Preview, How to Watch: Navy faces Tulsa on Friday night

Six is the plateau number in college football, and the Midshipmen have already hit that on one column of their record.

After seven games, Navy has amounted to a 1-6 record. One more loss and its postseason hopes are over. Five straight wins and its Cinderella turnaround will have been completed. It all starts against Tulsa on Friday night.

Last weekend, the Midshipmen showed loads of fight as they narrowly lost to No. 2 Cincinnati, 27-20.

Throughout the first half, Navy either held a tie or a lead, but momentum switched fully towards the Bearcats as those final seconds expired. Cincinnati would block a 51-yard field goal, leading to a 51-yard field goal of their own, as they took a 13-10 lead at the half. The Bearcats scored the next 14 points, as their unbeaten season went on.

This weekend, the Mids will face off against a Tulsa team who has just slipped by to pick up victories against Memphis and USF in its last two games.

Tulsa is yet another offensive-laden team, ranking 21^st in the country in total offense. Although, while quarterback Davis Brin has thrown the same number of touchdowns as interceptions, he has led the Golden Hurricane to the 27^th ranked passing offense in the country.

Against Tulsa, Navy will look to get back to its winning ways and pick up its first weekday win since 2019.

Navy Offense vs. Tulsa Defense

In its game against Cincinnati, the Mids’ offense kept the Bearcats heads on a swivel.

Tai Lavatai threw the ball a career-high 15 times, picking up 116 passing yards. Both those numbers were nearly double of his highest total before and were one of the main reasons why the Mids stayed in the game.

But as we know, the Navy offense is focused on its option running game and the Golden Hurricane has been very average in rush defense this season, ranking 58^th in the country.

They had no problem stopping the Navy offense last season, allowing the Mids to score only six points in their matchup.

After losing All America player Zaven Collins, Yohance Burnett has picked up in his spot with 39 tackles and a QB hit.

As a team, the Golden Hurricane are averaging 1.14 forced fumbles per game, so Navy better hold onto that ball. The Mids have fumbled it 10 times this season.

Navy Defense vs Tulsa Offense

Davis Brim and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane love airing the ball out, and with recent struggles in the secondary, that doesn’t bode all too well for Midshipmen.

Through the first seven games of the season, Brim is averaging 33.4 passing attempts per game. His problem is turnovers though.

Brim has the same number of interceptions as he has touchdowns at 10. Along with that, he has an impressive 1930 yards of passing but is completing only 58.12% of his passes.

Tulsa can also do it on the ground as they have two rushers in Deneric Price and Shamari Brooks who average over 74 yards per game.

The Midshipmen secondary really struggled against Tanner Mordecai and SMU, but the next week against Cincinnati they kept the Bearcats to it lowest amount of total yardage in 19 games.

If they can play defense like they did last week every week, they will become a force to be reckoned with.

How To Watch:

· When: Friday, Oct. 29 – 7:30 P.M. EST

· Where: Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium – Tulsa, Oklahoma

· Watch: Jason Benetti, Andre Ware and Paul Carcaterra will have the call on ESPN2. (WATCH HERE)

· Spread: Most books have the Golden Hurricane as an 11-point favorite with the over-under set at 47.