Navy Employs Its '46' Offense
Bullen's Kick as Time Expires Wins It : Navy 46, Duke 43
Navy's Joey Bullen, center, celebrates with his teammates after kicking the game winner.
(Jonathan Newton - The Washington Post)
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Sunday, September 23, 2007
Early in the third quarter of his team's game against Duke yesterday, Navy junior Matt Harmon sent a kickoff out of bounds for a penalty. When he came off the field following a re-kick, special teams coach Jeff Monken said a few words to him, then went and spoke with senior place kicker Joey Bullen. Soon after, Bullen began stretching on the sideline. The Midshipmen were making a change.
And as time expired, Bullen made a 44-yard field goal for a 46-43 victory before 31,278 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
"I could see how things were happening, so I started to prepare myself for something like this when the fourth quarter began," Bullen said.
It was the second winning field goal Bullen has made for Navy (2-2). He also made a 46-yard field goal with 0.4 of a second left to beat Air Force, 27-24, in 2005.
"I was watching Joey kick in pregame and he was struggling. But give the kid credit," Navy Coach Paul Johnson said. "He is a gamer. . . . Matt was a little injured, but Joey didn't beat him out [in practice]. But I had a long memory, and I knew Joey could make it when it counted."
The field goal clinched a wild comeback. The Midshipmen trailed 43-32 in the fourth quarter when backup quarterback Jarod Bryant entered for starter Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada, who appeared to be tired.
Bryant led three scoring drives. One ended in a 35-yard field goal by Bullen; another culminated in his five-yard touchdown reception off a pass from backup slotback Bobby Doyle, a sophomore who had been a quarterback in a single-wing offense in high school.
With the score tied at 43 and 38 seconds left, Bryant led the final drive. He accounted for all 48 yards on the drive, including a 35-yard scramble. Bryant had played the second half and overtime in a 34-31 loss to Ball State last week.
He lost a fumble on the opening possession of overtime.
"It's not often you get a chance to redeem yourself," he said. "It would have been easy for us to give up today, but we kept playing."
The Blue Devils led 43-32 following a 69-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Thaddeus Lewis to junior Eron Riley with 10 minutes 50 seconds left in the third quarter. To that point, Duke (1-3) had scored touchdowns on six of its eight possessions, and Riley had six receptions for 235 yards and four touchdowns.
He scored three touchdowns against sophomore Darius Terry in the first half. Navy put senior cornerback Greg Thrasher on Riley to start the third quarter, and he was beaten on the 69-yard touchdown.
