Strong defense proves to be too much for Columbia quarterback

"Defense wins ballgames."

This old adage is one that football coaches have been using for years. And even in this day of West Coast offenses, double motion plays and trickery, it still holds true. Even when an opponent does score points, a tough defense makes sure that those points come at a price.

On Saturday, the Columbia Lions met a tough defense — the Princeton Tigers.

With all things considered, Columbia quarterback Steve Hunsberger played a solid game. Throughout the entire competition, he was the major threat to Princeton's defense. It was Hunsberger who kept the Lions in the game when the Tigers made mistakes.

By the end of the first half, Hunsberger led his team in rushing with 69 yards. Most of those yards came from his ability to make something out of nothing. And it was the Princeton defense that made sure there was nothing for the Lions.

The Tigers stuffed the Columbia rushing game. The longest rush of the day for the Lions was on a fake punt. Their normal running backs averaged under two yards per carry in the first half, and only one of them averaged over two yards for the entire game. The front four for Princeton, junior tackles Jeff Micsky and George Pilcher and junior defensive ends Tim Kirby and Joe Weiss ruled the line of scrimmage, tackling Columbia players a total of 16 times for a loss (for 39 yards).

When it came to the passing game, the Tiger defensive backfield managed to contain the Columbia receivers. Hunsberger was fairly accurate, but when his receivers caught the ball, the Princeton defenders were right there to keep them from picking up extra yardage after the catch.

But the key to any good pass defense is the pass rush. And Princeton brought the rush this weekend.

The front four along with senior linebackers Drew Babinecz and J.R. Sauder and junior linebackers Zak Keasey put hits on Hunsberger all day long. Hunsberger was tough — he still managed to stand in the pocket to deliver the pass, though taking a pounding hit afterwards. He was knocked down countless times, even sometimes being double-teamed by Tigers. Princeton sacked him three times for a total of 14 yards lost, forcing the Columbia offense into long yardage situations.

The Lions did manage to capitalize on those situations, though. The one weakness that the Princeton defense showed this week was against the big plays. On third and long, a team has to buckle down and not give up big yardage — with which the Tigers struggled. Several pass interference calls resulted in fresh momentum for the Columbia drive.

On top of that, being unable to contain Hunsberger in the pocket resulted in several scrambles for Lion first downs.

But the pounding that the defense gave Hunsberger began to pay off in the fourth quarter. After garnering 51 yards on draws and scrambles in three quarters, he only managed another 15 yards in the fourth, bringing his average to 4.4 yards per carry — the highest average on the team (which was still less than two out of the Tigers' top three rushers). By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, Hunsberger was slower on the run, slower to get up, and was not passing as crisply as he was earlier in the game.

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Even so, it was a mistake-ridden day for the Tigers. On offense, turnovers at key moments kept Columbia in the game, while defensive letdowns kept the Lions rolling right up until the last minute.

"I thought we did not have our A-game with us when we stepped on to the field," head coach Roger Hughes said after the game.

Even without its A-game, the Princeton defense still managed to corral a fiery Columbia offense and pull out a win. And that is the mark of a tough defense.