Holy Cross quarterback Matthew Sluka gives South Dakota State defense all it can handle but Jackrabbits advance

BROOKINGS — The No. 1 rushing defense in the country? That didn’t mean much to Holy Cross quarterback Matthew Sluka midway through the first quarter Saturday at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium with the Crusaders looking to open the scoring. When the junior who rushed for 1,021 yards before Saturday’s matchup with South Dakota State received the designed quarterback run play-call, he liked what he saw in the Jackrabbits defense.

“It’s a play we haven’t shown before,” Sluka said. "I knew I had a good chance of beating the one guy I had to beat and just outrunning the safety at that point.”

And he was right, running 56 yards untouched into the end zone for his first and only touchdown. Often when Sluka tucked the ball under his arms and tried to gain yardage with his legs he was. Though SDSU (12-1, 8-0 Missouri Valley Football Conference) held on for a 42-21 win in the FCS quarterfinals, Sluka ran for a career-high 213 yards — well above his season average of 85.1 yards per game — Saturday against the Jackrabbits, which are the No. 1 rushing defense in the country, allowing just 70.8 yards on the ground per game.

South Dakota State head coach John Stiegelmeier said that he didn’t know what to expect from Holy Cross (12-1, 8-0 Patriot League) entering Saturday, but one thing he did see coming was the quarterback run. Ahead of a matchup with Montana State quarterback Tommy Mellott, who’s rushed for 1,058 yards this year including a 273-yard performance against Weber State, the Jackrabbits got a sense of what damage a player like that could do — whether you see it coming or not.

More:South Dakota State football survives Holy Cross in FCS playoffs

“There'll be some scheme adjustments,” Stiegelmeier said. “Everybody needs to do their job. So, that will be emphasized.”

A quarterback that posed that much of a running threat was something that was a bit of a new challenge for South Dakota State, junior linebacker Jason Freeman noted. Only four quarterbacks have had double-digit attempts against the Jackrabbits this year, and none of them ran further than North Dakota quarterback Tommy Schuster’s 15 attempts to gain 19 yards on Oct. 22. Freeman said the Jackrabbits just tried to play “gap sound,” but, of course, there were “mistakes.”

More:South Dakota State football survives Holy Cross in FCS playoffs

Mistakes that “won't be hard to clean up knowing next week will be in the same situation,” but the Jackrabbits allowed Sluka to keep plays alive even when it was able to pressure him. After the first big touchdown, South Dakota State seemed prepared whenever there was a designed run, but on passing downs, on obvious passing plays, it also seemed like the threat of Sluka running the ball was front of mind.

Stiegelmeier said he thinks "over half" of Sluka's yards came on scrambles. Sluka said of his 26 attempts, it was "50-50" designed runs and scrambles. So, Jackrabbits linebackers were frozen whenever Sluka was in the pocket. Pass-rushers seemed hesitant to commit. Because when they did, as they did on a third down late in the third quarter, Sluka stepped up, pump-faked when he was already past the line of scrimmage and it still caused an SDSU defender to slip en route to a 17-yard gain.

Does it surprise Sluka that the Jackrabbits fell for the pump fakes so bad? Nope. Everyone does, he said. “It's not really anything shocking, but yeah, I guess the No. 1 (rushing defense) in the country…” he said. And then there were broken tackles as well as another designed run where Sluka broke free and Holy Cross head coach Bob Chesney said he just “ran out of gas” down the field.

“Yeah,” Sluka said, shaking his head with a sigh.

Holy Cross converted on five third downs in the game and two fourth-down plays (of two attempts), in large part due to the threat of Sluka’s running ability opening up the trenches of the Jackrabbits defense. When the Jackrabbits swarmed him, Sluka kept alive with heavy steps forward in the pocket that Stiegelmeier said was just about how SDSU “couldn’t get off blocks” long enough to stick with his fast feet behind the line of scrimmage.,

“He was a slippery guy,” Freeman said. “You see he made a lot of people miss. Credit to him, he's a really good football player.”

Sluka almost broke another big run, but was brought down by a shoestring tackle after running past the first-down marker midway through the fourth quarter. He continued to pick apart the Jackrabbits defense on first, second or third down and Stiegelmeier took to beat in the press conference to reiterate that at no moment did SDSU “slow him down.” But late in the game, the Jackrabbits finally had an opportunity that it couldn’t misplay.

On second down of the same drive Sluka nearly broke past the Jackrabbits defense again, South Dakota State brought heavy pressure, and for once, all of its pass rushers broke through. Sluka still scurried his feet, keeping on his feet for longer than most would with two pump fakes. But South Dakota State brought him down, with the sack credited to senior defensive tackle Ryan Van Marel for a 13-yard loss. It took almost the whole game, but South Dakota State finally found a way to bring Sluka down and force a situation he couldn’t come back from.

“Once we knew the plays that they were going to keep running, we kind of just adjusted that way,” Freeman said. “And then after that, it was pretty much reps.”

Follow Sioux Falls Argus Leader reporter Michael McCleary on Twitter @mikejmccleary.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Holy Cross QB gives South Dakota State defense all it can handle