Tag Archive: M. Football

  1. FOOTBALL | Veteran Dunham ’12 anchors defense

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    When the opposing offense takes the field, free safety Geoff Dunham ’12 has some tough decisions to make. Tasked with predicting the team’s play in a matter of seconds, Dunham will call the signals for the secondary this year as he helps lead a crop of talented young cornerbacks this season as the team looks to improve on last year’s sixth-place Ivy League rating in pass defense. He sat down with the News to talk about defending Yale’s talented offense in practice, his fumble return for a touchdown last season against Princeton and the team’s mentality heading into the season.

    Q You have been practicing for almost two weeks now. How is the defense looking?

    A We look good. We’re definitely a cohesive unit this early on in the year. We have a lot of guys that have had game experience. Maybe they weren’t starting last year, but they have been substituted in for a few plays on some important drives. So we do have a lot of guys with good experience.

    Q When it comes to experience, you’re one of the most battle-tested veterans in the secondary. What does that mean for your role on the defense?

    A Since I’ve been around this system, I know most of the calls in and out. That’s helpful when you’re behind everybody, because you can see who is out of place, you can correct them, you can just get the defense where we’re playing one single coverage and one play and hopefully you can prevent a mistake.

    Q The defense thrived when it forced mistakes last season — for example, Chris Stanley ’11 saved your win over Dartmouth with two forced fourth-quarter turnovers. Is aggressiveness a hallmark of your game?

    Q You did just that when you ran a fumble back for a touchdown against Princeton. Should we expect another one of those this season?

    A Hopefully. I hope I’ll have some more of those.

    Q There are some up-and-coming cornerbacks who should see some time this season, including Colin Bibb ’13 and Kurt Stottlemyer ’13. What will they do for the team?

    A We have a group of good young corners and also Dawson Halliday ’12, a senior who will be seeing some time in there too. A lot of them have game experience. They’re very quick, they’re savvy and it’s good to have that depth, especially at corner, which is probably our defense’s most important position. We probably put the most pressure on our corners of all the guys in our defense. So we’ve lucked out to have four guys who can play the position really well.

    Q Why is there such pressure on the cornerbacks on the team?

    A Because we are such an aggressive defense, we might be committing a large number of players inside the box to prevent the run and put pressure on the quarterback. That puts a lot of pressure on the secondary, especially since our safeties also tend to be pretty aggressive.

    Q What’s the team’s mentality right now?

    A Just not stopping, continuing to learn and to buy into the system. We have another year under Coach Williams’ system to take that mentality and to run with it even more. All the older guys know what to expect. This freshman group coming in, our job was to show them the ropes and to let them know that they can contribute right away if they desire. We just don’t want to stop, we want to keep this train rolling.

    Q Is there a connection between that mentality and the system the team has adopted under [head coach] Tom Williams?

    A Definitely. He brings kind of a professional style to this program, and he has coached the best — I mean he came from the NFL. He has those same expectations for us as a college football program. He knows how to be excellent and how to be great and he has instilled that into our program.

    Q The team has new shirts that say, “Armed and Dangerous,” across the back. Are those a Williams creation?

    A Last year we had shirts that said, “Arm Yourself.” That kind of lets our opposition know that they better be ready for us when we play them. This year sort of adds on to that, where it says we’re armed and dangerous, we’re ready, we’re going to the next level, we’ve had another year on our belts and we’ll be ready.

    Q Last year, that season opener with Georgetown was a crazy game that ended on the last play. And the team went on to play many more nailbiters like it. Is this a team that thrives on that kind of pressure?

    A I think that game reflects our team mentality. We go into a game expecting to win, and we never give up. We were down going into the final moments of that game and we expected to win, we expected to successfully run the quarterback sneak. That’s just what Coach Williams has brought to our program: that expectancy to win.

    Q Does that expectancy mean you think you guys can win it all this year?

    A Yeah, I think we have the tools to win. We just have to go out and do it.

    Q Speaking of offense, you’ve been defending against them in practice. How do they look?

    A They look great. They’ve been clicking really well this preseason. We have a lot of threats on offense this year. You have [wide receiver] Chris Smith ’13 coming back, and we have a bunch of other dangerous quick receivers out there. Then there’s [quarterback] Patrick Witt ’12, one of the best quarterbacks in the league, coming back, and an arsenal of great running backs too. We’re looking pretty stacked.

