CU Football Falls Prey to Penn's Second Half Offensive Assault

Columbia Head Coach Ray Tellier said on Thursday that if his Lions were to beat Penn this weekend, they would have to stay close and win at the end.

With 5:35 to go in the third quarter, senior wideout Jarel Cockburn squeezed a pass from Jeff McCall in the endzone. His touchdown catch cut Penn's lead in half, making it 14-7. The Lions may not have deserved to be close after their sloppy first half play, but they were.

Ten plays later, Penn (4-0, 2-0 Ivy) had scored two touchdowns and the game was effectively over. Columbia lost 35-7 before a Homecoming crowd of 10,644 at Wien Stadium on Saturday. The Lions are 0-4 (0-2). They have lost nine consecutive games dating back to last season and have not beaten Penn on the field since 1996. With five or six (if Fordham is rescheduled) games left to go in the season, the Lions are in danger of going winless for the first time since 1987.

"We're letting an inferior team hang around here," senior Penn quarterback Gavin Hoffman said he thought to himself after the touchdown.

He knew his offense could move the ball, so it went out and did. Hoffman's first pass was a 28-yard connection to his favorite target, senior Rob Milanese. A pair of runs by Penn senior star runner Kris Ryan netted 20 yards to the Columbia 19. But Ryan had to be helped off the field after the second run. Columbia moved Penn five yards closer with an illegal substitution penalty. Then Ryan's replacement, sophomore Jake Perskie, got the call and took the ball in on runs of six and eight, making the score 21-7.

On the ensuing kickoff, sophomore Travis Chmelka lost the handle on the ball, dropping it to the turf. It bounced into Penn hands. Five plays later, Perskie was in the endzone again and the Lions were down by three touchdowns.

"The next series was big series. They did what they had to do and we didn't," Tellier said. "It goes from 14-7 to 28-7 without [us] touching the ball again. That's an uphill battle."

With almost all of last year's Ivy League championship team back for another year, Penn is the favorite to win the conference again. On paper the Quakers didn't need any assistance to beat the Lions. Columbia helped them anyway.

The Lions ceded five first downs on penalties and turned the ball over twice. They committed two illegal substitution penalties. Already down 7-0 in first quarter, the Lions executed a fake punt on fourth-and-seven when first-year punter threw the ball to Stephen McKoy for an 8-yard pickup. However, the first down was nullified by an illegible man downfield call. The Lions punted, and Penn took the ball the length of the field, going inside the Columbia 10. The Quakers were called for holding, and the drive stalled. Penn's Pete Veldman missed a 22-yard field goal try, and it looked like Columbia had held. But the Lions were flagged for roughing the kicker. Penn got a fresh set of downs but only needed one play as Ryan walked untouched into the endzone on the next play, making it 14-0.

But it was a reassuring first half nonetheless. After a few listless efforts, Columbia was down only two touchdowns, and the fight was back in the Lions. It continued into the second half. After Penn missed a field goal on its opening drive, the Columbia offense jogged to its own 25 with a chance to climb back in. On third-and-11, McCall (17-34, 137 yards and a touchdown) hit senior Doug Peck for 37 yards to the Penn 39. After a run by senior Johnathan Reese (16 carries for 66 yards) and an incomplete pass, McCall hit Chmelka for four yards. On fourth-and-six, Cockburn picked up seven to Penn 28. Columbia converted on fourth down again with a one-yard quarterback sneak by McCall. The next play went to the endzone as McCall hit Cockburn.

"They certainly had our attention, obviously when they scored now it's a one-score game, they really had our attention," Penn Head Coach Al Bagnoli said. "There wasn't any sign of panic at that point."

And for Columbia there was not another chance.

After the game, a subdued Tellier was left to pick up the pieces.

"We're not as good as Penn right now, it's obvious. I think we're working our butt off trying to be," Tellier said. "Some of the positive things we did were an example of effort and desire. We struggled to stop them; they're a good offensive football team."

When asked if he was surprised by his team's start, Tellier said, "You start a season and you plan to win every football game, and every team does that. And when you don't, you've got to go from where you are after Week One, after Week Two, after Week Three, after Week Four, whether you're 4-0 or 0-4 or something in between. I've learned not to be surprised, not to take anything for granted but to deal with each week as it comes. Right now we've got to fight our way out."

Columbia's next game, against Dartmouth in Hanover, is certainly winnable. The Big Green will be without starting quarterback Greg Smith, who broke a finger on his throwing hand today in Dartmouth's 49-17 loss at Holy Cross. Smith had been third in Division I-AA in total offense.

Of course to do that Columbia will have to win on the road, something the Lions have not done since 1998, when they beat the Big Green 24-14.