October 27, 2012
Location: Robert K. Kraft
Field at Lawrence A. Stadium in the Baker Athletics Complex
Kickoff
Time: 12:30pm
Gametime
Weather Forecast: 66 degrees and partly cloudy
The Spread: Yale is favored by 3 1/2 points
HOW
TO GET TO THE GAME
Here's my guide to getting to 2012 Columbia home games
**REMEMBER**
The #1 subway train WILL be running tomorrow!
TV/RADIO
The game will
be broadcast live on the YES Network
You can also get free
audio and fee-based video on the SideLion Pass. Jerry Recco and Sal Licata have
the call.
The student station broadcast is on WKCR at 89.9 on your FM dial.
Lead
Stories
This looks like it may be
the battle to avoid the outright Ivy cellar. That's despite the fact that Yale
did beat Penn at the Bowl last week thanks to some great fill-in work by the
backup QB's and Penn's inexplicable decision to ditch the running game after
early success. But each one of Yale's QB's is banged up coming into this game
and a WR converted back to QB named Henry Furman has taken most of the snaps in
practice this week for the Elis. The somewhat hyped, (by me), feud match with
former Columbia commit-turned Yale QB Logan Scott will NOT happen as Scott is
definitely out for the next few games.
Another storyline for the
game is Yale's 10-game winning streak over the Lions coming into tomorrow. Each
of the last three games have been hard-fought contests won by Yale by a TD or
less. There is some bad blood between these teams to be sure.
Columbia's Three Keys to Victory
1)
Contain the Run
Yale has the most fearsome
running attack in the Ivies with Tyler Varga and Mordecai Cargill splitting the
carries and are starting to gel together as a duo. Columbia has been one of the better teams in
the Ivies this season when it comes to defending the run, but I did notice some
weakness on the edges against Dartmouth last week. My bet is that Yale will try
to exploit that and test the Lion safeties and outside linebackers. If Varga
and Cargill get going, it won’t matter who is playing QB for the Elis.
2)
Be Ready for Anything at QB
The Bulldogs will almost
surely try to surprise with some passes even as they should rely on running
plays 85% of the time. Witness what Dartmouth did last week when Buddy Teevens
used his running QB to throw the longest pass of the day for the Big Green. That
kind of thing can’t happen again.
3)
Exploit the Yale Run
Defense, but Establish the Pass
Yale’s run defense has been
the worst in the Ivies this year, and that’s good news for CU’s star RB Marcorus Garrett, but Columbia needs QB
Sean Brackett to get into a rhythm
or the offense will become too predictable.
21 comments:
Looking forward to watching CU take a win on YES.
While it's nice to see Columbia football on YES this weekend, it's sad to realize that this is the only Ivy League team that isn't being shown on the national spotlight on the NBC Sports Network. I hope there aren't going to be a lot of empty seats. It would look really bad to portray our football program in that kind of light, I hope Columbia considers for future football TV broadcasts to put a tarp over empty sections of Wien Stadium.
Yale game notes are pretty snarky in what they have to say about us. I hope we really stick into those guys.
oldlion, pretty snarky could mean a little over confidant, sure hope so!!!! It would be great to "stick it to em". Go Lions We are behind you all the way.
PS I love watching the team huddle and sing their fight song, hope we get to hear it tomorrow.
Given what Mangurian said after the Dartmouth game, Brackett may not play the whole game.
i missed the Brackett comments?
what did mangurian say?
Mangurian said:"With Gross healthy and Keefe back, we will look for those guys with Hollis and McDonagh to get reps. We will have a set rotation to get them in the game as field position and situations dictate."
go Brackett...this coach has two backs in the backfield...and should use them..Brackett can run for sure.
I often read this blog to keep up on the happenings with CU football. What I don't understand from the comments is all the speculation on how much class the coach has or that Brackett may not play the whole game etc. I have met the coach and I have no idea what he is thinking or going to do or who is playing the whole game.
