Off the Mat

Columbia 42 Brown 20


Why Columbia Won

The Lions shook off three big-play Brown TDs in the first half and used a dominant 2nd half to pull away from the host Bears. Senior WR Kyle Castner had a career day playing several snaps as a wildcat QB in addition to his receiving duties. The Columbia defense registered a team record 10 sacks.

Why Brown Lost

The Bears had just six 1st downs on offense, and allowed 515 yards on defense. Other than three big plays for scores in the 1st half, Brown had no answers on either side of the ball.

Key Turning Points

-After Brown scored on a long pass to take a 14-0 lead with 1:37 left in the 1st quarter, Columbia came right back with a Ty Lenhart to Ronald Smith pass that went for 48 yards and set the Lions up at the Bear 27.  Six plays later, Castner found TE Rory Schlageter with a two yard TD pass and the Lions were finally in the game.

-Leading 20-14 at the start of the 2nd half, Brown got the ball first in the 3rd quarter, got one 1st down, but then had to punt after an Ogonna Oraedu sack pinned them back at their own 26. The ensuing punt went just 27 yards to the CU 47, and five plays later the Lions scored on a Castner two-yard run to take the lead for good.

Columbia Positives

-Castner had shown a good ability to excel at the wildcat role on a few given plays this year, but he was even better doing the double duty throughout this game.

-The freshman QB Lenhart had a fantastic game in his second start, completing 28 of 42 passes for 298 yards and only throwing one near interception. Lenhart could well be developing into a high quality passer.

-The Lion pass rush was stifling in the 2nd half, led by DL Daniel DeLorenzi's 2.5 sacks. DeLorenzi now holds the CU record for sacks in a single season with one more game to play.

-WR Ronald Smith finally looked 100% healthy for the first time since perhaps week two. His 112 yards receiving on nine catches made Columbia's offense much harder to defend.

-While only averaging 3.6 yards a carry, RB Ryan Young still had a standout game and showed a great ability to shed tacklers.

Columbia Negatives

-The big plays allowed in the 1st half clearly had Head Coach Al Bagnoli infuriated, as it looked like the Lions were repeating all the same mistakes they made against Harvard.

Columbia MVP

-Kyle Castner is the easy choice here as his performance yesterday was one of the great individual efforts in Columbia history.