UNIVERSTY PARK, Texas — The end of SMU's first half against Navy and Cincinnati ended basically the exact same way — with the Mustangs kicking a last-second field goal.
But the results couldn't have been more different. Last week, it took both coaching and QB error to lose track of the time, which deprived SMU of a chance.
This time, it was an attempt off a fumble. Six seconds earlier, a Mustangs receiver had a touchdown. This field goal sent SMU running off the field after a 31-point second quarter in a 51-37 win over Navy.
After its worst offensive performance in years, SMU came back with arguably its best offensive game of the season. After not scoring on the first drive on the game, SMU scored on eight consecutive possessions.
Even with SMU shorthanded, sans WR Danny Gray, it was an unstoppable force. Ulysses Bentley IV had his best conference game, registering 217 all-purpose yards and two TDs.
The two rushing TDs were his ninth and 10th on the season — tying an SMU freshman record.
Rashee Rice had 56 yards and two TDs.
Seven players caught a pass, including Austin Upshaw, whose lone reception was his first-career receiving TD. In total, quarterback Shane Buechele threw for just 300 yards, but he was efficient and SMU's offense was methodical.
The win is critical for SMU, who basically needed a victory in this game to keep any realistic hope of a conference title game appearance alive. SMU is now 3-1 in the AAC, and controls its own destiny with four games left on the schedule.
Navy scored touchdowns on its first two possessions, but after that, it just lost steam. In its first drive, Devin Mathews had a catch and a block that should have given him nothing but open room for a TD. It would have been a one-score game. Instead, he tripped without a touch. Navy didn't score.
SMU kept piling on from there. Rice had a TD fading backward in the end zone to make it 28-17 late in the second quarter to stifle a Navy goal-line stand on third down. He scored again in the third quarter on a 20-yard pass from Buechele.
Mustangs RB Tyler Lavine had perhaps the weirdest TD, when everyone on the field assumed he had been tackled. Instead, he'd just been brought down on the back of a Navy player, and his knee had never hit the ground.
He got up and ran in for the 48-yard rush that put SMU over 50-point threshold for the third time this season.
This isn't the same Navy team that SMU has played tight for three-straight years. It's not the same Navy team that ended SMU's hopes of a conference title last year.
This year's Navy team got to serve as a punching bag for a Mustangs program that needed. Three Midshipmen touchdowns late made the score closer than the game felt.
But SMU had such a big lead and scored at will that it put itself in position to all but run the clock out on its final drive.
On the final play, SMU needed seven yards to get a first down. It would officially end the game. And Kylen Granson — who had a plethora of drops a week prior — caught it, and fought for the yardage.
For everything that went wrong a week ago, it was made up for on this Saturday night.
