Football finale Cornell at Penn - C42-41 final

Final: Cornell 42, Penn 41. Do you believe in minor miracles? Cornell comes from behind, goes to a 3-TD lead, Penn makes back all three TDs only to have the game-tying final kick blocked. A week ago, Penn was on the cusp of beating Harvard. So Cornell finishes 3-7 with a two-game winning streak.

We're at Franklin Field but It feels like a home game. How so? Watch the dark, jerky, 10 frames-per-second video. Redcast wannabes.

Jeff Matthews back from last week's concussion, moving Cornell nicely when the line gives him protection. Got Cornell into scoring position early, then sacked, then FGA attempt was blocked. Matthews had his career game sophomore year at Penn: 35x45, 548 yards, 548 yards, 48-38 win.

Penn up 14-0 then 14-7 midway in the second. Cornell scores on a nice scramble by Matthews and a throw to Grant Gallatly wide open in the end zone. About to be 21-7 on a long kickoff runback and long pass down to the Cornell 10. [edit add:] Yep, 21-7. Took about 3 plays.

Matthews throws his second TD, to Lucas Shapiro, to get it to 21-14 with 3 minutes in the half.

[edit add]Halftime Penn 21, Cornell 14. Dartmouth taking it to unbeaten Princeton second quarter. With Harvard clobbering Yale, Princeton and Harvard could wind up tied for the Ivy title.

[edit add]Third quarter Cornell ties it at 21. Princeton now up on Dartmouth 15-14. Correction, on Princeton site it's Dartmouth 21-14.

Cornell blocks a Penn punt in the end zone, recovers, 27-21 Cornell awaiting the PAT kick. Now 28-21.

[edit add]Cornell 35-21. Bad snap on Cornell punt becomes a pass for a first down, 1 pass by Matthews to the 1, Tom Brady-like sneak by Matthews for a TD. 10 minutes to play. Penn announcers come out of their Xanax stupor long enough to say Cornell must have had to have had an ineligible receiver.

Cornell 41-21: Matthews to Luke Hagy 8 yards. 4 TD passes and 1 rushing TD for Matthews. About 8 minutes to play.

Cornell 41-28: Penn takes less than a minute to cut it to 2 TDs with a 45-yard TD pass. Cornell drive sputters out with a 4th-and-20something, Penn gets the ball back on its 25 with just under 5 minutes to play, no timeouts left. Can Cornell's D hold Penn to < 14 points? Cornell's blocked field goal attempt in Q1 looms large now.

[cough]25-yard Penn TD pass caps a 1 minute drive, Cornell lead falls to 7 with 2:52 to play. Cornell recovers the onside kick at the Penn 47. And then loses 9 yards on the next play, a bobbled handoff in the backfield.

[cough cough cough]On 3rd and 19 at midfield, Matthews weakly throws a pick six. Cornell 42-41. CORNELL BOCKS THE PAT. Stays 42-21 with 1:11 to play.

Cornell recovers the onside kick. Cornells the knee once, twice, game over.

Matthews just faked Penn outta their jock to set up a perfect screen and tie the game at 21. Franklin Field looks 97% empty.

Trotsky
Matthews just faked Penn outta their jock to set up a perfect screen and tie the game at 21. Franklin Field looks 97% empty.

Could be half-full and with slow video, maybe the fans duck low between frames.

Every time you walk into Yale Bowl or Franklin Field and they feel old and worn as well as empty, it's a reminder of how noble Ivy football used to be around the time of the New Deal. I think I saw a snippet that until Penn State's horrible beating by Ohio State 63-13, the worst PSU loss was to Cornell.

Dartmouth stats say Princeton is up 15-14. But look at Princeton first-quarter scoring. (Princeton site says D21-14 Q3)

Hey! Where is everybody? We got a two touchdown lead on Penn with only 10:22 left in the game. Come back!

TimV
Hey! Where is everybody? We got a two touchdown lead on Penn with only 10:22 left in the game. Come back!

I have watched enough Cornell sports to know no lead is safe.

nyc94

TimV
Hey! Where is everybody? We got a two touchdown lead on Penn with only 10:22 left in the game. Come back!

I have watched enough Cornell sports to know no lead is safe.

Glad for the win, but whoever called a pass on 3rd and 17 with 1:17 left and Penn out of time outs should be fired immediately - no, make that summarily executed

Athletics Dept doesn't fire immediately, Scoop. They wait a coupla months. Ben DeLuca knows.

scoop85

nyc94

TimV
Hey! Where is everybody? We got a two touchdown lead on Penn with only 10:22 left in the game. Come back!

I have watched enough Cornell sports to know no lead is safe.