    Q Have you had the pleasure of taking those receivers on in practice?

    A Yes, they are challenging to guard. But I think I can hold my own.

  2. FOOTBALL | Third year the charm for Coach Williams?

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    Running back Alex Thomas ’12 came to preseason with a new biceps tattoo: his nickname, Train.

    Tattoos are not new for the Eli star, who had his initials inked on his arms a few years ago. But Thomas’ new tattoo is not his most original, wide receiver Gio Christodoulou ’12 joked after practice on Aug. 21. Christodoulou had his senior society tattooed on his biceps last year, and laughed that Thomas was merely copying his inspired idea.

    Whatever the true motivation of Thomas’ body art, the joking argument underscores the chemistry and experience that this year’s football team hopes will help lead it to an Ivy League title. The Elis will be charged with beating Harvard for the first time since 2006 and building on last season’s second-place Ivy League finish. The team returns with most of its starters and, after two full seasons under head coach Tom Williams, players say they are fully versed in his systems and style.

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    “Guys are used to Coach’s systems now, and it shows,” captain and linebacker Jordan Haynes ’12 said. “We’re light years ahead of where we were at this time last year.”

    Williams also emphasizes the team’s steady, year-by-year progression since his debut season in 2009. That team, led by a tandem of inexperienced quarterbacks including then-sophomore Patrick Witt ’12, stumbled to a 2–5 Ivy League record. Last year’s Elis turned that record around, and finished 5–2 in the Ancient Eight.

    This season, the team has ordered T-shirts with the words “Armed and Dangerous” printed across the back. Williams said that, in the past, he has told his players that opposing teams should have to arm themselves against Yale football. Now, however, he believes that it is the Bulldogs who are armed, dangerous and ready to pursue an Ivy League championship.

    OFFENSE

    The Yale attack, which returns its top two rushers, top two receivers and starting quarterback, will certainly be dangerous. But so will many other Ivy League offenses. Penn, Harvard and Brown — which joined Yale in the top half of the league standings last season — also return their starting quarterback. Still, Williams is betting on Witt.

    “We’ve given Witt the keys to the car,” Williams said. “His first year, he was learning the system. His second year, we gave him more responsibility. And this third year, we’re throwing him into full control.”

    Witt, who threw for 2216 yards, 12 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in nine games last season, will receive plenty of help running the NFL-style passing game that Williams has installed. The veteran quarterback will be able to look on every play for Christodoulou and Chris Smith ’13, who combined for 84 catches and 1015 yards last season.

    Neither seems to have slowed down since then. Christodoulou, who is taking advantage of a medical redshirt in order to return for a fifth season, spent the summer in New Haven training with a group of other Elis. Smith was all over the field in the team’s first full-contact practices, even diving backward on one of the last plays of Sunday’s session to catch a pass that had been tipped well off-course by a linebacker.

    Christodoulou said that his years of starting alongside Witt have created impressive chemistry.

    “This is the third year we’ve played together, and it shows,” he said. “You come out of the break, and as soon as you’ve turned for the ball it’s in your arms.”

    Some of Witt’s passes will also go to Deon Randall ’14, who was a sensation as a rookie. The versatile speedster can line up as a receiver or a back or even behind center in wildcat formations, and was productive in each role last fall.

    Though Randall touched the ball more and more each game in 2010, Williams said that the coaching staff decided after reviewing game tapes this summer that they had not given him the ball enough. This year, Randall could average as many as 25 touches a game.

    “He’s a weapon we have on the field,” Williams said. “We have to try to get him the ball as often as we can, wherever we can.”

    When Randall is not lining up in the backfield, running backs Thomas and Mordecai Cargill ’13 will look to pound the ball up the middle. Thomas, who rushed 163 times for 710 yards in 2010, said he has gained weight and speed since last November. Cargill, who carried 59 times for 290 yards, was slowed by a knee injury last season but has showed no lingering effects in preseason except braces on both knees.

    The Eli offense should be dangerous this season because of all its returning skill players, said cornerback Geoff Dunham ’12, who has to defend against Witt’s passes in practice, on Aug. 19. But a big question mark remains at center, where the graduation of Jake Koury ’11 has left a glaring hole.

    Although Jeff Fell ’12 started some games at center last season, he has quit the team, leaving the Elis without a single snap of game experience at the vital position. Yale will likely count on John Oppenheimer ’14, who began playing center during spring practice fewer than four months ago, to organize the offensive line.

