Author: Moderator

The 2-3 Fordham Rams travel to New Haven this Saturday to take on the Bulldogs at 1PM. The game will be streamed on ESPN+, but let’s try to pack the Bowl with at least six thousand fans this week.

The Rams are much improved this season and just beat a solid Richmond team 23-16 last week. This will not be the easiest game on our schedule as some believed in the preseason. Quarterback Tim DeMorat is an average Patriot League signal caller who has thrown for 185.8 yards per game with 8 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. DeMorat’s two favorite targets in the passing game, Hamze El-Zayat and Fotis Kokosiolus, are likely the best receivers we have faced thus far. El-Zayat and Kokosiolus are averaging 10.0 and 12.2 yards per catch respectively. The running game is clearly the strength of Fordham’s offense led by Wallingford’s Zach Davis. Davis has rushed for 511 yards or 102.2 yards per game with an average rushing attempt of 6.1 yards. Fordham’s offensive line is large and appears to be on par with Cornell’s based on game film. The Rams have struggled on 3rd downs converting on just 36% of their attempts this season. The Bulldogs will need to create penetration with the front seven to shut down the running game on early downs and force Fordham into uncomfortable 3rd and long positions. Ball security is an issue for the Rams as they have already fumbled nine times this season.

Sophomore linebacker Ryan Greenhagen leads Fordham’s defense with a whopping 55 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, and 2 sacks. Glastonbury’s Glenn Cunningham is another standout linebacker with the ability to cover tight ends and running backs. Our offensive line will need to get to the second level to spring Dudek on running plays. Anthony Diodato and Ellis Taylor are the best playmakers for Fordham along the defensive line. Diodato and Taylor each have 15 tackles and a blocked kick. Taylor has a knack for pass rushing racking up 4 sacks. Fifth year senior James Biggs-Frazier leads the secondary with 25 tackles and a forced fumble. The Fordham defense has been outscored 42-14 in the first quarter and 49-25 in the second quarter, so Yale must look to put points on the board in a hurry before Paul Rice (former Yale captain) can get his defense to clamp down on the Elis.

Andrew Mevis is Fordham’s kicker and punter. He is 6 for 8 on field goal attempts with a long of 42 yards, while his punting average is a respectable 39.9 yards.

Fordham’s head coach, Joe Conlin, was Yale’s former offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, so he’ll be fired up to try to knock off the Bulldogs. With a brutal matchup against Dartmouth looming, it’s imperative to clean up the mental mistakes this week and above all, stay healthy.

Yale emerged from Saturday’s contest victorious with a hard fought win over Cornell 27-16.

The first drive started off beautifully with the offensive line opening big holes for Dudek and Rawlings slinging the ball to open receivers. The drive stalled inside Cornell’s redzone and instead of taking the three points on fourth down, Cahill gambled with a Dudek run up the middle that was stopped short. As we mentioned last week, Dudek is not a fourth and short runner. Dudek has excellent vision, balance and quickness, but he needs space to operate that simply is not there on fourth and short situations. Given that our power backs Lamar and Alston were out with injuries, we should have tried for a field goal or come up with a short passing play to our plethora of talented wideouts and tight ends. There seems to be a disconnect on the offensive side of the ball as to how to utilize the talent that we have effectively. The offensive line play started off strong, yet deteriorated as the game went on. Rawlings never seemed comfortable in the pocket finishing with 181 yards passing, one touchdown and one interception. Running a slant pattern in the redzone is no longer a safe option at the collegiate or pro level with every safety and corner looking to jump the route. Klubnik, Shohfi, and Tipton each hauled in four passes, while Roman had another strong showing at tight end.

The Bulldog’s defense was a lifesaver in this contest. Burke and Pope were out with injuries and Dean was injured during the contest, so the front seven struggled to contain Cornell’s potent rushing attack. With their backs against the wall, the secondary came up with big play after big play. Rodney Thomas had two interceptions including a “pick six”, while Dathan Hickey also had two interceptions at critical moments. Awodiran had a nice showing as he racked up a total of 10 tackles on the day. Ifesinachukwu added the lone sack for the Elis and continues to get better each week.

The special teams play improved tremendously in just a week. Tuckerman did not miss a kick, while Bosman averaged just shy of 40 yards per punt. Shohfi had the second best highlight of the afternoon (behind Thomas’ interception for a score) taking an onside kick back for a touchdown to destroy any chance of a Cornell comeback. Other Ivy opponents will be thinking twice before attempting an onside kick against us.

