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Penn Preview

The Yale Bulldogs travel to Philadelphia this weekend to take on the undefeated Penn Quakers. Kickoff is slated for 1 PM and the game will air on ESPN+ and NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Penn enters the contest with an unblemished 5-0 record after dominating Columbia 34-14 last week in what many predicted would be a far closer game. In Week 3, Penn emerged victorious over Dartmouth in double overtime aided in part by Dartmouth’s kicking struggles. The Quakers’ offense is led by sophomore QB Aidan Sayin (6’2”, 195 lbs.). Sayin completed 64.4% of his passes last week versus Columbia for 299 yards and 3 touchdowns. Throughout 5 games, Sayin has thrown for 1209 yards, 11 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions. He seems to be getting better each week with crisper reads but has not been truly tested yet this season. Senior RB Trey Flowers (5’10”, 215 lbs.) leads the Quakers in rushing with 336 yards (4.9 YPC) and 5 touchdowns. Flowers’ status remains uncertain as he suffered an injury in Week 4 and did not play against Columbia. Senior RB Jonathan Mulatu (6’0”, 205 lbs.) led Penn in rushing versus Columbia with 60 yards. Penn has the best pass blocking offensive line that the Bulldogs have seen since Week 1 averaging 296 lbs. across with board with 4 seniors and 1 sophomore. Senior C Trevor Radosevich (6’4”, 290 lbs.) is the leader of the unit and was a 2nd Team All-Ivy member last season. Junior WR Joshua Casilli (6’0”, 190 lbs.) has emerged as the top receiving threat for the Quakers with 30 receptions for 281 yards and 2 touchdowns. Senior WR Rory Starkey, Jr. (6’2”, 215 lbs.) has been a star since his sophomore season and senior Malone Howley (6’4”, 200 lbs) is playing well with 11.5 yards per reception. Penn utilizes several tight ends in their offense including the talented sophomore TE Justin Cayenne (6’4”, 230 lbs.) and senior TE Shane Sweitzer (6’2”, 220 lbs.). Penn’s coaching staff has done a tremendous job improving the offensive capabilities from 2021 to 2022 and has put together a squad that will test the Bulldogs against the run and pass this week.

Penn’s defense is reminiscent of the stingy units that Priore led as a defensive coordinator under Bagnoli’s leadership. The Quakers have only allowed an average of 2.3 yards per carry in the ground game for 3 touchdowns. Opponents have found greater success in the passing game with 6.4 yards per passing attempt, however, Penn really clamps down on offenses in the redzone limiting opponents to just 6 touchdowns on 13 total drives inside the 20-yard line. Junior LB Jack Fairman (6’1”, 225 lbs.) has been all over the field for the Quakers with 31 tackles, 4 tackles for loss, half a sack and an interception. Senior LBs Jonathan Melvin (6’1”, 225 lbs.) and Garrett Morris (6’1”, 215 lbs.) have also performed well with 26 and 21 tackles respectively.  Senior DE Jake Heimlicher (6’4”, 245 lbs.) leads a very fierce defensive line for Penn. Hemlicher has 31 tackles, 8 tackles for loss and 4 sacks through five games. Junior DT Joey Slackman (6’4”, 295 lbs.) and senior DT Micah Morris (6’2”, 285 lbs.) have dominated interior offensive linemen combining for 34 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss and 4 sacks. Junior S Shiloh Means (5’11”, 195 lbs.) has been solid in run and pass support with 26 tackles and 4 pass breakups. Senior CB Kendren Smith (6’1”, 205 lbs.) is a returning starter from 2021 that has put together a highly productive senior campaign thus far with 22 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, an interception and 2 forced fumbles. Success against the Penn defense this week will depend on the offensive line establishing control at the line of scrimmage and Grooms limiting his mental errors.

Junior K Graham Gotlieb (5’11”, 165 lbs.) has been perfect on 6 field goals for a long of 37 yards. Senior P Ben Krimm (“6’2”, 205 lbs.) is averaging 41.9 yards per punt and has pinned opponents inside the redzone on 10 occasions. Our field goal team will need to be stout up front to prevent Penn from punching a hole in the interior as they did versus Dartmouth.

Go Bulldogs! Beat the Quakers!

74 replies on “Penn Preview”

Penn did very well in shutting down Dartmouth’s running game, particularly the QB. Hopefully the coaches have some adjustments to counter an aggressive front 7

Dartmouth had almost 200 yards rushing against Penn and Yale O line is better than Dartmouth. We should be able to run the ball successfully against Penn

THE YALE 2 DEEP NOTES HAVE BOTH OSO AND GARGIULO STARTING. COULD THIS BE ACCURATE ??

Based on past seasons the 2 deep rarely shows changes even when players are known to be unable to play. In all fairness the 2 deep for other Ivy teams on their websites are not any different.

Gentlemen; the skullduggery continues. Just one man’s opinion hopefully the coaches have shorter crossing routes to allow are split ends to excel.

If deception on the 2 deep is your game plan, you’d better come up with another.. Very weak.

Can we sustain 60 minutes of focused intensity, and yes, our talented TEs are sadly underutilized.

What the hell is yale doing on offense ? Is the QB there only offense going to be a long afternoon if this keep up

I was hoping for a “statement game” like Princeton had last night. Not liking the statement so far.

Once again. Interceptions on offense, and no pass defense. So Penn goes from 4th and 24 with 37 seconds left, to a touchdown with 14 seconds left. Talk about a momentum swing.

Who else just knew Penn would score after the INT? I was hoping it would only be a FG, but knew they were going to score.

