ESPN Independents and Others Blog

Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

Few could argue that no non-BCS/Independent team has had a better three weeks than Navy.

The Midshipmen started the season 1-2, but have rallied to beat Rutgers, No. 16 Wake Forest and Air Force. The last two games were on the road.

I was one of the few who didn't believe the Midshipmen had it in them to rally from their poor start. The loss to Duke was baffling, even though coach Ken Niumatalolo says the Blue Devils are a good team (really?). I thought the loss of quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada would be a setback this season.

I was wrong.

After watching Navy play against Air Force last weekend -- on a side note I want to apologize for calling the Naval officers cadets. They are Midshipmen just like their team -- I was impressed. I was especially impressed with the way they seized the game in the second half.

Anyone watching the game would be hard-pressed to argue that Navy was pretty bad in the first half. There were turnovers, mistakes, and they had trouble moving the ball after the first drive.

But in the second half, the Midshipmen played like a veteran team. They capitalized on several Air Force mistakes and swayed the small section of Midshipmen in the Southeast corner of the stadium into their own little home-field advantage.

I've seen a lot of games this year. I said before that Boise State and Notre Dame, depending on which quarter you watch, have been the best offensive teams I've seen in person to date. But Navy weathered its first-half shortcomings, rebounded and capitalized on mistakes better than any team I've seen so far.

I suppose that's what you want out of a group of young men that are going to fight for our country.

The Midshipmen have a much-needed bye this week before facing No. 24 Pittsburgh. That will be an interesting game considering that no one knows which Pitt team will show up on any given week.