[OT] Cornell-Princeton Football on YES

Game is televised today for those interested. Just kicked off.

Only downside is that you have to sit through John Sterling announcing for 3 hours.

14-3 Princeton with 5 minutes to play in the the first half.

But of note was the onsides kick that Cornell just executed.

Cornell kicks off from a "bunch" formation. The kicker runs up to the ball, and falls down 2 or 3 yards short of the ball. The rest of the team continues the play, and another player kicks the ball onsides. Princeton was clearly completely confused because they didn't even have anybody close to the ball, so we let it go the required 10 yards, and then fall on it.

The replays of the kicker falling down on purpose are still making me laugh..

Gametracker once again AWOL.

14-6 Princeton with 7:30 left in the 3rd...

Touchdown Siwula, 2pt conversion Siwula!!! 17-14 Big RED! ~10 minutes left in the 4th.

Anyone want to give the updates from here on out? I've got the WISC ILL game on, and see that Cornell is tied late.

17-17 going to OT.

Cornell had a chance for a last second fieldgoal, but on a 3rd and 6 from the 30, Kuhn rolled out and for some reason instead of throwing the ball out of bounds, threw it at the feet of the players in front of him, short of the line of scrimmage, resulting in an intentional grounding penalty putting us out of FG range on 4th.

We punted and pinned Princeton deep. They ran off the clock.

To OT we go...

Cornell has the ball to start OT. Kuhn throws an INT.

If Princeton scores, they win.

Princeton moves it to the 18....to attempt a 35 yard field goal to win it...

And it's good.

20-17 final. Princeton wins.

Awful clock management in the last minute of regulation didn't help. Weitsman should have had a chance to win it. Two in a row we've given away. Really a shame, because it looks like Penn's gonna lose.

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote:

Awful clock management in the last minute of regulation didn't help. Weitsman should have had a chance to win it. Two in a row we've given away. Really a shame, because it looks like Penn's gonna lose.[/q]
I think the intentional grounding call overshadows any clock management issues we had. The team got the ball in a position to win the game and then one bad play threw away the chance. Why Kuhn mad that throw, I'll never know. He had time to get the ball away cleanly, up the field and out of bounds.

Much worse than the clock management was the 3rd and long defense on Princeton's game-tying drive. Twice Cornell had Princeton at 3rd and 10+. Both times Cornell blitzed, both times the receivers were in one-on-one coverage. The pass rush never came close to pressuring the QB. Both times the same player ran a 20 yard down and in. Both times the same CB was left trailing the play as if he was running in quicksand. Complete, first down, drive continues. On both plays, support from a safety or an LB in the middle of the field would have made the pass much harder.

The interception in OT was a joke. I don't know whose fault it was, but the receiver ran a pattern that broke off to the sideline and Kuhn threw the ball a good three yards behind him and hit the Princeton CB in the chest. The way Kuhn looked on the sideline I get the impression that the receiver ran the right pattern.

I don't want to come down too hard on Kuhn. He and Siwula fumbled an exchange on the last drive in regulation and instead of panicking, he took the ball and ran up the gut for a tough five. He made two bad plays, but they came at critical times and cost Cornell the game.

View from the game (not the broadcast):

The trick plays were great and amazingly most of them worked.

Princeton's trick play appeared to be to throw passes into the Cornell secondary. Pass defense is not Cornell's strongest suit this year.

Kuhn runs the ball effectively, but every time he drops back to pass, you hold your breath and remember the line by Darrel Royal of Texas, "Three things can happen when you pass and two of 'em are bad." Actually, four and three: You can get sacked and that took Cornell out of possible FG range once.

A couple brutal penalties threw Cornell off its game. Not just at the end but also when Cornell had, what, first and goal and the 2 and a couple plays later they're back on the 17, including letting the 30-second clock run out as the team looks to the sideline for the play. If memory serves, there were two great catches that covered nearly 40 yards to midfield (nice work by WR Brian Romney) and one was called back on a flag and the other was ruled a trap against the ground. Obviously, the refs were closer than we were even with binoculars, but it sure seemed like a solid catch. Maybe they were setting Cornell up for officiating heartbreak later in the day back at Lynah.

