The Elis are sitting at 4-1 after a huge 32-0 victory over Holy Cross on Saturday at the Bowl. The Crusaders had not been shut out since 2004 and Holy Cross swiftly fired its coach Tom Gilmore following the contest.
The defense had its best showing of the year limiting pro prospect Pujals to only 89 passing yards on the day. This was truly a shocker as Yale’s secondary has struggled with injuries and added yet another one as Malcolm Dixon went down in the first half with an arm injury. Jaelin Alburg, Marquise Peggs and Spencer Rymiszewski did not play and Brian Sykes came in to relieve the ailing Dixon. Freshman Deonte Henson started at corner while his fellow classmate Micah Awodiran got another start at linebacker. Ronnie Meder and Jarrett Balter rotated in at linebacker and both played their best games to date. Matthaei started at defensive tackle with Copache Tyler out of the lineup. The defensive line just bullied Holy Cross all day allowing Oplinger to rack up three sacks and a safety. Sophomore Josh Keeler got his first sack of the season and Julian Fraser made an appearance on the defensive front. Alessi and Carlson had great performances at safety. Carlson is easily the most underrated star of the defense with countless touchdown saving tackles over the last three seasons. He saved another touchdown on Saturday by chasing down Holy Cross’ kick returner.
The special teams units for the most part were solid on Saturday. Galland had a nice 39 yard field goal, but would later miss an extra point. Kick coverage is still an area of concern due to players not breaking down when trying to tackle the returners. Tuckerman saved a touchdown with a nice tackle and to add insult to injury, Holy Cross’ return man was shaken up on the play.
Our offense was too much for Holy Cross to handle, but we still must improve to beat Penn this week. Rawlings missed Siragusa and Graham on passes in the first half due to late deliveries. Rawlings also threw a beautiful pass to Siragusa that was dropped, but Siragusa would make up for it with 98 yards and two touchdowns on the day. It was nice to see Klubnik and Drwal out there snagging balls. There were too many running plays that went for no gain or short gains. Salter only averaged 2.6 yards per attempt on the day as defenders would often hit him the backfield. Rawlings was drilled on a couple of pass attempts, but the pass blocking did look much improved from last week.
The coaching staff deserves high praise this week for bouncing back with a resounding victory.
2 replies on “Notes on Holy Cross Game”
Nice to see so many players get into the game and excel. Was that Will Bryan that came in to play nickel?
I’m hoping that Rymiszewski and Tyler were kept out to save them for the upcoming games. Even with Rymiszewski back, the defensive backfield will be shorthanded against Justin Watson.
Bring on those Quackers, I believe Yale will continue the trend. They will win and show they’re dominence .!!
That Dartmouth loss was just a fluke..!! Just for the Halibut