The Bulldogs will have to shut down Penn QB Alek Torgersen, RB Tre Solomon, and WR Justin Watson this week to pull off a victory in the “Night at the Bowl.” Penn dominated Columbia in a 35-10 contest last week and each of their three offensive stars put up huge numbers. QB Torgersen went 17/27 with 241 yards, 3 touchdowns and one interception, while WR Watson caught six of those passes for 114 yards. RB Solomon rushed for 127 yards on the day including a long 32 yard burst. Torgersen did not have a great day rushing last week, but look for Head Coach Ray Priore to try to establish Torgersen as a dual threat early on as Penn did against Dartmouth.
The Penn defense has been improving each week, but their games against Lehigh, Fordham, and Dartmouth exposed glaring holes both in their run defense and pass defense. In fact, Dartmouth RB Miles Smith averaged over 18 yards per carry in Dartmouth’s 37-24 loss to Penn. If our group of RBs can combine to put up over 200 yards and Tre Moore protects the rock, we can control the clock and wear down the Penn defense. Hopefully Alan Lamar and Deshawn Salter are ready to go this week as Dale Harris is needed in the secondary. The Bulldogs moved the ball at will last season against Penn, but ultimately bad decisions in the redzone sealed our fate.
Tune into the game Friday at 7 PM ET on NBCSN.
4 replies on “Penn Preview”
Pound the ball, pound the ball, and pound it some more.
If Yale can control the clock by running the football and keep the D off the field, they have a decent chance to win this game.
So it’s halftime at the Yale-Penn game and I’m at home. I left the game with about 8 minutes to go in the half with Yale down 28-0. As I was driving home Penn scored again, with Carm saying on the radio “it’s like they’re playing catch.”
It was worse than that.
Yale couldn’t play any pass defense, our quarterbacks couldn’t come within five yards of their receivers, we had no pass rush and while we could block the Penn d-line, we couldn’t get a body on the Penn linebackers. Lamar made most of his yards on his own.
I’ve been going to Yale games since 1963 and have seen all of their home games since 2000. I don’t recall anything like this.
I’m tired of hearing about injuries, I’m tired of waiting for
Reno to get his own recruits in, I’m tired of watching Yale getting outclassed by everybody (Columbia, Cornell?). I was a big supporter of Reno when he came, but something isn’t working.
I know nothing is going to change, and so I am. I’m done with Yale football. (We just had a 95 yard drive by Penn-now it’s Penn 42, Yale 0.). There are better ways to spend my time with much less frustration for me. It wouldn’t be so hard if I didn’t remember how good Yale used to be.
This is the worst Yale FB team ever. They look like Columbia used to. Historic beatdowns. Putrid QB. Awful defense. Reno’s had 2 players – Varga & now Lamar. That’s it. I mean, we now have a starting LG who has played exactly 1 year of organized football – on defense – at Choate after he came here from S. Africa. Still, this is on the Carm guys who continue to hold a grudge. They have done nothing – except damage to the program. Message for them – Tom Beckett isn’t going anywhere. You may think the Don Brown thing was cute. You may think that coming together to renovate the Bowl was enough. It isn’t. Somehow all the other sports are thriving. Football has died. And it’s your fault. This is Yale. Where the wonderful obsession that is college football was invented. I loved Yale football. But when it was time for my son to choose, I told him go to Michigan. Where they still care. Bury the hatchet. Bring Bob Shoop home. Help recruit again. Know that Tom Beckett is a good and thoughtful administrator. Every other sport is thriving. Yale’s visibility is higher than it’s ever been. No secret what’s happened with football. You should be ashamed. You’re not honoring the tradition of Yale football. Or being loyal to Carm. It’s unbelievable how much damage you’ve done. Not just to football, but to the school. Watch “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29”. See what BD, Hill did for that generation of Yalies vs. this one. Not just the team. The school. It’s character, it’s leadership. Folks have given up, like the one above me. Taylor mailed it in at the end. So did Carm. We all saw this. So he made a change. That’s what AD’s do. It’s long over. Get up off your couches, offer to help, get a Carm guy like Shoop back to coach – do what Harvard did. No secret why they are good now. They’re all on board. You really should apologize for the Brown farce. And the rest you haven’t done – except for the Bowl renovations. But that’s probably asking too much. So, just make a call, or two, or three, or a hundred & save Yale football – and maybe the school too.
As baseball exec Lee McPhail once said, you’re never as bad as you think when you’re losing, and never as good as you think when you’re winning. Not to say I’m happy right now or anything.
I am pretty shocked by this fall’s blowout losses; were we really not better prepared for Roberts’ graduation? That said, I do think one shouldn’t forget the dynamic 8-2 team of two years ago, or how remarkable it was to go 6-4 last year despite a Civil War level of injuries. I would give Reno another year.
Re: worst team ever? The jury’s out. We were bad in ’83 (0-8 start), ’96 and ’97… but still weren’t getting decimated on the scoreboard like this. We have a shot to beat Columbia and Brown, so let’s wait and see. And even if we go 1-9, well, that’s what happened in ’83 and ’97 but we were winners the very next year both times… with wins in The Game.