Columbia 31 Brown 24 (OT)
Why Columbia Won
The Lion passing game was lethal, led by a career day for starting QB Caden Bell. The defense forced turnovers in bunches, overcame a shaky 2nd half, and then came up big in the third act overtime session to seal the win.
Why Brown Lost
The Bears offense turned the ball over way too many times, and the defense never got on steady enough ground to help.
Key Turning Points
-After both offenses failed to move the ball throughout most of the 1st quarter, the Lions got their second turnover of the game just before the end of the quarter when DE Justin Townsend fell on a muffed Brown handoff at the CU 42. Three plays later on 3rd and 8 from their own 44, the Lions got their first 1st down of the game on the last play of the quarter with a 26-yard Bell pass to WR WR Bryson Canty to the Brown 30. On the first play of the 2nd quarter, Bell found Canty again over the middle and into the end zone for a 7-0 lead.
-The Bears got one 1st down on their ensuing possession, but then had to punt from their 45 and only got a 15-yard boot to the CU 40. On the first play from scrimmage after that punt, RB Joey Giorgi cut free along the road sideline for a 60-yard TD and a 14-0 lead.
-Now leading 21-0 with 6:45 left in the half, a freak deflection of a Bell pass in the middle of the field led to a Brown interception and their possession at the CU 36. Now inserting their third QB of the game onto the field, sophomore Will Jarvis led the Bears on a seven-play TD drive to get Brown back into the equation and down 21-7.
-With the score still 21-7 and under a minute left in the half, Columbia had a chance to snatch the momentum back when LB Scott Valentas got his second interception of the game, but fumbled the ball away during the runback. That negated what would have likely been a CU FG attempt.
-Now leading by just 21-14, Lion DB Fara'ad McCombs got his second interception of the game on the second play of the 4th quarter to set up the Lions with a 1st and goal at the 10. But Columbia only went backwards and was forced to settle for a 41 yard FG into the winf from PK Alex Felkins and a 24-14 lead.
-Brown took less than five minutes to answer with a 96-yard TD drive on its ensuing possession to make it 24-21. Then a long drive by the Lions ended with no points on an incomplete pass into the end zone by Bell to a well-covered Canty on 4th and 4 from the Bear 17. It looked like Brown was going to respond with a game winning 83-yard TD drive, but on 2nd and 9 from the Columbia 18 and 30 seconds left, LB CJ Brown tackled Bear RB Allen Smith on a pass play for a two-yard loss, and on the next play, Valentas stopped Smith on another pass play just three yards shy of the 1st down. The Bears had to settle for FG that tied the game and sent it to OT.
-Columbia got the ball first in overtime and needed two clutch plays to take the lead. On 3rd and 11 from the 26, Bell found WR Marcus Libman just inside the numbers for a 17-yard gain. Three plays later on 3rd and goal from the four, Bell waited for Libman to get open and took a hard hit he knew was coming from Brown star LB Junior Gafa and still got the ball into him for the TD.
-On Brown's OT possession, it came down to a 4th and 6 from the 19, and Valentas made a nice play to break up a pass to star Bear WR Wes Rockett to ice the win.
Columbia Positives
-Bell had a spectacular day, with his one interception not entirely his fault because of the fluky deflection. It's clear he has all the tools to be a top QB in the Ivies. It's up to him now whether next week's game will be his last or if he exercises his COVID 5th year senior option and comes back for 2023.
-On top of his clutch catch in OT, Libman had a career day highlighted by his 80-yard TD catch, run, and tightrope act along the Brown sideline. The expected lethal nature of both Canty and Libman as dual threat receivers finally came to fruition Saturday.
-The Lions had their second straight game of solid punting. Punter William Hughes seems to be a big part of the answer.
-Columbia did give up two sacks for minimal yards lost, but the offensive line protected Bell extremely well throughout the day. The run blocking was not as strong, but there were still some great runs on the day as well.
Columbia Negatives
-The Lions gave up far too many rushing yards and big plays when Brown needed them.
-Columbia batted a number of passes down at the line again, but did not register a sack.
-Allowing Brown to crawl back into the game after the Lions went ahead 21-0 was bad, but not a disgrace considering Saturday's game trajectory was all too similar to every home game the Bears have played all season.
Columbia MVP
It's always a good thing when multiple Lions can make a strong case for the MVP nod. Libman, Valentas, Giorgi, and McCombs can all make that case. But in the end, it was QB Caden Bell who did the most to lead Columbia to victory.
27 comments:
Good recap, thanks Jake. I was disappointed we let Brown back into the game but they played better at home all year than on the road, and their hurry-up offense seemed to wear us down.
Bell is a terrific player - definitely a capable starter. The TD to Libman in OT was outstanding, a great QB play. Not a satisfying season, but a chance to finish with three wins in a row and a winning record. That's better than game 10 of most of the past 40 seasons.
Excellent summary. I think the hurry up Brown offense takes its toll on the defense in the 4th Q. Our linemen looked gassed to me by then.
I was taught early on that every college team needs three very good quarterbacks going into the season if it intends to compete strongly for its league championship. In that regard, obviously our coaching staff needs to do everything it can to secure Caden Bell's return for the 2023 Championship Season
When I began playing football at CU many years ago I became so depressed by the experience that I stopped going to class and was suspended from school for a year. Fortunately, I did return and graduated. I even became a high school head football coach with a winning record. Columbia helped because that's where I learned how not to coach football.
