Kurt Rawlings scores against Columbia in 2019
Is this CU team better than the 8-2 Lions who came one messy loss to Harvard short of an Ivy championship?
Well, on his Big Green Alert pay site, (which I continue to urge everyone to subscribe to... it's less than half a tank of gas for crying out loud... and you can't follow Columbia's run for an Ivy title fully without it), Dartmouth football chronicler Bruce Wood has some very interesting quotes from Big Green Head Coach Buddy Teevens about this Columbia team. Again, sign up and read them for yourself.
Taking things one game at a time shouldn't be so hard for a program as hungry for every possible win as Columbia is. With that in mind, the game this weekend at Yale presents a lot of tough challenges.
First off, even with its new fieldturf surface diluting part of the legendary Yale Bowl advantage I still think the Bowl is a very hostile physical environment. Winds do funny things there and the echoes are weird and the size of the place really hits you much more than similarly huge venues like Franklin Field. The locker room situation is terrible and even the very loud P.A. announcer makes the environment tough.
Yale has been a very hot and cold team this year, keeping the erratic persona it's had during much of the Tony Reno era. If you're noticing that Yale seems to play well one week, and not so well the next, then maybe it's a good thing the Elis played so well -- at least on offense -- LAST week.
On the other hand, Yale doesn't seem to have played all that well on defense. The fact that Penn scored 28 points in the game must come as a surprise to all the Lion fans who saw the Quakers at Homecoming vs. Columbia the week before. Yes, Penn made a change at QB. Freshman Aidan Sayin didn't have an All Ivy performance, but he showed some signs of effectiveness. We'll see if he improves over time, but this is truly a league where things can really change from week to week.
Yale used junior Nolan Grooms as a starter for the first time and he did have an All Ivy-like game, especially as a runner. He'll be a handful for the Lions, who will hope to contain his running like they did vs. Dartmouth's Nick Howard and CCSU's Romelo Williams, (who passed well, but was harrassed all day on the ground). Reno still hasn't proved he can win a championship with a QB other than the graduated Kurt Rawlings.
Defensively, Yale sacked Sayin four times in the game and that has to be a big concern for a Lions pass protection crew that has performed very well all season and doesn't want to stop now. Penn RB Isaiah Malcome had a better day vs. the Elis than he did against Columbia, but overall Yale has done well against the run this year.
Now to the weather. It's supposed to rain Friday and Saturday over the entire region, and that could play havoc with Columbia's outside running game. If the winds are strong, everything really is up for grabs. This could mean RB Ryan Young's inside power running game will be more needed than Dante Miller's outside attack.
There are a lot of variables, but this should be a good battle and an opportunity for the Lions to prove last week's shutout win was no fluke.
9 comments:
Continued great write-ups, thanks, Jake.
I'm still intrigued by our having used 3 DTs last game. The expected result would be that our D would be stronger up the middle but weaker, because slower, on the corners. But we defended the corners very well, so did our strategy work because Dartmouth has less than average outside speed or because we have faster than average LBs and safeties or some combination of both? It will be very interesting to see what we do against Yale.
JAKE, are you really going to make us pay $100 to subscribe the Big Green Alert if we want to know what Buddy Teevens thinks about our Lions?
Agree with oldlion. Think I'll hang on to my spondulicks, even if means not knowing all the things Teevens had to say about us. His "Columbia beat us in all facets of the game" comment was enough for me. :)
On a more serious note, I hope we don't come out flat on Saturday. This is a tough opponent for us, at a dangerous time, and as Jake noted, the weather could adversely affect our outside runs (to say nothing of the passing game). I'm hoping we don't have a bit of a wobble, though it's entirely possible. In any event, I do anticipate a nailbiter. That said, as long as we prevail, I don't care how we do it or by how much. Just can't take a loss here.
We knew it would take a number of games for Columbia to begin to gel, but last week's astounding blitz of Dartmouth proved we took a quantum leap in achieving team cohesion.
I don't think it is at all likely Columbia will regress against Yale. It is far likelier that Columbia will continue to progress exponentially week after week.
It won't be easy to beat any of our remaining foes, but it will be entirely possible.
TOD HOWARD HAWKS
Tod... from your lips to God's ears!!
As you know I hate the Hurry Up and Wait Offense wherein all our players stand, look to the sideline, look again, and look still again for the play....It seemed to me that last week we avoided this... Instead we were better organized, quicker to the ball, which I think helped us execute....If the weather is bad... it will be imperative to maintain the organization ( Quick substitutions, etc.) Always seems to me that Ferraro trumps Fabish in execution...
Jake - do you know what happened to Dudek? He looked like a very special player as a freshman but I see he is averaging a good-not-great 50 yards a game rushing.
Just musing, but we were the only team that had no spring practice or any organized FB activity on campus LY. Do the coaches feel that put us behind other teams and is part of the reason for the patchy quality of our first four games? Hopeful that Tod is right and the Lions will continue to get better.
Re Fabish-in the Captain’s Corner this week the guys we’re spontaneously complimentary of the Fabish game plan at Dartmouth. I think he gets too much criticism and that his recent work has been very solid. I’d like to see more TE passes, but that depends on having our TEs catching the ball. As far as Dudek, he has been really banged up and has been injured much of the time.
Apologies for spell check typos
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