Four-Down Friday

Here is a look at four things to keep an eye on when Yale travels to face Cornell Saturday.

Potential for a letdown: Yale came back from a 21-point deficit to knock off Lehigh in the season opener. The Bulldogs followed with what will be a memorable victory over Army for years to come. Now they go on the road to face a 0-2 Cornell team that is rebuilding. Last year, after a huge win over Cal Poly, Yale fell to Dartmouth. The Bulldogs will make sure that doesn’t happen this time around.

More Varga: Tyler Varga rushed for 185 yards and five touchdowns against Army and Cornell has not had much success stopping the run. The Big Red are allowing 250 rushing yards per game so far. Expect another busy day for the Varga and the rest of the Yale rushing attack.

Matchup problem: Cornell has a pair of big wide receivers on the outside in Lucas Shapiro (6-5, 212) and Collin Shaw (6-2, 210). That could be an issue for Yale’s smaller defensive backs.

Shakeup: After giving up 96 combined points in the first two games, Yale needed to make a defensive change. According to this week’s two-deep, there are six new starters on defense (DE John Herubin, NG Jack Rushin, DT Carl Kreitzberg, DE Jeff Schmittgens, CB Jason Alessi and SS Cole Champion). We’ll see if it makes a difference.