The nightmare debut season of football team head coach Bob Surace ’90 continued on Saturday. The team allowed four first-quarter touchdowns and lost 52-10 at Princeton Stadium to league-leading No. 18 Penn (7-1 overall, 5-0 Ivy League). The Tigers (1-7, 0-5) are now in danger of going winless in the Ivy League for the first time in program history, and they may be without yet another member of the starting backfield for the final two games.
The Quakers entered the game ranked in the top 20 in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly 1-AA) and with just one blemish on their record — a close defeat to defending national champion No. 3 Villanova. They played up to expectations this week, gaining exactly 600 yards of total offense. The 42-point margin of victory was Penn’s largest in the 102-game rivalry between the two teams.
Princeton nominally averaged just 1.6 yards per rush, but that number includes five sacks and junior Otavio Fleury’s fumbled punt attempt, plays that were not designed runs. The Tigers’ running backs combined for 111 yards on 27 carries, a very strong performance against the nation’s best run defense.
Senior co-captain Jordan Culbreath led the backs with 46 yards but suffered an injury to his right knee late in the third quarter and had to be helped off the field. Surace, normally tight-lipped about injuries in the postgame press conference, said on Saturday that "it might cause [Culbreath] to miss the rest of the season.” Losing the co-captain and heart of the offense would be a tough blow for a team that has already seen junior starting quarterback Tommy Wornham and senior defensive captain Steve Cody felled by injuries.
While the hosts had some success on the ground, the Quakers completely bottled up the Tiger passing attack. Princeton completed just 13 of 33 passes, none farther downfield than a 13-yard touchdown to senior wideout Andrew Kerr. Senior receiver Trey Peacock entered the game third in the nation in receiving yards per game but managed only 45 on Saturday, though it was not for the Tigers’ lack of trying: Peacock was targeted 17 times, for only five completions. Frequent double coverage forced many errant throws, but the star senior uncharacteristically also let a couple of passes go through his hands.
Senior quarterback Andrew Dixon and freshman quarterback Connor Kelley struggled with their accuracy, but the offensive line did neither any favors. Penn registered five sacks and knocked down the quarterback on nearly every passing play. Kelley, in particular, struggled to avoid pressure despite being the more agile passer, as he was sacked three times on 13 dropbacks.
“Connor is still learning the process of reading defenses,” Surace said. “Penn does a great job with coverages and disguises, which is tough for a freshman quarterback who ran a different offense in high school.”
Meanwhile, the Quakers scored on each of their first four drives and averaged 10.7 yards per carry en route to a 28-point first quarter. Penn continued to have success on the ground, finishing the game with 396 rushing yards and dominating a weary Princeton defense in the final period. The Quakers had a chance at breaking their program record for total offense, but instead decided to take a knee with 1 minute, 30 seconds, to play.
The damage came from players up and down the roster, as no Quaker received as many as 10 carries. Quarterback Billy Ragone gained 80 yards on eight scrambles, while wide receiver Aaron Bailey rolled for 82 yards on four end-arounds, two of which went for touchdowns.
“We’ve been running reverses all year, and I thought we could get to the corner today,” Penn head coach Al Bagnoli said. “They’ve been shading the tight end inside, so we thought we could get the tight ends pulling out in front. Aaron did a really good job of hitting the seam and accelerating away from people.”
As hard as it may be to believe, Princeton was lucky to lose by only 42 points. Penn committed seven penalties for 84 yards, including a pair of roughing the punter flags that gave possession back to the hosts — one of which led to the Tigers’ field goal. Princeton needed to drive only 10 yards to score its touchdown, after Ragone stared down his receiver long enough to allow junior cornerback Blake Clemons to tip the pass and make a highlight-reel interception in enemy territory.
And the Quakers twice came away with zero points after great drives. In the third quarter, Penn wide receiver Matt Tuten fumbled out the back of the end zone for a touchback, although it appeared that he may have crossed the goal line before senior cornerback Weston Palmer forced the fumble. The Quakers also kneeled the ball inside the Princeton 40-yard line to end the game after carving up the Tigers’ run defense for 45 yards on five plays.
The Tigers have only two chances to pick up a league victory: at Yale (6-2, 4-1) next week, then home against Dartmouth (5-3, 2-3). Though this team bears little resemblance to the one that took the field on opening day, it will need to find a way to score more points and get more stops, or else Princeton will suffer its least successful season in program history.
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