Let the kids play and let's hope we win. I am amazed that none of the player have gone into the stands with a keg of whoopass to find you pro commentators.
and to the guy who wanted names associated with anonymous you can call me PigPen
Finally won!!! Brackett had a great game. However, the size of the offensive line hurt us on running plays in the red zone. And we had no answer for their 220 lb running back Varga. We need some heft on both sides of the ball.
We did not control the run, but won. Very good for morale. Lots to work on, but a win is sweet. Great execution on the last drive, but need to get better at scoring with 1st and goal from the 3. Great win Lions!
What a great, great afternoon. Great play by the WRs. Bend but don't break defense, and the courage to come back after a few bad breaks in which we either didn't punch the ball in from inside the five or until the winning drive did not capitalize on turnovers. I liked the way that McDonagh was worked into the rotation and think he will be a player.
Congratulations to our Lions on a great victory over Yale!!!!!!!!!
Good win. Seems we got the Brackett of old in the game. Team should have confidence now.
Brackett was good today .... starting off with a short passing game helped the O-line in the beginning of the game ... Yale played +90% of the game without a QB .... we KNEW they were going to run and we had difficulty stopping them ... Tyler Varga is a STAR and will be tougher to deal with next year ... Connor Nelligan is a STAR and made several great catches today .... offsides at critical points in the game can't be tolerated, not scoring in 4 shots inside the 5 yd line is not acceptable .... best game so far ... D needs to stop the student body sweeps ... overall I give them a "B/B-"
Tyler Vargas looked all roided up. He ran through Martin on a 3rd and 5 on the 50. Hopefully the piss police will bust him.
We won because players stepped up to make some plays. Maybe they were not flashy game breakers, but they all contributed. There were good returns to get us field position late in the game.
We won the battle of the turnovers. On the drive Yale needed to keep alive to ice the game, DB Waller forced a fumble from Vargas. We got the ball back for Brackett and the offense who put it into the endzone.
a satisfying win...go Lions!
Our linebacker, Mike Waller, made a very smart play late in the game by knocking the football out of Varga's arms when the Yale running back refused to go down despite being tackled by a number of Lions. Credit Waller for causing the key turnover that led to Columbia's victory.
Wow, our Lions exploded when they needed to take down a Yale squad that featured a damn good running back and a surprisingly tough defensive line. A total team victory for sure, but plenty of outstanding performances including those of the wide receivers, Connor Nelligan, Chris Connors and Jake Wanamaker who caught everything that came their way and then fought for additional yardage. Also, the long kickoff return by the freshman Travis Reim at the end of the game set the stage for the Lions final rush.
This was a strange game as they always are when a safety takes place. There were great individual efforts especially by Brackett and the WRs. There were also some deficits but let's not dwell on that during the celebration!
An interesting aspect of the game was Yale's playing essentially a single wing offense with Vargas as tailback. Some of you older gentlemen may recall when the Baltimore Colts I believe got to the NFL semi-final game without an official quarterback, and running back Tom Matte did great as a stand in. Vargas was an incredible player today and it was kind of tragic when he made that fumble at the end. But CU definitely deserves some breaks at long last, and they did a great job of taking advantage of this. "When you're losing play like you're winning. When you're winning, play like you're losing." - Paul Bryant.
We are suddenly loaded at WR. Nelligan, Connors, Wanamaker had no drops that I can recall. Gross wasn't even suited up. Brackett was generally on target but is obviously under orders to slide and avoid hard hits. I liked McDonagh's poise and think he will continue to get into the rotation. Garrett ran hard despite the fact that he wasn't getting much help,from the OL. I thought we did a good job on time of possession with the short to mid range passing game. Silvia did a nice job on lead blocking and taking passes out of the backfield. I think we need to get bigger and stronger on the OL, where we will have everybody but Ward back. The front seven played bend but don't break against a pretty good Yale OL and a beast of a running back. Next week we have to come out by spreading the field. I don't think that anybody can cover all of our WRs if Brackett can get some blocking.
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