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PENN -1 over BROWN
10/29/05
This game could very well be for all the marbles in the Ivy League this year as Penn sits at 3-0 and Brown weighs in with a 2-1 conference mark. Both teams are 5-1 on the year.
Football is an easy game. Develop a running game early, which in turn opens up the passing game. Stop your opponents when they try and do the same to you, and you have a good chance at winning the game.
The problems occur, when you can't execute your game plan the way it was drawn up on the chalk board in the locker room. That is precisely what figures to happen in Rhode Island this weekend when Brown attempts to let it's star running back Nick Hartigan run wild.
Hartigan has 10 rushing touchdowns in 6 games and is averaging 157 yards per game. But this week he goes up against a Penn defense that is giving up an average of only 49 yards per game and has only given up one rushing touchdown all year!!
There are no Joe Montanas playing QB in the Ivy League. If you can't run the ball in the Ivy League, you're dead. Plain and simple. The Ivy League is football in it's purest form. Smashmouth, grind it out, nothing fancy football.
Last week Penn dominated Yale, holding a 38-0 lead before calling off the dogs. They dominated Yale in every possibly way limiting them to 50 yards rushing and not allowing them to cross midfield until the 4th quarter! Now that's some good "D" !!
Penn was simply bigger, better and more physical up front on both sides of the ball.
This is a quote from Yale QB Jeff Mroz :
"When you can’t run the ball, you’re one-dimensional and teams can tee off on you. When they know what you’re going to run, it’s tough, but when it’s third and 12, what do you think you’re going to run?"
While Hartigan figures to to a little better than the Yale backs, he probably won't do much better. Expect the Penn defense to bottle him up forcing Brown to throw the ball more than they are accustomed to, increasing the likelihood of turnovers and allowing the Penn offense to take the field and do it's thing.
Brown no great defensive power. Cornell ran for 314 yards against them and they gave up 38 points to Harvard, 35 to Rhode Island and 28 to Princeton. Penn on the other hand held Yale scoreless thru 3 quarters, and gave up only 16,7, 9, and 14 in each of it's other wins with it's lone loss coming at the hands of Villanova 28-24 in a game Penn led all the way (17-0 at one point) only to lose in the final minutes.
Penn is simply the better football team here. Offensively, these two teams are at worst, even. Defensively, Penn is far superior. It's the Penn defense that will dictate the way this game is played and will be the reason Penn beats Brown this weekend.
The number on this game is Penn -1 at so all we are asked to do here is pick a straight up winner. That straight up winner is the mighty Penn Quakers.