More college football action from the Ivy League is headed our way, as the Yale Bulldogs will look to notch another win this coming Saturday against the Cornell Big Red. The Bulldogs are coming off a hard-fought win over the Colgate Raiders, while the Big Red are reeling from their close defeat at the hands of the Bucknell Bison.
Which of these two teams will emerge victorious for the first round of inter-Ivy play? Let’s take a look at what lies ahead of us this coming weekend. The Harvard Crimson also have a game on tap, and you can read our full preview for their upcoming bout against the Brown Bears here.
Cornell Big Red vs. Yale Bulldogs Preview
Where: Yale Bowl, New Haven
When: Saturday, September 26, 1:00 PM ET
Line: Cornell Big Red vs. Yale Bulldogs – view all NCAA Football lines
Betting on the Cornell Big Red
A lot of kinks in Cornell’s passing game have got to be fixed after the Big Red’s 19-14 loss to the Bucknell Bison this past Saturday. Bucknell quarterback Joey Defloria connected with a 14-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-10 with less than two minutes left in the game to put the Bison up for good.
[sc:NCAA240banner ]Meanwhile, Cornell’s own starting QB in Robert Somborn couldn’t find any rhythm at all. Somborn finished the game with just 152 yards on 9-of-18 passing for a single touchdown and an interception.
Does head coach David Archer truly believe that Somborn is the right man for the job? He better have an answer before his team clashes with the Bulldogs this weekend because he certainly didn’t have one all of last season. The Big Red tried their hand at four different starting quarterbacks in 2014 to no avail as the team finished last season with a dismal 1-9 record.
At least star running back Luke Hagy‘s motor is still in tip-top shape. The senior back put up the first six points in Cornell’s game against the Bison and finished with 18 carries for 105 yards.
With that said, the Big Red have got to commit more to Hagy and the running game if they are to dictate the tempo and keep Yale’s high-powered offense on the sidelines. Going back to the game against Bucknell, Cornell had possession for less than 23 minutes of the game, which proved to be costly given that the team’s passing game failed to move chains and put up points early for it to lean on the run afterwards to close out the contest.
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Betting on the Yale Bulldogs
It wasn’t pretty, but the Yale Bulldogs still managed to come out with a solid 29-28 come-from-behind win over the Colgate Raiders on Saturday to start their season on the right note.
As expected, quarterback Morgan Roberts led the way for Yale, throwing for three touchdowns to go with his 293 yards on 29-of-41 passing for the day. Roberts got a ton of help from his trusty wideout Michael Siragusa, who hauled in seven catches for a pair of touchdowns, including the go-ahead score with 3:39 left in the game.
The Bulldogs failed to jump on Colgate early in the bout, but that might have been a product of some rust that needed to be shaken off, as last Saturday’s game was Yale’s first for this season (being a program from the Ivy League). The team certainly showed its true colors in the second half, though, coming back from 14 points down at halftime to put up 15 unanswered points to seal the deal.
However, there are still some concerns that need to be addressed regarding the Bulldogs’ defense. The D failed to generate any turnovers against Colgate, and as a result, the team had to rally for a win instead of having some takeaways fuel Yale’s prolific offense. Do note that this is pretty much the same defense that gave up a staggering 539 yards per game last season.
And yet, the Bulldogs may not need their defense to be at its ultimate best this Sunday (they should save their best for Harvard, but that’s another discussion for later on into this season) given their recent history against Cornell. The boys from New Haven won the past two contests against the Big Red, including last year’s meeting wherein Roberts tied his school’s record with his five touchdown passes in the 51-13 beat down on Cornell’s own home field.
Writer’s Prediction
Yale cruises to an easy 41-17 win.
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