Football | Shot through the Hart: QB given no time

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - After devoting substantial practice time to unleashing his throws quickly, Yale quarterback Brook Hart felt he was prepared to face the Penn defense.

He was wrong.

The 6-foot-5 sophomore, filling in for injured starter Ryan Fodor, was thrown to the wolves in the Quakers' 9-7 win on Saturday. Though there was enough blame to go around - Yale coach Jack Siedlecki said he's "certainly not laying any of this on the quarterback; let's get that straight right now" - Penn's highly effective pass rush left Hart eating the turf more often than moving the chains. It was the difference in a game void of difference-makers.

The Bulldogs managed just 77 yards passing, a third of which came on their longest plays from scrimmage, a pair of 12-yard tosses. But Hart didn't have much to work with. While once-great tailback Mike McLeod was putting up an ineffectual 28 yards, Yale still predictably ran the ball on eight consecutive first-down plays spanning the first through fourth quarters.

That set up plenty of long-yardage situations, which in turn made Hart a sitting duck. Three of the Quakers' four sacks came on 2nd-and-long, further backing up the Bulldogs.

On third down, Yale more often needed 18-plus yards than it did three or fewer; in all, exactly one-half of its third downs required 10 or more yards for a first.

"We were able to get them in some of those scenarios where we could blitz them, and I think we did a good job executing blitzes at that point," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said.

Junior nose guard Joe Goniprow added: "They gave us time to get there, too, which was nice."

The Bulldogs settled for seven three-and-outs (and one four-and-out, thanks to a botched snap on a fake punt late in the third quarter) to go with their six first downs.

As Bagnoli's line got solid penetration - Goniprow recorded two half-sacks and 2.5 tackles for losses, while junior defensive tackle Drew Goldsmith posted 1.5 sacks of his own - the 17th-year coach created plenty of schemes to spread the pass-rush wealth.

Junior linebacker Jake Lewko had a team-high seven solo tackles (two for losses), including a beautiful ankle-grab tackle of McLeod in the backfield and a crushing hit on backup rusher Ricardo Galvez. And as the Quakers brought the heat, they left no line of defense uninvolved.

"They brought safeties down in," Siedlecki said. "I guess you could say they had us outnumbered, but we made a lot of mistakes."

Indeed, the biggest play of the game on either side of the ball came from cornerback Tyson Maugle, making his return after sitting for two games with a badly broken nose. His usually stellar open-field tackling was slightly below par. But despite wearing a visor instead of the more traditional facemask, Maugle's vision for the quarterback was unimpeded.

On first down midway through the third quarter, Maugle hit Hart from the side just as the southpaw was bringing his arm back to throw. The ball popped loose and Maugle fell upon it, giving the Quakers great field position and setting up the first of Andrew Samson's three field goals.

Then there was arguably the second-biggest play: Goldsmith's sack with just two minutes remaining. The Bulldogs had second-and-seven from Penn's 32, but the ensuing 12-yard loss pushed them out of field-goal range and forced them to use a timeout. They'd burn their second one play later, after a third-down incompletion.

And so it went for Yale, which allowed so little but still came up short. The Ivy League doesn't keep pressure statistics like times hurried and knocked down, but Penn's complete smothering pass rush left Siedlecki shaking his head.

Beneath Hart's far bushier mane, the man who in Little League pitched against Danny Almonte entertained similarly distressing thoughts.

"They were right on us right away," Hart said. "You've still got to be able to make plays under pressure. We didn't today."

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