CORNELL (2-7, 1-5) at PENN (4-5, 3-3)
Congrats Cornell, you finally won an Ivy game! Oh wait… it was against Columbia. Well, at least David Archer has something to cheer about in his first year as Big Red coach, even if it’s kicking the eternally down Lions even more.
This game will be Jeff Mathews’ last chance to prove to NFL scouts that he is, in fact, a good quarterback. That Cornell leads the league in passing offense, yet is third-to-last in scoring just hammers home how very terrible we can predict the Big Red to be after Mathews does land on an NFL roster next year.
But Mathews remains in Archer’s arsenal for one final game, and against a Penn team that might be demoralized after coming oh, so close to putting together the biggest comeback in Ivy League history, perhaps Cornell will pull off a stunner. But probably not.
PICK: Penn 38, Cornell 17
BROWN (5-4, 2-4) at COLUMBIA (0-9, 0-6)
The last Columbia team to go 0-10 was the 1987 squad. Lions coach Pete Mangurian, after a 3-7 overall record last year, likely knows that he’s in the hot seat, so maybe this is his way of going out with a bang.
Meanwhile, Brown will most likely be laying with a chip on its shoulder. After downing preseason favorite Penn, 27-0, three weeks ago, the Bears have recorded two straight close losses to Yale and Dartmouth. This team, which once had a feasible shot at the championship, will be playing for some last-minute pride, while its opponent will be playing for… well, whatever it is that Columbia players still have to play for.
PICK: Brown 24, Columbia 3
PRINCETON (8-1, 6-0) at DARTMOUTH (5-4, 4-2)
Take away the triple-overtime Harvard game and the first contest of the year—a one-point loss to Lehigh—and Princeton has won every game of the season by double digits. Surace’s unusual offensive schemes must work, because the Tigers have an eight-game winning streak.
Princeton is a train with full steam ahead in control of its own destiny, and unfortunately for Harvard’s title chances, I don’t think that Teevens’ boys will be able to handle the Tigers, no matter how many times Murphy calls up his former head coach this week to plead for a win.
PICK: Princeton 52, Dartmouth 31
—Staff writer Samantha Lin can be reached at samantha.lin@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @Linsamnity.