Columbia 24 Wagner 6
Why Columbia Won
Columbia's running attacked exploded out of the gate, netting the Lions a four-score lead midway through the 2nd quarter. The defense held just firmly enough throughout the day, notably with key 4th down stops and turnovers, to keep Wagner from ever seriously getting into the game
Why Wagner Lost
The Seahawks took too long to slow down the Lion offense, and the offense only finished one drive with a score. Throw in two turnovers and some costly penalties, and Wagner never had a chance.
Key Turning Points
-Testing the Seahawk run defense was clearly at the top of the CU agenda, and on the very first possession of the game the Lions got right to it. 66 of the 75 yards on that initial Columbia TD drive were on the ground; capped off by a 22-yard TD run by RB Joey Giorgi.
-Early in the 2nd quarter with Columbia now up 21-0, Wagner went for it on a 4th and 1 from its 25 yard line, and DL's Josh Powell and Ben Corniello combined to stop RB Andre Hines in his tracks for the turnover on downs. The Lions cashed in on the great field position with a FG and a 24-0 lead.
-With the score 24-6 to start the 3rd quarter, Wagner looked to get into the game for real and drive to the CU 46 before electing to go for it again on 4th and 3. This time, Seahawk QB Jake Cady misfired on a pass attempt and Wagner's best chance to make it a game was lost.
Columbia Positives
-The Columbia rushing attack was stellar again; putting up 228 yards, 5.6 yards per carry, and two TD's.
-For the second week in a row, the Lions did not commit a turnover.
-The CU defense racked up seven tackles for a loss, three of them from junior LB Jack Smiechowski.
Columbia Negatives
-The Lions clearly took their feet off the gas pedal after going up 24-0; but that will matter little if the team comes out fired up next week at Penn,
-QB Chase Goodwin was not as accurate in this game, but he still had a TD pass, not interceptions, and avoided the big mistakes.
Columbia MVP
-RB Joey Giorgi punished the Seahawks from the get-go, and finished with 111 yards rushing. Giorgi now has 406 rushing yards on the season, putting him on a 1,000-yard pace.
80 comments:
I’d like to nominate punter William Hughes as player of game. Three second half punts inside the 20 kept field position advantage throughout
Penn? Wishful thinking Jake.
In the second half, when our "O" seemed completely flat, the "D" stayed stout. Brebner made a bunch of solid tackles that seemed to deflate Wagner's hopes of making it a game.
BTW, Georgetown 17 Lafayette 0
Puts some of our previous results in perspective. Maybe Lafayette wasn't that good and Gtown not nearly as bad as advertised.
A few Sunday morning reflections: this is a case of taking the foot off the gas once we went up 24-0 over the first 18 minutes; the offense looked flat for the last 42 minutes; where was Canty (he got into the game but was invisible); is Schiechowski now the #1 rover, ahead of Brown; it looked to me as if we made a switch somewhere on the OL (left tackle?); we didn’t open up the playbook and have some surprises for Penn, to be sure; how will we replace JT in our 3rd down package?; our corners seem to be giving up too much of a cushion and appear to be giving up the 8 yard passes to the sideline; McFadden takes too much criticism and deserves more credit as a ballhawk; it seems clear to me that our defensive philosophy is to take away the run game and force teams to challenge us in the air.
Looks to me like the O line doesn't get enough credit. I think that Seitu got the lead and din't want to show Penn much of anything. I think that when Wagner made the run more difficult by stuffing the box in half two, we should have used some quick slants and passed more. Seitu decided to clock it instead. Good decision? Every game the opponent sees Mc Fadden as the weak link. I think that he is afraid of getting beat deep so gives his man too much room. How about mixing it for him? Bump and run at times with safety help and better still, not starting him.
McFadden is an excellent athlete—ballhawk, punt returner, but plays a soft man coverage. I have to assume that he is being coached to play soft. Poppe is like a second DB coach and knows what he has in McFadden. We haven’t had a true shout down corner since the great Cameron Roane graduated. But neither does anybody else in the IL. The bigger mystery is why the very excellent Bryson Canty was not part of the game plan—saving him for Penn?
Meant shut down corner
Looking for early assessment of Penn; we could have/should have taken them last year but didn’t stop the final drive. This year we are better (although losing JT is huge); how do we assess Penn?
Mercer over Princeton... Usually hate the south and it's teams BUT!
Are you one of Poppe’s “fanboys”? If so, why would such a great coach - one with DB position group experience no less - continue to not only utilize a corner but keep him on an island with virtually no safety help for 4 straight games?
