Real test looms for Lions after strong start

It’s about that time of the year. The leaves are changing, it’s getting cold, and there’s finally work that has to be done. It is midterm season, ladies and gentlemen. The midterm, for the most part, is the first true test of the semester. Sure, you could be acing your homework, but that won’t mean squat if you blow the midterm that’s worth anywhere from 25 to 40 percent of your final grade.

Luckily, everyone has to deal with midterms, even sports teams.

So far this season, the Columbia football team has been doing pretty well. It’s currently riding a three-game winning streak, during which it has decisively won games through a strong effort on both sides of the ball. As my fellow columnists have pointed out, Sean Brackett has been terrific through the air and on the ground, and Alex Gross has been anchoring that defense with both tackles and interceptions. To keep my metaphor going, the Lions have been acing their problem sets.

I refer to those games as problem sets for a couple of reasons. First, the Light Blue has played every game at home. There’s a reason it’s called “home-field advantage.” The fans are favorable, the field and facilities are familiar, and it’s close to home. Like doing your work at home or in the library, it’s easier when you’re not forced to come up with the right answer in the middle of class. Second, Columbia has only played one Ivy League opponent in Princeton. While the win against Princeton was awesome, it came against a bad team that has just one victory so far. The other two wins came against nonconference opponents, which is great, but irrelevant in regards to the Ivy League standings. It’s kind of like mastering the material that the professor says won’t be tested. These two reasons lead to the central point that while those wins were impressive and a good sign of things to come, the true test lies ahead.

The test I’m referring to is Saturday’s road game against Ivy rival Penn. The matchup will be a completely different beast. First, it’ll be on the road, which means those advantages I mentioned earlier will be working for the Quakers. In fact, this weekend is family weekend at Penn so the stands should be packed with hostile fans. Second, Penn is a tough Ivy League opponent. The Quakers are 3-1 with wins over Lafayette, Dartmouth, and Bucknell. Penn has held its opponents to 18.5 points per game while averaging 23.8 points on an impressive 196.2 rushing yards.
A win or loss against Penn will be huge. The Lions could gain even more momentum heading into Homecoming the following week, or they could find themselves 1-1 in Ivy play with games against Yale and Harvard still to come.

This is not an unfamiliar situation for Columbia. Last year around this time, the Lions were 2-2 and coming off a narrow defeat to Lafayette. The following Homecoming game against Penn was noted by a few columnists as a pivotal game in the season, and it was just that. The Light Blue crumbled and lost 27-13 in front of a disappointed crowd. Columbia would go on to end the season 4-6 (3-4 Ivy).

The situation is not bleak, however, as Columbia can just as easily win against Penn and set itself up for a strong second half of the season. Remember those stats I gave for the Quakers? Well, the Lions are averaging 29.2 points per game on 205.8 rushing yards while only allowing 17.0 points. Columbia’s fate is in its own hands. It could blow the Penn midterm and dig itself a hole that it will have to work its way out of for the rest of the season. Or it could rock the test and be in prime position for a solid A, also known as an Ivy League Championship.