    The linemen on either side of Oppenheimer all return from last year, and so Williams said he is confident that Witt will receive more protection than last year, and thus make fewer mistakes.

    Witt’s teammates expressed confidence that their quarterback would flourish this season.

    “Everyone is looking to him to take charge,” Thomas said. “He expects success on every play, and you need to have that someone to demand success and results.”

    DEFENSE

    Yale will benefit from veteran leadership on the other side of the ball as well. Six of the team’s starting front seven are returning — the notable exception being former captain and lineman Tom McCarthy ’11. And although the team suffered losses in the secondary, Dunham said he thinks the team has four cornerbacks who are good enough to start.

    “This has the chance to be an elite defense,” Williams said. “We’ll be disappointed if we don’t finish in the top two in [defense].”

    Haynes, a linebacker and the team’s leading tackler last season, will lead a defensive eleven that was known for big plays last season. It took both a interception and a fumble recovery in the fourth quarter to give Yale a last-second victory over Dartmouth in October, while a Dunham fumble recovery for a touchdown led Yale to a one-point win over Princeton in November.

    But Williams expects consistency when he speaks of a top-two defense, and that consistency should come from experience. Defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe rotated his linemen often last year, and so the team should have enough experienced underclassmen to fill the hole left by McCarthy.

    Among those linemen who Williams said are likely to begin to see regular playing time are Reed Spiller ’12 and Pat Moran ’12.

    SPECIAL TEAMS

    After almost every game last season, Williams — a former special teams coach — tried to explain his special teams’ struggles. In the Elis’ season-opener against Georgetown, they had two field goal attempts blocked and gave up a kickoff return touchdown.

    In The Game, Harvard began the second half with a kickoff return touchdown and added another soon after blocking a punt deep in Eli territory.

    “In my mind, as a special teams coach, those are the reasons we lost,” Williams said in reference to special teams mistakes in each of his team’s three losses last year. “And that’s not even to mention the field goal opportunities we missed.”

    Last year’s kicker, punter and long snapper return, and their experience might mean fewer mistakes. So might the presence at preseason camp of two newly-recruited kickers, who will be ready to take over from a struggling teammate at a moment’s notice — just as kicker Phillippe Panico ’13 and punter Greg Carlsen ’14 did last year.

    Though special teams execution remains one of the biggest question marks facing the team, Yale can count on a stable of dynamic kick returners of its own. Smith — who returned two consecutive kickoffs for touchdowns at Brown last season — Christodoulou and Randall all threaten to make opponents’ special teams units look like Yale’s did last year.

    Yale will host Dean College in a scrimmage on Sept. 10 before kicking off its season against Georgetown on Sept. 17.

  3. FOOTBALL | Elis shoot for the pros

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    Their college football careers ended more than four months ago, but the workouts have continued.

    Fullback Shane Bannon ’11, tight end Chris Blohm ’11, safety Adam Money ’11 and defensive lineman Sean Williams ’11, who have been training together since January, performed for National Football League scouts at Yale’s pro day last Thursday with the hopes of earning a contract with a professional team. Former captain and defensive lineman Tom McCarthy ’11, who graduated after the fall semester, joined them even though he has been working out separately in New Jersey. After performing various drills for the scouts, the five will now wait to hear back from teams in the coming weeks.

    “What kid doesn’t dream of playing in the NFL?” Money said. “It’s one of those things where I don’t want to look back and say I missed a shot at continuing my athletic career.”

    But the jump from Yale to the NFL is a long one. The Ivy League is in the second tier of Division I college football, far removed from elite scholarship programs at large state universities where seasons and practices are longer. However, the players are not phased by those dim prospects.

    “I’m not concerned that we are long shots,” Blohm said. “I couldn’t imagine not trying to play football next year. I have had a football season every fall since being very young and I want to keep that going.”

    The Elis can keep their football careers going if an NFL team drafts them. But only about 250 players are drafted each year, and the last Bulldog to hear his name called was Nate Lawrie ’04, who was selected in the sixth round by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It is more likely that Blohm and his teammates will sign as undrafted free agents.

    But before an NFL team will spend its money on a player from a school like Yale outside of the traditional college football power hierarchy, it needs to see what differentiates him from the hundreds of other college graduates vying for their own spots. That’s where pro day comes in.