Could the answer be that #23 is actually pretty durn good (as the great Coach Prime would say) and giving up 5 yard outs is fine as far as overall defensive strategy is concerned. Just under 16 points surrendered per game is good. Might be top 25 in FCS good
Our starting tight end, the 6'5" 245 sophomore, Braden Dougherty is a tremendous weapon--has great speed, size and pass-catching ability.
Jack Smiechowski, the 6'1" 205 junior linebacker, led the team on dedfense with five tackles. FYI, Jack is the grandson of Tom O'Connor, Class of 1963, one of Columbia's best football players ever.
Credit to the running backs coach for a job well done. Joe Giorgi, Malcom Terry and Griffin Johnson all looked sharp yesterday. Nice to see Johnson score a TD.
Columbia has some nice depth at linebacker with guys like Riley, Newton and Donagher.
Ok Robert. This isn’t Montgomery high school ball anymore. I believe Poppe knows what he is doing
Your commentary would suggest otherwise
Btw Columbia ranked #6 in FCS scoring defense; top 10 in red zone defense. Coach Sto aint so bad either
Schiechowski is still backup at OLB. Saving CJ Brown for Ivy slate. Canty still hurt (hammy).
Columbia may be 3-1 but it’s an inflated record. Lafayette way over-rated and Princeton not close to levels of past 5yrs. Wagner not a bad team but would argue we underperformed and it was clear the team was going thru the motions in second half. Reckoning coming this next game vs Penn.
Very simply, if Columbia defeats Penn and Dartmouth the Lions are likely to win the 2024 Ivy League Championship.
Settle down, Slick.
We are likely to beat Cornell and Brown. That gives us a look at 5-5. Everything else is gravy. Penn can be a win and with luck one more. 6--4 or 7-3 . Not a bad year one.
Let me comment on the rather negative post that our three wins are overvalued. Please give me a season with an untested QB and a new coach and O coordinator with an all-new scheme (and several very young in experience assistants) where we start off the season with a win in three of our games in convincing fashion--so no one has any doubt who won and why--and one road loss by 3 where the game was contested to the last second with the outcome in doubt...ANY TIME. What these young men and their terrific coach and staff have achieved thus far, however the rest of the season unfolds, deserves the highest of accolades, especially for this fan who has followed the team for 50 years. Are you kidding me?? Bring on the rest of the IL! And wait until Poppe gets a chance to recruit and build on this start.
Beautifully stated. Response was necessary to the “glass half full” clown. These forums are always going to draw negativity and pessimism. I’ve been going to Baker Field, yes, Baker Field for 60 years. Dad took me to games even early on plus hoops in the McMillian/Dotsen years. I have hopes, of course, but not overly optimistic. I recognize the challenge next week at Franklin Field. But we are in the running. Can you imagine the crowd Wien Stadium for Homecoming if we topple Penn. We should celebrate the hard work and the very positive and enthusiastic culture of our team this year. And the 3-1 start.
There is no getting away from the fact that the score for most of the game (the last 42 minutes) was Wagner 6 and Lions 0. Except for the two interceptions, the score might have been 24 to 20 or 22. During all four games this season, the opposing quarterbacks have been given too much time. Passing rushing has been poor and QB sacks have almost been non-existent.
Please see above. #6 nationally scoring defense. I think our rushing yards per game on offense also in top 10 or 15. Great performance so far on both sides
However, we could be undersogs in each of next 5 games (Brown beat H and Gtown by 14). Penn’s short passing game will test our defense. I think the Offense will need to win this one.
Offense is 11th in FCS in rushing offense
Yes. Reminds me of Painton
As far as the negativity, Poppe has said on Coach’s Corner that his philosophy is first to stop the run. That is what we have managed to do YTD. And let’s be honest, as far as Wagner, we basically started running out the clock with 42 minutes left to go, not deliberately but subconsciously our guys were already on the bus getting ready to leave Staten Island. The coaches know about let downs (see, e.g., the Georgetown game).
Did not know that. Thanks Greg
agree. the jury is still out.
Georgetown game wasn't a letdown. They are flat out better than us.
Bull shit. They lost to Sacred Heart 40-14. Teams have good weeks and bad weeks. They’re not “flat out” better. You succeeded in getting a reply to your silly comment. Even without our first string quarterback, we should have beaten Georgetown.
Ready to get on the bus after 18 mins? If that's true, that's a horrible mindset. I don't really think that's true but that's not what you want to see any team do.
The next 2 teams up are better than anyone we've played thus far.