I'm writing to declare that Bagnoli is absolutely the best football coach ever at Columbia. Many of them have been completely incompetent, but even those who were technically sound -- Navarro, for instance -- couldn't put together winning seasons or even .500 seasons with all the challenges that coaching football at Columbia presents. There's absolutely no doubt about Bagnoli's stature. I'm confident everyone agrees with me.
Al is a great coach who saved our program.
Agree with the above. Sure we had a rough stretch in the middle of the season but we bounced back the last two weeks t with two ivy league road wins something most prior Columbia teams would not have done. As a result, we are playing for our fourth winning season in five years! Not bad for a program that had three winning in the 50 years before Al arrived. And when Al arrived we had come off two straight zero win seasons. I will take the last five seasons over any five year period since i have been following which goes back tp 1971!
Why was he pushed out of Penn? Sub .500 here in 7? Mid packer whose time is up....Look ahead not back.. Thanks though for making us competitive
Please be respectful, he wasn’t pushed out. He retired on his terms. He was gracious enough to come to Columbia. He realized he still wanted to coach be thankful
He was not pushed out. He retired and quickly realized he wasn't happy retired. This happens to a lot of successful professionals, and it's no joke because the ones not as lucky as Bagnoli to get back into work often end up with severe depression. Anyway, while he was being interviewed for the AD job, Peter Pilling learned of Bagnoli's unhappiness via a mutual friend and Pilling nailed his new job by delivering Bagnoli.
Not ready to throw Bagnoli under the bus, and definitely on the Bell bandwagon!
I was at the Yale Bowl on Saturday and watched the Tigers get pushed around by Yale. No ability to stop the run, lots of penalties and mistakes. It was a miracle they were still in the game up to the very last play.
Princeton is not going to beat Penn. The four-way title is happening.
Johnny’s dad is upset with his playing time
Re the slum earlier in the year: we were got moving the ball on offense; Green was injured (not sure how long he was playing hurt); we moved to a new QB in Bell who needed to get acclimated to the role; he has played great ball for the last few weeks. And Al did retire on his own terms from Penn; he wa given a job in administration and quickly became bored. Peter knew the Villanova coach, and in asking him for advice he told Peter that Al was bored and might come back. Once Al got the commitments he wanted he was in the fold.
Meant slump, not slum
And not moving the ball, not got moving the ball—I’ll start proof reading more carefully
Al has done an amazing job and still, this year is a little disappointing. Probably I and others underestimated the impact of so many coaching changes last winter, and I think it is fair to wonder whether Green played hurt for a couple of weeks. In hindsight, Bell is very capable and might've helped. I would like to watch the Lions compete for an Ivy championship and think criticism that Al was slow to address special teams is valid. But this is a healthy program.
As an aside, to Inwood Tiger: I enjoy your posts but come on. Yale is a good team with an explosive offense. They've improved every week and you had to play them away. You lost by 4. Penn is not that good and you play them at home with a title on the line. Princeton will win.
We outplayed Yale and Princeton in the first half of each game but could not sustain the effort and made some key gaffes. Penn outplayed us all the way. Dartmouth was painful. Truly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
I doubt it was because I said it, but the fact that we looked poorly coached in the middle of this season must have been said and thought by people who mattered. The last two weeks have been devoid of the truly painful errors like muffed punts that shouldn't be touched, blocked punts, killer penalties (fairly called), etc. Bagnoli and the staff tightened the ship.
Yes, Bell played well against Brown but so does every other QB who plays against Brown. And if you don't have a career day against Brown, well, then you are not very good. Brown either doesn't or can't rush the passer. Thus, any half way decent QB is going to look like Tom Brady when they play Brown. Not to take anything away from Bell, but when you are razor sharp against Brown, it basically says nothing. Sorry.
Not sure why there is so much shade being thrown at Bell? From what I've seen, this kid can sling it. Yes, he double clutches at times, and he misses a few reads/passes, but his extra weapons are his legs. I hope he comes back for another year. Green is a pocket passer, which is great if the O-Line can create a pocket. Don't get me wrong, the O-Line has played well this season, but they have been pours at times and struggled getting critical 1-3 yards when it mattered (and suffered in the Red Zone).
Cornell is a wildcard game. Archer's contract has not been renewed and their AD is retiring at the end of this year. That means that at 26-63 Archer is on the hot seat. Currently, Cornell is 5-4. If they win this weekend, Archer can make a case that they are showing progress. If they lose, he's a memory. There is a lot on the line and nothing to lose so I expect Cornell to play an unconventional game.
Let’s not spot Cornell a few early scores as we had done in prior games.
Bell has been excellent. No one would argue Brown is a good defense, but other than a major face plant v Yale, they gave up 35 to Harvard and Princeton and 38 to URI. They beat Penn.
They gave up 45 or more seven times last year and once this year. And when you consider how fast the offense plays, they're inherently going to be in high-scoring games.
I would certainly take Bell over a couple of other Ivy starters, and he was 3rd on our depth chart until Hollingsworth transferred. That speaks well of our program. It says even more about him that he worked hard for four years even though it was unlikely he would ever play. If he does play next year, I'd love to see him in the old Lenhart role, running more QB draws. He can make plays.
Forget running more draws! Not in the play book..Short short passes are featured.
I’m glad we scrapped the house cat. It only took us eight games! But I don’t think we’ll see any QB draws on offense anytime soon, no matter how successfully teams like Princeton and Penn use it against us.
WILDCAT needs the right personnel to succeed. Before this year we used it successfully.
I agree that the house cat has no chance of working with the wrong personnel. But the bigger issue was how utterly predictable it was, at least when we ran it. Invariably the whole stadium knew what was coming before the snap.
🤣 agree
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