    At the NFL combine and pro days at schools across the country, players run through a series of drills ranging from a 40-yard dash to a 225-pound bench press to less quantifiable positioning drills for scouts.

    Bannon, Blohm, Money and Williams have been training together for those drills since January.

    “It’s been the definition of a grind,” Bannon said. “We’ve been trying to get stronger and stay healthy, and we’ve had to give up that senior spring that everyone looks forward to forever while playing a varsity sport.”

    The training program, which team strength and conditioning coach Emil Johnson helped the Elis design, varied for each member of the group. Bannon, who at 6 feet 2 inches tall and 265 pounds is already a big fullback, said he worked to increase his speed and turn his bad weight into good weight. Money said he tried to increase his weight but also strike a balance between bulk and speed. Blohm said his focus was on explosiveness.

    That explosiveness showed last Thursday for the tight end, who bench pressed 225 pounds an eye-popping 30 times in front of scouts for the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. That performance would have placed him first among tight ends at the NFL scouting combine in late February, an invitation-only event for top draft prospects. His 40-yard dash time of 4.89 and his 35-inch vertical leap would also have put him 11th and sixth, respectively.

    “I had an excited energy that made the whole day a blast,” said Blohm, who caught 26 passes for 255 yards and two touchdowns in the fall. “I was looking forward to the pro day for so long I couldn’t wait to get going.”

    Blohm’s energy has impressed scouts enough that he will fly to California on April 20 to meet with coaches and work out for the San Francisco 49ers. The Atlanta Falcons and Green Bay Packers are also showing interest in the tight end, according to the New Haven Register.

    Blohm is not the only member of the group who is earning attention from scouts. Bannon looked solid last Thursday and also impressed scouts with his speed and agility at a pro day in Tolland, Connecticut the day before.

    “Normally people don’t do two [pro days] in a row, but I thought that this was my best chance to play at the next level and have people see what I have to offer,” Bannon said.

    Now that the Yale workout is behind them, the four Elis will wait to hear from teams and keep logging hours in the gym to maintain the strength they gained over the past three months.

    “You have to think small to begin with,” Money said. “Coming out of an Ivy League school, it’s going to be tough to be drafted. It doesn’t happen often. I hope to get my foot in the door. Once I do that, I hope I have the chance to play some football in camp. And once I’m in camp, I’ll do everything I have to do to stick around.”

    The NFL Draft will be held April 28-30 in New York.

  4. FOOTBALL | Elis overcome injuries, beat Rams

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    Jordan Forney ’11 knows how to find the end zone. Two weeks ago, he dove past two defenders and just past the corner pylon on a 28-yard fake field goal run with no time left in the second half. This Saturday, he caught a pass from Brook Hart ’11 in stride on a crossing route and repeated his performance, reaching the football just across the goal line early in the fourth quarter for a 29-yard score.

    The extra-point conversion by Philippe Panico ’13 was the only other offense Yale needed, as the Elis (4–1, 2–0 Ivy) eked out a 7–6 nail-biter against Fordham (2–5) at the Yale Bowl, despite the absences of quarterback Patrick Witt ’12 and running backs Alex Thomas ’12 and Mordecai Cargill ’13, who all sat out with injuries.

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    “You only have 10 chances in a season to win a football game,” said safety Adam Money ’11. “We’d like to win one more handily, but it makes it all that much sweeter when you really muscle it out to get the win.”

    Forney’s score was almost not enough. The Rams quickly drove into the Yale red zone on their possession after the Yale touchdown. Fordham quarterback Blake Wayne — who ran a hurry-up attack that caught Yale off guard at times — threw a series of strikes to All-American wide receiver Jason Caldwell and tight end Stephen Skelton, and Fordham lined up for a 24-yard field goal only five minutes after Forney’s score. Kicker Patrick Murray had already converted two longer kicks in the game, and this looked like an easy chip shot.

    But Chris Dooley ’13, who had already had a pass deflection on the day, stuck his hand up at just the right time and blocked the kick.

    “I just jumped up and got a hand on it and managed to block the kick,” Dooley said. “It was pretty simple, we just did what we had to do.”

    The Rams did not threaten Yale’s lead again.

    Dooley’s effort was Yale’s first blocked kick of the season. They have seen five of their own kicks blocked. On Saturday, the special teams held strong in every aspect but kicking accuracy. Panico missed field goal attempts of 50, 48 and 41 yards.

