Week 2 Ivy League Football Preview

Harvard Crimson vs. Brown Bears

Friday 7:00 pm

The Crimson may have lost their star QB to TCU but they certainly looked like they haven't missed a beat in their opening game.

Harvard has been known as a defense first team for a long time and that defense came out in full force in their 31-7 win over New Hampshire. Offensively Nate Bailey scored two TDs just before halftime to pull away and take a lead that the Crimson never gave back. But, ultimately it was the defense that was front and center creating three turnovers and holding the Wildcats passing attack to under 200 yards.

Harvard did have some explosive plays on offense and this will be an early test for Brown, who faced a team who had no explosive playmakers on it. Brown beat New Haven 17-10 in a game that went about as we should have expected from the New Haven side of things. They have now scored just three touchdowns in their last three games combined and their offense is flat out bad. Brown didn't do much offensively, but they did enough to win. That is a concern here though as the Bears face a much tougher defense. Consider that New Haven had allowed 57 the week before Brown and 21 against two weaker offenses before that.

I fully expect Harvard's defense to lead this game and control the clock. Brown's defense will have to play almost perfectly to keep this one close, but with some bad weather in the forecast this could be a sloppy type of game that might help. Even so Harvard looks like they should be in a good position here to get an early conference win on the road.

Columbia Lions vs. Georgetown Hoyas

Saturday 12:30 pm

What a thrilling game one that was for the Lions and for all the fans that saw this one. Columbia beat Lafayette 40-34 in overtime and have started the season with an exciting win.

Columbia's offense was on fire, and in part because of a bad defense by Lafayett, opened up some eyes to what could be a carry over against Georgetown here.

Chase Goodwin threw for 367 yards and 2 TDs in a great performance for the signal caller.

Johnson went for 124 on the ground and Coleman had 7 receptions and 2 TDS for 127 yards. It was a banner day for this offense. It also adds to it that Lafayette only allowed 9 points in a win last week.

With all those positives there were some negatives and obviously we can point to that Lions defense. Not only did they allow 34 points but they allowed Lafayette to come back late and score 17 4th quarter points against them to send it into overtime. They also allowed a ton of ground yards and remember this was a Lafayette team who scored just 20 total points in their first two games combined.

Now they take on Georgetown who also has scoring problems. They put up 21 last week and 14 before that.

This defense has allowed 45 and 24, so I do expect Columbia to have some more success getting on the scoreboard. The Lions have a real chance to go to an unexpected 2-0 here to start the season if their defense can play better because the offense looked as good as you could ask early on.

Yale Bulldogs vs. Cornell Big Red

Saturday 1:00 pm

Stone has talked and written about Dante Reno a few times now and he is squarely on everyone's radar after last week. Reno threw 5 TD passes last week in their 38-28 win over Holy Cross and put to rest any concerns about them losing offense in the off season. Reno not only had a huge statistical day but his flair for the dramatic was on full display as two of his touchdown tosses were during Yale's 4th quarter rally.

Yale trailed by seven in the 4th before Reno took over throwing TDs of 18 and 28 yards. On the afternoon he attempted 43 passes and had 454 yards. Jaxton Santiago was his main weapon with 234 yards receiving and 12 catches.

Yale got a nice win, but there remains some worries. First of which is this Holy Cross team scored 28 points against them after not scoring more than 10 all season long. This harkens back to Yale's defensive issues at times last year. They also needed all of Reno's 454 yards and 5 TDs to win in a comeback. Williams ran for 120 yards against them as well. Yale won't be able to rely upon this insane performance by Reno all year if the defense falters, but he will be the leading force for them.

Cornell was the polar opposite as they couldn't get anything working offensively. The Big Red finished with just one touchdown on the day but that wasn't all that shocking considering how good Colgate's defense is.

Colgate had not allowed any team to score more than 14 points in their first 4 games, including Central Michigan. The defense was impressive for Cornell and that is a good takeaway from the game on the positive side. This is an interesting game because we aren't sure how much stock to put into Cornell's performance because of the quality of the opponent and Yale's defense worries me, but at the end of the day Reno is the X factor and it would be shocking if the Bulldogs don't win handedly here.

Monmouth Hawks vs. Dartmouth Big Green

Saturday 1:00 pm

Dartmouth was expected to be blown out in game one and I guess it could be a nice morale victory that they kept it close all game and only lost 24-20 against Lehigh. Lehigh came in scoring 35+ points in every game and they have now held every team to 20 points or less, so they are a force. But, they did lose their QB in this one and Yoder still made his impact rushing for 150 yards and the go ahead score. We all expected a defensive effort from Dartmouth and it's something they can hang their hats on but they still had this game slip through their fingers.

Saunier was 17 of 30 for 262 yards on the day and looked solid until his late INT. Losing to the #7 ranked team in the country is never a bad look and the arrow should be pointing up for the Green despite the loss. They might be getting a little overlooked here as they take on the 2-2 Monmouth Hawks. The Hawks have had some defensive problems this season already allowing 38 and 49 in games while in their wins they still allowed 22 points per game. I expect Dartmouth's defense to come to play again and if Saunier can clean up the late mistakes Dartmouth will get their first W on the season.

Lehigh Mountain Hawks vs. Penn Quakers

Saturday 1:00 pm

I just touched on the Hawks so I won't go too deep back into it but this is simply one of the best teams in the country with one of the best players. Luke Yoder looks unstoppable and that is assignment #1 for this Penn team. Yoder will get his yards, but you can't allow him to be otherworldly, which he has been a few times this season. Lehigh has scored 35+ points in all but one game this year and no one has been able to get over 20 on them.

Penn will need more than 20 to win this one. The Quakers scored exactly 20 last week against Bucknell. That was a Bucknell team that still has yet to score more than 16 points in four games. While the Bison offense is bad it was still an encouraging start for Penn's defense. Penn also had to deal with an underrated Bison defense who has only allowed one team to score more than 20 this season. Penn wants to keep this low scoring and try to keep that Lehigh offense in check, the problem with run first type of games like this is usually that leads to low scores, but with Yoder it might feed right into what Lehigh wants to do.

Albany Great Danes vs. Princeton Tigers

Saturday 3:00 pm

The book makers have this as a true toss up game and I couldn't agree more. Princeton lost to Bryant last week 21-14 in a game they could have won multiple times, They started out fast with a nice 7-0 lead early but couldn't hold that. Bryant is now 3-1 on the season and perhaps are better than many believed. Their defense was a real test, but they have done that three times this year as well, holding two teams without a TD.

Princeton's defense was impressive and we have to give credit where credit is due. They answered some early questions and now it's a matter of carrying tha over.

Albany is no powerhouse and this is a winnable game for the Tigers. Albany also has been decent on defense and their offensive splits are just as you'd expect. They have scored at least 4 touchdowns in their wins and just two in their losses. If Princeton's defense can hold this offense down we might see a repeat of the trend of Albany so far this year and that means a nice Tigers W.