mids offense rallied around Lavatai who led them on a 90-yard drive that ended in the quarterback’s second touchdown run of the game, cutting the Bearcats lead to seven.

With just minutes to go, Navy successfully converted an onside kick, giving them a chance to knock off the No. 2 team in the country, but it wasn’t to be.

Lavatai, facing third-and-ten from his own 47-yard line, threw an interception to Arquon Bush who intentionally fell to the ground to preserve the Bearcat win.

Final Score: #2 Cincinnati 27, Navy 20