Yale Football Blog

Things got off to a rocky start for the Bulldogs on Saturday as a high snap from Strothers pinned them deep on their first possession.  Yale’s defense shutdown Dartmouth with notable starters this week including Awodiran and Matthaei.  Yale took charge from that point going up 21-0 with their high flying offense being too much for the Big Green to handle.  Rawlings threw touchdowns to Williams-Lopez, Rouse and Dudek during that span.  A poor decision from Rawlings led to a pick six by Dartmouth’s Isiah Swann in the second quarter.  Galland finished off the half with a field goal to put Yale up 24-7 at halftime.

It was all downhill from that point for the Elis.  Reno decided to run a conservative offensive plan that would only yield 3 points all half.  On defense, the linebackers and secondary were routinely picked apart.  Balter and Alessi in particular struggled immensely.  The continuous blitzing by Yale’s defense became predictable and left the secondary vulnerable without adding much to the pass rush.  Injuries piled up for both teams as Peggs and Oluokun went down along with Perry and Hagdorn for Dartmouth.  It was clear midway through the fourth quarter that we would not hold onto the lead.  Holding penalties on offense and roughing the quarterback penalties on defense doomed the Elis.  The officiating was sloppy, but that’s usually par for the course for Ivy League referees.

Yale clearly has the talent in place to beat any school in the Ivy League this season, but mental mistakes and coaching blunders will have to be corrected in order to make a run.  The Ivy champ this year will likely have one loss, so this does not end the season by any means.

The Bulldogs will travel to Hanover to play the Dartmouth Big Green Saturday at 1:30 PM ET.  The game can be seen on ESPN3 or the Ivy League Network.

Keys to Victory

• Dismantle the Dartmouth Offensive Line

The right side of Dartmouth’s offensive line features new starters this season and our veteran defensive line needs to manhandle the big boys up front to alter Teeven’s gameplan.  Tyler, Mullen, Crowle, Herubin, Callender, Chism and others are more than capable enough of shutting down the Big Green’s running attack led by Ryder Stone and Miles Smith.  Dartmouth also likes to use QB Jared Gerbino as the wildcat rusher and showed in the final seconds of the Penn game that this formation is their favorite short yardage package.

• Create Holes for Salter and Dudek

Dartmouth is proud of its defensive front featuring 300 pounder Jackson Perry.  Perry and his fellow defensive linemen have been able to keep defenders off of linebackers Jack Traynor and Eric Meile enabling them to rack up stats.  Traynor was named Defensive Player of the Week after registering 9 tackles and a pass breakup versus Penn.  Our offensive line will need to get a push up front while still making blocks at the second level to spring our backs this week.  Salter seems to be gaining steam each week, while Dudek continues to amaze with his vision, patience and balance.

• Slow Down Hagdorn

WR Hunter Hagdorn caught 9 passes for 91 yards and a score in the Penn contest last week.  In last season’s win over Dartmouth, Hagdorn was open on a number of occasions, but Heneghan failed to deliver time and time again.  With Peggs potentially out this week, it will be a tall task to shutdown the Dartmouth receiving corps.  Alburg and Dixon will need to rise to the occasion as they did last week.

• Fluster Heneghan

Tight coverage alone will not limit Dartmouth’s aerial attack.    We will need to put hits on Heneghan to get in his head.  We saw in the Penn-Dartmouth and Yale-Dartmouth contests last season that when Heneghan loses his confidence, his play quickly spirals downwards.  Fordham’s Anderson and Cornell’s Banks were pounded in recent weeks by our defense and a similar infliction of pain will result in a Yale win.

The Bulldogs came out firing on all cylinders on Saturday in the 41-10 win over Fordham.  Rawlings completed his first fourteen passes and wound up 18/20 for 189 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT.  TE Jaeden Graham and WR Chris Williams-Lopez had fantastic performances.  Freshman Melvin Rouse was back in action and continues to add a new dimension to the offense.  Salter was the offensive MVP of the day with 118 yards and 3 TDs on the ground.  Dudek added 56 yards and two TDs.  The offensive line had its best performance of the year both pass blocking and run blocking.  Bezney did not play and Jett Sexton played well in his absence.

Fordham elected to play All-American RB Chase Edmonds although it was clear he was not fully healed.  This turned out to be a disastrous decision for Fordham as Edmonds was forced to leave the game due to his ankle injury and was not able to put any points on the board in the effort.  Copache Tyler and his fellow defensive linemen put on a clinic against the Rams’ offensive line.  CB Marquise Peggs left with an injury, but Jaelin Alburg and Malcolm Dixon were able to step up when needed.  Linebackers Micah Awodiran, Keefer Johnson and Jarret Balter added solid contributions in the fourth quarter.

Up Next: the 3-0 Big Green!

The Bulldogs will be traveling to the Bronx this weekend to take on the Fordham Rams (1-3) at 6 PM ET on Saturday.  You can catch the game for free on the Patriot League Network assuming that the network does not crash as it did during the Lehigh contest.

