The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Precision Passing
Rawlings to Shohfi connection delivers in impressive win
NEW HAVEN — Lovers of next generation stats must have been in their glory in recent weeks watching Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson complete a nearly impossible pass to Tyler Lockett or Aaron
Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers doing pretty much the same on last week’s touchdown throw to Jamaal Williams.
The probability tabulators would have had a field day during the Yale football team’s 4510 victory over Columbia on Saturday at the Yale Bowl watching team captain JP Shohfi haul in nine of Kurt Rawlings’ passes with nary an inch of daylight on a series of highlight caliber grabs.
Shohfi, who opened the scoring with a 17yard touchdown catch, was targeted 10 times and his 189 receiving yards were not only a career high but the sixthbest single game total in Yale history.
“He really just makes it easy,” Shohfi said of Rawlings, who became Yale’s career leader in passing yards during the game. “He knows where I am going to be, I know where the ball is going to be. It is something we can figure out on the sideline and we make adjustments in the game as well.”
Having a receiver get open and make a key catch is one thing, but more than once Columbia defensive backs shook their
heads in disbelief as Rawlings dropped a pass right over one of Shohfi’s shoulders and into his reliable set of hands.
“We play a lot of man during the game,” Columbia coach Al Bagnoli said. “Whether it is a corner route, it is a back shoulder throw on a fade, we are in good shape. They are really dynamic at the skill position, they are as good as anybody in the league. They have as much experience, as much pedigree, as much accolades as we see the entire year and it showed.”
Shohfi moved into fifth place on Yale’s career list with 2,091 receiving yards and sixth with 133 receptions with one of the players ahead of him in both lists being classmate Reed Klubnik.
“It started three years ago when they came here, they just developed so much rapport with each other,” Yale coach Tony Reno said. “I think there is incredible trust in each other, they have a lot of confidence in each other and confidence in themselves.”
Shohfi, Klubnik and Rawlings first started perfecting their timing as freshman in 2016 and helped the Bulldogs win the 2017 Ivy League title. They are major reasons why the Bulldogs are a game out of first place in the Ivy League race with three games remaining.
“I can’t even tell you a number [of passes he can caught from Rawlings in practice and workout sessions] but it is all fall camp, all season and we work our butts off in the spring as well and all summer,” Shohfi said. “We were both here for almost the entire summer working out, all the extra time to work on stuff.”
One of the game’s first key grabs was actually made by linebacker John Dean who had a key interception that changed the dynamics of the game. It looked as if Columbia might take the lead, but instead Yale drove down the field after Dean alertly grabbed a deflected pass. The ensuing 85yard touchdown scoring drive was capped by Rawlings’ 5yard run to make it a 143 game.
Columbia (25, 13 in the Ivy League) had 105 yards of offense on back to back drives but managed a total of 31 yards on the next six possessions after the Dean interception.
Yale (61, 31) scored again with 1:59 left in the first half on Darrion Carrington’s 23yard touchdown catch and added a 38yard Sam Tuckerman field goal on the first drive of the third quarter to put some distance between themselves and the Lions.
“We talk a lot about scoring at the end of the half, at the beginning of the half and they did that in both cases,” Reno said.
Yale dominated play a year ago but failed to finish off drives in a 1710 loss to Columbia. It was a much different story on Saturday with not only three scoring drives taking less than a minute but also ending drives of 85, 90 and 75 yards with touchdowns.
“I am really proud of our offense today,” Yale senior offensive guard Dieter Eiselen said. “This was a game where we able to sustain what we were doing for the entire 60 minutes. I think that we don’t view a particular drive as a pivotal drive but we want to go out there and do our job to the best of our abilities. That is our mantra, we try to stay even keeled in the entire game.”
Rawlings was 20 of 33 passing for 390 yards and added 33 yards as he passed for two touchdowns and ran for two others. His 423 yards of total offense is the 10th best singlegame mark in program history a week after he posted the secondbest mark. Zane Dudek added a 45yard touchdown run and Alan Lamar scored on a 5yard TD reception from freshman Nolan Grooms.
Yale finished with a season high four sacks and for the second time this season, had both a fumble recovery and interception. Melvin Rouse’s fumble recovery on Columbia’s second offensive play would be turned into the game’s first points. Rouse finished with seven tackles, a tackle for loss and two pass breakups. Rodney Thomas II had eight tackles in his return to the lineup to share team high honors with Brandon Benn.
Mike Roussos had 75 yards on Columbia’s first two kickoff returns before Yale adjusted and began kicking the ball high and short as the Lions would not gain another yard on a kickoff return for the rest of the game.
Starting cornerback Malcolm Dixon was ejected after being called for a targeting penalty and as a result, he will have to sit out the first half of Saturday’s game at Brown.