Rhode Island Notes

The Bulldogs fell to the Rams of Rhode Island by a score of 23–41 in an ugly loss at The Bowl.

Reno was uncharacteristically off the mark, particularly in the first half, as he finished with a meager 105 yards and a completion rate under 40% in his worst performance to date. Arm strength, accuracy, and decision-making were all not up to par, leaving fans to question whether it’s the physical ailment from his arm injury or mental anguish leading to what we witnessed. It’s a maddening loss when you consider how dominant the ground game was, with DHK going off for 243 yards and a touchdown. Rhode Island’s game plan was simply to shut down Santiago and Anderson, and Yale’s staff could not scheme well enough around that to put points on the board. Third-down playcalling was as bad as it gets, and Cahill treats fourth downs haphazardly, leading to turnovers on downs or zero points after drives. There was no sense of urgency in the late third quarter and early fourth quarter despite burning much of the third quarter on a drive that yielded 3 points. One of the more sickening drives occurred early in the fourth quarter down ten points: following a nice defensive stand, the Bulldogs came out and ran Hopping up the gut twice to put all the pressure on a struggling Reno on the ensuing downs. Santiago shined when he could with a few unbelievable catches, while Anderson was effectively neutralized aside from great returns. Smith had a nice TD grab but wasn’t targeted nearly enough. The offensive line performed well on run blocking, though pass protection wasn’t as clean, and you can’t have a false start on the center. This week the focus needs to be on helping Reno bounce back along with a fortified plan of attack from a coaching staff that needs to do some soul searching.

Defensively, Yale was able to shut down Rhode Island’s running backs, but the Rams’ third-string quarterback and his talented receiving corps embarrassed our secondary. Right off the bat, the Bulldogs allowed a long QB run followed by a bomb over Webster and Daniyan. Eastep then whiffed on a ball that went for a long TD. Kamara and Daniyan missed a tackle on a short catch that led to a long run and field goal. Daniyan lost track of another target for a score in the third, and Banks lost a one-on-one battle for a score in the fourth. Across the board, we had veteran defensive backs looking lost out there, which again points to the theme of the day of being completely outcoached on every level. Johnson had a nice day along the defensive front, and Jackson-Bass made a few impactful plays including a sack, although he was cited for roughing the passer. Obviously, we would have liked to see more pressure on the QB generated by the down linemen to help the secondary. Grant was a bright spot on an otherwise painful day of football.

The return game was excellent, but issues with a snap on a PAT and an offside penalty on a successful onside recovery were blows to the Bulldogs. There’s a ton to clean up on a short week to get prepared for a tough matchup against the Quakers.