Lions Ain't What They Used to Be

If you’re an upperclassman like me, this is not the same Columbia football team you grew up with.

It’s true, the season started out on a familiar note. The team lost to Fordham 27-10, a year after crushing them at home. They bounced back with a win over a horrible Marist team, which admittedly I, like most others, shrugged off as perhaps one of two or three wins they’ll get over middling teams this year.

The team was proving me right in the first half this weekend against Princeton. It was the same old Columbia: settling for three points on their first drive after being stonewalled on the 3-yard line, then going downhill from there. Tackles were missed, gains by the opposition that should have been five yards turned into ten. Any Columbia completions were downed by the Princeton defense immediately after the catch in a powerful contrast of finishing. The sequence by which the Tigers extended their lead to the biggest of the night was particularly painful: a ball thrown up for grabs by a falling Craig Hormann was summarily picked off, and a few short plays later Princeton running back R.C. Lagomarsino scored by ramming straight through the Columbia line. That touchdown made the score 20-3, by which Princeton symbolically would have covered the spread for the game. And it wasn’t even halftime yet.

An older Columbia team would have ceded the spotlight to Princeton for the rest of the game right then and there, but this one was going to take it back.

The Lions would march down the field on the subsequent drive, scoring on a home-run bomb to Austin Knowlin, to get themselves into double-digits. Sophomore safety Andy Shalbrack would intercept Princeton quarterback Bill Foran on the very next drive, taking the pick all the way to the end zone. All of this happened in little over two minutes. By the time the teams took to the locker rooms, Columbia had clawed their way to within four. True, it was on the backs of Tiger mistakes, but as the old adage goes, opportunity favors the prepared mind. The Tigers left the door slightly ajar and Columbia blew it open.

The Tigers tried to impose their quality multiple times in the second half. After all, this is the defending Ivy champion. And many times, Princeton’s athleticism was too much to handle. Despite forcing two more turnovers from Foran, Columbia was often unable to break a stout Tigers defense in a much shortened field. Princeton’s backs and receivers were often just too quick to bring down on the first try. A fumble from an otherwise terrific running game allowed the Tigers to punch it in and seemingly put the game out of reach early in the fourth. But the Lions would not break just yet.
The team would proceed methodically down the field for the touchdown and two-point conversion, in my personal favorite drive of the night. In the end, it took a trick play from the defending champions to put away Columbia for good.

In many ways this weekend’s Princeton game may represent a microcosm of the Lions’ season. In both cases, they had a terrible start, providing cynics with ample ammunition. In both cases, they ignored their doubters and took advantage of what they were given—taking care of business against Marist, while forcing turnovers against a reckless Princeton offense. In the end, perhaps the lack of experience and talent will overwhelm the Lions, but Harvard, Yale, and Penn shouldn’t expect too easy of an in and out at Wien this season.

I’ll take this version of the Lions over the old one any day of the week.