After putting up 500 yards of offense, blocking a punt for a safety and turning the football over on defense, it was hard for Holy Cross Bob Chesney to find much wrong with his team’s performance last Friday night.

Even after re-watching a game where his team had multiple personal foul calls (among others), Chesney was more forgiving than you’d think as Holy Cross pursues a special season.

Life is good for the Crusaders right now after coming out with a road win in a tough environment.

“Great atmosphere over there, I thought our fans traveled really well, there was a ton of purple behind us and all through the stands,” Chesney said Tuesday morning during his weekly availability. “It was a nice setup over there. We played there before and we had to walk past that field to get to the old football field. I think they did a really nice job with that facility.

“A game we kind of hand circled on our calendars obviously for a little while, just because it was a game from last year that we remember and because it was our opening game. It’s our first chance to get a look at our new team and I thought we did some really positive things. I thought there were some other things we’ve got to clean up, but again, from week one to week two is usually where you see your biggest jump, so we’re hoping that’s the case this week.”

With that in mind, things could easily change this weekend when Holy Cross travels to play Buffalo on Saturday night. The Bulls fell 31-10 to Maryland last week, but as a MAC conference member, there’s always the threat of danger when playing those high octane teams.

“You look at that offensive line, it’s huge. You look at that defensive line, they’re huge,” said Chesney. “They’re an FBS football team and they have a lot of transfers in there, a bunch of grad school kids coming from other programs and it’s what you’d expect to get into at this point in time. Their quarterback’s great, their receivers are great, their running backs…you go down the list, you’re not going to find many weak spots on this team. You’re not going to find many (areas) where you look and go ‘man, we’re so much better than them at this position,’ it just doesn’t exist, but that’s usually the case playing an FBS opponent.

“It’s our ability here to play united, it’s our ability to play the brand of football we play…these guys (Buffalo) have only spent one week in competition together, the majority of this team is new, so it’s one of those things where if there’s an advantage, it will be us and our style of play being gelled long ago comparatively speaking to them. As far as matchups, there’s a lot of tough ones in there.”

As for the nine penalties for 110 yards, Chesney believes his team can’t (and won’t) back down, so even those were somewhat excused.

“You don’t want to ruin anyone’s spirit, but you’ve just got to make sure when that whistle blows, they understand it’s the moment to stop,” he said. “We’ve got to tighten it up a little bit and hear the whistle, but at the same point in time, when you’re in a physical battle with someone, locked in with someone, they’re not stopping, it’a very hard for you to stop in that moment. We definitely have the lessons of after the whistle, but it’s going to come down where we can’t back down from anyone either, we’ve just got to make sure we’re fighting to the whistle.”

One of the biggest reasons Holy Cross is poised for another big season and possibly a win over an FBS opponent this weekend is because of Matt Sluka. Sluka has turned from a kid simply tucking and running if a play wasn’t there, to a veteran who will stand in and deliver a dart while taking a hit. It doesn’t hurt to have receivers like Ayir Asante and Jalen Coker – among many others – at his disposal either.

“He’s gotta throw to someone, so it’s a lot easier when they’re open, that’s for sure,” Chesney said with a big grin. “But, I think Jalen Coker, obviously is special, and I think when you watch Ayir, he’s special. Spencer Gilliam, special, you saw a little bit of Byron Shipman show up in there, Justin Shorter’s going to have his time, Quinton Gregory is going to be out there, there’s going to be more names to show up here as we move forward.

“They’ve done a really good job. Matt has taken his game to another level, but so have (Coker and Asante) you can see the confidence between both groups in one another, where I don’t necessarily know if that was the case a year ago. You’re running complete routes now expecting the ball, as opposed to sort of running routes and wondering if Matt’s going to pull it down and run or not. I think we’ve just become a very different team and we’re going to need that as we roll into next week. The confidence between both position groups in one another exists more now than in five years of being here.”

It’s a good sign when even the special teams unit is providing points too. Chesney talked about how valuable that third phase will be not only against Buffalo, but for the rest of the season.

“It’s gotta be. It has to be,” he said. “That blocked punt, our coaches did a phenomenal job in game, that’s not a punt that (Merrimack) that they’ve run really, ever. It’s the first time they brought that punt out, they started in their old one and shifted and very quickly our coaches had a read on it and realized what we were facing, broke down the protection and figured out where we could come from.

“That was great for me, just to see those coaches interacting in that moment and finding a way to get home.”

You’d be hard pressed to find a more united program in the entire country than Holy Cross right now. Coaches, players, trainers, all the way to the hard working media relations folks are all on the exact same page. That continuity could be the key to an upset win over the Bulls this weekend.