In 1949, the University of Wyoming's football team outscored Northern Colorado, 103-0.
Already saddled with a losing streak of epic proportions, the Princeton sprint football team (0-5 overall, 0-3 College Sprint Football League) added another ignominious title to its legacy: its 98-0 loss to Navy (5-0, 2-0) on Friday night ranks directly behind Northern Colorado in the most lopsided-loss category of NCAA football history.
Over the course of the Tigers' now 40-game losing streak, they have found many ways to lose — but never before had they lost so soundly.
"Strange things happen," head coach William Hickey said. "I do not know what happened. We had a tremendous week of practice."
What exactly are the ingredients for such a crushing loss? Forty yards of total offense, with only one coming on passing, explain the lack of points.
"Their defensive line completely throttled our offensive line," Hickey said.
The Tigers' offensive line was outsized and outplayed, allowing the Navy defensive line to hassle sophomore quarterback Alex Kandabarow the entire game. The Midshipmen rendered Princeton's passing game totally ineffective, as the Tigers were 3-for-17 on third-down conversions. The inability to establish a multifaceted attack doomed Princeton, especially against a Navy squad that has yet to allow a touchdown this season.
"Our offense hasn't proven itself to be dynamic enough to put the needed points on the board, and this can and has been pretty disheartening for everybody," sophomore receiver Lon Johnson said.
The Tigers' defense, which had been showing definite improvement over the course of the season, drastically regressed against Navy.
"Friday, it looked like we had never made a tackle before," Hickey said.
Princeton simply could not contain the Midshipmen, as they amassed 704 total offensive yards, 591 of which came on the ground. Navy averaged a staggering 9.4 yards on each play and was 4-for-11 on third-down conversions.
The Tigers suffered a letdown in special teams play as well. Princeton had 12 kickoff return opportunities, but the Tigers failed to give themselves good field position after every return.
Close call last week
The end score in Friday's contest was especially disappointing considering the pre-game comparison of the two teams' performances against Cornell. Two weeks ago, the Midshipmen came out on top against the Big Red by a score of 7-0, but it proved to be a tough, hard-fought contest for both teams. Princeton also competed fiercely with Cornell last week, though it came up short as a result of some key special teams miscues.
But after putting forth their best effort of the year the previous week, the Tigers collapsed against Navy, losing their confidence and giving the Midshipmen many weaknesses to exploit.
Navy has always proven a tough opponent in the past — Princeton lost 77-16 last year. Friday's loss merely continued that trend, as the Midshipmen controlled the pace of the game from the onset. They scored seven touchdowns before the end of the first quarter, matching another NCAA scoring record.
During the second quarter the Tigers came together slightly and held Navy to three touchdowns. Princeton entered halftime down 70-0, its largest halftime deficit to date.
"We stopped doing everything that we had been doing correctly," Hickey said.
In the third and fourth quarters the Tiger defense was able to stop the Midshipmen at four touchdowns, but by this time the damage was already done. The offense never came to life in the second half as Princeton found itself completely outmatched by Navy.
After the effort put forth by the Midshipmen on Friday it is easy to see why they are favored to repeat as CSFL champions. Meanwhile, the Tigers have been outscored 298-60 since the 2003 season.
Still, despite the setback, Princeton remains guardedly optimistic. The Tigers were grossly outmatched, but Princeton played hard right up until the final seconds of the fourth quarter ticked away.
"I'm definitely optimistic about our last two games," Johnson said. "We have a lot to build on."
The Tigersface VMI next Saturday in Lexington, Va. at 1:00 p.m., with nowhere to go but up.
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