Blocked Out

Yale's Bobby Abare made some big hits


Yale 27 Columbia 12


Why Yale Won

Yale was unable to get much going on offense, but they were strong on defense, sepecial teams and played error-free football overall. The Bulldogs rarely looked the Columbia gifthorses in the mouth, scoring their first 24 points on drives totaling just 83 yards.


Why Columbia Lost

In contrast to the Elis, the Lions moved the ball on several long drives, but had to settle for two field goals early in the game and then started making crucial turnovers later on. While dominating overall, the Columbia defense did blow two coverages on a pair of long passes that helped set up Eli scores.


Key Turning Points

1) After stopping the Yale defense on two consecutive three-and-outs, the Elis thrid possession began at their own 48 and Yale mixed things up with a long pass to a too-wide-open Peter Balsam that went for 35 yards. Two Mike McLeod runs later and it was 7-3 Yale.

2) Down 7-3, the Lions began a drive at their own 8 an drive all the way down to the Yale 5 as M.A. Olawale mixed the pass and the run brilliantly. But the drive fizzled right there and Columbia had to settle for another field goal rather than taking the lead.

3) On Columbia's next possession and the score still 7-6, a host of Yale defenders broke through the middle of the Lions line and blocked on Rocholl's punt deep in th Lion end. That gave Yale a gift TD as the Elis began at the Columbia 2.

4) Trailing 14-6 at the half, the Lions first two possessions of the third quarter were disastrous. The first possession was a three-and-out, and a freak 15-yad punt gave the Elis the ball at the Columbia 25. The second possession ended with an Olawale fumble that gave Yale the ball at the Lion 19. Yale scored 10 points off those turnovers and had a 24-6 comfortable lead.


There were obviously some good moments for Columbia in a game that had the Lions winning most of the statistical battles:

Mike McLeod scored three short TD's, but the Columbia defense hld him to a mediocre 85 yards on 23 carries.

Both Olawale and Shane Kelly had their moments. Olawale ripped off a 44-yard run early in the game that set up the Lions first field goal. Olawale passed well overall, shaking off an early deep bomb that was intercepted and finishing up going 13-for-18 for 109 yards. Kelly had some good runs too, including a 10-yard TD run, and he went 5-for-6 for 83 yards. Both did have costly fumbles on scrambles, however.

Lou Miller was ejected from the game in the fourth quarter for an apparent late hit out of bounds, but before that he again was a frequent visitor to the opponent backfield, including back-to-back solo tackles for no gain on Mike McLeod on Yale's first possession.

It was another nice game for Ray Rangel, who had 46 yards on 10 carries.

Alex Gross had 8 tackles, a number of them in the open field.

Phil Mitchell finally got his first solo sack of the season.

Kalasi Huggins made a great play to break up a Yale pass in the corner of the Columbia end zone late in the game. Huggins seems fully recovered from his week 3 injury.

Nico Gutierrez finally hd his first catch of the season as he returned to his home state of Connecticut. It was only for 5 yards, but he held on to the ball after taking a vicious shot from Travis Henry.

Austin Knowlin was more of a factor, getting 5 catches for 40 yards in the game. It's a small step in the right direction.

In a weird moment before the second half kickoff, both teams somehow ended up barking at each other from opposing hash marks on the field. The Hartford Courant later reported that Columbia somehow started it by making some comments to Bobby Abare, but luckily nothing else but words were exchanged.