Navy quarterback Aaron Polanco jumps over a New Mexico player in the fourth quarter of Navy's 34-19 win in the 2004 Emerald Bowl. Polanco scored on runs of 14, 1 and 27 yards and completed a 61-yard touchdown pass in the win. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
There’s a great read in today’s Wall Street Journal about Navy’s 2004 Emerald Bowl win over New Mexico.
Yes, the 2004 Emerald Bowl. In the Wall Street Journal. Why, you wonder, would the Wall Street Journal (the Wall Street Journal!) devote space to a bowl game from five years ago? A bowl game of little consequence played before a crowd of less than 29,000?
Here’s why: This game contained the longest drive in college football history. Navy held the ball for 14 minutes and 26 seconds as they drove 26 plays over the course of the end of the third quarter and most of the fourth quarter. The Mids didn’t even finish the drive with a touchdown; Geoff Blumenfeld booted a 22-yard field goal to put Navy ahead 34-19 with a little over two minutes left in the game. The amazing drive sealed the win for Navy, the first bowl victory for Navy since 1996.
For Navy fans, the drive has long been the stuff of legend, one of the many memorable moments of the remarkable turnaround the Navy football program has experienced this decade. And historically, there’s really nothing to match what Navy did that day. No NFL drives in the last 15 years have matched the length of Navy’s, and the Mids’ drive was the first to appear in the NCAA record book under the heading “Longest Drive in a Game,” according WSJ.
The article includes quotes from former players now serving as officers, including quarterback Aaron Polanco, who is a Marine Corps captain deployed to Afghanistan.
Read the whole thing here.