    “We got off some clean looks today but they just didn’t go through for us,” head coach Tom Williams said. “But we’ll keep swinging at it.”

    Field goals accounted for all of Fordham’s offense. Sophomore kicker Patrick Murray converted kicks of 45 and 38 yards despite strong winds that kept both offenses from operating at full efficiency.

    But Hart, starting in the place of Witt, who separated his shoulder against Dartmouth last week, showed off the strong arm that earned him a spot on the varsity baseball team last spring. He completed 15 of 29 passes for 227 yards, an interception and the touchdown to Forney.

    “That was an unbelievable win because we’ve had a couple guys go down with injuries,” said Hart. “I think that win just speaks a lot about our team and the way we prepare.”

    Witt’s was not the only presence Yale was missing on the field. Thomas and Cargill had been both been injured last Saturday and had to watch from the sideline as Javi Sosa ’13 made the most of his first career start, earning 74 yards on 24 carries. Finally, Jeff Fell ’12 started at center in the place of Jake Koury ’11, and John Pedersen ’11 replaced the injured Gabe Fernandez ’12 at left tackle.

    “We had adversity, we had a lot of guys hurt,” Williams said. “We had to play quite a few guys who haven’t played much this year. But our expectation is that those guys step up and play like starters. And I thought they did.”

    Many of those plays came from the defense, which had to keep up with Wayne, who two weeks ago became the first Fordham quarterback ever to run for 100 yards in a game.

    Led by linebacker Jordan Haynes, who recovered the game’s only fumble and led all defenders with 12 tackles, the Bulldogs allowed the Rams only 89 yards rushing and 219 through the air.

    The unit’s biggest play came with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter, when Money intercepted a Wayne pass at Yale’s own 33-yard line.

    “We needed a play to get them off the field,” said Williams. “Money stepped in and made an unbelievable interception on that guy.”

    Geoff Dunham ’12 had his first interception of the season and linemen Jake Stoller ’11 and Reed Spiller ’12 each had a sack.

    The win was Yale’s third that has been decided by one score or fewer.

    “A win like this is character-building,” said captain Tom McCarthy ’11. “After the Georgetown game, we were talking about how that was a character-building win. The way we keep winning, this team’s got a lot of character.”

    Yale will look to put that character to good use next week when they try to avenge last year’s 9–0 loss to the University of Pennsylvania (4–1, 2–0), last year’s Ivy League champions. That game will be the first of five consecutive contests against Ivy League foes.

    “Our season starts now,” Money said.

  5. Yale vs. Cornell, 12:30 p.m.

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    The Yale Daily News live-blogs Yale’s away game against Cornell, starting at 12:30 p.m.

  6. M. FOOTBALL | Bad news Bears

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    The Bulldogs knew the Bears were going to throw the ball. What Yale did not expect, though, was to face an offense that was not just good in the air, but even better on the ground.

    Brown backup tailback Spiro Theodhosi exploded for 133 yards in the second half, as the Bears (5–3, 3–2 Ivy) took control of a game that found Yale down by only two at halftime, but that ended with the Elis (4–4, 2–3) losing both the game — 35–21 — and any chance at a share of the Ivy League title.

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    Prior to Saturday’s game, the Elis’ offense had averaged fewer than nine points a game in their three losses. This time, however, it was not the offense that was the problem.

    The usually-strong Yale defense — which had previously kept its opponents to an average of 275 total yards — allowed a season-worst 494 total yards against the Bears.

    “They found some success running the ball and decided to stick with it,” head coach Tom Williams said. “I don’t think that was their game plan coming in, but maybe it was. … When we look at the tape I think we’ll see that we didn’t execute our defense.”

    In addition to Theodhosi’s 167 rushing yards, Brown junior quarterback Kyle Newhall-Caballero threw for 269 yards, including two touchdown passes to senior wide receiver Buddy Farnham.

    Yale quarterback Patrick Witt ’12 also had success in the air, going 28-for-41 for 285 yards and two touchdowns, but he threw three interceptions. One of the turnovers was especially damaging as it ended any chance of a comeback, one week after Yale’s 12-point fourth-quarter comeback at Columbia.

    The first quarter saw both defenses bend, but not break, as both teams were stopped from getting closer than 35 yards to the goal line.

