Around the Ivy League: A Look Back at a Strange First Half

Entering the final weekend of a bizarre first half, your clubhouse leader in the Ivy title chase is Harvard.

Umm, nope.

How about Penn? Wrong again. Brown? Not a chance.

Your league leader rounding the Week Five turnpost is Yale.

While the Quakers are likely to match the Bulldogs with a 2-0 mark heading into the Ivy-only portion of the season, the absence of the Bears and the Crimson has become one of the biggest stories of the young Ivy season. Harvard’s loss of most of its first- and second-team offense and its penchant for spotting its opponents five or six turnovers have turned the league bully into the whipping boy.

Brown’s unfortunate, yet all too common, collapse against the Crimson has forced the Bears into a must-win situation against Princeton to avoid dropping out of the Ivy race after just two games.

Can the Bears stay in the title hunt? Let’s get to this weekend’s matchups.

GAME OF THE WEEK: PRINCETON AT BROWN (-9)

It’s scary how eerily similar the 2004 and 2005 seasons have been.

Princeton started off both years with a shocking win over Lafayette, the eventual Patriot League champs, and victories over San Diego and Columbia before losing a tight contest to Colgate. Brown kicked off each with a blowout win in a tune-up game, a collapse against Harvard, and wins over Rhode Island and Fordham.

The Tigers won the contest 24-10, but the Bears won the war, finishing 6-4 overall to Princeton’s 5-5.

Once again, the Tigers are on the verge of proving to the league that they are for real. History isn’t on their side. Neither is common sense. Brown is better at every skill position on offense, including running back: Nick Hartigan is currently second in the nation with 145.5 yards per game.

Brown will make amends for last season’s debacle and win by two scores.

PENN (-13.5) AT COLUMBIA

Can’t move the ball, can’t stop the ball, can’t punt the ball.

Maybe that’s why the Lions can’t win.

The Quakers, on the other hand, have one of the nation’s top scoring offenses and defenses, as well as a top-flight special teams unit. This might just be the showdown of the Ivy League’s most and least complete teams.

It’s hard to bet against the Quakers after they destroyed Bucknell last weekend 53-7. At worst, Penn is two touchdowns better than Columbia. At best, Penn could send the Wien Stadium faithful scrambling for the exits by halftime. Take the Quakers and spot the Lions the points.

GEORGETOWN AT CORNELL (-10.5)

Don’t let that 10.5 number in front of the Big Red scare you off.

The Hoyas are terrible. They’ve scored 26 points in their last four games, and their defense gave up 48 to Holy Cross.

Granted Cornell isn’t going to run up and down the field on anyone. But the Big Red defense will keep Georgetown to 10 or fewer points, and Cornell should be able to muster at least 20.

This will probably be the only time in quite a while where picking the Big Red to cover a double-digit spread is a good idea, so take Cornell and proudly spot the Hoyas the touchdown and field goal.

YALE AT LEHIGH (-9)

The Bulldogs seem less than interested in showing up for any portion of their non-league slate.

So far this season, Yale has stood idly by as San Diego and Holy Cross snuck away with wins. In the week following each of those losses, the Bulldogs dominated their league opponents, Cornell and Dartmouth, en route to a 2-2 start, 2-0 Ivy.

With Penn on the horizon, don’t expect Yale to alter its course, as the Bulldogs will probably sleepwalk into and out of Bethlehem, picking up a double-digit defeat along the way.

The Mountain Hawks fell to the Crusaders and the sloppy conditions last weekend, so look for them to respond in a big way with a two- or three-touchdown victory.

DARTMOUTH (+13.5) AT HOLY CROSS

While the Crusaders have performed well above the pre-season expectations, are they really two touchdowns better than Dartmouth?

The Big Green’s defense seems too good to keep Holy Cross—and newly enshrined Payton Award watch member, running back Steve Silva—from putting up more than 24 points. It’s just hard to get the separation necessary to cover such a big spread in a low-scoring game.

Take Dartmouth and the two scores and hope that Silva remembers that he wasn’t even on the Patriot League watch list at the start of 2005.

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.