Week 6 Ivy League Football Preview

Harvard Crimson vs. Princeton Tigers - Saturday 12:00 pm 

The Crimson have reached the highest media poll ranking since 2015 with them coming in at number 14 this week and they have looked as good as anyone in the country so far in the season. This defense is now playing on another level and you could argue they are the best defense in the country right now. The stats certainly would back much of that claim up as this team has held four of their five opponents to a single touchdown and they are creating turnovers all over the place. The Crimson rank second nationally in scoring defense, allowing just 11 points per game and second in total defense. North Dakota State ranks first in both categories. 

The defense has been impressive but so has the offense. Jaden Craig has been one of the best players in the country but last week DJ Gordon led the way with over 100 yards on the ground and two rushing scores. Craig remained brilliant with over 300 yards through the air but the run game showed this offense can win on multiple levels.  The offense now ranks 4th nationally in scoring offense with 45 points per game. This unit has held three straight opponents scoreless in the first quarter, and in four of five games. They have picked off at least one pass in every game this season. They are first nationally in red zone defense, team passing efficiency defense and first downs defense. 

The Tigers have been explosive on offense and are led by their exciting young receiver Josh Robinson. Robinson has won the Ivy League rookie of the week. This offense will pit strength against strength in this showdown. Princeton put up 40 points last week and truth be told it felt like even more. Brown's defense had been their backbone all season until they fell apart, but a lot of the Tigers success came off of the Bears' mistakes. Princeton forced four turnovers on the day and Kai Colon only needed to throw for just over 200 yards in the win. The Tigers have now scored 35 or more points three times, but their defense allowed Mercer to score 38 just two weeks ago, San Diego scored 42 in the opener and Lafayette was able to score 28 on them. If the Tigers hope to win they will have to force Craig and the offense into mistakes because they can't think their scoring luck will last against the Crimson's defensive wall. 

Dartmouth Big Green vs. Columbia Lions - Friday 6:00 pm 

Dartmouth is 4-1 and right near the top of the conference, like most predicted. But, they have gotten here in a strange way. That weirdness has come back to earth lately though as we are starting to see the real Dartmouth defense step up. I have made mention of how unusual the start to the year was for this cominant defense as they allowed 20,28, and 36 points the first three games. The ship has been righted in the past two as they have held Yale and Fordham to jest 29 total points. 

Dartmouth held Fordham to just 6 points through three quarters last week and that first half dominance is starting to be a trend. The week prior they held Yale to just a field goal and even against Penn in a loss they held the Quakers to just 3 in the first quarter. Dartmouth will live and die on their defense and if they can start the game by suffocating their opponent it helps this offense play with a lead and play a little looser. 

Columbia had high hopes but now they are just trying to salvage the season. The Lions dropped to 1-4 on the year and their offense once again struggled. Coming into the game Columbia has not scored 20 points in any game this year, they scored 21 last week to break that streak but that's not much to celebrate. The Lions defense was thrown on all day and have now allowed back to back teams to score 30+ on them. This is a bad matchup for a team looking to find some offense against this rejuvenated Dartmouth defense. 

Yale Bulldogs vs. Penn Quakers - Saturday 12:00 pm 

The Bulldogs put a whooping on Stonehill last week and that was a perfect elixor to end their two game losing streak. It wasn't just that they won, but how they won. In the previous two games leading into the Stonehill matchup this team scored 29 total points. They then went out and put up 40 for the second time this season. Josh Pitsenberger rushed for two touchdowns and only needed 13 carries to do it. The Yale defense was also great just missing out on a shutout and they have now allowed just 24 points in the past two weeks combined. Pitsenberger will need a lot more carries this week if the Bulldogs want the win. 

That's because Liam O'Brien just seems to be getting better and better and that presents a big problem for Yale. O'Brien became the first player in program history to account for 5 or more touchdowns in two separate games during his career. He also is just the second QB in Penn history with two 4+ passing TD games, and he leads the Ivy League in passing TDs through five games with 12.

He is making everyone on this offense look good and Jared Richardson has looked good his whole career with 2,000+ receiving yards making him the 6th player in Penn history to reach that offensive mark. He went off for 150 yards and three touchdowns last week against a good Columbia team. Shutting him down has to be priority #1 for this Bulldogs defense. This offense is humming and when combined with a defense that has allowed just 30 points in the past two weeks and have held all but one team to 24 or less on the year, Penn is making their claim to be one of the best teams in the conference. 

Brown Bears vs. Cornell Big Red - Saturday 1:00 pm 

The Bears terrific defense finally met their match last week when they allowed 40 points to Yale. That is the second time this season they allowed 40+ to an Ivy team, the other was Harvard back in week #2. But, if you just looked at the box scores you would pin this loss on the defense, that is not entirely true. The Bears turned the ball over four times and put the defense into some unwinnable situations all game long. This is still a defense that allowed 40 total points in their three wins and they are still a dangerous unit. 

Offensively the Bears have to be more careful with the ball. James Murphy has been a turnover machine and he threw three picks last week. When Murphy is good, he is really good. As evidenced by his 347 yards two weeks ago, but this was the bad Murphy and that's something we have watched before. In that Harvard loss the Crimson took back an INT just 6 seconds into the game to set the tone in that one. 

Cornell meanwhile saw Keith Williams win his first career Ivy League Player of the Week for his defensive effort. Williams had 9 tackles and 2 interceptions against Bucknell. The Big Red notched their first win of the season and their defense finally got some offensive help. Cornell scored more points than they have all year and more points than they did in the past two games combined. The defense has had it's issues as well but they looked good against an overmatched Bucknell team. If Murphy is the good version of himself Brown's defense will be too much for Cornell to overcome, but they turned over Bucknell twice last week and Murphy's INT problems could keep Cornell in this one at home.