What does Princeton have left in the tank?
With one quarter in the books last weekend, the Tigers led Harvard 14-3 and had visions of finally exorcising the demons that arose from eight years of close calls and missed opportunities. Then, in a moment which can only be described as Manny Ramirez-like, the Crimson looked up at the scoreboard, caught a glimpse of the crowd and realized, “Hey, we should probably start playing now.”
Final score: 39-14, Harvard.
History has shown that the matchup with Cornell, situated between games against the Crimson and the Quakers, is a classic trap game for the Tigers. Princeton is just 2-2 against the Big Red over the past four seasons, including a 32-25 escape in overtime two years ago.
And while the Tigers were the best 2-8 team in football last season, the best 2-8 squad this season could possibly end up being the Big Red. Cornell led Brown and Harvard on the road in the second half and played Bucknell and Colgate to the final gun before falling in all four.
The offensive juggling act that Big Red first-year coach Jim Knowles has undertaken might be just what the doctor ordered. For that reason, I’m going to go with Cornell in an upset on a late field goal over the reeling Tigers.
YALE (3-3, 1-2) vs. COLUMBIA (1-5, 1-2)
Will the real Yale Bulldogs please stand up?
That’s the question on everyone’s mind as Siedlecki’s boys have limped out to an unimpressive 3-3 start and have essentially been eliminated from the Ivy title hunt just three weeks into league play.
Once again, the Bulldogs enter the contest with a seemingly insurmountable advantage in terms of talent. But it’s hard not to look past that and ask, “How could they blow it?”
Luckily for Yale, they can’t. This time, they’re playing Columbia.
This has to be the week that the Bulldogs’ struggling offense gets on track. Everyone has been waiting for quarterback Alvin Cowan to have a truly Playstation-like performance. Running back Robert Carr has proven that his early season breakout wasn’t a fluke, as he sits second in the league in rushing yards per game. Yale has the top wide receiver tandem, in terms of combined yards per game, in the Ivy League—even better than Harvard’s Mazza-Edwards combination.
The real Yale Bulldogs will stand up and shrug off the frustration of a mediocre start with a dominating 31-10 win.
—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu. His "Around the Ivy League" appears every Friday.