The upset of the week was Brown handing Penn their first loss of the season. It was an exciting 2H as Penn cameback from a 7-24 HT deficit to lead 31-27 with 6min left. Brown had to punt the ball back, a poor punt as most of their punts were this day and Penn would take over with the lead and the ball in Brown territory. Penn would be stopped on downs at the B31 with 3min left. Brown would go on to score a TD with just over 1min left! Penn had a couple big plays either called back by penalty or replay overturned a catch and the Quakers could not get further than the B45. Making the win more impressive for Brown is the fact their starting QB Wilcox was injured in the 1Q, he started the game 14-of-15 for 115y and a TD. Backup Aidan Gillman was solid and he passed 22-38-245-2-0 and had 32y rushing before subtracting for sacks (5y net). Penn only converted 2-of-5 4th downs, usually Brown is the team going for a bunch of 4th downs, but on this day they only attempted 1 (failed). Brown outgained them by 61 yards with identical ypp numbers.
That was the most exciting and consequential game this week.
Cornell was involved in a very misleading score at Princeton. Cornell outgained the Tigers 433-288 (5.9-5.3) and outrushed them 148-59 (4.2-2.4). Cornell had all edges, FD, PY, pass compl %, better 3rd downs, TOP. So how did Princeton win 35-9!? Turnovers. Princeton ran a 2pt attempt back the other way and also had an 89y pick-six. All told Princeton was +5 in turnovers and converted those into 23 pts! In addition to the INT runbacks, Cornell muffed a punt at their own 9 yard line and threw an INT at their own 29 setting the Princeton O up on short fields. Big Rd also threw an INT into the EZ (an impossible pass Wang tried to drop in among like 4 or 5 Princeton defenders). One of those games that makes you wonder about the Princeton O, we've seen them at their best, but sometimes they play like this. But the Tiger D was forcing turnovers left and right and hides the fact they allowed 160 yards over their Ivy average all while holding Cornell well below their ssn scoring average.
Harvard had a nice win. They started Emge at QB, which I thought was a good thing. I expected him to be the QB out of fall camp, but they went with Dean who was the starter last year until injury. Supposedly Dean was hurt in practice this week, which is why Emge got the start. I am not a fan of Dean. Emge QB'd the win over Yale in last year's finale and went 3-0 as a starter last year. We'll see how they handle this. To me, this was about the perfect Harvard game and who they should be and how they should play each week. They had a ssn high 49 rush attempts and a ssn high 257 yards rushing (5.2 ypc). They attempted a ssn low 17 passes, but were still pretty good 65% and 195y. Harvard never trailed, but Dartmouth was in the game in the 1H, until Harvard outgained them 231-133 2H while outscoring them 14-0 in the 2H. Dartmouth continues to search for an identity and effective offense while still using their 2 QBs. A serious injury potentially, Harvard should not be reliant upon their passing game, but when they do, WR Kym Wimberly is an asset, one of the best WRs in the Ivy. He was injured and carted off the field near the end of the 1H. If he misses any time that will be a significant loss.
I think I posted at some length about the Yale - Columbia game last Friday in last week's thread. Columbia led 3-0, 9-7 (failed pt try) and 16-10. Yale went up 17-16 and then a couple game changing plays occurred near the end of the 1H. Yale blk'd not one, but two punts deep in Columbia territory. Lions dodged a bullet the first time as Yale missed a FG, but Yale made them pay the second time with a TD and a 24-16 HT lead. It definitely looked like it effected their 2H effort as the Columbia O had 5 straight 3-and-outs in the 2H with Yale outgaining them 202-62 and outscored them 17-0 2H. Really tough year for Columbia, I never envisioned they would be 0-4 in league play.
No more Friday games now. We'll see if I post anything else related to this week's games or any kind of stats or rankings.
