It would be fairly absurd to gripe about Army’s miscues and issues in Saturday’s game following the news that Rutgers’ Eric LeGrand suffered a spinal-cord injury and is paralyzed below the neck, the school announced Sunday.
One of the hardest hits I’ve ever seen in football. The video clips on ESPN — if you even choose to watch — don’t do justice how vicious and hard that hit was. Thankfully Malcolm Brown walked away from it. It was a collective “ohhhh” from the crowd, and the entire stadium fell completely silent — and that’s a cliched phrase you hear a lot of times, but it was total silence. Really a horrific moment.
Ed Mulholland, who is an outstandingly talented photographer (and Rutgers fan) captured an incredibly moving image of LeGrand’s mother during the time he lay motionless on the field. It actually gives me chills just looking at it.
Just a terrible moment, we are all thinking of him. I’ve already seen many of the Army players posting well-wishes for him today.
Most of Ed’s photos were of Rutgers, if you’re interested in his take from the game.
The game … billed as the first NCAA match at the mammoth stadium — very deflating. I think anyone who saw it (or listened to it) had to feel it was certainly one that Army should have won. Jared Hassin and Trent Steelman again were great and carried an offense that was excelling in the first half and dormant thereafter; both had over 100 yards rushing against a Rutgers defense that entered the game ranked No. 10 in the nation in run defense.
I thought Steve Erzinger had another big game, and Jarrett Mackey is really making his presence felt now in the pass rush. Mackey, Marcus Hilton, Josh McNary and Mike Gann are a handful for most offenses to handle — Army had eight sacks. We even saw guys like Donnie Dixon getting some good pressure.
Regarding the meltdown — Army earlier this week boasted about being first in the nation in turnovers — Rich Ellerson summed it up fairly well:
“We don’t win the turnover battle and we don’t win the mental game because we have crucial, painful, just excruciating penalties in critical situations.”
Photos:
One of the best things about shooting in the Meadowlands was the blanket of red fans that created a pink background for almost every photo I took:
Here’s a gallery of my images from the game on Flickr.
A photo album with some of my images, along with those of Tommy Gilligan of West Point’s Pointer View newspaper, is featured on Army’s website.
Sal from the Record has some interesting thoughts on the game, from questionable officiating (Ellerson told the media it was “a well-officiated football game”) to miscommunication between Steelman and Brian Cobbs on a pivotal third down, to an array of player comments (McNary, asked if he ever dreamed Army would lose after recording eight sacks: “Never.”) Chet Gordon’s photos from the game can be seen in a slideshow on the Record’s site.