The Optimist-The Pessimist Before Columbia
BGA (Oct. 22) – The Optimist arrives at the usual place at the usual time carrying an iPad of all things. The Pessimist’s curiosity is piqued.
The Optimist: We’re famous.
The Pessimist: I give up.
The Optimist: Give me a second to boot this thing up.
The Pessimist: Boot it up? You sound like you have a clue what you are talking about.
The Optimist: OK, I want you to read this Ivy League message board posting I’ve highlighted from someone who goes by the nom de plume Go Green.
The Pessimist: Go Green sounds kind of sickly, if you know what I’m saying. But OK, here goes, and I quote: “I agree that this team has been manna from heaven for BGA’s “The Optimist and The Pessimist.”
The Optimist: Can you believe someone actually wrote that?
The Pessimist: Yeah, well, I think whoever wrote that nailed it. It’s true you guys are 5-0 but holy cow, you are living life on the edge. You could just as easily be 1-4.
The Optimist: I think you are getting a little carried away. Even if we split the four games that went down to the wire we’d be 3-2. But we didn’t split them and I’d argue that winning the way we have won tells me a lot about the character of our team.
The Pessimist: What it tells me is you are vulnerable. If you check, each of your four last-minute wins came against teams with a losing record.
The Optimist: Wrong on two counts. First, Yale is 3-2.
The Pessimist: Sorry. I should have said your four close calls came against teams with a losing record overall – or in their conference. And your second thing?
The Optimist: Second, it’s a little misleading to include the loss to us in the records of the teams we beat because we are supposed to beat them. Take their losses to Dartmouth out of the equation and Merrimack, Central Connecticut and Penn are all .500 teams while Yale is 3-1.
The Pessimist: Not exactly a murder’s row of opposition. Add in Fordham’s 0-7 record and your five wins have come against teams with a combined 11-20 record. I’d say the jury is still out on you guys. We’ll learn a lot more this week when you play a Columbia team that not only has a winning record, but a good one at 4-1.
The Optimist: Two can play your game. Columbia’s only victory over a team with a winning record was against 4-3 Lafayette. And the Lions lost to Georgetown. I mean, Georgetown!
The Pessimist: You may have noticed Georgetown is 4-3. Oh, and I did the math. Columbia’s opponents this fall are 16-16 and if you take out the Lions’ wins over the four they beat their opponents are 16-12 with no one worse than a .500 record.
The Optimist: This is getting silly. Time for a history lesson. The last time these two teams met when Dartmouth was unbeaten and Columbia had one loss was back in 1996. Remember what happened that fall? The Big Green absolutely destroyed Columbia, 40-0, on its way to an undefeated season.
The Pessimist: That Columbia team had squeaked past Harvard and Penn in overtime and had a three-point win against Yale. This year’s Lions have a 34-17 win over Princeton and a pretty solid 23-17 win at Penn. The new coach down there said it best. “It’s not your father’s Columbia anymore.”
The Optimist: I’ll buy that they are better than they were while we were going 34-1-1 against them between 1962 and 1997 but there’s a reason why the media picked them last in the Ivy League in the preseason poll.
The Pessimist: Media, schmedia. Where did they pick you? Oh yeah, fourth. All I know is the Columbia defense has given up the fewest points in the Ivy League this fall. And offensively the Lions have a big three at quarterback, running back and wide receiver that’s as good as any in the Ivy League.
The Optimist: I’d venture to say most would take the Penn trio of quarterback Aidan Sayin, receiver Jared Richardson and running back Malachi Hosley. By the way, how did those three do against Don Dobes’ defense? I’ll tell you. Sayin was a woeful 11-for-27 for 123 yards with no TDs. Richardson caught two passes for 18 yards. Hosley got his, running for 82 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries, but that’s still 35 yards less than his average.
The Pessimist: Just so you know, Hosley ran 19 times for 50 yards against Columbia. Sayin? He got picked off twice. And Richardson caught six balls for 62 yards but no touchdowns. Now compare that to Columbia’s big three last week. QB Chase Goodwin threw for 334 yards and two touchdowns against Penn, completing 28-of-39 throws. Receiver Bryson Canty caught eight balls for 137 yards and a touchdown. And with the pass game so effective, Joe Giorgi needed to carry just eight times for 49 yards after running for 268 yards over the previous two weeks.
The Optimist: I don’t seem to recall those guys exactly tearing us up last year.
The Pessimist: You wouldn’t. Goodwin was the backup and completed the only two passes he threw. The other two missed the game with injuries.
The Optimist: All I know is we won the game, 20-9, running off the last 20 points spurred on by a chilled and wet Homecoming crowd.
The Pessimist: Glad you brought that up. It’s Homecoming down on the northern tip of Manhattan Saturday and I'm here to tell you Columbia does Homecoming right. It is an absolute party around the stadium. Oh, and with their team winning they are really promoting the game. I don’t know how much that will help them but it sure won’t hurt.
The Optimist: We could go on and on but it’s time we go on . . . to the rest of the schedule. After Columbia we’ve got Harvard and that’s our Homecoming. We’ve beaten them three out of the last five years and the last I checked their quarterback play has been miserable.
The Pessimist: The last I checked the Crimson improved to 4-1 with Jaden Craig completing 20-of-25 passes with three touchdowns in a win over Holy Cross last week.
The Optimist: Then we close out with games at struggling Princeton, long-suffering Cornell and a Brown team we’ve beaten six years in a row and nine times in the last 10 meetings.
The Pessimist: A few words of warning. That’s two long back-to-back trips. Princeton just handed Brown its first Ivy League loss and the Tigers would like nothing better than to rain on your parade. As for Cornell, I seem to recall the Big Red beating you on your last trip to Ithaca and coming out on top in three of your last four meetings. When it comes to Brown, that win over Harvard should have your attention. And you may have noticed the Bears had a 21-17 lead in the fourth quarter of their game against No. 15 Rhode Island before a late touchdown turned a three-point deficit into a 10-point loss.
The Optimist: Say what you will, and I know that you will . . . Oops, sorry for that beeping sound. I’ve got to get going. My iPad calendar app just reminded me I need to pick up some Alka-Seltzer.
The Pessimist: No problem. I think you are going to need it. See you next week.
