Notes on Loss to Holy Cross

The Bulldogs looked like reigning Ivy League Champions after Melvin Rouse used his nifty moves and blazing speed to return the opening kickoff for a touchdown.  The defense stuffed Holy Cross and Alan Lamar took the first handoff of the season for a touchdown.  The dominance would only last so long before Holy Cross clawed their way back into the game to upset Yale in overtime.

On the first play of offense, Reno opted to have Dudek and Lamar on the field at the same time with Dudek in the slot and Lamar in the backfield.  Warfield started at right tackle and the remainder of the line was identical to the depth chart.  The offensive line performance was average.  The run blocking was far superior to the pass blocking, but Holy Cross was still able to create penetration that shut down running plays far too often.  The line struggled with picking up blitzes leading to hard shots on Rawlings.  Rawlings overthrew a few passes and held onto the ball too long under heavy pressure.  Dudek and Lamar both played well, although Dudek needs to take better care of the ball.   Aside from a back breaking holding penalty, Howland looked solid in his debut.  Klubnik had a fantastic afternoon and it was nice to see Locke out there making plays and throwing big blocks.  Shohfi was held out of the game with an injury and Rouse was injured early on in the contest.

The reverse pass was a risky move that backfired in a horrible fashion.  The play calling in the second half was reminiscent of the Dartmouth contest last season with the Bulldogs just trying not to lose.  Holding penalties killed big plays and led to drives stalling out.  Reno gambled it all on fourth down in overtime instead of simply kicking the field goal.  If we are going to run it on fourth down and one, at least bring in the more powerful running back or better yet, have Rawlings fake the handoff and roll out.  With such a young squad, our coaching staff can’t be overly aggressive in critical situations such as these.

Callender was missing from the defensive line on Saturday and the pass rush was simply ineffective without him.  Yale chose to have only two linemen in three point stances on most plays with defensive ends or linebackers standing up on the outside.  The scheme did not seem to work well with our personnel as our edge rushers lost leverage and speed starting from such a position.  Sampleton and Moore struggled with containment at times and the blitzes became too predictable in the second half.  The lack of pass rush exposed our young secondary.  Dixon got the start at safety along with Rodney Thomas.  Alburg and Henson started at corners.  Henson went down with an injury forcing Peggs, Abraham and Oldacre to try to pick up the slack.  Keeler, Kissel, Hill, Sampleton, Awodiran and Roman rotated in frequently on defense.  The tackling was downright atrocious and simple misdirection plays seemed to fool the linebackers.  The corners were often in good positions, but would not turn their heads to play the ball.  At other times, receivers were simply streaking by defenders (such as Abraham and Awodiran) for touchdowns.  It will be a long season if Yale can’t shore up the secondary in a hurry.

The special teams units were sloppy but effective on the afternoon.  Delay of game and false start penalties were nuisances, but a great fake from Conte to Howland should have opposing teams thinking twice about how to lineup against our punt and field goal teams.  Holy Cross’ onside kick recovery stands out as the only truly terrible special teams play of the day.