Quaker quarterback Pat McDermott seemed to get on track last weekend against Dartmouth, but the scenario is analogous to that of Bucknell’s offense. McDermott doesn’t need to light up the Bison defense, but he will need to engineer three or four scoring drives. Those drives better end in touchdowns, because the Quakers just benched starting kicker Evan Nolan, who missed four straight field goals including one against Dartmouth, in favor of defensive back/kicker Bryan Arguello, who also missed a field goal against the Big Green.
The Quakers will take this one by four, but how many field goals they’ll miss along the way is anyone’s guess.
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COLGATE 31, PRINCETON 14
The No. 20 Raiders (2-2) will still be steaming mad after their collapse last weekend and that’s bad news for the Tigers, which barely limped out of the Bronx last weekend with their undefeated season in tact.
Running back Jamaal Branch will have his usual 130-yard, two-touchdown performance for Colgate, and the Raider defense will have little trouble containing the relatively generic Princeton attack.
BROWN 28, FORDHAM 13
Don’t let Fordham’s 4-1 record fool you. The Rams’ resume includes shootout wins over I-AA cupcakes Holy Cross and Duquesne, a squeaker over Columbia and an ugly victory against an Albany team that wouldn’t win most schools’ intramural flag football tournament.
Brown (2-1) and Fordham have played two common opponents (URI and Albany) and the Bears have performed better in both by an average of two touchdowns. And that’s not a surprise, because Brown’s the better team. Nick Hartigan picks up 150 yards and three scores in the Bears second road win in as many weeks.
LAFAYETTE 19, COLUMBIA 17
This is one of three winnable games left on the schedule for the Lions (0-3). The Leopards (3-2) are 0-2 against the Ivy League and its two losses (against Harvard and Princeton) have come by an average of 16 points a piece.
The Lions will have the lead in this one late, but will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in a manner which only they can. Lafayette takes it on a late field goal.
—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu. His column "Around the Ivy League" appears every Friday.