Very astute. You might even argue that the next four teams on our schedule are better than anyone we have played to date. One game at a time. For those of you who have ESPN+, I encourage you to view some chunks of the Dartmouth Yale game. It was very entertaining, but really a comedy of errors. Multiple unforced errors. A very impressive comeback by Dartmouth trailing 30 to 7, or a total meltdown by the Yale defense. Yale had the call but failed to execute the PAT in OT. I got to wondering how good these two are supposed to be.
You are a Penn interloper hanging out on this blog. We looked past Georgetown and took the game for granted.
I wish that Jake would use his editor’s discretion and remove obvious Lion haters (in some cases Penn guys who hang out on this blog)
you must be a democrat
Why won't T Rump release his medical records?
Let’s get back on track. How about that Dartmouth Yale game. Fumbles, bad snaps, missed FG’s, 80+ points. How good are these two? Dartmouth escaped. Yale defense lousy? Yale already out of contention?
Penn, Penn, Penn.
Penn will be favored by a TD in this next game. If we win this one, then we shall see. Lions generally don’t play well at Franklin Field. Lots of Kool-Aide on this blog…
Penn not going to be favored by a touchdown—that’s too much for a team that’s 2-2 and that has already lost a game in conference. (And we’re 3-1). I would expect the opening line to be somewhere between -3 and -5 for Penn. I’d say likely Penn -3.5 or thereabouts to open.
Letting the clock run out for 42 minutes makes no sense if indeed that was the strategy. Risking injuring the starters and not having the back ups get game experience was silly. Perhaps the truth is that we just were unable to move the ball and score.
Penn deserves to lose; worst fans in the league, by far.
I second that emotion about Penn fans! Let's not forget that beating Princeton was sooooo sweet AND the start of a new era, beating them every year! If only we had a different hoops coach we could do that on the hardwood too! Engles must go!
Joey Giorgi will at least earn honorable mention this week with 100+ again. Penn at home will be favored by more than 3 - 3.5 points, but we shall see. Huge game for us before Homecoming which will have 12K+. Hope several of you are right that we were holding back against Wagner. Of course, there's plenty for opposition to see via film from previous games.
I don't dislike Penn as much as a few of you do....although we likely have an imposter on this blog who's probably a Penn plant. But....their 3 point loss to Dartmouth on the road and very competitive game at Delaware (maybe best team on all Ivy schedules this season) suggests they are very much in the running. So the two losses to date don't represent weakness going in to a home game against our 3-1 Lions.
Wonder who the Penn plant is. He should adopt the not-so-clever nom de plume Fen Branklin. The game in Philly is going to be tough, but let’s not underestimate the amount of parity there is in the league this year. I think the game will be very close, but I see us winning by a field goal or so. Right now, I’m of the opinion that people are too fixated on our underperformance against Wagner (and we did still win by 18, folks). So my take is that we’re a bit undervalued and Penn is a bit overvalued. I expect that we’ll be around fifth in the new power rankings, and Penn will be second or third. That changes with a CU win on Saturday, obviously. Could we lose? Of course, but I think either way, it’ll be a tight game, and we’ll play a much cleaner game (more focus, better throws, better coverage on D, etc). Obviously we’ll be in trouble if we don’t get more pressure on the Penn QB. Just Sayin’.
Agree 100%. Add to all the above that Penn’s offensive system makes them a bad matchup for our defense. A win will require a great effort by all 3 phases (anyone remember the beginnings of our 2022 punting woes in Phila?)
It can be done. We will know a lot more about our team after this game
There was a pathological Penn fan/Columbia hater on voyforums whose nom de guerre was “foehi”. He seems to have disappeared. He really had a thing about us.
Coach Pop was not happy with Hughes. While he put a few inside the 20 he never flipped the field and shanked one. The Wagner punter was their MVP.
We're no longer receiving votes for top 25.
Penn guys don't care about this.
Agree with this
This! Let’s focus on Penn. One week at a time!
This from the same crew that was going to give Fabish an Englesesque lifetime contract after he went 1-6 in his first IL campaign. You can’t make this stuff up.
Not true. We received votes in ncaa coaches poll.
Last week, someone asked about power rankings. I chimed in. So in advance of Jake's official rankings, picks, and analysis, here's my take in an effort to bolster mid-week discussion. If you don't care, please disregard and/or offer something relevant and civil.
1. Dartmouth --- they didn't show up in the 1st half, and Yale didn't show up in the second half. Gutsy call by Reno and it was right there, wide open. They didn't execute. Big Green still stands.
2. Harvard ---- Now on a roll with potent offense. I think they'll beat Dartmouth in a couple weeks.
3. Penn --- They're looking good after tough losses at Dartmouth and Delaware. Malachi Hosley is a handful -- the real deal.
