The Optimist-The Pessimist After Central Connecticut
Tired of waiting for the other guy, The Optimist is about to place his order when the door opens and The Pessimist ambles to their usual table.
The Optimist: After two wins over two playoff teams in two weeks I was starting to wonder if you were even going to show.
The Pessimist: Remember what the former women’s basketball coach said when she returned to Dartmouth after coaching at Fordham?
The Optimist: Remind me.
The Pessimist: She said the biggest difference between coaching in the Bronx and coaching in Hanover is, it’s easier to find parking in the Bronx.
The Optimist: That’s pretty funny. I guess we’ll find out about that in three weeks when we put a 4-0 record on the line at Fordham.
The Pessimist: You don’t waste any time, do you?
The Optimist: Back to my original point, two wins over two playoff teams. You can’t do much better than that.
The Pessimist: Actually, you can. Both of those games came down to the final minute, and in games like that it’s really a tossup. Yes you won them both, but it’s not like you dominated either game. You could be 0-2 just as easily as 2-0.
The Optimist: If you’ve been reading that BGA guy’s stuff, you would know better. Under Sammy McCorkle the Big Green is 9-2 in one-possession games, and 6-1 in games decided by a field goal or less. So beating two playoff teams in close games that go down to the wire is par for the course.
The Pessimist: I won’t dispute that the record in close games is really good. What I will dispute is that you beat two playoff teams.
The Optimist: You are kidding, right? New Hampshire and Central Connecticut both advanced to the FCS playoffs last year.
The Pessimist: They were playoff teams last year. As the mutual fund people say in the fine print, “Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.”
The Optimist: I never knew you were a money guy, but I digress. We’ll start with New Hampshire. Take away their FBS loss and their loss to us and they are 3-0. Take away last week's result against us and Central Connecticut is 2-1, the only loss coming on the last play of their game one week before we played them. I dare say we’ve shown our chops against a couple of pretty good teams.
The Pessimist: I dare say? Whatever. You’ve got a couple more tough opponents this week and next. You might not know it by the score, but Penn-Lehigh last week was a battle. Keep in mind Lehigh – which unlike New Hampshire and Central Connecticut actually won a playoff game last year – is 5-0 and ranked eighth in the nation this year by the FCS coaches.
The Optimist: You did happen to see Penn lost that game, 44-30, right?
The Pessimist: You did happen to see the game was at Lehigh, and that it was a one-possession contest until the final minute, right?
The Optimist: The bottom line is Penn lost that game against a playoff team, and we actually won our game against a playoff team.
The Pessimist: Yes, you beat Central Connecticut. But their quarterback completed 25-of-33 passes, which translates to a 75.8 percent completion rate and means trouble for you.
The Optimist: Seriously? The guy threw for only 223 yards so his completion rate was no big deal.
The Pessimist: It actually is a big deal and I’ll tell you why. The Central Connecticut quarterback came into the game completing 50.5 percent of his passes this fall. He hit 51.1 percent last year and 48.7 percent the previous two seasons. Given those kinds of numbers, he might have enjoyed the game of his life against your defense. One of the least accurate passers in the country looked like an All-American against your defense. What's going to happen when you play an accurate QB?
The Optimist: Not concerned. Penn had a quarterback last year who some people thought could be the best in the Ivy League, and we held him to 11-of-27 passing for 123 yards. It ought to tell you something that the kid we see this week lost the starting role last year to a guy who could complete just 40.7 percent of his attempts against us.
The Pessimist: Actually, this year’s starter took over the job midway through last season. All he did at Lehigh the other day was go 28-for-37 for 316 yards and three touchdowns. That’s 75.7 percent passing. Trust me, your pass defense, which last week struggled against a 50-percent passer, is in for a test down in Philly on Saturday. While we're at it, you won’t have just one talented receiver to deal with. Against Lehigh, the Quakers had one guy catch 12 balls for 141 yards and two touchdowns, and another guy had 10 catches for 101 yards and a touchdown.
The Optimist: Blah, blah, blah. Now tell me how Penn did running the ball. Speaking of which, how was the Penn run defense?
The Pessimist: You wouldn’t ask if you didn’t know, so you tell me.
The Optimist: Gladly, against Lehigh last week Penn ran for . . . drum roll please . . . all of 29 yards. Twenty-nine. And how did the Lehigh ground game perform? They ran through, over and around the Penn defense for 300 yards. They also passed for 239 yards, with one kid catching eight balls for 132 yards. Add it up and the Quakers gave up 539 yards of total offense.
The Pessimist: I'll admit those are some big numbers, but keep in mind Penn held the Lehigh quarterback to 15-of-31 passing against the Quaker secondary. That's some pretty good pass D.
The Optimist: Nice try. After we take care of Penn we’ve got a Yale team that is 2-0 after beating winless Holy Cross and winless Cornell. The Bulldogs haven’t played a road game yet, and we’ve got them here. I mean, hapless Cornell turned the ball over five times and still was down just three points with less than two minutes remaining against a Yale team living on reputation.
The Pessimist: They are 2-0 and have arguably the best running back in the Ivy League as well as a starting quarterback who transferred in from South Carolina. They are going to be a stiff test.
The Optimist: Then it’s on to winless Fordham.
The Pessimist: Not quite. Winless, I mean. Fordham beat Holy Cross on Saturday.
The Optimist: So they did. They absolutely crushed winless Holy Cross, 26-21. I'm shaking in my boots.
The Pessimist: Then you’ve got defending Ivy League co-champion Columbia, which is 1-1 after beating Georgetown last week.
The Optimist: Shouldn’t it be defending “tri-champion” Columbia? Sorry, but three champions cannot be co-champions. Now where were we? Oh yeah. Columbia’s win over Georgetown. Isn’t Georgetown the team that was beaten by Brown, 45-0, a week before? Why yes it is. As for the Lions' loss to Lafayette, it’s not looking very good after Lafayette lost to struggling Princeton last week.
The Pessimist: Kind of harsh to call a Princeton team that’s 1-1 struggling, but there you have it. While we're at it, I’ll tell you who’s not struggling. That’s Harvard, who you play after Columbia. They are 2-0 and have outscored their opponents, 100-14.
The Optimist: That’s quite a murderer’s row they’ve played. Stetson and Brown might be the cupcakeist opening two games in the country.
The Pessimist: Cupcakeist? I think you made that up, but it's pretty harsh.
The Optimist: It’s also pretty true. Then we have Princeton, which has been playing two quarterbacks. Remember the saying, if you have two No. 1 quarterbacks, you don’t have a No. 1 quarterback?
The Pessimist: Their two No. 1 quarterbacks beat a pretty good Lafayette team last time out.
The Optimist: Not that again. Then it’s on to winless Cornell. Nuff said.
The Pessimist: Hold on there, big fella. Cornell beat you last year, and is 3-3 in its last six with you. Nuff said.
The Optimist: Finally, we have Brown the last Saturday the season and let’s be serious. Not only do they not play defense, but they couldn’t do anything offensively against Harvard. Bad combination.
The Pessimist: I don’t know about Brown-Harvard. But I do know they shut out Georgetown. As for their offense, they put 46 up on the Hoyas. Maybe getting shutout by Harvard says more about the talented Crimson defense you face in a few weeks than it does about the Brown offense.
The Optimist: You had to work pretty hard this week, didn’t you?
The Pessimist: Yup. Catch you next week.
