The Road to an Ivy League Title Runs Through a Pivotal Week 11

Princeton Tigers vs. Yale Tigers - Saturday 12:00 pm

Last week's loss pretty much ended any slim hopes that Yale had at winning this conference in what has been a total letdown season. For the third straight week you can't put all the blame on this defense, although they weren't great, the offense has suddenly had issues scoring. This high flying offense has now not crossed 24 points in over a month and for a team that relies on their offense as much as the Bulldogs that's an issue they weren't expecting. Brown's defense took it as a personal challenge against one of the better offenses and now Yale sits at just 4-4 and have lost three of their last four games. 

Princeton survived against the Big Green last week and now they have a legit shot at the title. This team sits at 6-2 and have won two in a row and six of their last seven. I wrote about Brown's defense but the reality is the Tigers defense is actually the best in the conference. This defense has held all but Harvard to 21 or less points and in their wins five of six teams didn't cross 14 points. Offensively they are still just sort of getting by. They scored 21 for the second week in a row and that has been enough in each of their last three wins. 

This looks like a low scoring game once again, which favors the Tigers. Princeton has forced almost every team to play their style of football. That frustrates teams like Yale and I would expect that the Bulldogs offense once again has a hard time getting into gear. WIth that being said if the Bulldogs can make some big plays early the Princeton offense won't have enough to respond. This should be another fun game.

Columbia Lions vs. Brown Bears - Saturday 12:00 pm  

Brown beat Yale with more of that patented defense last week and now they have held every opponent but one to 20 points or less this season. Last week was a statement against a really good Yale offense and it didn't matter against this D. Brown was even more impressive after the half holding Yale to just 6 points and none in the 4th quarter as they closed it out strong. This Brown defense is making it's claim known loud and clear that they are not just the best defense in the conference but at 5-3 they are eyeing a title run. This team has won three games in a row and their offense was effective, scoring 24 or more in each of their last four wins. 

Columbia was against a force last week at Harvard and I predicted a bloodbath and that is exactly what played out. Columbia has fallen hard after their fast start, now losing three in a row and after failing to score against the Crimson they have now scored a total of 26 points in three weeks. The offense has been really bad, but the defense has also been an issue. They allowed 37 last week, and it could have been much worse as the Crimson scored all of their points in the first half before calling off the dogs. 

This won't be as much of a bloodbath as the Harvard game last week, but this should be a pretty easy cakewalk for Brown. The simple fact is the Lions can't score and going up against this defense won't help that at all. I'd be shocked if they come close to 20 and I'd expect them to be held to under 10 points here, while Brown's offense should have fun against a defense that has now allowed 26 or more points in six straight games. 

Dartmouth Big Green vs. Cornell Big Red - Saturday 1:00 pm 

The Big Red's offense that was humming along so well all year has now let them down two weeks in a row and they have lost three in a row to send their season in a downward spiral. Cornell lost a defensive battle 14-13 against Penn a week after dropping another one point game to Princeton. For the second straight week they failed to score in the 4th quarter and have now scored just 10 points the past two weeks after the half. The Big red's offense was carrying this team all season and now they have been forced to play a slowed down, possession style, which they haven't adapted to. The positive takeaway though is they were 1 point off in both games and hope they can carry that over to get over the hump and win. 

Dartmouth dropped a tough game to Princeton last week after winning three games in a row and hoping they could have a chance at the conference. Now they are 4-4 but there are a ton of positives from last week and their last month. The Big Green have not allowed more than 21 points in a game in a month and their offense was playing well until last week. This Dartmouth team is a team that wants to play tough defense and they don't mind slowing the pace down but needed more from their offense and can't make the same mistakes this week. They can write last week off as a tough loss with a win here. 

Dartmouth's defense is what I can rely on here while I thought I could rely on Cornell's offense. Cornell's inability to score recently has been concerning for the Big Red but we have watched what they can do when things are going well on that side of the ball. Was last week just a fluke for the Big Green and can Cornell re-find that unstoppable offense is what this game comes down to. 

Harvard Crimson vs, Penn Quakers - Saturday 1:00 pm 

I wrote that the Crimson would be out for blood last week and it was a perfect setup to rebound after their sole loss of the season. They can't let up here and now have no room for error against an impressive Penn team. The Crimson rebounded specifically offensively where they scored 37 points in the first half and now have scored 30+ points in each of their last four wins. While Smith has been a staple under center all year for the Crimson it was the running game that couldn't be stopped last week. DJ Gordon rushed for nearly 150 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Crimson are tops in the country in passing defense, and last week was their best effort of the year as they held the Lions to just 55 yards passing. 

Penn evened their record to 4-4 with a nail biter against Cornell. It was a real gut check win but the defense of Penn has to be commended as they truly stifled the Big Red offense. They turned it on even more late in the game and Penn has now won two of their last three games and their defense has played much better as the year has gone on. Offensively it wasn't all roses as they have now scored just 17 and 14 the past two weeks after putting up 24 or more in three straight. 

This is a Penn team that has been up and down with their offense and can't really put together an extended success run with that side of the ball. That is bad news facing a Harvard team that knows they had their one throw away game and can't letdown in any way. The Crimson should be able to pick their poison offensively but it's this defense that I expect to shut down Penn. If Cornell's suspect offense can frustrate them to score just 14 points I expect the Crimson to do much of the same.