Three things we learned from the AAC in Week 11

Discipline is kind of important.

UConn’s season has been a disappointing one to say the least, and it doesn’t appear to be getting better any time soon. While they covered the 38.5 point spread that favored UCF this weekend, the Huskies still lost by 25. Plenty of poor plays contributed to the loss, but one stuck out.

With the Knights putting backups into the game, you figured the scoring would slow down. It did, but the Huskies had a lapse in judgement on one play. With seven minutes left in the game, Noah Vendral was looking for a receiver running a bubble screen. Only he didn’t throw it. Vendral instead pumped towards that receiver to find Cam Stewart hanging out in the Huskies secondary alone for an easy touchdown. While it’s easy to understand why the defense was looking for a quick pass, you still need to read your keys and cover receivers downfield. Not the worst play in UConn’s season, but one that still looked bad.

The entire game highlights are below, but skip to the 5:10 mark to see the play.

Temple and Tulane still have a chance to go bowling.

Temple ended Cincinnati’s hopes of a bowl by pulling away for a 35-24 win. The Owls continue to thrive under new quarterback Frank Nutile, and a bowl game is definitely still a good possibility. A home game against UCF figures to be a loss, but a road game to Tulsa ends the year, and fans have to think their chances of a bowl game are pretty good with that remaining schedule.

Tulane is still alive as well, though their path is going to be tougher, and they were almost eliminated this weekend. ECU did everything they could to ruin the Green Wave’s season, and took it to overtime before Tulane won 31-24. Willie Fritz team ended its losing streak, but needs to pull off a couple stunners in order to be bowl eligible. Hosting Houston and traveling to SMU to end the season won’t be easy, and Fritz might need to pull out every trick in the book to win these next two games.

Who needs a quarterback anyways?

Ok, well you do need a quarterback on offense, but he doesn’t necessarily need to throw. Just ask Navy. With Zach Abey out, Malcom Perry took over quarterback duties. His only pass was intercepted and Perry didn’t throw another pass the rest of the game. The result: 33 carries for 282 yards and four touchdowns. Perry would end up leaving the game with an injury, and Garrett Lewis took over.

Navy took after Army in proving that you can still win games without any sort of passing attack. The Midshipmen pulled off the win against visiting SMU, and it had a lot to do with Perry. Teams like Navy and Army are once again proving that running the triple option can have devastating effects on a defense, and it can win you games without resorting to an aerial attack.