Navy 55, SMU 14: What We Learned

Navy TDSMU was no match for No. 20 Navy as the Midshipmen ran to a 55-14 win over the Ponies. What did we learn? DCTF's Greg Tepper breaks it down.SMU has seen what a great football team looks like. Look, this was a mismatch from the jump. Navy is No. 20 in the nation for a reason — they’re super-good — and SMU entered the game 1-8 and winless in conference for a reason — they’re not. But for a program that is in a complete teardown and rebuild, these are learning experiences, going up against great football teams like Navy and Baylor and TCU and Houston. Right now, it’s not necessarily about Ws and Ls (though Pony fans and Chad Morris himself would far prefer more of the former and fewer of the latter), but instead getting things moving in the right direction. Facing great teams like this is part of the process, as painful as it may be right now. The front seven just doesn’t have the horses to compete right now. There’s no nice way to say this: SMU got straight-up dominated up front today. The Ponies, who entered with one of the worst rush defenses in the nation, got torched for 403 yards on the ground — a cool 7 yards a clip — as SMU had no answer for Navy’s famed triple-option attack. QB Keenen Reynolds set an FBS record for career rushing touchdowns with four of his own today, and 12 other rushers combined for 269 yards of their own. Right now, SMU’s front seven — especially its defensive line — just can’t compete with viable running teams, let alone great ones.Matt Davis has some growing to do. On a day you just chalk up to “they’re good, we’re not, let’s move on,” it has to be concerning for SMU fans that Matt Davis struggled so much. The junior signal-caller missed badly on a number of passes, and was ineffective running the ball, notching only one real strong burst (an 11-yard scamper). SMU has high hopes for Davis, with the idea (presumably) of him starting next year before Ben Hicks is ready as a redshirt sophomore. But if 2016 is going to be markedly different from 2015, Davis still has some growing to do.