Harvard’s defense was stellar in its last game against Brown, and I don’t see that changing. The Crimson’s offense thrived under the direction of senior quarterback Joe Viviano and will probably do so again.
Georgetown lost to Marist. Stick to basketball.
Pick: Harvard 34, Georgetown 14
COLUMBIA AT PRINCETON
Both teams are undefeated, but neither has had a particularly tough schedule. Princeton beat Lafayette, 38-17, which seems alright until you realize that Lafayette is so bad that anything less than a 40-point victory is a moral loss. Speaking of moral losses, Columbia beat Wagner by only three points. Neither team looks particularly exceptional.
One of the Transformers movies was filmed at Princeton, which I feel delegitimizes the institution from the outset. As for the football team, their quarterback might just be a Transformer. Chad “Rain Maker” Kanoff has completed over thirty passes in both of the season’s games. Columbia’s weak defense won’t be able to stop him.
Pick: Princeton 21, Columbia 7.
COLGATE AT CORNELL
Legend has it that on Dragon Day, Cornell students parade around a giant dragon and then light it on fire. No one is really sure why but some speculate it’s to celebrate graduation with a physical representation of their job prospects with a Cornell degree. The only dumpster fire more impressive than a melting dragon on a crisp March morning is the school’s football program.
In the season’s first two games, Cornell didn’t come within 25 points of either opponent. Which is weird because you’d think that as a student-athlete living in the Ithaca, N.Y., you’d have nothing to do but practice. Guess not.Colgate exposes the cavities in the Cornell defense.
Pick: Colgate 31, Cornell 14
YALE AT FORDHAM
Traveling to the Bronx for a football game might be disconcerting for any regular team, but then again Yale is no regular team.
Hailing from the trashcan of New Haven they call home, it turns out the Yale football players will be statistically safer in one of New York’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods than their classmates holed away in Yale’s libraries. Will the decreased probability of being shot have an effect on the way Yale plays? That remains to be seen. Yale does come into the match up sporting a 2-0 season record. Its sophomore quarterback has hung more than 45 points on both opponents thus far and Fordham hasn’t scored that many points once. The only thing easier than this pick was getting into Yale.
Pick: Yale 54, Fordham 21
—Staff writer Cade Palmer can be reached at cade.palmer@thecrimson.com.