Week 5 Ivy League Football Preview

Columbia Lions vs. Penn Quakers - Friday 7:00 pm 

The Lions continued to impress this past week and now are sporting a 3-1 record on the season. One week after their offense couldn't muster a challenge against the Tigers defense, they rebounded in a big way. The Lions scored 41 points in their best offensive game of the season and the second time this offense has now scored 40 or more points this season. They started well scoring 21 points before the half and ended with 20 in the 4th. The win was even more impressive because they are now 2-0 on the road. 

Now they head to Penn who just evened their record at 2-2. The Quakers were having a hard time finding any offense this season and once again didn't seem explosive, but they did beat Howard 24-20. Penn had to rally for the win with a 14 point 4th quarter and outscored the Bison 14-3 in the second half. While there still seems to be some issues on the offense, the defense once again had few problems. This defense has now held four straight teams to 20 points or less and The greater problem overall might be the QB situation. Miles Teodecki left the game early and his status is in question at the time of this writing and the comeback bid was sealed by a passing TD, but that was by a receiver to their backup QB. 

Penn now is the nation's No. 1 overall defense and held its third opponent in four games to less than 300 total yards allowing just 247 total. The Quakers will once again have to rely on that tremendous defense but the Lions have shown some offensive prowess lately. If Penn can force Columbia to play a low scoring, sloppy game Penn will prevail here, but their lack of offense is a concern and now with a potential backup QB things get even tougher.

Princeton Tigers vs. Brown Bears - Saturday 12:00 pm  

The Tigers defense once again showed up and they have still yet to allow even two touchdowns in a game since their opener. Princeton has allowed 20 total points the past three week combined and this defense looks like it can be one of the best in the country right now. The Tigers offense has looked better and better as the season has gone on and they jumped out to an early lead with a 6 play, 70 yard score right off the bat and never looked back. Josh Smith is becoming that go-to receiver for the Tigers and someone that teams have to game plan against. Combine him with Josh Robinson, the 2025 Ivy League Rookie of the Year, and there are the makings of a really good offense here. Especially with Junior RB Kai Honda, who already has a 200+ yard game on the ground and scored twice in this one. 

The Brown Bears keep playing terrific defense and that seems to be the theme in the Ivy leagues this season. Brown has held every team they have faced to two touchdowns or less and it was more of the same as they allowed just one touchdown and 13 points to Bryant. Brown wants to run and they run very effectively, which gels well with how their defense attacks teams. They had 195 yards rushing and 4 TDs as their rushing attack was dominant. 

Both of these teams had their best offensive day last week and both seem to be improving on that side of the ball, but I'd be shocked if this isn't a defensive first game. I expect both defenses to play their best in what will be a low scoring slug fest. Perhaps it'll be which offense can keep up the momentum, but this feels like a game where whoever makes the least mistakes wins a tight one. 

Rhode Island Rams vs. Yale Bulldogs - Saturday 12:00 pm 

The Bulldogs finally got their first win of the season where you actually felt like there were two sides of the ball.

The defense, which is the second worst in the conference, held Dartmouth to just 7 points. Now before Yale can feel like their defense has turned a corner it is worth noting that Dartmouth scored just 14 the week before at Penn and have struggled on offense all season, but a win is a win for Yale. If you've watched the games this year it's obvious to everyone there are major issues on that side of the ball, but they've now strung together six straight quality quarters to give Bulldog fans hope that maybe they have found solutions there. On the other side of the ball there are no problems and only solutions as Reno and company continued to shine. Reno is making a real legitimate case for the best player in the country, and he was once again a human highlight reel.

Reno and the offense scored 28 points and have scored 25+ in every game thus far. He threw for 325 yards and two touchdowns, completing 75.7 percent of his passes. Jaxton Santiago has been excellent and once again had a big day with 147 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Yale also had 174 yards on the ground as they dominated all day. 

Rhode Island comes in as an interesting challenge. The Rams offense has been pretty bad this year, yet they sit at 3-3. Rhode Island just beat a tough Brown team but their offense only scored 13 points and that marks the 3rd time in the past 5 games where they haven't reached 20 points. Defensively they have been able to rack up some impressive stats, like holding 3 teams to 10 points or less, but naysayers will quickly point out the schedule and weak offenses led to that as much as their defensive play. Temple put up 38 and Stony Brook 56 on this same defense. 

