Meanwhile, by upsetting Harvard last Saturday, Penn became the first Ivy team to win a share of the Ivy title with at least four losses since E.T. was released in theaters—you know, when Drew Barrymore was still a cute little kid and not a 13-year-old with a cocaine addition. Kudos to the Quakers, who were the first squad to outplay the Crimson all season. Penn was more physical, dominated the trenches, and neutralized Harvard’s greatest strengths in what was truly an all-around impressive victory.
Here’s the problem: last Saturday, Penn lost starting quarterback Billy Ragone to a gruesome dislocated ankle. This week, the Quakers will be forced to start Andrew Holland, and Penn badly struggles to move the ball with Holland under center. Whether or not Jeff Mathews plays—he left last week’s game with an injury—it’s tough to see a Holland-led Penn offense going into Ithaca and outscoring Cornell.
Pick: Cornell 28, Penn 24
DARTMOUTH AT PRINCETON
The Tigers are still alive for a split title, which would be a great accomplishment for the team that was picked last in the Ivy preseason poll. Despite the Big Green’s solid year, it’s tough to see Princeton losing at home with so much potentially at stake.
Pick: Princeton 24, Dartmouth 20
YALE AT HARVARD
Simply put, as Harvard center Jack Holuba put it last year after the Crimson’s 45-7 thrashing of the Bulldogs, The Game has become “a little boring.” Harvard has won 10 of the last 11 meetings between the two squads, making this about as much of a rivalry as Don Draper vs. Pete Campbell.
In a recent interview with the YDN, Bulldogs running back Mordecai Cargill said Yale’s strategy this weekend would be “the same game plan we had all year.” If that’s the case, let’s just say that on Saturday nobody should plan any revelrous contests where you drink every time Harvard scores.
(Side note: the Cargill interviewer identified Yale as “we” in one of her questions. Apparently all of the YDN contributors who had any sense of journalistic integrity left after last year’s Witt cover-up have been successfully wiped off the face of the earth by reporter hunter Will McHale).
The Bulldogs could be without its top offensive threat, halfback Tyler Varga, and so things could get ugly early. In fact, the biggest question heading into this game is really not who will win, but rather whether Murphy will pull his starters when he’s up big in the third quarter, or leave them in to make Reno and his assistants feel worse about their decisions to leave Cambridge than they already do (if that’s even possible).
And it’s not just me saying that; for the first time in a while Yale hasn’t even been able to sell its own allocation of student tickets to The Game. As one Eli told the YDN, “It just didn’t seem worth it, since we are probably going to lose.” At least you’re self-aware, Yale. I’ll give you that.
On the whole, if all of the above results hold, we’re looking at a three-way tie for the Ivy crown—certainly not what Harvard would have wanted, nor what anybody would have expected a month ago, but it’s something, at least.
Pick: Harvard 52, Yale 0
—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.