Fordham is coming off of a 45-40 loss to Bryant (a team beaten by Brown two weeks ago), but was without All-American runningback Chase Edmonds.  Rams QB Kevin Anderson threw for five touchdowns last week, the same number of touchdowns he threw against Yale last year.  Yale lost that game 44-37 despite having more offensive yards and first downs as turnovers proved costly.

This will be a high scoring affair and the last team that has the ball could win.  Kevin Anderson has several receiving weapons including TE Isaiah Searight (133 yards, 2 TDs vs. Bryant), WR Corey Caddle (82 yards, 1 TD vs. Bryant), and WR Andrew Prince (52 yards, 2 TDs vs. Bryant).  Freshman runningback Zach Davis, who is filling in for the injured Edmonds, rushed for 119 yards on 21 carries.  Since 2012, Fordham has scored more than 40 points on 25 occasions.  If Chase Edmonds plays this week, his dynamic abilities could tip the scale in Fordham’s favor.

Keys to Victory:

• Win the turnover battle
• Burn the clock with Salter/Dudek
• Keep the pressure on Anderson
• Disrupt passing lanes

With the brutal Ivy schedule ahead of us, it may prove more important to stay healthy than to dominate this contest.

Things did not start out smoothly for the Bulldogs on Saturday in the home opener at the Bowl.  Cornell came out fired up and Dalton Banks was able to drive down the field after numerous Yale mistakes.  Yale missed key tackles and the secondary looked flat-footed until slowing down the Big Red in the red zone limiting them to just a field goal.  Our offense was pushed around on the first series with unblocked defenders causing havoc in the backfield.  Just as the situation seemed dire, our defense came alive causing a turnover on a tipped pass.  Yale was truly a different team in the second half featuring a punishing defense and a balanced offense.  Mullen, Tyler, Callender, Kissel and Crowle played well along the defensive front.  By the end of the game, fans were unsure if Banks would even be able to stand up after all the hits he endured.  One particular hit on Banks from Oplinger drew a flag from the officials, but seemed to be clean in real time.  Agbeyegbe was tossed in the second half for a controversial targeting penalty and will be ineligible to play in the first half of next week’s game.  Salter and Dudek both rushed for over 100 yards each, while Klubnik was the difference maker at receiver this week.  Rawlings had a rough day throwing the ball as he went 10 for 17 for only 123 yards with a touchdown and interception.  Williams-Lopez hauled in only two receptions for 30 yards and had a costly fumble.  The offensive line struggled early on, but was able to make adjustments and wear out Cornell’s front seven by the third quarter.

• Limit the mental mistakes

Yale did not look like a team playing its first game of the season last Saturday, but that isn’t to say the team didn’t make any mistakes.  From sloppy special teams play to secondary breakdowns, there were major flaws that could be exposed by a smarter opponent such as Cornell.  This is a contest that could be decided by a missed field goal or a dropped punt.  Coach Paul Rice will have to clean things up with his special teams outfits this week to secure a victory.  The secondary is a talented bunch, yet we often see opposing receivers darting downfield with no Yale defender in sight.  This all boils down to communication and understanding the schemes, so we should see a marked improvement from week one to week two.

• Fluster Dalton Banks

Banks threw for 306 yards and two touchdowns on the Bulldogs in our loss last season.  The defensive line could not generate enough pressure to limit Banks’ effectiveness.  The defensive line this year is a whole different beast and each position has 2-3 players capable of starting.  Tyler, Callender, and company dominated the line of scrimmage last week and a similar level of performance will cripple Cornell’s offense.

• Keep Cornell Guessing

Cornell always seems to have a solid gameplan in place when they face Yale.  Last season, Cornell shut down our offense (in the pre-Rawlings era) and found enough holes in our defense to beat us 27-13.  With three great runningbacks and a receiving corps that could be the deepest in recent Bulldog history, Reno can keep Cornell’s defense guessing by utilizing the deep roster at these positions, changing personnel packages, and playing with a faster tempo.  Look for Cornell to key on Williams-Lopez leaving Siragusa, Rouse, or Graham open.  The one-two punch of Salter’s power and Dudek’s cutback ability will eat yards and burn the clock.  If Cornell brings an extra defender into the box, Rawlings should be able to beat them over the top.

The Bulldogs are sitting at 1-0 after cruising to a 56-28 win over Lehigh on Saturday.  QB Kurt Rawlings looked fantastic throwing the ball in tight windows and finding open receivers all day.  The RB trio of Salter, Dudek, and Grinde exceeded all expectations after it was announced last week that Lamar was out for the season.  The WR corps is as dominant as ever and Melvin Rouse had a breakout performance.  The front seven on defense is a formidable group with depth and talent.  DT Copache Tyler and DE Charles Callender wreaked havoc on Lehigh’s offensive line.  Areas of concern are still the offensive line and the secondary.  The offensive line held up for most of the game, but did not seem as crisp in the second half.  As others noted, Lucas Tribble was playing guard in place of Dieter Eiselen.  The secondary has improved from last year, yet there were still lapses in communications that left Lehigh receivers streaking downfield without a white jersey in sight.  Reno has no hesitation playing freshmen as Dudek, Grinde, Rouse, Carrington, and Dean saw their first action of their careers.

Get ready for the Big Red this week!