Last Saturday, the Marist Red Foxes played against Butler in their first in-conference matchup of 2025. Entering with a 2-1 record after their first three non-league matchups, the Red Foxes had valid optimism about head coach Mike Willis’ roster and their ability to compete against a strong Butler Bulldogs team, which came out on top, 31-28.
Throughout the matchup, both teams went blow for blow, with Marist falling short by three points, despite three passing touchdowns between quarterbacks redshirt junior Sonny Mannino and redshirt freshman Patrick Grusser. Butler’s rushing offense, which totaled 225 rushing yards, overpowered the Red Foxes, who failed to keep up with it as they fell to a 0-1 record in the PFL.
Mannino and the offense didn’t convert on any of their 13 third downs. This third-and-6 sack in the late second quarter is an example of their woes in these crucial plays.
The Bulldog defense shows a six-man pressure pre-snap, a look that creates urgency for the ball to get out of the quarterback’s hands. However, when the ball was snapped, only three of the six players lined up on the line of scrimmage rushed. The other three dropped back into coverage, and redshirt junior defensive back Steven Stephany (No. 12) came in on a delayed blitz.
This doesn’t just cause issues for Mannino; it causes issues for the players blocking for him. Sim pressures like this one force offensive linemen to change their blocking assignments on the fly. These sim pressures challenge the rules of different protections, like the big-on-big protection scheme we see here.
In the confusion caused by the post-snap shift of the defense, three of the five offensive linemen attempted to block one defensive player, redshirt senior Danny Orgler (No. 17), while both tackles and the running back were responsible for a one-on-one. Considering the Red Foxes kept six players in to block, they should have had more double teams, but the sim-pressure from the defense caused miscommunication and confusion for the offense.
Freshman edge rusher Okemdi Eze took advantage of his one-on-one, forcing Mannino out of the pocket and allowing redshirt sophomore linebacker Jackson Stratton to get the clean-up sack and shut down Marist’s last offensive drive of the half.
Despite some offensive struggles, the defense maintained consistent energy and made life hard for the Bulldogs’ offense; this third-and-4 quarterback run reflects that.
Offensive coordinator Colin Johnson is a valid supporter of the quarterback run game, something that can keep the defense honest even when a play is called out of an empty backfield like this one. The Bulldogs’ offensive line is one of the strengths of their team, so using an empty backfield to try and take defenders out of the box and generate, worst-case scenario, one-on-ones across the line of scrimmage is a brilliant decision.
With the linemen executing an outside zone blocking scheme, redshirt junior quarterback Reagan Andrew (No. 13) is asked to read outside in for an open gap to run through for the first down. Due to phenomenal play across the Red Foxes’ defensive line, no crease opened.
Instead, freshman Naheem Ridore (No. 55) and redshirt junior Joey Patierno (No. 94) held stalemates at the line of scrimmage long enough for the backside pursuit to tackle Andrew on the line of scrimmage.
Marist’s offense started to heat up later in the game, down just three points with under four minutes in the fourth quarter. This late-game offensive turn warranted confidence in offensive coordinator TJ Weyl. Enough confidence, in fact, for him to dial up a pass play on this fourth-and-5.
Against the Bulldog five-man rush, the Red Foxes offense runs a mesh concept, a quick passing game concept designed to beat man coverage. Because of the two in-breaking routes, it is easy for defenders to run into one another and leave a player open as they try to follow receivers across the formation in man coverage.
On this play, to avoid the natural pick that defenders normally create for themselves running man coverage against this concept, graduate student defensive back Onye Onuoha (No. 7) goes over the natural pick created by senior defensive back Will Mason (No. 1) as he follows redshirt freshman running back Jeremy Decaro (No. 26) in man coverage. This creates more space between him and the receiver, redshirt freshman Lance Martinez (No. 7), causing him to take a bad angle and miss the tackle.
This brilliant play design didn’t just get the first down; it gave the Red Foxes their second lead of the game with only a few minutes left.
The Bulldogs got one more touchdown on the board, though. On third-and-8, defensive coordinator Mike Horan called a soft “quarters” coverage, allowing a quick completion on an inbreaker to redshirt junior receiver Archie Cox (No. 11).
Redshirt senior tight end Cameron Heald’s (No. 82) crossing route drives redshirt sophomore Will Halub (No. 31) further upfield and forces redshirt sophomore cornerback Shock Gordon (No. 4) into a one-on-one open-field tackling situation.
Cox gets past Gordon’s shoestring tackle and, with no Halub over the top to make the tackle, is able to run 40 yards for the touchdown. This was one of five third-down conversions that the Bulldogs had on the day.
Against a strong Butler team, the Red Foxes brought this game down to the wire. Their biggest issue on this road loss was the inconsistency, not quite turning it on until the fourth quarter, where they scored 14 of their 31 points.
While inconsistency hurt Marist in this road loss, their ability to push a strong Butler team to the wire suggests they can be a real contender in the PFL as they continue with league play.
Edited by Hayden Shapiro and Ben Leeds
Photo from Cassidy Connors
For more coverage of Marist athletics, follow @cfmarist on Instagram, X, TikTok and Bluesky, and sign up to receive daily alerts here.