Memphis quarterback Marcus Stokes, his legion of talented receivers, and big and stubborn offensive and defensive linemen, proved to be too much for Army on Saturday night, as the Tigers handed the visiting Black Knights a convincing 49-22 defeat in a crucial American Conference game for both teams.
Memphis, which accumulated a total of 554 offensive yards and held Army to just 365 offensive yards, moved to 7-2 on the season and is 4-1 in the American. Army dropped to 5-3 overall and is 4-2 in league play. The loss, with just two league games remaining, significantly lowered the Black Knights chances of reaching the league’s championship game in early December.
Simply put, Army did not play its best game of the season before 32,502 fans at Liberty Stadium in Memphis. Most importantly, the Black Knights failed to get any kind of inside running game established. Senior quarterback Cale Hellums, who has been the workhorse of the Army offense all season, was held to 40 passing yards and a season-low 35 rushing yards on just 13 carries. Army converted just three of 10 third downs.
Defensively, the Black Knights rarely put pressure on Stokes, giving the junior quarterback plenty of time to find open receivers, either on short perimeter passes or deep passes down the field.
Godspower Nwawuihe did rush for 100 yards on 19 carries and scored Army’s first touchdown and Zach Mundell rushed for 78 yards, 68 coming on a snazzy end-around to the Tigers’ five-yard line that set up the Black Knights last score midway through the third quarter.
Stokes, who transferred to Memphis in the off season from West Florida, may be the best quarterback in a league filled with a number of very good signal callers. He certainly auditioned his talents for Army, completing an impressive 29 of 35 passes for 371 yards and four touchdowns and running for a fifth score.
Memphis receivers, including tight end Hunter Tipton (five catches for 86 yards), Jermane Hayes (two touchdown catches, Jemyri Davis (two touchdown catches) and Stonka Burnside, were simply all over the field, keeping the Army secondary busy throughout the night and finding seams in the Black Knight defense that led to somewhat easy scores.
“(Memphis) is a really good team, well coached with really good players,” Army quarterback Cale Hellums said. “They came out and they played really well. We have to tip our hats to them. That is a good football team that might go on to play in the conference championship game. They really outplayed us.”
Even Mother Nature could not help the Black Knights. A heavy rainstorm started to fall midway through the third quarter of the game, essentially preventing Stokes to continue to throw the ball. Memphis turned to its running game and Jaylin Carter (96 rushing yards and two touchdowns) and Stokes essentially washed away any Army hopes for a comeback.
The game was knotted at 14-14 midway through the second quarter, thanks to Nwawuihe’s rushing touchdown and an eight-yard touchdown pass from Hellums to Samari Howard. But three unanswered touchdown passes by Stokes late in the second quarter and early in the third quarter gave the Tigers a 35-14 lead.
“I sure wish we played better,” said Army coach Jeff Monken. “They played really well, they have a terrific team. They completely outplayed us tonight. I am disappointed but there are a lot of lessons to learn and hopefully we will. When a talented team like that plays well, they are hard to beat.
Monken added, “This is a tough league with some really good players and really good coaches. It’s hard to move the football against good (players). I like our team and like our players and we have a really tough offensive line, but they have a good defensive line. We are going to face guys like that in this league who are tough and athletic. Tonight, they did a much better job of defending us than we did attacking them on offense.”