Maybe it's good football, but when the team lines up at scrimmage, then three, four heads pop up and stare at the sidelines for what seems like an eternity to understand the play coming in, it looks as if the players don't know what the heck they're doing. If I were the Princeton fans, I would have been making light of how a bunch of Ivy League kids need to be told what to do. Maybe it wouldn't look so odd if the Big Red were now 5-2 (6-1?) not 3-4.

Interesting that Princeton's placekicker, Derek Javarone, set the Ivy record for made field goals Saturday after missing a couple early on the helped Cornell stay in the game. And Cornell kept chipping away with field goals.

Bottom line, Cornell with a couple breaks the past two weeks could be tied for the Ivy League now that Penn went down at Brown. The only solid drubbing we've taken was at the hands of Yale, which did an even better job exploiting Cornell's pass defense.

Maybe it was a trick of the eye, but I could swear there were as many Cornell fans at the game as Princeton fans (9,000 total attendance). And, no trick of the eye, the Big Red band outnumbered and outclassed Princeton about 3-1. The Princeton band played while the announcer mumbled (Princeton is supposed to have an awesome PA system - not this week) a few jokes about the Ag School, the band fell down for a couple moments, got up again, played some more, fell down again. Other than get their uniforms muddy, it's not clear who this amuses other than the band itself. Maybe "It's a band thing - you wouldn't understand." Can anyone from the BRMB explain what Princeton does?

[Q]billhoward Wrote:
one was called back on a flag and the other was ruled a trap against the ground. Obviously, the refs were closer than we were even with binoculars, but it sure seemed like a solid catch.[/q]
Bill, the broadcast replay made it clear the ball came loose, hit the ground, and then bounced back up into his hands.

But I agree with your other observations. On the Princeton drive that tied the game, we reverted to the same extreme blitz mode that did us in royally at Yale--with the preditable result. I thought Knowles had learned his lesson at the Bowl, but I guess not.

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote:

billhoward Wrote: one was called back on a flag and the other was ruled a trap against the ground. Obviously, the refs were closer than we were even with binoculars, but it sure seemed like a solid catch.[/Q]
Bill, the broadcast replay made it clear the ball came loose, hit the ground, and then bounced back up into his hands.But I agree with your other observations. On the Princeton drive that tied the game, we reverted to the same extreme blitz mode that did us in royally at Yale--with the preditable result. I thought Knowles had learned his lesson at the Bowl, but I guess not.[/q]Other than that, wasn't it a pretty play? We had a bunch of them. Just not for touchdowns and not often enough for first downs.

I'm grateful the game was at 12 noon. It got pretty darn cold by 3 pm. Ah for the days when you could bring in a pint of brandy for warmth. Per person. Actually, if you're old enough, you still can, since very seldom do 40-, 50- and 60-year-old alumni get frisked, but since you're driving, not stumbling back to the dorms or houses, you can't anyway.

One other nice thing about the game. At Yale, there was a pretty nice pre-game luncheon and it was $15 or $20 a head. You got a tent over your head and heard the president speak. At Princeton, the CC NJ sprung for sandwiches and soda for free for anyone who signed up. That was a nice touch. You felt guilty about eating for free, so you put a couple tens in the scholarship envelope anyway.

Princeton has a really nice stadium with several thoughtful touches, including a wide concourse between the upper and lower areas, wide enough for wheelchairs, strollers, or just standees to watch without getting in anyone's way. That and the way the Princeton side of the structure is built so it actually holds meeting and academic areas, integrating the stadium into the daily campus life. Unlike Cornell, where over the last generation the playing fields seem to be pushed farther and farther to the east, making it convenient to stop by a soccer match if you're a vet student.

Personally, I think it's time to do a Falling Waters kind of academic building and bridge the air rights over the gorge. Just make sure it's not architected or built by the people who did Martha Van.