Wet n' Mild

Yale QB Morgan Roberts had a mostly easy day


Yale 25 Columbia 7


Why Yale Won

The Elis didn't score all that much, but the Yale offense moved the ball at will. The Bulldogs cranked out 586 yards, 319 of them on the ground. The defense held Columbia to a measly 11 1st downs and had four takeaways.


Why Columbia Lost

The Lions defense was pushed around most of the day, and only seemed to show up when Yale got closer to the CU end zone. The offense only generated 53 net yards rushing and completed less than 40% of its passes.


Key Turning Points

-Yale's opening drive seemed to be stalling as the Elis faced a 3rd and 5 at the Columbia 27. Then, Tyler Varga ran through the CU defense like Swiss cheese for 26 yards and then he went in for the one-yard score on the very next play.

-Late in the 1st quarter with Yale leading 6-0, a Cameron Nizialek punt pinned the Elis down at their own 2.  But the Elis just laughed at the long field and drove the 98 yards for a score on 12 plays. On the drive, Yale faced 3rd down only twice.


Columbia Positives

-The defense made some decent plays against the Yale pass, albeit in the rainy/windy weather. I was particularly impressed by the play of freshman DB Devin Williams, who showed excellent timing and judgment in pass coverage.

-Williams' fellow freshman, LB Alexander Holme, had some flashes of brilliance as well with an exclamation point sack and another TFL to go along with it.

Columbia Negatives

-There seems to be a genuine aversion to actually catching the ball. The number of passes dropped Saturday was seemingly infinite. And if the rain was the reason why, Yale was somehow immune. One interval during the game exemplified that in a big way. After Cameron Molina dropped what would have been a 1st down pass on 4th and 4 from the Yale 24, Yale's Leo Haenni hauled in a 25-yard pass with ONE HAND on the very next play.

-Molina did have some decent running gains 3-4 times during the game, especially running out of a two-back set. But that formation, and running plays in general, were basically abandoned a little too early considering the success Columbia was having with them.

-Trevor McDonagh is doing his best, but some of his four picks Saturday were just bad.

-Yale easily won without really needing to try all that hard. Varga wasn't completely pulled from the game until very late, but it was limited duty when he could have easily gone for a lot more carries and yards.

-The Columbia DB's line up way too far off the ball on just about every play. It's maddening how easy it is to get a guaranteed five yards at least against our defense simply by flipping the ball to the outside receiver near the sidelines. Yale took advantage of that set up countless times. Nobody on the CU coaching staff seems to notice.

Columbia MVP

-Devin Williams and Alexander Holmes can share the "honor" this week.


Lessons Learned

Columbia has now lost 18 straight and the local news media is starting to notice. As I said in a comment yesterday, every sports report Saturday afternoon on 1010 WINS and Newsradio 880 mentioned the Columbia score and the current streak. They almost never do any Columbia or Ivy scores. Now we can that if Columbia loses its 20th in row when the Lions take on Cornell on 11/15 there will be some more attention.

This could actually be a good thing, as I believe the embarrassment factor will finally play a role in getting the administration to try harder regarding football. Thus, the chances would be a lot slimmer that Dianne Murphy or any kind of interim A.D. would be allowed to get away with conducting another sham of a "search process" for a new coach like she did in hiring Pete Mangurian.

Sunshine is often the best disinfectant, and putting more sunshine on the hiring process after Mangurian is let go in 20 days will be a positive.