Yale Dominates Second Half, Beats CU

Last week, head football coach Norries Wilson jokingly relayed his plan to kidnap Yale junior running back Mike McLeod, who averaged 190 yards going into the Saturday matchup. The “kidnapping attempt” failed, but the Lions held McLeod in check on the ground while keeping the game scoreless going into halftime. But the Lions couldn’t stay with the undefeated Bulldogs after the half, falling 28-7 at home.

“The defense played a great football game for about two-and-a-half quarters, and they played good football the rest of the way,” Wilson said. “They were out there a little bit too long in the second half, but when you’re out there, you still have to get your job done.”

The Columbia defense, which has given up an average of 300 yards rushing per game, had their best showing of the season in the first half, limiting McLeod to 81 yards and keeping the Elis—who have outscored opponents 53-7 in the first quarter—off the board for the first half.

“They only run a couple plays. They’ve never needed to run a whole bunch else, so we knew what they were going to run at us. We knew how to stop it,” sophomore strong safety Andy Shalbrack said. “It’s just one of those things, just getting the intensity up and going out and getting after them today. I mean, we did that for a half, but then again, 30 minutes, it’s not enough to win the game.”

Rain and wind in the first half contributed to sloppy play by both teams, who went into the locker room with a combined eight turnovers. The two teams had such trouble holding onto the football that the ball changed hands on three consecutive possessions. McLeod fumbled on the Columbia 18-yard line and freshman cornerback Calvin Otis recovered for the Lions. But sophomore running back Ray Rangel—who handled the majority of carries for the Lions on Saturday—put the ball on the ground four plays later, and the Bulldogs regained possession. On the very next play, Bulldogs’ quarterback Matt Polhemus, under pressure, threw his second interception of the game.
“I also talked about not giving Yale any extra possessions, and we gave them extra possessions,” Wilson said. “You can’t give that team extra possessions; they don’t make mistakes. That’s what makes them a good football team. They wait for you to make a mistake.”

Unfortunately for the Lions, Yale managed to rebound from their five first-half turnovers. On the first drive of the third quarter, the Bulldogs marched 55 yards to put the first points on the board, as McLeod twisted his way into the end zone on an eight-yard run. The junior finished the day with 33 carries for 135 yards and three touchdowns. Polhemus punished the Lions more with his legs than with his arm, finishing the day as Yale’s second leading rusher with 92 yards.

“The reality is that Matt [Polhemus] had to carry the load a little bit more today because we didn’t want Mike [McLeod] coming out of the day with 50 carries,” Yale head coach Jack Siedlecki said. “We had to spread out the carries and make sure we weren’t just giving the ball to Mike a hundred times.”

The Yale defense effectively shut down the Lions, limiting senior quarterback Craig Hormann to 155 passing yards. Hormann completed 17 of 31 passes on the day with two interceptions. Sophomore wide receiver Austin Knowlin only had three catches, but put the Lions up on the board in the fourth quarter, hauling in an eight-yard pass for a score.

“They made plays when they had to make plays, and we didn’t continue to the make plays in the second half that we had made in the first half,” Wilson said.