RSS
What's YOUR prediction?
Yale's season is winding down. The Bulldogs begin a tough three-game stretch beginning with Brown this Saturday at the Yale Bowl.
What's your prediction? Comment below...
What's your prediction? Comment below...
posted by Chris Hunn at
1:56 PM
21 Comments:
Hard to say. Brown is coming on strong and we have injuries and played a very weak opponent last week. They can't pass the ball very well so if we focus on the run and tackle Spooney on every play we should be ok. On offense its going to take all facets to score, pass, run and QB run. It will take some pounding to move the ball on the ground. If they get line penetration like Dartmouth did it will be a long day. If we lose this one I say it is a good chance we lose the remaining two as well.
I think Yale, will be up to the challenge. Yale will have to protect the ball,and stretch the field, with the passing game. Bubble screens will be defended well by the next 3 teams.
Yale 23 to 20
Jon Harris, says GOOD LUCK to the Bulldogs.
Should be a very interesting game, Yale coming off easy win, while Brown stunned Penn.
What the heck...
Yale -24
Brown - 21
Brown looks like they could be the third best team in the League; they just had the misfortune to play the two best in their first two games. The 0-2 conference start was misleading.
Looks like another even matchup. In those type games, coaching and preparation prevail. The Penn and Dartmouth games are both examples. Yale lost both. This coaching staff still needs to show it can beat a team who has equal talent and is prepared for them. I hope that happens this week but history says no. Brown 31-20
I say 31-16, Brown. Cazzetta will make his field goal, as he does every game, but he will miss an extra point,as he does in almost
every game.
Too much has been made of the Columbia game. They are just a bad team, especially without their star quarterback and star runner.
Some perspective, though, preseason forecasts had Yale winning only the Columbia game.
walt yale blue Princeton will run the table what an offense there defense is darn good to .
These guys are way better than Penn. We have our work cut out for us. As I recall last year they beat us up pretty good. Its pretty much the same team except they have a better running back than last year. This game like all close games will be won on the line. That is how the Dartmouth game was lost. And the bubble screen is driving me crazy. Definitely due for a pick six with that nonsense.
I predict good play in a tough loss, followed by yet another flood of ignorant comments on this blog about coaches playing their recruits and ignoring all the incredibly skilled upperclassmen. Brown 27-24.
We have one thing in our favor! Our field is as slow as molasses so maybe that will slow Spooney down.
I applaud the comment above made at 11:51... 11:58's comment is true, the Bowl's grass hasn't been mowed since 1914... ;)
I can't in my heart pick against Yale, so: Y 30, B 27 in OT. What I truly believe, though, is that we'll drop the next two, then win a sweet, sweet (repeat "sweet" eight more times) KO of the Cantabs in THE GAME. You read it here first.
11:51's comment about incredibly skilled upperclassmen is relevant. All of Yale's best teams since WWII were predominantly seniors except one. That was 1946, which started a lot of freshmen and finished 12th in the country. But they were older veterans of the war. The teams of 1956 (first Ivy Champions), 1960 (last unbeaten and untied)1968 (last unbeaten), 1974,1979,1981 were all pretty much senior teams. The 1960 team lost all its games as a freshmen team!
The question is not senior or freshman. Its who is more capable physically and mentally to play. So lets stop the seniors vs freshmen nonsense. Since on average 30% of all new recruits are not good enough and will never be good enough to set foot on the field during their time in Ivy, should it be a requirement that they play when they are seniors? If we get rid of the AI then we can recruit more kids that can actually have a chance to play. Until then 30% of the seniors will just be spectators.
30% of all recruits will not be able to play with or without the AI. When you recruit at total of 140 players over a four-year cycle for a sport in which usually only 50-60 kids take all the snaps, that means the bottom 30% will rarely see the field. That's how math works. That's how a distribution curve works.
By the way, the AI doesn't seem to be hurting Princeton and Harvard any. Indeed, in basketball, Harvard is using the AI as a clever way to stuff their roster full of better athletes that the rest of us can't.
I agree with 4:57. Here's my breakdown for what it's worth: This staff's "signature" win is against Cal Poly (now 4-5, by the way) who likely anticipated a weak non-conference opponent and didn't prepare much. The Penn game last year was a huge anomaly, in that the chaos ensuing from losing three QB's ironically resulted in us doing things our opponents were unprepared for. But this staff really needs to beat an equal (let alone better) opponent. I knew a coach whose theory was "On our schedule in any given year there are teams we can't beat (Fordham?) and teams we can't lose to (Columbia?). My staff is responsible for making sure we are prepared to win all the ones in neither of those categories." Reno's staff fails badly by this measure so far, and if he finishes out by losing to Brown, Princeton, and Harvard, which seems a distinct possibility at this point, he will go into his third season with no such win. I am not a Reno-basher and I am also not that interested in the "his guys play" argument, but this is a concern. He needs a good win sooner or later.
The negativity of many of those leaving comments is really quite sickening. The best RB in the league has been out two weeks, and certainly was not 100% against Dartmouth, and your best QB missed the Penn game. But it is the coaches fault. And by the way, Cal Poly may be 4-5, but they would still win the Ivy League, hands down. Give Reno his full allotment of recruits before complaining, please.
As I said in my prior post, I am not a Reno basher. I'm not a huge fan either; I'm just saying he needs a signature win. And he does. The pro-Reno argument ("give him his full allotment of recruits") lets him off the hook for years, and seems to be that he will out-recruit everyone and we will be so superior in talent that coaching won't matter. Okay, fine. But don't hold your breath. It won't happen in the Ivy League. You have to find ways to beat teams of equal talent who are prepared for what you do. That's all I'm saying. And Reno apologists have to stop using injuries as an excuse; they will always be an issue. Or will Reno's super-recruits be injury-proof as well? To those of you who neither love nor hate Coach Reno, is my assessment unfair? Perhaps too premature?
Not just premature, but Reno bashers, and don't let 5:11 fool anyone, he is a basher, keep changing the goalposts. No one expected wins over Colgate, Cornell, or Cal Poly, so now the anti Reno crowd has to minimize those wins. And now, all of a sudden, Yale is equal in talent to the top Ivy teams, even though these same people were disparaging the talent just 7 weeks ago. Now, since we are equal in talent it is all the fault of the coaches. And injuries don't mean anything? Tell that to Brown who just got Spooney back for Penn. Think he helped?. Only Harvard has the depth to survive injuries to their top level talent.
Your assessment is premature. Period. The End. I give him two more years, maybe even three.
Hey, How long, for example, did it take Surace to get the Princeton program where it is now after being a doormat and taking piles of slams for a number of years from Princeton alums, of course, who were begging for his scalp? It takes time to build a program.
Yale has a chance to beat Brown; stay close, if not win at Princeton; and win THE GAME in the Bowl against Harvard, only if there are enough playmakers healthy and Hank Furman remains accurate in the passing game, without INTs. Prediction: Yale 35, Brown 21; with Varga and Smith contributing, along with Rich, Wallace, and Keyes: a total team effort. Yale Fan from Amherst, Massachusetts
i'm the 11:51 poster, and in case some missed it I was being sarcastic about highly skilled upperclassmen. that was not in any way, shape or form a knock on those kids, but on the people whose comments over the past few months make it sound like the seniors could manhandle the 85 bears if only reno would stop playing the freshmen.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home