Penn 42 Columbia 7
Why Penn Won
The Quakers quickly identified Columbia's weaknesses and cashed in as much as possible on the many Lion mistakes. Penn QB Alek Torgerson was a quiet assassin going 19-29 for 270 and three TD's with no picks.
Why Columbia Lost
After a crisp start to the game, the Lions made mistake after mistake. All four Columbia turnovers were turned into Penn TD's.
Key Turning Points
-Leading 7-0 and taking over after a Penn three-and-out, WR Scooter Hollis fumbled as he was being wrapped up and the Quakers recovered at the Columbia 21. It did look like Hollis was already down when the fumble was called, but it was a bad looking play from the start. Two plays later it was 7-7 and the Lions momentum was gone.
-With Penn leading 14-7 midway through the 2nd quarter, Columbia punter Cameron Nizialek mishandled the snap and was tackled at the CU 13. Two plays later it was 21-7 and the game was effectively over.
Columbia Positives
-The Lions showed some flashes running the ball, but that's about it.
Columbia Negatives
-The Lions played like they were afraid of the ball at times, and were regularly beaten on the same kinds of plays time after time.
Columbia MVP
Solely based on his tough grab of the TD pass for the Lions lone score, I give it to WR Cameron Dunn.
Lessons Learned?
We still have a long way to go, and Penn is a better team than most people thought as well.
8 comments:
BTW, Sophomore D-lineman Dominic Perkovic was the John Toner Homecoming Player of the game with a forced fumble and 5 tackles on the day.
Now that I have had an entire night to reflect on the loss I would attribute it to a complete absence of pressure on the Penn QB (who was missing a lot of throws to wide open receivers, or else it could have been worse, terrible DB play, and a complete inability of the OL either to protect the QB or to provide a running game. Combine that with incompetent play from our long snapper, a couple of really bad penalties plus one disastrous call, and a few turnovers and the result is predictable. So where does Al go from here to get these guys to rebound?
PS, I also think it was Perkovic who was nailed for a 15 yard penalty for unnecessary roughness which was a killer at the time.
It was 42-7 early in the 3rd quarter, and Ilya, who's doing "The Season," asked me who I'd recommend he speak to next. I suggested Roar-ee, whose sum-up of yesterday's debacle would surely be as valuable as anyone else's.
As it happens, by the way (my daughter first noted this to me), the Detroit Lions also have their own "Roary." He came after ours. But has had better football luck through the years. As has the Carolina Panthers' own "Sir Purr," who in fact also comes with a spouse and cubs. When the game is as bad as yesterday's was, one's thoughts often turn to mascots, I fear.
I took notice also of the "summer soldiers and sunshine patriots" (thank you, Citizen Tom Paine) who left during halftime. Our time is still coming, folks. As the Mets proved again last night, retaining belief is fine.
Penn was bigger, stronger, faster, and ready to play- end of story.
I wouldn't put any of this on the punter. He had 2 very low snaps and handled them both; actually getting one off while running away from tacklers which went for about 40 yards with the roll. The third snap was way off to his right, and resulted in Penn deep in our territory and scoring. The center needs to improve.
As far as the rest of the game, it was a bizarro version of Wagner. We aren't that bad, and we'll come back.
It's a shame, as Columbia did have one big win yesterday, in attendance.
The Ivy away games were small - Dartmouth played before barely 2,000 at Central Conn., Cornell lost before 4,500 at Sacred Heart, 7,100 at Lafayette watched Harvard beat them up, while Maine had 7,350 hosting Yale. Brown had 6,800 for the Princeton game in the only other Ivy home game.
Columbia crushed them all with attendance of 12,098. Twelve thousand! That's more than double the Georgetown home opener attendance and nearly four times the pitiful Wagner night game crowd.
I continue to be impressed by Columbia homecoming each year. One of the best in the league. Just need to get the W's to really see it blow up.
We were sufficiently awful so that nobody made the honor role, except of course the Penn WR who was rookie of the week.
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