Yale 23 Columbia 6
Why Yale Won
The Elis dominated the lines of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. On offense, Yale's RB Zane Dudek had a monster game with 173 yards rushing and 6.9 yards per carry. On defense, the Bulldogs held the Lions to 31 net yards rushing and just 206 total yards.
Why Columbia Lost
The Lions offense struggled all day, especially when it got inside Yale territory. QB Anders Hill was off target with many of his throws, while the CU defense had serious trouble containing the Eli running game.
Key Turning Points
-Already trailing 13-0 with 13:43 left in the first half, Columbia took over at the Yale 46 following an interception by DB Landon Baty. But after two tough 3rd down conversions, the drive stalled at the Bulldog 12. The K Oren Milstein's FG attempt banged off the right upright and the Lions came away with no points.
-With the score still 13-0, Columbia got the ball first in the second half and immediate began a strong drive. But on 3rd and 2 from the Yale 15, QB Josh Bean was thrown for a five yard loss and then Milstein missed the ensuing FG try wide left.
-With the score now 16-6 Yale with 12:00 left in the game, the Lions rode two straight pass interference penalties to a 1st and 10 at their own 37. But Hill then underthrew a pass that Eli DB Deonte Henson picked off at the Eli 30, and that basically iced the game.
Columbia Positives
-The Lion positives were basically limited to the highlight variety. One was KR Will Allen's hurdling return in the second half for 42 yards to the Yale 44 that set up Columbia for its only score of the day.
-The second was WR Kyle Castner's stunning one-handed grab for 40 yards to the Yale one.
Columbia Negatives
-In addition to Hill's off target throws, there a number of WR drops throughout the day.
-Dudek is a talented runner, but Columbia padded his stats with several missed tackles against him.
-Suddenly, Milstein seems to be suffering from a bit of a sophomore jinx.
Columbia MVP
-If it weren't for DB Ryan Gilbert's amazing 18 tackles, Yale would have won by more on long TD runs by Dudek. The overall CU pass defense was not bad thanks to Gilbert, and the rest of the secondary.
What's Next
Columbia is now in a three-way tie for first in the Ivies with Yale and... Cornell. Yes, Cornell stunned Princeton last night 29-28 at Princeton. The Lions must regroup and Continue the Mission against Harvard next week to keep pace.
8 comments:
These are the schedules of the Ivy leaders with three games to play.
Columbia (Harvard;at Cornell;Brown)
Yale (Brown;at Princeton;Harvard)
Cornell (at Dartm;Columbia;at Penn)
These three Ivy teams are tied for 1st place with one loss. Columbia is capable of winning it's last three games, which would result in Cornell falling out of the one-loss club. That makes Yale at Princeton on Nov 11 critical, since Yale has to also win all it's games to keep pace with the Lions. Columbia could still win the Ivies outright if Princeton, stung by their loss to Cornell, beats Yale.
The Lions have their own destiny in their hands, and if Columbia can win their last three games they will do no worse than share the 2017 Ivy Football Championship with Yale. Time to put the New Haven Nightmare behind us and finish the job the team started when they beat Princeton, Penn, and Dartmouth.
agree Howard Lim
just as we had shaken off poor quarters in past games to win, let's shake off a poor Game 7 to win our final 3. Harvard is their most wobbly of recent years and Brown seems lost.....Cornell is a.complete wild card
I think the OC was a major factor in the loss. The game plan to continue to try to run the ball up the middle against the toughest interior front seven we will face all year without making any adjustments, was at best wishful thinking or at worst, coaching ineptitude. The decision to limit the passing game to extremely short WR screens/outs and deep patterns was equally misplaced, especially under very windy conditions which made it tough to throw whether into the wind or otherwise. Why we didnt throw short hooks and slants over middle when Yale DBs were giving us plenty of cushion is mind boggling, especially when oftentimes we only needed a few yards to keep our drives alive. This would have helped neutralize their very active LBs too.
And the use of and abandonment of the wildcat was also confusing. Bringing in 17 when we had 3 and 2 on D 20 was a boneheaded move, especially after we were forced to call TO before the play to ruin any element of surprise. Then Trying to run wide thereby losing 5 yds killed the drive and made the FG try more difficult. (The FG probably would've snuck inside the right goal pole if kicked from 5 yards closer.) Unless we bring in someone like 22 who can get to the outside in the wildcat formation, we should scrap it. Why not just keep our 6'4" 220 lb QB under center and sneak it in.
One other questionable decision was trying to run out clock when we got ball back deep in our own territory with 1:30 left in first half. We wer already down 13-0 and we're getting manhandled. It was an opportunity for us to finally get back in game, but we decided against it and then failed to run out clock and even gave Yale a chance to pad the lead with FG try.
The best news of day was that the kids never gave up and we appeared to escape without significant injuries. Let's look to them to rebound next week.
Excellent analysis, Peter. Although most of us are loath to admit it, the coaching for this one was below par.
Jakes opening line tells you all you need to know : “The Eli’s line dominated both sides of the ball”
Columbia 24 carries for 31 yds
Yale 43 for 252
Let’s hope we can improve our running game because when we become unidimensional pass protection suffers. The same QB option between the tackles not effective . Time to open up the play book !
Running the table will be tough !
Well, the offensive coordinator is Mark Fabish, a veteran of Bagnoli's staff at Penn whom he brought with him to Columbia. Why
doesn't Bagnoli set him straight on dumb passing schemes and especially futile plunges into the line, especially in the shotgun at the opponent's one-yard line?
I remember getting a laugh from the crowd by shouting--TWENTY YEARS AGO--"why don't you try hitting the line to the left side for no gain instead of the right side every time?"
A little leavening after all the (deserved) gloom ensuing from Saturday' loss: Did anyone else found it as annoying as I did that Yale's announcers never even told us how many yards were gained or lost on any given play? I thought Ivy Leage types were at least suoposed to be glib and to strive fto be informative.
Still, when the Lions did fially score, the announcers up at yale actually acknowledged it.
T;was not the case at Princeton where the announcers, although their game-calliing meted out yardage, they never once (and I pid close attention) could bring themselves to actually admit that Columbia had scored. This happened, of course, four fateful and Tigers-dooming times.
Given that sort of announcing, I can only guess that Saturday night at Tigertown, during Cornell's womdrous "upset" of Princeton, Princeton's announcers were reduced to mere wordless sputtering every time the Big Red scored. "Silence" of this sort is golden at Princeton games hen its clearly overrated squad takes the field.
I would like Princeton to score early and often against Yale
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