Army Navy Game Preview and Free Pick
Scott Morris | December 8, 2017
Say it ain’t so.. It’s already time for the Army Navy game? That signifies the end of the regular season in college football. Bitter sweet as the regular season comes to an end and the bowl games start up soon. Winter cold is in the forecast for much of the United States and millions of people will tune into the annual Army Navy Game.
Using our Game Matchups tool , we will sit down and analyze this game and come up with a prediction. To use this tool, click Game Matchups in the navigation, then find NCAAF and then click “More” – You will get a great stat matchups for each and every game there.
Army won the game last year for the first time in 15 years. (1-14 SU last ten). They were 21 point underdogs. Proving this was no fluke, Army went on to a stellar 8-3 record this year. Navy, on the other hand, went 6-5. The season was diametrically opposed for the two teams. Navy started 5-0 SU and Army was .500 four games into the season. Then Army reels of 6 wins out of 7 games and Navy loses 5 of their last 6 games.
So why is Navy favored by 3 points? Well it comes down to who they’ve played. Army’s only real powerhouse opponent was Ohio State and they were smashed by the Buckeyes 38-7. Navy played against burgeoning powerhouses Memphis, UCF, Houston and established powerhouse Notre Dame, losing to each and every one of them.
Both teams run the hell out of the ball (350+ yards per game). Navy passes it more and averages 90 YPG and Army only averages 30 YPG in the air. This will be a traditional powerhouse running game slugfest. I think the spread will be too close to call but I am leaning on the OVER 46 points. Yes, the clock will run a lot here and it will be cold and dreary. But you can count on these teams breaking out their gadget plays and doing everything they can to score on one another. On paper, using this year’s numbers, these teams should score between 50-65 points between them. The reason the total is so low is because traditionally the Army Navy game is a lower scoring affair. However, we are going to buck tradition and go with the 2017 numbers and we think that the OVER is good for a wager.
