Rader uses wide receiver depth to go deep

Nine Quakers receivers caught passes, as Penn kept fresh legs in the game to beat tired Brown defenders. Entering Saturday's football game, much of the attention surrounded Brown wide receiver Sean Morey, who led the country in receiving yardage. Penn double- and even triple-teamed Morey in keeping the standout junior to just six receptions. In a complete contrast of styles, Penn was able to confuse the Brown defense by distributing the ball to a variety of receivers. By keeping fresh players rotating through the game, the Penn coaches gave quarterback Matt Rader more open targets than the Brown defense could cover. The result was that Rader played his most controlled and efficient game of the season. Rader's 19-for-30 passing effort was especially promising because it came without an interception. While most of his eight previous interceptions had been the result of tips and misfortune, the recurring nature of these occurrences were making it more difficult to dismiss the interceptions as flukes. The offensive line deserves a portion of the credit for helping Rader to his best performance to date. Especially in the second half, Rader could afford to look at different downfield options without the fear of being pummeled into the ground. The line gave up only one sack and, better yet, created a semblance of a running game which kept the slow-to-react Bears defense out of sync and on the field most of the second half. "We couldn't get to them with our blitz," Brown coach Mark Whipple said. "Their play action helped quite a bit. They were efficient as they had been all year." "I think missing [Brown safety Rocky Parson] early in the first quarter hurt their secondary, but I think the credit has to go to the offensive line for the good protection," Rader said. The players Rader ought to be taking out to dinner, however, are his wide receivers. Chefs everywhere should turn on the ovens now, because Rader's ability to distribute the ball means that he'll need a table for 10. The nine different pairs of hands on the receiving end turned a bunch of off-target passes into catches, and a bunch of short passes into long gains. Rader's one touchdown pass was on a ball deep towards the front corner of the end zone that was woefully underthrown. Sophomore Doug O'Neil had his man beaten by two steps, but was able to stop and curl back upfield to grab the ball and get into the end zone for a 32-yard scoring play to make the score 20-6 near the end of the third quarter. "I have a lot more confidence than I did at the beginning of the year," O'Neil said. "After you catch a couple balls, you get used to it." O'Neil, who one day might be to Penn what Morey is to Brown, on Saturday was just one of four freshmen to catch a pass. Including sophomore Brandon Carson's three catches, underclassmen accounted for 12 of the Quakers' 20 pass receptions. O'Neil's stellar play is no longer a surprise, and David Rogers continues to hold onto more balls, but when little used tight end Ben Zagorsky caught a pass and rumbled down the sideline for 38 yards, Brown's defense could only sit and wonder when Penn coach Al Bagnoli himself might line up as a flanker. "Today, I think you saw the young kids make some plays and show the athleticism that they've had," Bagnoli said. "We just hadn't been able to put all the pieces together. The kids have been inconsistent, as one would expect when you have that many new kids at one time." Another addition to the passing game has been the increased attention paid to tight ends. Steve Gross doubled his season reception total, catching two balls for 20 yards. "We've done a real good job all year of spreading the ball around," Bagnoli said. "That puts a lot of pressure on people as far as who you defend." When John James got hurt and had to sit out the Towson game, Bagnoli shook up his receiving corps and started throwing a variety of younger players on the field. Over the past three weeks they have struggled along with Rader to find a rhythm and, even more elementary, to hold onto the ball. The learning time during the non-league games seems to be paying dividends now, as the lack of a clear go-to receiver means defenses will not be able to shut down the Quakers' passing game as easily as Penn was able to ruin Brown by triple-teaming Morey.

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