Saturday, November 10, 2012

Mega Bowl



The Empire State Bowl Cup



Cornell Big Red vs. Columbia Lions 

Empire State Bowl III

November 10, 2012

Location: Robert K. Kraft Field at Wien Stadium

Kickoff Time: 12:30pm

Gametime Weather Forecast: 52 degrees and partly cloudy

The Spread: Cornell is favored by 10 points



HOW TO GET TO THE GAME

Here's my guide to getting to 2012 Columbia home games

**REMEMBER** The #1 subway train WILL be running tomorrow! 


TV/RADIO

You can get free audio and fee-based video on the SideLion PassJerry Recco and Sal Licata have the call. 

The student station broadcast is on WKCR at 89.9 on your FM dial.


Lead Stories

There are a lot of them today.

First, the Empire State Bowl matchup between Columbia and Cornell, (which the Columbia players named the "Mega Bowl" back in 2009), is almost always a close contest and played with a lot of emotion. Over the last 25 years, there is no other Ivy rivalry that has been as evenly matched. The last 25 games between these two teams have gone 13 for Cornell and 12 for Columbia.

Today is the historic 100th meeting between the two teams, making it the most prolific Ivy rivalry for both programs.

This is former Cornell Head Coach Pete Mangurian's first game against his old team since rejoining the Ivy ranks this season. While at Cornell. Mangurian was 2-1 against Columbia.

Both teams are looking to bounce back. Cornell was bowled over at home last week by Dartmouth, 44-28. Columbia suffered the worst intra-league loss in Ivy League history at Harvard, 69-0.

And any Cornell game is dominated by the attention on Big Red QB Jeff Mathews. He's a threat to break all-time records every time he hits the field and seems definitely NFL-bound. And yet, he's only a junior.


Columbia Keys to the Game

1) Disrupt Mathews

Mathews can be harassed into making mistakes, namely throwing an interception or two. The Lions probably don't have a chance today unless they get at least one INT. Putting pressure on  Mathews will help, but they'll also have to be intelligently aggressive in the secondary. 


2) Run All Over the Red

Cornell's defense is weak this season against the pass and the run. But establishing the Lion running game will be slightly more important so Columbia can dictate the pace of the game. This has to be a big day for Marcorus Garrett.


3) Burn The Red Corners

That said, Cornell is starting two freshmen corners. They need to be tested early and often. Columbia's prolific sideline passing attack that emerged against Yale two weeks ago should be employed and the receivers need to be looking to burn the corners on runs after the catch. 





11 comments:

oldlion said...

Re Matthews and the NFL: the last time we faced an NFL bound QB it was John Skelton, at Rosé Hill as I recall, and we came away with the W (40-28, I think). Let's play to win today! Go Lions!

oldlion said...

Greatest second half in years. Tremendous.

jock/doc said...

Columbia 34/ Cornell 17
Twenty four unanswered points
defense was fierce as a LION
any complaints anonymous?

oldlion said...

The best second half on both sides of the ball since the last beat down of Princeton three years ago. Brackett and Garrett were lights out. Phenomenal WR play. But the defense in the second half just mangled Cornell. How could this have been the same team that got killed in Boston last week? My congratulations to the staff and to Coach M. I was sitting with the dad of one of our best freshmen. His son had high praise for the staff.

Lion 58 said...

Great coaching job- Matthews was under pressure all day- different schemes used- six sacks. The defense was phenomenal and the offense was good- great in the second half. Of the 11 starters on the offense, 10 will be back next year.

Anonymous said...

It was good to see the Andrew Weiss , Heinrich, Guttas got in the game for a play or 2 .

Mitch said...

This was a genuinely impressive win in every respect. They should take some time to feel really good about it. Then, next week, there's a chance to turn this into what can legitimately be called a successful season. But regardless of what happens next week, everyone associated with the team today should be proud. Great game!

Anonymous said...

huge win! Team showed a lot of heart bouncing back from last week. That speaks volumes on both the player's and coaches" character. Great job.

Anonymous said...

What a great second half. All the puzzle pieces came together. Our defense was magnificent. Martin, Murphy, Lee, Patterson and Padilla were all over Cornell. Waller, East and Olinger played the linebacker position to perfection. Our defensive backs never got beat and were hitting fiercely. On offense, Garrett was sensational, Brackett did everything right, the wide receivers were amazing, and the offensive line was very, very good, particularly the center, who hasn't made a bad snap all season. Also, how about that long kickoff return by the freshman, Trevor Bell. And the two long field goals by Luke Eddy were beauts.

Anonymous said...

Lion58 is right. Our coaching staff graded A+ today, particularly the defensive coaches. Our defense was all over Matthews and the secondary was outstanding.

oldlion said...

One more thought that may have gotten lost in the shuffle. I never realized that Garrett had breakaway speed. When he broke out in the clear he outran the entire Cornell secondary, including the fast freshman corner who picked Brackett yesterday. Give him some blocking like yesterday and he will be a good bet next year to challenge the J. Reese single season rushing record.