Defense shuts down the Bears' attack to cruise to victory

It was a chilly Friday night when the football team faced the Brown Bears in the hopes of keeping its undefeated season intact. Matching the chill in the air, the Princeton defense cooled down the vaunted Bears' offense, holding it to just three points and 157 total yards in a dominating performance.

"Our defense was absolutely phenomenal," head coach Roger Hughes said.

The Bears (1-4 overall, 0-2 Ivy League) came in averaging 26 points per game on offense with the leading passer in the Ivy League at the helm. Along with its paltry scoring and yardage, Brown managed a meager nine first downs over the entire game. In fact, it took the heroics of kicker Steve Morgan and his tough 45-yard field goal in the second quarter to prevent the Bears from putting up a big fat goose egg on the scoreboard.

Princeton stifles the run

The Tigers had four sacks totaling negative 28 yards in the game, and that's not including all the times that Brown's lackluster running game was stuffed or tackled for negative yardage as well. The Bears attempted to have a balanced attack in the game, as they rushed the ball 26 times and threw it 30 times but failed miserably. Those 26 rushes netted Brown only 41 yards, meaning that the Bears recorded an absolutely abysmal 1.58 yards per rush.

Beyond the statistics were the individual heroics of a multitude of Princeton players. Senior defensive back J.J. Artis came down with an amazingly athletic interception, pulling the ball down over the back of a Brown wide receiver for his third pick of the season.

After Artis's interception, senior defensive back Tim Strickland appeared to come up with another, as he had both hands on the ball when he came down.

The Bears' receiver, however, seemed to place his hands on the ball as he came down as well. The officials ruled that the Brown receiver had possession of the ball and not Strickland, much to Tiger fans' chagrin.

Methvin's crucial sack

It was something of a moot point, however, when the defense subsequently forced a third and nine play that culminated with a devastating sack by sophomore defensive end Tom Methvin, taking the Bears out from the fringes of field goal territory.

Methvin helped lead the Tigers' defensive line, which, according to Hughes, was probably the key to the game.

"Oh, remarkable, phenomenal," Hughes said of the line's play. "You know, they're getting better and better as they get more and more mature. To have a great pass defense, you've got to start by getting heat up front, and by being able to get pressure up front without having to blitz, you can play good coverage, and that's a hard combination to play offense against."

All too true for Brown's passing attack, which entered the game with quarterback Joe DiGiacomo leading the Ivy League in passing yards. DiGiacomo had been averaging 289.8 yards per game on 19 completions per game. He left the game with a meager 71 yards on six completions.

"If your quarterback isn't playing well in a pass offense, you're going to have problems," Hughes said. "We tried to come with edge pressure at times, to overload one side to make sure we had pressure on him. Overall, the defensive effort tonight was phenomenal."

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That pressure led to another key interception by senior linebacker Luke Steckel in the second half.

With the Bears finally approaching Princeton's endzone, Steckel came up with a huge play on fourth and seven. An ill-advised pass by DiGiacomo gave Steckel the interception, and the Tigers took over on their 12-yard line with their 17-3 lead intact. Princeton went on to use up a big chunk of the clock, essentially icing the game for everyone, save Brown.

Because when it was all said and done, the only sensation the Bears felt was heat, heat and more heat.

The Tigers hope to continue to bring the heat when they play Harvard next week in a crucial matchup of unbeatens that could well determine the Ivy League champion.