The Cornell Big Red travel to New Haven this week for a 1 PM showdown against the Elis. ESPN+ will be streaming the contest for those not at the Bowl.

Cornell is a much stronger opponent than Holy Cross this season and the Bulldogs will have their work cut out for them to secure a victory. Quarterback Mike Catanese is a dual threat quarterback with serious speed. Catanese scored on a 42 yard dive up the middle last week in the Big Red’s 21-7 victory over Marist. He finished the afternoon with 130 yards passing (75% completion percentage), 79 yards rushing and was only sacked once. Running back Harold Coles torched the Marist defense for 127 yards rushing with a whopping 7.9 yards per carry. Tight end John Fitzgerald is a big target with sticky hands and is a favorite of Catanese especially on play action plays. Receivers Owen Peters and Phazione McClurge will test our revamped secondary. The offensive line played well against Marist, but the improved Bulldog defensive line should matchup well against them. Cornell showed various formations from an empty formation with five wideouts to a full house backfield with three running backs. Outside containment will be critical this week as Cornell loves to attack the edges with jet sweeps and options.

The Cornell defensive line is not the biggest line we will face this season, but they are quick and very active with their hands to disengage from blockers. Defensive lineman Nathaniel Weber was a standout on film showing an effective swim move. The linebacking corps is strong led by Junior Lance Blass. Blass had 8 tackles against Yale last season and was very active against Marist. The secondary is above average and despite not facing a quality opponent in the first week, they did give up long passing plays of 51 yards and 28 yards. Cornell always plays very aggressively against the Bulldogs as they stack the box on running downs and blitz the house on passing plays. The Bulldogs will have to protect Rawlings long enough to exploit the single coverages on our top targets.

Cornell kicker Garrett Patla made all three of his extra point attempts, but missed a 45 yard field goal. Punter Koby Kiefer averaged just 32.2 yards per punt, although he did boom one punt for 55 yards and placed two other punts inside Marist’s twenty yard line.

The Bulldogs opened their season with a 23-10 win over the Holy Cross Crusaders.

Yale methodically marched down on the opening series with a long Klubnik pass and a two yard touchdown scamper from Dudek. Lamar had a nice eleven yard carry on the drive, but signaled for relief to the sideline and was not seen again. Howland suffered a serious injury on the next possession and may be lost for the season. Shohfi was dressed for the game, but did not participate. In his absence, Conte, Herring, and Tipton saw extended action and each was highly impressive. Conte led all receivers with three catches for 54 yards. Klubnik played up to his usual standard, although Rawlings seemed to force a few balls to him when other receivers had more favorable matchups. Dudek appeared to be fully healthy running for 96 yards with an average of 5.1 yards per carry. Alston suffered a serious injury leaving McElwain as Yale’s only healthy power runner. Rawlings wasn’t as crisp as we’ve seen him, yet he showed the same grit and determination as he did in the 2017 campaign. The offensive line play was up and down both in pass blocking and run blocking. Dudek had several large holes paved for him, but on obvious running situations, the Crusaders were able to penetrate the backfield. The line did well against Holy Cross’ base front in passing situations. When Holy Cross decided to blitz, Rawlings was left scrambling for his life.

The tackling on defense is much improved from a season ago. Plays that would have turned into touchdowns last season were contained for the most part. The front seven had a nice showing led by Matthaei. Matthaei racked up six tackles, three TFLs and one sack. Nickerson had three tackles and a momentum changing fumble recovery. Burke, Awodiran, Pope, Dean and Thomas all had good performances at linebacker. The secondary is still a work in progress. Holy Cross had a few receivers streaking wide open on long passes, but Degenhardt failed to deliver catchable passes. The defensive backs still do not turn their heads to play the ball.

The kicking and punting need to be improved in a hurry. Tuckerman missed the first extra point and Bosman only averaged 35 yard per punt with one punt hitting a Bulldog’s helmet as he ran down the field to cover. Rouse is a phenomenal punt returner and should have a touchdown or two in this position over the course of the year.

The offensive play calling was effective, but too predicable at times. Running Dudek on 3rd and short early in the contest when Alston was still available did not make sense. The 3rd and 5 run with Charles was also a mistake. All in all, it was a solid coaching performance for a first game with several star players out.

