“A lot of our better playmakers on both sides of the ball did not play, and that I think contributed to the sloppy play at times,” Murphy said. “We’ve seen some flashes of good things from both units but I’m certainly glad we have another week to prepare for Holy Cross because today was not good enough for us to be the type of team we’ve been in the past or we expect to be in the future.”

“I feel like we weren’t as focused as we should have been,” Mazza said.

Senior wideout Rodney Byrnes made an even earlier exit during the game’s third series after a crushing collision with junior cornerback Keith Howell left him stunned on the field. Byrnes was shaken up and sat with ice bags wrapped around his neck, but received only a bandage on his chin.

Captain Erik Grimm was in his usual position at defensive end, but several of his fellow defensive starters—senior middle linebacker Matt Thomas, junior defensive tackle Mike Berg and senior cornerback Gary Sonkur—did not dress for the game.

Thomas had damaged ligaments in his left thumb, and wore a cast on his forearm. Berg had “a couple injuries” but both were to be cleared yesterday. Sonkur’s injured hamstring is expected to be cleared tomorrow.

“Unless we have any further injuries I expect all those guys to play who sat out the scrimmage,” Murphy said. “And quite frankly, if this had been a game, our opener, most of those guys would have played.”

One who won’t be back by Saturday is punter Mike King. The senior suffered a pulled groin in practice last Tuesday and could be out as long as four weeks.

Junior Clem McDavid will take over punting duties, and sophomore placekicker Matt Schindel will handle kickoffs.

—Staff writer Lisa J. Kennelly can be reached at kennell@fas.harvard.edu.