Princeton Notes

The Bulldogs cruised to a 51-14 victory over the Princeton Tigers on Saturday in one of the most dominant Yale performances in the history of the rivalry. Dartmouth fell to Cornell in a 20-17 thriller allowing Yale the chance at an Ivy League title with a win over Harvard (or losses by both Dartmouth and Yale).

Playing in their final road game together, Yale’s dynamic trio of Rawlings, Shohfi and Klubnik were spectacular. Rawlings finished the game with 338 yards passing and a mind-blowing 6 touchdowns against a strong Princeton defense. Shohfi caught 8 passes for 141 yards and 2 touchdowns. Klubnik hauled in 7 catches for 107 yards and 3 touchdowns. Tipton had a nice outing with 43 yards receiving, while Conte added an 18 yard touchdown reception. The offensive line manhandled the Tigers’ talented defensive linemen and linebackers.  Rawlings was only sacked once and the line opened big holes for Dudek to average 6.2 yards per carry.  We referred to the Princeton offense last week as the most explosive unit in the league and luckily we were way off in that assessment!  The Bulldogs exploded for 27 points in the second quarter in what was by far the most dominant quarter that Yale played all season.

The performance of the Yale defense nearly outshined the fireworks from Rawlings and company.  Burke led the Bulldogs in tackles with 8 and played a nearly perfect game outside of a holding penalty.  Matthaei, Kissel, Callender, Oso, Sampleton and Nickerson helped shutdown Princeton’s running attack and applied constant pressure on Davidson. The defensive tackle position could be an area of concern with the losses of Goodyear and Keeler.  Adam Raine played the majority of the snaps in their absence and Reno could always opt to slide one of our bigger defensive ends down to tackle this week to aid Raine.  The secondary really stepped up this week limiting Davidson to just 164 passing yards.  Ellis had a great interception while Dixon, Rouse, Benn, Hickey and Alburg played with a level of intensity we haven’t seen from them all season.

Tuckerman was perfect in the kicking game.  Bosman bombed one punt for 47 yards and averaged a solid 38.7 yards per punt.

Reno, Cahill and McGowan deserve all the credit in the world for the gameplan that they put together.  The pressure is on this week with Harvard coming to town and an Ivy League crown on the line.  Murphy will have the Crimson fired up as they would love nothing more than to spoil Yale’s remarkable season.  Expect the team that pounded Dartmouth for 58 minutes to show up in New Haven in a game that has all the makings of an epic clash.