The Washington University football team’s rush defense had a harrowing challenge in its first two games of the season. In their opener, it was Carnegie Mellon University and their All-American tailback. Then, it was Centre College and their own elusive ball carrier. On Saturday, it was a similar story against Birmingham-Southern College, who sported another nationally recognized ground game, but this time the Bears got to write a different ending. The Red and Green limited the Panthers to 3.7 yard per carry on the ground and scored 29 unanswered points on their way to a 36-21 road victory.
Against Carnegie Mellon and Centre, the Bears surrendered 320 and 298 yards on the ground respectively. That number fell to 144 against Birmingham-Southern as the Red and Green’s defense held, Kerrigan Pennington—the Panther’s dual-threat quarterback and third leading rusher in Division III—to just 72 yards on 18 carries. According to Wash. U. junior defensive end Jared Lake, the success was thanks to a change in defensive strategy.
“We were able to adjust, to spread out our defensive front, and be able to funnel the run towards the middle where the match ups were heavily in our favor,” Lake said. “So just being able to adjust the game from a 4-3 look to a 3-4 look helped a whole lot.”
But even with this defensive revival, the Bears still found themselves down 21-7 at the half. That’s when onlookers saw the reemergence of another Bears’ unit: the rushing attack.
After completing just 52 percent of his passes last week against Centre, quarterback J.J. Tomlin enjoyed an efficient day against the Panthers, connecting on 22 of 32 attempts with two touchdowns. The lone blemish on his day came on an interception at the end of the first quarter that lead to a Birmingham-Southern touchdown and a fumble right before halftime.
It was a complete game for the Bears, a performance that they’ll need to replicate when they host Berry College next weekend. The Vikings will arrive in St. Louis 4-0 and fresh off a 41-3 deconstruction of Sewanee: the University of the South.
