Scouting the Bears

Looking for a weakness in the 2009 Brown Bears?

Let me save you some time.

Brown has shaky placekickers.

That is all.

Everyone knows Brown has a high-powered offense, but let me start with the Bears strong defense this season.

Brown is allowing just 87 yards rushing per game and 3.2 yards per carry. But strip out a slow start defending the rush early in the season, (the Bears were allowing 148 yards rushing through week 3), and you see that Brown is allowing just 55 rushing yards per game during the six games since that slow start!

The defensive line features two of the most feared players in the Ivies, David Howard and James Develin. Both are seniors, have made life miserable for opposing O-lines, and Howard is considered a legitimate NFL draft prospect.

The passing defense is a little less impressive, allowing 246 yards per game, but the secondary has picked off 14 passes which is second only to Columbia's 18 in the Ivies. The league's top rookie this year, A.J. Cruz has helped bolster that secondary that came into this season with a lot of questions.

Most importantly, this Brown defense is allowing just 18 points per game.


Now to that offense.

Coming into the season, the biggest question about the Bears was would they be able to replace super QB Matt Dougherty who graduated in May?

The answer has been, "yes." Junior Kyle Newhall-Caballero is completing 63% of his passes and is throwing for an average of 269 yards per game. He has 16 TD passes through nine games. He's had a bit too many interceptions at 12, but with 365 total attempts Newhall is just throwing one pick per 30 throws.

Brown has enjoyed a nice improvement in its running attack as Zach Tronti and Spiro Theodosi have both performed well. Tronti may be out for the rest of the year after missing last week's game, but we shall see. Theodosi had a 138-yard game on the ground versus Dartmouth last week in the rain.

Another testament to the offensive line is that the Bears have allowed just 12 sacks all year despite all the passing plays. They protect well, period.

And we haven't even started to talk about those receivers.

It all starts with Bushnell Cup favortie Buddy Farnham. The senior wide out has 65 receptions for 896 yards and 9 TD's. As a kick returner he is lethal. He averages 25.5 yards per kickoff return and he has a 92-yard return for a TD. He also averages a healthy 10.7 yards per punt return, with a long of 69 yards.

Farnham can win games on his own and make his teammates look very good week after week.

Fellow senior Bobby Sewell is a super dangerous offensive weapons with 57 catches for 516 yards and 4 TD's as a receiver and 87 yards and another 4 TD's as a rusher.

But wait, there's more. Senior WR Trevan Samp has had a break out season with 36 receptions for 430 yards and a TD as well.

The one real problem for Brown has been field goal kicking. Brown has missed its last six field goal attempts, the first four by Patrick Rooney and the last two by Drew Plichta. Three of those misses came in the Penn game that the Bears lost in OT. So there's a decent argument that Brown would be the Ivy champs this year if not for the want of a field goal or two. On the flip side, sophomore punter Nathan Lovett has done a very strong job this season, averaging 39.4 yards per boot and no blocks.