Fifty-two weeks ago, the football team could not stop Columbia. The Lions scored 42 points and amassed 528 yards of total offense, dominating and demoralizing the Tigers in Manhattan. Princeton — off to a reasonably promising start — took a turn for the worse, losing the rest of its games that season.
So it was fitting that Princeton’s defense led the charge to stop its 10-game losing streak on Saturday, getting revenge against the same team that started the streak. The Tigers almost completely erased Columbia’s ground attack and harassed quarterback Sean Brackett throughout the evening, holding on for a 24-21 win at Princeton Stadium on Saturday.
Brackett, a first-team All-Ivy quarterback last season, did not look the part this week against an active Tigers defense that forced him to scramble half a dozen times and sacked him on three other occasions. Though Brackett completed a high percentage of his passes in the first half — 11 of 15 — only one throw found a receiver more than 10 yards downfield. And in the second half, forced to make plays with his team trailing the entire time, Brackett connected on only eight of 19 attempts.
Some of the problems were his own doing: Brackett missed four open receivers in the third quarter alone. But when the Lions gained possession deep in their own territory with time winding down, the quarterback had no chance. Princeton’s defense pressured Brackett on all four plays, forcing him to throw the ball away twice and scramble twice. The agile passer tried to run after he was chased from the pocket on fourth down, but junior linebacker Andrew Starks stood him up two yards in front of the marker and shoved him backwards, ending the Lions’ last good opportunity.
Starks also stopped Brackett on Columbia’s other fourth-down chance, a second-quarter play in Princeton territory. Princeton’s defense made plays at the right times, allowing the Lions to convert only two of 13 third-down opportunities.
“That’s been a focus since summer camp,” Starks said. “When [defensive coordinator] coach [Jared] Backus and his staff got here, our goal was 33 percent on [third] downs. We spend a lot of time in situations and working situational football at practice, so when it actually shows up in the game, that’s great to see for everybody.”
Though they were not as significant as in the previous week’s debacle, Princeton turnovers were still responsible for many of Columbia’s points. The Lions returned an interception for a touchdown in the first quarter and recovered a fumbled snap at Princeton’s 28-yard line in the third quarter, covering the remaining distance on one play.
But aside from the pick and five fumbles — three of which the Tigers reclaimed — Princeton’s offense was stellar, consistently moving the chains and keeping the Lions’ defense on the field for 35 minutes of game time.
Senior quarterback Tommy Wornham bounced back from the worst performance of his collegiate career, connecting on 68 percent of his attempts for 194 yards. Instead of forcing throws into coverage, the senior picked his spots to throw downfield, completing six of eight passes that traveled more than 10 yards in the air.
“I took [last week’s game] pretty hard on myself,” Wornham said. “[Offensive coordinator] coach [James] Perry came up to me on Sunday. He told me about a game in his career where he threw three picks and he was down. He told me, ‘I came back next week, we threw the ball 52 times and we absolutely annihilated the team we played.’ So he sort of came at me with that mindset all week. I just got in and I worked hard and I trusted it.”
The larger key to Princeton’s success, however, was its rushing attack. Sophomore tailback Brian Mills enjoyed a breakout game, darting through holes before they could close and wasting little energy before diving downfield. Mills became Princeton’s first 100-yard rusher since Kenny Gunter ’10 two seasons ago, amassing 117 yards on the ground and the Tigers’ first rushing touchdown of the season, a two-yard scamper in the third quarter.
A host of other rushers teamed with Mills to gain 227 yards on 55 carries. Wornham gained 55 yards by calling his own number, and freshman Chuck Dibilio made the most of his only touch after halftime, breaking a tackle in the secondary and running 45 yards down the sideline to set up Mills’ touchdown. Princeton’s offensive line pushed around the Lions, opening gaps for all of its rushers.
“Our perimeter blocking was better,” head coach Bob Surace ’90 said. “We actually showed a finish tape — Coach Perry went back and found clips from Auburn, Okla. — it was amazing. He showed it to me, and it was all finishes, receivers blocking. It was a really impressive thing and it kind of showed our guys we can take another step in our blocking.”
Surace also deserves credit for his aggressive decision-making at the end of the game. When Princeton’s drive stalled at the Columbia 4-yard line, with three minutes to play and the Tigers leading 24-21, some risk-averse football coaches would have taken the sure points from a field goal, ensuring that the other team could not tie with three points of its own. Surace, however, correctly realized that the distance the Lions would have to score a touchdown after a kick return would be no further than the yards needed to get into field goal position from the shadow of their own end zone.
Though his offense came up short of a game-sealing touchdown on that play — and again when the situation repeated itself two minutes later — Surace knew he had made the right call.
“I thought they were going to have to drive even further to get to field goal range, if it was a three-point game, and a touchdown puts them away,” he said, comparing his thought process to the data-based ideas of the hit movie “Moneyball.” “If they get a 40-yard [kickoff] return, they’ve only got to go about 60 yards. To get from the five to the [opposing] 30, that’s more yards.”
“I know, my math teachers back in high school and Princeton are probably complimenting me on that math,” Surace added with a chuckle.
The Tigers now stand somewhere they have not been in three full years — tied for first place in the Ivy League. The fear of another nightmare season, winless in the conference, was dashed at the first opportunity. And as long as the defense and rushing attack play a few more games as they did on Saturday, this victory will not be Princeton’s last.
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