Saturday’s matchup with Army has a few different storylines attached to it for Bob Chesney’s team.

First, the emotion and overall atmosphere that will accompany the game at West Point – it’s quite a scene anyways, now add on Veteran’s Day – will be tough to ignore. Second, you will never hear this program say a game “doesn’t matter,” but in terms of the FCS playoff picture and potentially winning a fifth straight Patriot League title, this game really doesn’t matter. Oh, and there’s still some uncertainty swirling around arguably the best quarterback in the country, Matthew Sluka.

Let’s work our way backwards.

Sluka had one big rush for a critical third down against Lehigh last week to help ice the game, but it’s been Joe Pesansky’s show the last two weeks. In must-win situations, Pesansky had not only been serviceable, the offense has continued humming in a spot where if the Crusaders lost to either Fordham or Lehigh, all hope was lost for another postseason berth.

That’s quite a spot to be in for a quarterback that has sat for the majority of his career. But, Chesney noted Pesansky’s communication when Sluka had been on the field has played a vital role in his ability to pick up right where he left off and keep Holy Cross in the hunt.

“To understand how that happens, you have to understand Joe,” Chesney said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday morning. “He’s just a kid that came in here every single day and prepares like he’s the starter. He doesn’t come in here and say ‘hey, I’m not getting the reps I want, I’m not real happy, I’m just going to mail it in for this practice or this season,’ that’s not at all who he is. Maybe some of that has to come with the fact that Matt plays a different style of football, so maybe he’ll miss a play or two and Joe needs to be ready for that and he understands that every week, but you all saw what he just did.

“You throw that kid in a high-scoring affair at Fordham where it’s going to be, whoever has the ball last it seems will be the team that wins and he didn’t blink. I think that just talks about his preparation, where he’s at. Also, in-game, when Matt’s out there, Joe’s on that headset and Joe is communicating every word from Coach Kennedy down and adding his own to it to speak Matt’s language. He does an excellent job. It’s not like he just stood on the side and signaled some things in for Matt, he was in deep, direct communication with Coach Kennedy down to Matt. That’s really important to understand. Every mental rep that could have been taken, he took. Every rep in practice he could have executed at a high level, he did. His preparation was there, it’s just the moment he gets his shot, the rest of the world gets to see that.”

Whether it’s Sluka or Pesansky against the Black Knights is still a question. But, since Lafayette did the Crusaders a huge favor last weekend by losing to Colgate, the game against Georgetown at Fitton on November 18 will be for at least a share of the league title, if not outright depending on what happens with the Leopards against Fordham and Lehigh.

If Chesney wants, he can sit Sluka for another week and have his superstar QB that much healthier for a winner-take-all game in two weeks.

“Matt, we’re going to go through this week and see where it lands,” said Chesney when asked about Sluka and Jacob Dobbs, who also missed the Lehigh game. “Jake will be the same. Jake’s in a good place, it’s just, we’ve just got to figure out how much he can do to get a better understanding of how he’ll hold up in that game. Obviously, he’ll play, period, but for us, we’ve got to do a good job of protecting him from him.”

While the game may not matter technically speaking, there will be no looking ahead for a Chesney-coached team. Although, he did acknowledged he’s aware there could be a little bit of that given the current standings and landscape set out in front of them.

“That is one of the things that…obviously, you could find yourself in a situation like that given (the scenario), but we’re about to go to West Point on Veteran’s Day. I think we’re going to be pretty locked in throughout this week.”

The scene should be emotional and arguably one of the best in all of college football this season, at all of the military schools that host home games this weekend. Chesney and the team know this Army team will come out flying and also present a unique challenge with their offense. Luckily, a guy like Sluka has been preparing the defense for this type of test every day in practice for a few years.

“They’re not just triple option anymore. They’re not just that,” he added. “The quarterback read game, they have power ride stuff, they have all kinds of different things for this quarterback, a lot like Matt. To me, when we crossover throughout this week…we’ve met in our staff meeting and talked about it, throw it all at the defense as you line up. Whether it’s what Army’s actually going to do or not, we don’t actually fully know…every week they’re going to dress it up differently with formations and motions and shifts and different personnel groups.

“The more that we can see defensively just relating to our proper gaps, relating to our proper number as far as receiver and running back is concerned, and then the ability to leverage the ball properly and get off block. That’s what this whole thing is going to come down to. Ultimately, that’s what this is going to be. It’s going to be first down, second down, third down might as well be second down because they’re going to go for it on fourth down…we’ve had a good amount of experience with that already. We’re going to continue with that and then pull up our old clips of some of the plays they run that we’ve already faced against our own offense. That’s just to make sure our guys see themselves doing it, not just Air Force or LSU or whoever doing it, but seeing themselves doing it and finding their deficiencies and then where they’ve been spot on.”

Chesney has never been to West Point for a game day as a coach, but is somewhat familiar with what his team can expect to walk into on Saturday.

“We played at Navy and I’ve been to two West Point graduations,” he said. “I’ve been to a bunch of Navy games, I’ve never been to West Point though for a game. I think similar to a Navy scenario, you’ll have the full core of cadets there and you’ll have the helicopter bringing their team on and a guy jumping out of a plane. This is an awesome moment for them to be able to get away from the day-to-day of the challenges the academy represents. This is a day for them to just be football players and let it rip as college kids in the stands. The electric atmosphere is one we’re excited for.

There’s certainly enough distractions. We’ll be focused. I can just speak to, being there (in big atmospheres) before, being at Boston College, these are games where it’s hard not to get excited for. When you walk into that stadium and you’re the outsider on Veteran’s Day against the United States Army, I kind of don’t expect many calls to go our way. I don’t expect many people to be rooting for us, other than our own fan base. That’s admirable and it’s kind of a fun situation to be in. There’ll be enough prior to the game, there’ll be enough in-between plays, but when that ball’s about to be snapped, I expect us to be locked in and performing at a high level.”