Well before this season started, Columbia fans circled the home opener against Georgetown as the most winnable game of 2015. Now that the Lions have one game under their belts and Georgetown has three, that hasn't changed... but there are some changes to the way the Hoyas look now compared to preseason expectations.
Offense
The Hoyas like to pass the ball and senior QB Kyle Nolan can be a great weapon at 6-6 and 235 pounds. But he's inconsistent, (if he weren't he'd be playing at a huge program with his size), and the reasons he passes so much most of the time is because Georgetown's running game isn't strong enough inside.
That said, primary RB Jo'el Kimpela is a talented senior with a good number of 100-yard games on his record against teams like Brown and Fordham last year.
The biggest potential challenge for Columbia's still-developing pass defense will probably be junior WR Justin Hill, who had 108 receiving yards against Dartmouth last week.
The good news is the GU O-line is suspect. The Hoyas will not have a chance to win the game Saturday if it doesn't improve its blocking up front. Having to pass 40+ times per game with a weak O-line is a bad combination.
Defense
The 1-2 Hoyas seem to induce a lot of mistakes from opposing offenses, but perhaps that's just a product of early season jitters. Right now, Georgetown is doing a better job against the pass than the run. That's because of some very good linebackers and safeties who work well together. They made Dartmouth QB Dalyn Williams look a little lost last week at times, but still didn't get him to make a huge mistake.
One of the best players overall for the D has been junior LB Leo Loughery, who's making a lot of tackles and also breaking up passes. Senior LB Matt Satchell is the other part of that strong 1-2 punch at linebacker that Columbia needs to be ready to counter.
Special Teams
Kicker Henry Darmstadter has been perfect on all his kicks this season. Punter Harry McCollum has been booming his kicks, but often out-kicking his coverage. Kickoff specialist Ben Priddy doesn't have endzone distance and could provide some opportunities for the explosive Alan Watson. GU's punt and kick returners are somewhat dangerous at times, but haven't exploded for a big one yet.
20 comments:
Hey Jake,
Sorry to bother you with another spread question, but do you know the line on the Georgetown game? Also, would you mind sharing that website? I'm struggling to find lines of Lions games.
Thanks!
Scott
I just saw Georgetown is favored by 6 points. The site I use is 5dimes.com
Is our starting center Flores out for the year?
I think so. Broken foot.
The spread for ANY Columbia football or men's basketball game is always in the NY post, folks,
Which I see as another reason to thank God for Rupert Murdoch and his band of merry men and women.
Jake, what about Hagen Patterson?
We are a better football team than Georgetown, and should be favored. Georgetown is stronger at just a few positions. We should put 24-30 on the board against Georgetown- they can't match us.
Richard S.,
Thank you for fighting for sanity in the USA. A by-product might be a winning Columbia football team.
This is a MUST win game to reset the direction of the program. Get out of the dirt and the losing momentum and conquer the ivy league. Every team except Dartmouth and Harvard is on even terms.
Thanks!
GU is favored by 6. I thinks thats hilarious. Id say CU by at least 2 tds having seen GU this yr. If Lions lose this, the team will be devasted and hence a long a yr
One caution re the growing optiism re this Saturday's game: the monastic order which runs Georgetown is on an emotional high this week. A sort of "Win one for both Pope Francis and Ignatius of Loyola" approach. (And after several lengthy suspensions by angry mo archs, too.) Will it seep down> I kind of doubt it, but still.....
Personally, I;m still wondering why the Pontiff had to time things, especially the nice-nice sessions with Obama, to coincide with Yom Kippur. They don't have any other sort of calendar at the Vatican than one which lists saints' feast days? I suppose we should all be grateful His Holiness won't be in the visitors' stands Saturday.
We should consider that Georgetown racked up more yards of offense than Dartmouth last week. They have the ability to move the ball. They scored twice on the Green, So my sense is they will score three times on us and therefore we need to score at least 24 points to win this thing.
We should not take Georgetown lightly. Last year they beat Brown 17-3, that should say enough.
G-town racked up yards against Marist which is no great feat.
It will be an interesting test regardless. I hope they play up to potential. We have a DI QB and that should be the difference right there.
Actually, I stand corrected. G-town tallied 331 yards in offense against Dartmouth. 308 of which were passing yards yet only 10 points to show for it. I did not see the game so I don't know the details except the recap. 53 passing attempts by the Gtown QB so they like to throw. Dartmouth converted on turnovers and special teams to break open a close game in the first quarter.
Gtown is not bad at all as evidenced by their progress last season in some games. I still think this is a must win game for CU.
My Completely unqualified, never played the game, really far away, have no inside track prediction:
Lions 24 Hoyas 20 (come from behind win)
Any changes in the two deep? Did we come out of Fordham rlatively intact? Any injured guys coming back? Big question for me is on pass defense. Can we avoid the breakdowns in coverage and technique from our DBs which were prevalent in the Fordham game, especially on third down? Also, we are better off with a four man front on passing downs, since we give the QB too much time when we only rush three.
Old Lion: I always enjoy your comments on our football team and appreciate your insights but you've been complaining about our pass coverage technique for years. Unfortunately, our inability to cover good receivers may be more about athleticism than coaching. We tend to play soft coverage because we can't let WRs get behind us or they're gone. I have been at games where the CBs are 7-8 yards off the LOS at the snap. I wonder if the best thing we do for pass coverage is blitz a lot.
Dear Roar, if you are watching the Giant game tonight you would have seen what I mean. Landon Collins was beaten by a step on a go pattern by #86 but knew when to turn and play the ball. He played it to perfection and knocked the ball away because he instinctively knew when to turn and play the ball. Had he not done so it would have been a sure Washington TD
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