Horrible play calling. RUN the ball with 49 sec left in the quarter!! What the bleep was that!?

It’s time for this team to step up and play a half of football with no mistakes. A poster above said he was hoping for a statement. This team, which really hasn’t played a great game against a good team needs to play a great half before the season goes down the tubes.

Bad things seem to happen when Grooms throws the ball (or attempts to), and so far today his running game isn’t there either. I think I would turn the game over to the Bulldogs’ talented group of running backs and see what happens. They took control of the game in the second half last week and accounted for the only score and momentum this week.

Yes. I went to the Penn athletics website and they have an actual radio broadcast. Students on the field protesting and still there as of two minutes ago.

Gentlemen; so much for spoiling a homecoming crowd for the Ben Franklin’s And a real disservice to both squads.

If their protest has any real merit, why do they feel the need to hijack the game? Taking this venue away from the student athletes and coaches who put in countless hours a week is deplorable. How is punishing these players, fans and coaches furthering their agenda?

Also, the risk of injury increases the longer this chicanery goes on today. Muscles will tighten, joints begin to lock up, bodies will begin to shift out of “game-time mode”.

Tangible action needs to be taken against these students. Maybe a night or two in a Philly Jail will dissuade the next iteration of these mindless protests.

Grooms is being bottled up and cannot win the game with his arm. And the pass defense is a joke. I’m about ready to give up on this team.

Second and and Yale doesn’t get the first down. First play a pass that’s nearly intercepted. the second play a Jet sweep for a loss. Terrible play calling

This team is absolutely brutal. They better start using their timeouts so they have time after Penn scores.

Horrible play calling and even worse clock management by the Yale coaches. PERIOD.!! Under achieving team

Most blame – the offense, although when they needed the defense to step up, they did not. But the TD just before halftime is the difference. Again, blame the offense, but the D did not step up and hold them to a FG.

Penn is not Princeton so where do we go from here?

This should be Yale’s game plan if they want to play Grooms: Run, Run and Run. They were moving the ball on the ground but Cahill kept stalling the drives by calling for pass plays.

This goes into the long line (unfortunately) of Yale losses that should have never been. 13 points with the talent on offense is a disgrace. And I hope no one is going to use the halftime protest as an excuse.

3-11 on third down and 0-2 on 4th.

The defense should have just let them score four minutes ago while there was still time on the clock to, presumptively, mount a comeback because, let’s face it, it was inevitable that Penn WOULD score. What an ugly, frustrating, unnecessary loss. Short of the Rawlings-Schofi-Klubnick teams, Reno-coached have zero guts. Yeah, I said it.

We all saw the same offensive issues against Buchnell last week. Yale’s coaches were completely ineffective in making adjustments to correct it.

It seems that Yale is a good team (maybe heading to a 6-3 season), Penn is a very good team, and Princeton is an excellent team. And sometimes, a good team can upset an excellent team… we’ll see.

Looking back at 2017 and 2019, it seems like for Yale to win big games, their talent cannot just be very good, it needs to be exceptional. (i.e. Rawlings, Klubnik, Shohfi) And 2019 had a mediocre defense. Why are these players not developing?

Reno , just showed his true coaching genius. He’s trying to lose so he can have time to see his son play at South Carolina. He commutes from his home in Massachusetts.! He is coaching his way outta of a job. That the truth
Take that worthless AD with You

Look, Yale was picked 4th in the Ivy League for a reason, and they just lost to an undefeated, first place Ivy League team by only seven at the end of the game. We can hardly expect more.

That’s irrelevant, we’re they were picked. They have the talent. Coaching In particularly not so much.just like the Harvard Game last year.

I don’t think we should be overly critical of Grooms. This game was lost due to the coaching staff before the game even started. The offensive game plan looked like something out of a high school playbook. Decisions during the game were disastrous; beginning with the decision in the first quarter not to go for the field goal. Then not taking a knee towards the end of the second quarter that led to the Grooms interception. Passing attack is confined to Grooms passing only to two receivers Tipton and Pantelis and it didn’t help that Tipton got hurt after his terrific catch in the fourth period. Where are the tight ends and other WRs. Why make it so easy for the opposing team to know who to cover.? The defense played well enough to win but our offense didn’t get the job done because our coaching staff doesn’t have the ability to create the schemes that can best utilize three of the best runners in league and forgot that tight ends are allowed to catch passes.

Exactly. The variety of offensive plays on our HS football team puts this team to shame. (No offense to our HS coaches. They were awesome). And when is this team going to learn DISCIPLINE? The penalties are outrageous. They constantly shoot themselves in the foot.

The Boston Globe hockey writer used to refer to the Whalers as the “Forever. 500s” – I am getting the impression that Yale’s football team should be referred to as the “Forever 4-3’s.”. Not bad, but not as good as they should be. And usually the worst of the Big Three.

Agree 100%!! This has nothing to do with the players’ “guts,” and everything with the coaches. Poor game plan, poor playing calling, poor game management. Despite a few very good years due to unbelievable athletes, this has been the case for most of this staff’ tenure.

Was there any doubt that, after our fourth down failure deep in PA territory, we’d figure out a way to lose? So, here we are, staring at another mediocre season; 6-4 at best with virtually certain losses to H and P.
How could Austin Tutas not have been given a chance? Wasn’t it obvious we were going nowhere? Is the coaching staff incapable of thinking on its collective feet? That’s rhetorical.
Given out low watt coaches, we are incapable of winning without exceptional talent like the class of 2020, and how often can we except a gang like that?
Oh woe. Does anyone take us seriously?

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