Yale and Princeton spent last weekend living on the edge in a manner which would have made Aerosmith proud.

The Bulldogs stared a 1-2 start in the face after falling behind by two touchdowns in the fourth to then-No. 11 Colgate, but rebounded to score 17 points in the final five minutes to claim a 31-28 victory. With the win, Yale gave itself a shot of challenging for a top-25 ranking if it can defeat Dartmouth tomorrow as well as No. 17 Lehigh and Penn in the following two weeks.

The Tigers kept their hopes of a miracle season alive by coming from behind to beat winless Columbia in overtime. Princeton converted a fourth-and-six from its own 34 to set up a game-tying field goal at the end of regulation. Then, the Tigers managed to block a Columbia PAT in overtime and pick up a fourth-and-five on their own possession before scoring the game-tying touchdown and the game-winning point after. And maybe that’s the hidden lesson here: For those who think it can’t be done, try it against Columbia.

With that, let’s get to this week’s games:

DARTMOUTH (0-3) vs. YALE (2-1)

The Big Green has finally arrived at the end of its four-week masochistic tour around the Northeast in which Dartmouth played three straight games against opponents who have spent time in the top 25.

And now the Big Green must defeat a dangerous Yale team in order to avoid starting 0-4 for the first time since last season, when it was blown out by each of the same four clubs.

The good news is that the Bulldogs have played about 10 minutes of good football all season and have failed to show the spark on offense that led many to believe that quarterback Alvin Cowan would be an All-America contender and Payton Award finalist.

But the weak Dartmouth defense—which has given up 80 points in the last two contests—might be just the prescription to jump start the sputtering Bulldog attack. Yale running back Robert Carr should have a field day against a defensive unit that has given up more than 150 yards per game on the ground.

The Big Green offense leaves something to be desired as well, averaging just 13 points per contest and coming off a miserable performance last week against Penn in which it turned the ball over four times.

Playing at home should allow Dartmouth to stay in the game at halftime, but expect the Bulldogs to pull away and win by a few touchdowns.

BUCKNELL (3-1) vs. PENN (2-1)

The storylines here are endless.

The Bison carry a 17-game home non-conference winning streak into this one. The two teams have split the last four meetings, and neither side has won by more than 10 points in a decade. Both teams suffered their only defeat at the hands of Villanova as Penn and Bucknell rallied for two fourth quarter touchdowns before ultimately falling short by three and six, respectively.

The Bison offense has exploded over the past two weeks against I-AA lightweights Columbia and Georgetown. Penn will offer a much tougher test and should hold Bucknell to the type of output it had against Cornell and Villanova to open the season.

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.

QUICK PICKS:

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.