This should be another game where Yale's defense can convince people they turned the corner. They should be able to hold the Rams to under 20 and it could be another banner day for Reno and his crew. The Bulldogs amassed a season-high 537 yards of total offense last week and could eclipse that here if the Rams look anything like they did against Stony Brook. Reno now has 11 touchdown passes through three games this season. The next-closest Ivy League quarterback is Harvard's Charlie Smith, who has nine through four games, and I would expect him to get this team into the 30's and likely push 40 on the day. Yale shouldn't have much of an issue here. 

Dartmouth Big Green vs. Merrimack Warriors - Saturday 1:00 pm 

The Big green looked terrible last week and there is no way to sugar coat it. They were dominated by a team with a flat out bad defense in Yale and couldn't get anything going offensively at all. They also quickly brought to light even more questions about their defense, which was supposed to be the backbone of this team. The Green have now scored just 21 points the past two weeks and have allowed at least 4 TDs in two of their last three games. 

The good news is that they face a Merrimack team that should let them fix some of their problems. The Warriors present an opportunity for Dartmouth's offense to finally show up. The Warriors have already allowed three teams in the past five weeks to score into the 40's and in 4 of their 6 games teams have scored 34+. On the other side it should be a complete game for Dartmouth as this Warriors offense has also struggled to put up points. They have been held to 20 points or less in 4 games and have not crossed 24 all season. 

I fully expect Dartmouth to fix some problems on both sides of the ball as they get ready to enter the teeth of their Ivy league schedule. They can't have a letdown here and if they struggle to put away this team, we could be looking at a lost season coming up for the Big Green. 

Holy Cross vs. Harvard Crimson - Saturday 1:00 pm 

The Crimson did exactly what we thought they would last week and put together a full game and a dominant performance to stake their claim as the unquestioned best team in this conference. Harvard came in as just over a TD favorite over Cornell and went out and beat them by scoring 41 points offensively. The Crimson have been a force defensively coming in but it was great to see the offense really out together a complete game.

Cornell built a 10-0 lead but was outscored 41-19 the rest of the way, as Charlie Smith threw three TD passes.

The Crimson had long, sustained drives on the day with drives of 75,85, and 71 yards. The final score doesn't really tell the whole story as the Crimson were up 41-10 before Cornell started getting some scores in the 4th. The defense held Cornell to just over 150 yards passing and remain one of the best in the conference. 

Now they take on Holy Cross, and in years past this could have been a tough game. That being said this is a worse version of Holy Cross than some of us are used to as they sit at 2-4. Their defense started the year terribly allowing 30 or more points in each of their first five games before looking good last week. I am not sure we can buy into that one game improvement. Offensively though they have looked much better. After failing to score more than one TD in their first three games, now they have scored 28+ in each of their last three. 

Holy Cross is improving and coming off of their best defensive game of the year but this is a team the Crimson need to beat with ease. Holy Cross pushed Yale a few weeks ago but Harvard has a legit defense and this is the third straight road game for Holy Cross. You hope this isn't a look ahead game for Harvard with Princeton on deck, but outside of beating themselves they should walk away with a comfortable win. 

Lehigh Mountain Hawks vs. Cornell Big Red - Saturday 2:00 pm 

Cornell's box score will tell a much different story than what happened on the field but there are also some positives the coaching staff can take away from last week's loss. First off, it was against the best team in the conference in Harvard. They also led 10-0 early and that shows their game plan was working, at least for a short while. This team also kept fighting and ending the game with three scores late should be able to give them some confidence going into a really tough matchup against Lehigh. Cornell's offense has been rolling scoring 29 or more in all but their opener and they have shown they can score on anyone. Defensively they will look to clean things up. 

That defense will be tested here by the 6-0 Mountain Hawks. Luke Yoder is one of, if not the best, running back in the country and he will pound defenses into submission if you let him. Yoder rushed for 171 yards last game and their offense also scored three times through the air. Making matters worse for Cornell is that Lehigh is also coming off of a bye week and had time to prepare for thus team. Defensively they have allowed just 7 points the past two weeks and have held every team to 20 points or less. 

If Cornell wants to pull the upset we need to see them jump out to an early lead and keep their foot on the gas. Force this team to throw the ball and keep the ball out of Yoder's hands. It's a tough task for Cornell, but there were glimpses during the Harvard game that at least give them a fighting chance in this one.