On Saturday, the football team (5-3, 4-1 Ivy) suffered its first Ivy League loss of the season, when a smothering Yale defense and mistakes by the Brown offense handed the Bears a 13-3 loss. The team is now in a three-way tie atop the Ivy League standings, along with Harvard and Penn.
After the offense was forced to punt on its first drive, the Bears caught a break on the ensuing punt return, when the Yale kick returner fumbled, and cornerback Nkosi Still '09 recovered the loose ball at the Yale 18-yard line. But Brown squandered a scoring opportunity when, on third-and-6, the pass from quarterback and co-captain Michael Dougherty '09 was picked off at the 10-yard line, giving the Bulldogs the ball back.
It was an erratic day for Dougherty, who completed 28-of-54 passes for 275 yards, and threw two interceptions. The Yale defense was also effective in containing receiver Bobby Sewall '10, who came in averaging 106.3 receiving yards per game, but on Saturday was held to just 45 yards on four receptions.
The Brown defense came out strong early in the game, not allowing the Bulldogs to penetrate any further than the Brown 44 in the first quarter, which ended in a scoreless tie. The defensive line made its presence felt, with one sack by tackles David Howard '09 and Joseph McPhee '09, and another by lineman Wale Adedokun '09 early in the second quarter.
"We had great performances up front. The defensive line really came to play and made a lot of big plays," wrote linebacker Steve Ziogas '09 in an e-mail to The Herald. "We got a couple calls against us but, we played up to our motto: Bend; don't break."
Early in the second quarter, Bruno got on the board first, on a drive starting from its own 25. Running back Dereck Knight '08.5 carried the ball six times for 40 yards on the drive, and Dougherty converted a third-down opportunity with an eight-yard completion to receiver Buddy Farnham '10, who finished the game with seven catches for 64 yards. The Bears moved the ball down to the Yale 22, and kicker Robert Ranney '08.5 kicked a 39-yard field goal to put Brown ahead 3-0 with 8:52 remaining in the first half.
"On that drive the offense was just clicking," wrote Knight, who finished with 12 carries for 48 yards on the day.
After that field goal, though, the Bears failed to generate any more offense, and finished the game with a season-low three points.
The Yale defense "sat back a lot ... and they kept a lot of guys deep to try and make sure they didn't give up the big play," Knight wrote. "However, that's not why we only scored three points. In the end we beat ourselves by not playing to the best of our abilities and not capitalizing on our opportunities."
The Bulldogs tied the game up with a field goal less than three minutes later, and took a 6-3 lead with another field goal on their first drive of the second half. The Brown defense kept the game close, though, and managed to hold senior running back and reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Mike McLeod to just 2.6 yards per carry.
"McLeod is one of the greatest backs in the history of this league," wrote Ziogas. "Whenever you can hold a guy like that under three yards a carry, you're doing a good job."
Ziogas led the defensive attack with a team-high eight tackles, and currently leads the Bears with 55 tackles this season. In all, the Brown defense recorded eight tackles for loss, including three sacks, in the game, with linebacker Jon May '09 recording a sack, giving him 2.5 sacks this season. Tackles for loss were also made by defensive end James Develin '10, who is first on the Bears and fifth in the Ivy League this season with 7.5 tackles for loss, as well as linebacker Miles Craigwell '09 and defensive end Joe Yanchunis '09.
Following the go-ahead field goal, the Brown offense marched down the field, and looked poised to erase the deficit. Dougherty completed his first three passes of the drive, with an 18-yard completion to Farnham, a 16-yard completion to Sewall, and a 15-yard completion to tight end Colin Cloherty '09, who made seven catches for a team-high 72 yards. But with the ball at the Yale 31, the offense failed to pick up another first down, and gave the ball back to the Bulldogs when Dougherty's fourth-down pass fell incomplete.
With ten minutes remaining in the game, the Bears got an opportunity to tie the game, when Ranney came in for a 28-yard field goal attempt. The attempt sailed wide left, though, preserving Yale's slim lead.
Bruno's next drive ended in a punt, giving the Bulldogs the ball at their own 21, and on second-and-9, quarterback Brook Hart fired a pass to receiver Peter Balsam, who took it the rest of the way for a 78-yard touchdown, putting the Bears in a 13-3 hole with 3:49 left.
"We were man-to-man bringing pressure, and they ran a screen-and-go, and their quarterback just made a good play," Ziogas wrote. "Sometimes breakdowns happen in football, but that was just really bad timing."
The offense picked up three first downs on the ensuing drive, but eventually turned the ball over on downs at the Yale 41, giving the Bulldogs the ball and the win.
The team will now turn its attention to Dartmouth (0-8, 0-5 Ivy), who it will face on the road next week, before returning home for the final game of the season against Columbia (1-7, 1-4 Ivy).
With wins over those two teams, the two weakest teams in the Ivy League, the Bears can still guarantee at least a share of the Ivy League title.
"The most important thing these last two weeks is going to be for us to keep our heads up," Knight wrote. "We have no power over what happens in other games, but we can make sure we finish the season 2-0, and that will guarantee us first place in the league."