Glad for the win, but whoever called a pass on 3rd and 17 with 1:17 left and Penn out of time outs should be fired immediately - no, make that summarily executed

I was thinking the opposite: You call a running play, you *know* Penn gets the ball back, so don't be wimps. Audacity is reworded with great victories. At least when General Patton is leading an armored column. With Cornell's difficulty holding onto a lead, the only sure way to beat Penn was to keep them from getting the ball back.

billhoward

scoop85

nyc94

TimV
Hey! Where is everybody? We got a two touchdown lead on Penn with only 10:22 left in the game. Come back!

I have watched enough Cornell sports to know no lead is safe.

Glad for the win, but whoever called a pass on 3rd and 17 with 1:17 left and Penn out of time outs should be fired immediately - no, make that summarily executed

I was thinking the opposite: You call a running play, you *know* Penn gets the ball back, so don't be wimps. Audacity is reworded with great victories. At least when General Patton is leading an armored column. With Cornell's difficulty holding onto a lead, the only sure way to beat Penn was to keep them from getting the ball back.

If it's 3rd and 3, ok I can buy that. But the odds of converting a 3rd and 17 are very low. Even if the pass resulted "only" in an incompletion rather than turned into a pick-six, the incompletion would have stopped the clock, giving Penn at least 35 extra seconds. Running the ball would have taken the clock down to about 40 seconds, and a decent punt would have let Penn at about the 25 and no time outs. I'd much rather have taken my chances with that scenario, even with a defense that was, well, a tad soft.

billhoward

scoop85

nyc94

TimV
Hey! Where is everybody? We got a two touchdown lead on Penn with only 10:22 left in the game. Come back!

I have watched enough Cornell sports to know no lead is safe.

Glad for the win, but whoever called a pass on 3rd and 17 with 1:17 left and Penn out of time outs should be fired immediately - no, make that summarily executed

I was thinking the opposite: You call a running play, you *know* Penn gets the ball back, so don't be wimps. Audacity is reworded with great victories. At least when General Patton is leading an armored column. With Cornell's difficulty holding onto a lead, the only sure way to beat Penn was to keep them from getting the ball back.

This is so insanely wrong.

ugarte

billhoward

scoop85

nyc94

TimV
Hey! Where is everybody? We got a two touchdown lead on Penn with only 10:22 left in the game. Come back!

I have watched enough Cornell sports to know no lead is safe.

Glad for the win, but whoever called a pass on 3rd and 17 with 1:17 left and Penn out of time outs should be fired immediately - no, make that summarily executed

I was thinking the opposite: You call a running play, you *know* Penn gets the ball back, so don't be wimps. Audacity is reworded with great victories. At least when General Patton is leading an armored column. With Cornell's difficulty holding onto a lead, the only sure way to beat Penn was to keep them from getting the ball back.

This is so insanely wrong.

Except in Techmo Bowl. Unless you have Bo Jackson. In which case, how did you even get to a 3rd and 17 situation?

ugarte
This is so insanely wrong.

With Cornell on 3rd and 7 let alone 3rd and 17, that's running a prevent offense. Penn had just shown it could march down field at will. It was worth the shot to get the first down and keep Penn from regaining the offense.

Skip to lacrosse: You shouldn't play a stall offense with a small lead. You absolutely should take an open net shot. Cornell has come to grief / close to grief trying to hold onto the ball especially against Princeton. Even if coaching conventional wisdom says don't-go-to-the-net is the smart play.

billhoward

ugarte
This is so insanely wrong.

With Cornell on 3rd and 7 let alone 3rd and 17, that's running a prevent offense. Penn had just shown it could march down field at will. It was worth the shot to get the first down and keep Penn from regaining the offense.

Skip to lacrosse: You shouldn't play a stall offense with a small lead. You absolutely should take an open net shot. Cornell has come to grief / close to grief trying to hold onto the ball especially against Princeton. Even if coaching conventional wisdom says don't-go-to-the-net is the smart play.

Can't agree that it was worth a shot, given the down and distance, time left on the clock, and most importantly that Penn had no timeouts remaining. The game situation dictated that the only rational choice was a running play.

Nice NYT blog about Mathews and his sister.

billhoward

ugarte
This is so insanely wrong.

With Cornell on 3rd and 7 let alone 3rd and 17, that's running a prevent offense. Penn had just shown it could march down field at will. It was worth the shot to get the first down and keep Penn from regaining the offense.

Skip to lacrosse: You shouldn't play a stall offense with a small lead. You absolutely should take an open net shot. Cornell has come to grief / close to grief trying to hold onto the ball especially against Princeton. Even if coaching conventional wisdom says don't-go-to-the-net is the smart play.

