ON THE SIDELINE: Foley led dominant Penn defense

While Mitch Marrow was silenced, Tom Foley and a cast of quieter defenders erupted in Penn's win. PRINCETON, N.J. -- Princeton coach Steve Tosches extolled the virtues of his team's bend-but-don't-break defense after his Tigers fell to Penn, 10-6, on Saturday. But Penn coach Al Bagnoli one-upped his Princeton counterpart, as his players perfectly executed a don't-budge-an-inch defense. While the 1-7 Tigers certainly put forth a valiant effort, the Quakers simply steamrolled Princeton's inexperienced offensive line. And as had been the case in Penn's previous seven contests, the main push came from the defensive line. Bagnoli could point to the game statistics and make a convincing argument that his five defensive linemen deserve game balls, and he would receive few arguments. The Quakers dominated the line of scrimmage, allowing just 49 yards on the ground. In fact, the Tigers averaged a measly 1.5 yards every time they ran the ball. But the numbers don't do the Quakers' performance justice. If Tosches was told his quarterback would be sacked six times and his offense would gain only 184 total yards, he would have guessed that Penn's No. 65 would be the star of the next morning's game-film viewing. But right guard Mitch Marrow, who might be the most physically dominating player in the Ivy League, had a near-silent day. So quiet was Marrow at Palmer Stadium that when he finally did record a big play -- a fourth-down sack of Brett Budzinski in the third quarter -- the scorers credited the play to the generic "Penn" category. Actually, Marrow's sack was more of a tag. While dropping back on a fourth-and-two late in the third quarter, Budzinski lost his footing and fell to the turf. All Marrow had to do was tap the quarterback laying at his feet. In all, Marrow's official line read zeros all across except for one assisted tackle. With Marrow fading into the background, or at least as much as 6-foot-5, 275 hulk can, the Quakers had to rely on other defenders to pick up the slack. Stepping right to the front of the line was Marrow's partner on the left side, Tom Foley. Often overshadowed by the more imposing Marrow and the louder Chris Osentowski, Foley erupted -- often right on top of Budzinski. Dedicating the game to his mother, who died of cancer on November 1, Foley knocked Princeton backwards seven times, for a total of minus-54 yards. His three sacks and four tackles for losses were both team highs, as were his six tackles. Another often overlooked lineman, right tackle Doug Zinser chimed in with 1.5 sacks and three tackles for losses of his own. "I thought their defensive line won the football game for them today," Tosches said. "I thought their defensive line played very well. They are the ones that had us on our heels, and they are the ones were putting the pressure on us." Despite Tosches's insistence that the line was responsible for most if not all of Penn's success, the play of the defensive backs cannot be understated. After weeks of having angry fingers pointed in its direction, the Penn secondary finally tightened up and refused to allow the big play. In holding Budzinski to 135 passing yards and picking off two passes, the Quakers finally showed the promise that Bagnoli had insisted was there. This is not to say that the Penn line had nothing to do with Budzinski's passing woes. While the Penn secondary surely deserves much of the credit for holding Budzinski to 135 passing yards, it was the pressure up front that often forced Budzinski to get rid of the ball before his receivers got open. Even when Foley, Zinser and company weren't sacking Budzinski, they were at least battering him after he released the ball. That shouldn't take away from the defensive backs performance, though, as Tosches suggests. It merely demonstrates that everyone on the defensive side was doing his job.

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