4. Columbia -- This weekend at Franklin will be telling. Haven't yet earned a higher slot in my book with victories over floundering Lafayette and Princeton, and solid but uneventful game at Wagner. Understood we may have been holding back after opening the big lead. Of course, I'm thrilled with 3-1 and the very positive vibe under Coach Poppe and staff.
5. Brown -- Competitive with URI until the 4th qtr. I'll give Bears the edge this week above Yale with Bulldogs having given up 91 points in two Ivy games!
6. Yale --- I think they'll move back up, but they need to earn it. Hard to justify a higher ranking at this stage.
7. Princeton -- Yes, not your usual Tiger team. Following loss to Lions, very difficult road trip to face the new and improved Mercer Bears. Still can't drop them below Cornell.
8. Cornell --- I know they're remote (tough on recruiting?), but gorgeous campus, large student body across multiple schools (from which to draw players), and more. Don't understand why they struggle year after year.
Very solid analysis. I agree with pretty much everything. I’d flip Yale and Brown, but I see what you’re saying there. As the season progresses, I think Brown and Cornell will both land in the bottom tier. I’d say Princeton will be just above them, Yale will climb back, and then you’ll have Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, and Columbia potentially duking it out. I don’t believe we’ll see an undefeated IL champion this year, so it’s going to be interesting. There could be something of a logjam near the top if the top 4-5 beat each other (e.g., Harvard beats Dartmouth, we beat Penn, Penn beats Harvard, Harvard beats us, and so on). Something tells me it’s going to come down to the final weekend. Also, I’m viewing the game in Philly as something of a must-win for us. I predict we play our best ball of the season and take the W, but time will tell. I’ll be at the game on Saturday. I’ve seen plenty of bad losses in Philly, but I’m hoping we’ll turn a corner.
I'm channeling the walk-off OT win in '96 and Ed Backus running off the field in '76 holding the game ball, two of the three games I've attended at Franklin Field. Go Lions!!
I'm also ok with the analysis that was posted by a knowledgable fan. The next two weeks are huge for the Lions. All my impressions of this Lion team so far are favorable and I do believe we can defeat both Penn and Dartmouth. One thing that would be nice is if we could get more Columbia Fans down to Philly this weekend to support the team. As a former Columbia student-athlete I have always wondered why the Athletic Department did not strongly encourage athletes in one sport to support athletes in another sport. Some of the coaches did, but there was no help from the Athletic Administration. Our Interim President, Dr. Katrina Armstrong, is a
wonderful Columbia Football Fan from the Great State of Alabama. I suspect Dr. Armstrong would gladly approve paying for several busses filled with Columbia student athletes, leaving campus early Saturday morning for a Columbia Day in Philadelphia. I do believe that many current Columbia student-athletes and former Columbia student -athletes residing in New York City would love to do that.
I can see all the Columbia sports teams buying into that idea, particularly the spring sports teams such as baseball, softball, track and field, crew, tennis and golf.
Penn uses the Bagnoli/Fabish offense which was devastating in the 90s and even somewhat in the 2000s. Watch out for those 4 yard down and outs or just plain outs, an occasional QB draw, and of course the infamous Bubble Screen! LOAD THE BOX, tighten the corners, ( This means you Mc Fadden). Time for us to keep throwing down field in the good weather
Amen
Columbia Giving Day was down significantly across the University. Athletics did well but I don’t see the administration paying for buses to transport anyone to games. They are watching their pennies…
Nice idea but highly unlikely. They don't go to the home games.
Giving Day was up for athletics. Down overall but up for athletics.
I hope the QB draw isn’t the death of us! Seriously, it seems Penn and Princeton always gash us with it, most often on some super-critical third or fourth down.
good idea about the bus BUT Alabama is not a great state at all but a backward idiotic place filled with T Rump supporters! LOCK HIM UP
Zip it
Zip the zipper
Georgetown flat out better? What game did you watch. We turned the ball over 4 times to Georgetown’s 0 and it was still a last minute 3-point loss. We beat ourselves that game. CU was the better team.
Agree that we gave the Georgetown game away with turnovers plus no Goodwin and no Canty; plus we jumped out to a lead and appeared to take our foot off the gas.
We need all gas, no brakes.
Speaking from very old experience, football more than any other sport requires extreme effort and intensity every moment, unlike baseball or basketball, for example.
I too have seen heartbreaks at Penn. That's why I have never been a Bagnoli fan. Also 14 Million got us 35-35 and everyone genuflected!
What?!?! Play lasts a few seconds and then everyone stands around.
And even more so with the interminable TV timeouts.
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