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Fun Facts About the 2017 Military Bowl

Posted: 12/30/2017

Dear Virginia and Coach Bronco Mendenhall:

Fear the Goat!

Virginia coach Bronco Mendenhall made a point to mention how important it was for his team to be bowl eligible after the Cavaliers won their sixth game of the season against Georgia Tech in early November. The Virginia season concluded with a bad loss to another option team, falling 49-7 to Navy in the Military Bowl. The game started well for Virginia with a thrilling touchdown on the opening kickoff. 

After that, almost everything went wrong for Virginia. 

Not only did Virginia’s offense fail to score, it didn’t even reach the red zone in 11 offensive drives. There was only one field goal attempt (a miss from 47 yards), one interception, two lost fumbles and two turnovers on downs. 

But that only begins to describe how lopsided this game was on Thursday afternoon in Annapolis. Here are the four craziest stats from Navy’s 42-point win: 

1. Navy did not complete a single pass, and only attempted one. Navy’s two quarterbacks — Zach Abey and Malcolm Perry — combined for 0-for-1 passing for zero yards and a zero passer rating. Abey’s single attempt came on a play-action pass in the third quarter, and if not for some very good coverage from Virginia’s secondary, it could have resulted in a score. 

2. Virginia was outgained on the ground by 422 yards. Navy ran the ball 76 times for 452 rushing yards (5.9 yards per attempt) and scored seven rushing touchdowns. The Wahoos, on the other hand, could not get anything going on the ground and finished with just 30 net yards — a total that was helped greatly by a 20-yard run from Jordan Ellis in the final minutes of the game. 

3. All of the rushing touchdowns came from the quarterbacks. Abey scored five rushing touchdowns, joining an exclusive list of five that includes Barry Sanders and Kareem Hunt as the only players with five rushing touchdowns in an FBS bowl game. 

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