    Toward the end of the first quarter, Witt had completed five passes for 41 yards but under-threw his next pass and was intercepted at Brown’s 18-yard line.

    The Bears responded on their subsequent drive by moving the ball 71 yards, and Newhall-Caballero found Farnham for a 10-yard score to take a 7–0 lead less than three minutes into the second quarter.

    The Bulldogs kept up as tailback Mordecai Cargill ’13 caught a short screen pass from Witt and ran 41 yards into the end zone, struggling to keep his balance on the last 10 yards. It was Cargill’s first career score and put Yale within one point after kicker Alex Barnes ’11 missed the extra point.

    “The play just opened up the way that it was drawn up,” Cargill said. “The line did a great job of blocking, and we just ran it the way we’ve been running it all year.”

    As the second quarter neared an end, the Bear offense was once again driving, but cornerback Adam Money ’11 quickly gave Yale the lead by intercepting a deflected Newhall-Caballero pass and returning it 77 yards for the touchdown. The return was the fourth longest in Yale history.

    Witt’s pass on the ensuing two-point conversion to fellow quarterback Brook Hart ’11 fell incomplete, so Yale led 12–7 with 2:29 left in the half.

    That was more than enough time for Brown to score as they moved the ball 72 yards in less than two minutes. Newhall-Caballero completed the drive with a five-yard touchdown run to give the Bears a 14–12 lead.

    The Bulldogs tried a last-second field goal on the final drive of the half, but kicker Tom Mante’s ’10 51-yard attempt was wide left.

    The third quarter saw Brown start to run away with the game — literally.

    On the first drive of the second half, a Theodhosi 21-yard run was followed by a 30-yard Newhall-Caballero touchdown pass to a wide-open Farnham down the sideline. When the Bears got the ball back, they were at it again, as Theodhosi ran for a 16-yard score to give Brown a 28–12 lead.

    But the Elis were not ready to give up.

    Barnes’ 35-yard field goal on Yale’s next drive made the score 28–15, and Mante caught Brown by surprise with an onside kick that Peter Balsam ’11 recovered as the third quarter came to an end.

    The momentum shifted just as quickly as it had come to the Bulldogs, though, when a hard-thrown pass from Witt bounced off of wide receiver Jordan Forney’s ’11 hands and was intercepted by the Bears.

    It was the third time in the half that Brown had the ball, and like the other two drives, it too ended with a touchdown. Theodhosi ran 45 yards to the two-yard line, and senior wideout Bobby Sewall punched it in on a run to make it 35–15 with 12:53 remaining.

    “I don’t think we’ve given up back-to-back-to-back touchdowns like that in my four years here,” defensive tackle Tom McCarthy ’10 said.

    Although it had become a three-possession game, Yale quickly countered with a 59-yard drive capped off by Witt finding tight end A.J. Haase ’10 for a 23-yard reception and wide receiver Reid Lathan ’10 for a 20-yard touchdown catch later in the drive. Barnes’ extra point attempt once again failed, leaving the score at 35–21 with 9:35 remaining.

    After having struggled the entire second half, the Yale defense made a much-needed stop and gave the ball back to the offense with 6:41 left on the clock.

    Running a no-huddle offense similar to what had worked so well during the Bulldogs’ fourth quarter comeback at Columbia, Witt completed four of his next five passes to bring the team to the Brown six yard-line.

    “The guys on the sideline, before we started that drive, were saying that we’d been here before,” Witt said. “We were confident, and I think you saw that in us moving the ball down the field.”

    But on first-and-goal Witt did not find a Bulldog in the end zone — he found Brown cornerback A.J. Cruz, all but ending the game.

    Williams took the blame for the turnover.

    “Coaching-wise we’ve got to put our guys in a better position to make a play,” he said. “I thought the energy level was where it needed to be for us to have an opportunity to win the game… [but after the interception] the air kind of came out of the balloon.”

    The Yale defense forced a punt with 1:35 left to play, but Money — who had averaged 22 yards on his previous six returns — fumbled the ball off of a bounce. Brown recovered it and — one yard away from the end zone — kneeled the ball to seal the Bears’ 35–21 victory.

    The loss puts the Bulldogs out of contention for the Ivy League title, as they are now tied for fourth place. Harvard and Penn, both 5–0 in conference play, are tied for the lead with two weeks remaining in the season and will meet at Harvard this weekend.