Navy stays unbeaten with historic passing day against Air Force

The Navy Midshipmen improved to 5-0 on Saturday afternoon with a thrilling 34-31 win over Air Force. Navy beating Air Force isn't really the biggest story of the day, though. It's how Navy beat Air Force that is so eye-opening.

Record-setting passing day for Navy

Traditionally, the service academy teams have been run-heavy, triple-option, old-school offenses that do not really put the ball in the air much. They don't always have the athletes to play a pass-heavy offense, nor do they have the size on the offensive line to pass protect. So they typically rely on offenses that use misdirection and confusion to win.

That is not necessarily the case anymore, and especially not at Navy.

In Saturday's win, Navy quarterback Blake Horvath completed 20-of-26 passes for 339 yards and three touchdowns. Unheard of numbers for Navy. 

Those numbers included a record-setting day from wide receiver Eli Heidenrich, who caught eight passes for 243 yards and three touchdowns. The 243 receiving yards not only set a program single-game record, but it is also the first 200-yard receiving day in the history of the program. 

He also set a program record for most career touchdown catches with 14.