Today marked the 46th time that Army had played Yale, but the first time the two had met in almost 20 years.
After today, it might be another 20 years before the Black Knights bother to put the Bulldogs on their schedule.
Army's offense did what they almost do, racking up a mind-boggling 597 yards on offense, with quarterbacks A.J. Schurr and Angel Santiago combining to run the ball 23 times for 223 yards and three scores.
Unfortunately, Army's defense also did what it always does, surrendering over 600 yards to Yale in an eventual overtime meltdown.
After a closely contested first half, it looked like Army might start to pull away after Jerempy Timpf's pick-six put the cadets ahead by two scores, 28-14, early in the second half. However, the defense ran out of juice to stop Tyler Varga's one-man rushing attack, and eventually their lead vanished.
After Timpf scored his points, the Knights extended Yale's next drive with a roughing the kicker penalty and the Bulldogs turned it into Vargas' second touchdown of the game, and another bit-bit bit, yard-gaining drive later in the quarter tied the score at 36-36.
Santiago scored on the opening play of the fourth quarter, and after forcing a Yale fumble in the red zone, it appeared Army would be able to literally run the clock down and perhaos start gaining some breathing room. However, Army decided to go for the first down on fourth and one from the Yale 15 with about nine minutes left to play, and before you knew it a field position battle left Yale with the ball, first and ten at the Army 45 with 4:35 left to play.
The Bulldogs would run the ball on six straight plays en route to tying the game, but Army rallied back to get within long field goal range in the final seconds. With nine seconds and one time out left, however, Jeff Monken and his coaches decided that the best option from the Yale 28 yard line was a rushing play, which gained them three yards and set up a missed 42-yard field goal.
Army got the ball first in overtime, but failed to punch it in from a goal-to-go distance and then watched Daniel Grochowski miss another (much shorter) field goal, while Yale followed that with a quick and easy touchdown drive for the win.
Given the result of this game, the rest of Army's schedule looks a little more daunting, especially if their run defense doesn't manage to right the ship sometime soon.