35 seconds is not a lot of time for marching. You play a stall offense when you have a touchdown lead and your best friend is the last few sands in the hourglass. Your most likely outcome on a 3d and 17 pass is an incompletion and no time running off the clock. There is so much more that can go wrong than right. Spin it as confidence in the offense or lack thereof in the defense but the best offense shouldn't make that call in that situation even with the worst defense. It was a terrible, terrible decision. When Belicheck went for it to ice the game against Indianapolis it was 4th and 2 not 3d and 17. On 3d and 17 he'd have punted.

This situation couldn't have been less like lacrosse.

ugarte

billhoward

ugarte
This is so insanely wrong.

With Cornell on 3rd and 7 let alone 3rd and 17, that's running a prevent offense. Penn had just shown it could march down field at will. It was worth the shot to get the first down and keep Penn from regaining the offense.

Skip to lacrosse: You shouldn't play a stall offense with a small lead. You absolutely should take an open net shot. Cornell has come to grief / close to grief trying to hold onto the ball especially against Princeton. Even if coaching conventional wisdom says don't-go-to-the-net is the smart play.

35 seconds is not a lot of time for marching. You play a stall offense when you have a touchdown lead and your best friend is the last few sands in the hourglass. Your most likely outcome on a 3d and 17 pass is an incompletion and no time running off the clock. There is so much more that can go wrong than right. Spin it as confidence in the offense or lack thereof in the defense but the best offense shouldn't make that call in that situation even with the worst defense. It was a terrible, terrible decision. When Belicheck went for it to ice the game against Indianapolis it was 4th and 2 not 3d and 17. On 3d and 17 he'd have punted.

This situation couldn't have been less like lacrosse.

FYI: Tornell Offensive Coordinator Jason Houghtaling has returned to Wagner College where he will be the Associate Head Coach and OC. Basically a head coach in waiting to take over as HC in 2015 when the current HC and AD just focuses on the AD job.

Ken711

ugarte

billhoward

ugarte
This is so insanely wrong.

With Cornell on 3rd and 7 let alone 3rd and 17, that's running a prevent offense. Penn had just shown it could march down field at will. It was worth the shot to get the first down and keep Penn from regaining the offense.

Skip to lacrosse: You shouldn't play a stall offense with a small lead. You absolutely should take an open net shot. Cornell has come to grief / close to grief trying to hold onto the ball especially against Princeton. Even if coaching conventional wisdom says don't-go-to-the-net is the smart play.

35 seconds is not a lot of time for marching. You play a stall offense when you have a touchdown lead and your best friend is the last few sands in the hourglass. Your most likely outcome on a 3d and 17 pass is an incompletion and no time running off the clock. There is so much more that can go wrong than right. Spin it as confidence in the offense or lack thereof in the defense but the best offense shouldn't make that call in that situation even with the worst defense. It was a terrible, terrible decision. When Belicheck went for it to ice the game against Indianapolis it was 4th and 2 not 3d and 17. On 3d and 17 he'd have punted.

This situation couldn't have been less like lacrosse.

FYI: Tornell Offensive Coordinator Jason Houghtaling has returned to Wagner College where he will be the Associate Head Coach and OC. Basically a head coach in waiting to take over as HC in 2015 when the current HC and AD just focuses on the AD job.

Tornell plays in the same league as Brom and Darmoth, yes?

Jordan 04

Ken711

ugarte

billhoward

ugarte
This is so insanely wrong.

With Cornell on 3rd and 7 let alone 3rd and 17, that's running a prevent offense. Penn had just shown it could march down field at will. It was worth the shot to get the first down and keep Penn from regaining the offense.

Skip to lacrosse: You shouldn't play a stall offense with a small lead. You absolutely should take an open net shot. Cornell has come to grief / close to grief trying to hold onto the ball especially against Princeton. Even if coaching conventional wisdom says don't-go-to-the-net is the smart play.

35 seconds is not a lot of time for marching. You play a stall offense when you have a touchdown lead and your best friend is the last few sands in the hourglass. Your most likely outcome on a 3d and 17 pass is an incompletion and no time running off the clock. There is so much more that can go wrong than right. Spin it as confidence in the offense or lack thereof in the defense but the best offense shouldn't make that call in that situation even with the worst defense. It was a terrible, terrible decision. When Belicheck went for it to ice the game against Indianapolis it was 4th and 2 not 3d and 17. On 3d and 17 he'd have punted.

This situation couldn't have been less like lacrosse.

FYI: Tornell Offensive Coordinator Jason Houghtaling has returned to Wagner College where he will be the Associate Head Coach and OC. Basically a head coach in waiting to take over as HC in 2015 when the current HC and AD just focuses on the AD job.

Tornell plays in the same league as Brom and Darmoth, yes?

Tes... opps I mean yes.