Next up: the Cornell Big Red

QB Kurt Rawlings

RB Alan Lamar

RB Zane Dudek

WR JP Shohfi

WR Reed Klubnik

TE JJ Howland

LT Nick Gargiulo

LG Dieter Eiselen

C Sterling Strother

RG Steven Cepalia

RT Cameron Warfield

DE Oso Ifesinachukwu

DT Spencer Matthaei

DT Josh Keeler

DE Reid Nickerson

OLB Rodney Thomas

MLB Ryan Burke

OLB John Dean

CB Melvin Rouse

SS Kyle Ellis

FS Dathan Hickey

CB Deonte Henson

K Sam Tuckerman

P Jack Bosman

LS Garry Raymond

KR Trenton Charles

PR Melvin Rouse

The Yale Bulldogs kickoff their season against the Holy Cross Crusaders on Saturday at 1PM at the Bowl. ESPN+ will be streaming the battle for those not at the Bowl.

Holy Cross is a quality opponent with two games under their belt. They opened their season with a difficult matchup versus Navy and Navy’s triple option offense exploited their speed advantage over Holy Cross’ front seven en route to a 45-7 victory. The Crusaders bounced back in their second contest beating New Hampshire 13-10 in a defensive struggle as they scooped and scored with under two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Holy Cross had a bye week this past week, so they have had ample time to draw up a gameplan for the Elis.

The Crusaders’ offense has not been particularly explosive to date, but they have a solid quarterback in Connor Degenhardt that can make the Bulldogs pay if coverages are blown. Degenhardt has completed 58% of his passes to date this season and isn’t afraid to stand in the pocket long enough to spot an open receiver. The top two running backs are averaging just 3.3 yards per carry, however, the top three receivers are averaging 9.3, 11.7 and 21.4 yards per reception. Holy Cross has racked up twenty first downs on passing plays compared to just seven first downs on running plays. This should prove to be an early litmus test for our secondary. The offensive line has strength and size, yet has not impressed in their first two outings against very stiff competition.

Safety Joe Lang is the star of the defense and has already racked up 14 solo tackles thus far, while his fellow defensive back Chris Riley has notched 16 total tackles. Freshman linebacker Josh Dobbs leads the defense with 18 total tackles overall. The linebacking corps as a whole is very young with two sophomores and a freshman in the mix. This will be a very favorable matchup for our stable of talented running backs and our veteran offensive line. The Crusaders’ defensive line has yet to register a sack and simply could not keep containment against Navy.

Yale leads the series 28-5, but second year coach Bob Chesney is 1-0 versus Reno.

Here are some lingering questions that we will hopefully have answered by 4:30 PM on Saturday:

Will Rawlings and Dudek be able to bounce back from the injuries that derailed their last campaigns?

Will the revamped offensive line be a more cohesive unit?

How will Reno distribute the ball with so many playmakers at running back and wide receiver?

Will defensive backs play the ball in the air and take proper angles to catch up to ball carriers?

Has the tackling improved from last season?

How will our special teams fare with a new kicker and snapper?

Stay tuned to find out. Let’s go Bulldogs!

Get your Ziploc bags ready as the Bulldogs host the Holy Cross Crusaders in five days.

It should be a gorgeous day on Saturday with the weather forecasted to be sunny with a high of 81 degrees. If you can’t make it to the Bowl, you can watch the live stream on ESPN+.

As commenters have noted, Strother may be starting at center with Gargiulo filling his tackle position. It will be interesting to see what combination of linebackers and defensive backs hit the field first although we can expect a deep rotation of players across the board on defense.

Holy Cross is a formidable foe with two games under their belt, so the Bulldogs will need to shake off the rust quickly and keep the energy high for four quarters (plus overtime if recent history repeats itself). The second half meltdown against the Crusaders was one of the low points of 2018 and set the stage for an up and down season.

The Holy Cross Preview will be posted in the coming days. We are not posting the Keys to Victory this season as the entries typically become locker room fodder for opposing teams given the lack of media exposure.

Congrats to Jaeden Graham and Foye Oluokun on making the Atlanta Falcons’ 53 man roster. We wish them both luck in their opener at the Minnesota Vikings.

Yale’s first opponent, Holy Cross, beat UNH to even their record to 1-1. The Crusaders were routed in their first contest versus Navy 45-7. Navy’s offense exploited Holy Cross’ lack of defensive containment with a punishing array of outside runs.

It’s evident that the wide receivers and linebackers have been the stars of preseason camp for the Bulldogs as they have racked up numerous Dog of the Day nods on Yale’s Twitter feed.

Our contributors did not view the scrimmage, so we’d love to hear insights from those in attendance in the comments section. The closed practices have limited the flow of information, but that will all change shortly.

Yale hosts Holy Cross on September 21st at the Bowl. Kickoff is slated for 1PM and ESPN+ will be streaming the game.