ITHACA, N.Y. — For the first time since 2000, the Cornell football team will head into the second half of an Ivy League season with title aspirations. It guaranteed itself a chance to start the final four-game sprint next Saturday against defending champion Princeton in a primetime, nationally-televised showdown thanks to a dominant 34-7 victory over Brown on Homecoming Saturday at Schoellkopf Field. The Big Red improved to 2-4 (2-1 Ivy), while the Bears slipped to 2-4 (0-3 Ivy).
The Big Red defense limited Brown to 161 yards - including 59 over the first three quarters - for its lowest total in any game since 2005, all while allowing the Bears to convert just once in 13 third-down attempts. The offense piled up a season-best 504 yards and dominated time of possession as nine different ball-carriers toted the football 53 times for 276 yards. Special teams put six of seven kickoffs through the end zone for touchbacks, was perfect on two field goals and netted 44.2 yards per punt.
Everyone who got in on the action contributed, along with 13,514 Homecoming revelers in the Crescent that provided extra motivation in ending Brown's nine-game win streak in the series.
Cornell dominated from the opening kickoff, slowly built the lead, then scored touchdowns on three consecutive possessions spanning the third and fourth quarters to put the game away. Now, after exorcising the Brown demon, it will face a Tiger team that handled the Big Red 56-7 a year ago and has averaged 48.5 points over its last four wins in the series - not to mention is on a roll this year, scoring 50 or more points in three straight games after Friday evening's dominant 52-17 win at Harvard.
For the second straight week, a first-time starter at linebacker led the team in tackles as
Mo Bradford had four stops in place of senior captain
Kurt Frimel. Making their first career starts, sophomore
David Jones had a pair of pass breakups and classmate
Jelani Taylor had an 8-yard sack and a forced fumble. Six different players had tackles for loss and five were credited with sacks, with no one posting more than four tackles - another show of how team-oriented the win was.
Sophomore tailback
Harold Coles ran six times for 65 yards and a pair of touchdowns (watch both touchdowns -
3-yard run I
42-yard run) to lead a rushing attack that had four players rush for more than 40 yards. Junior
Chris Walker carried 16 times for 66 yards and a score and senior
Jack Gellatly had a team-best 74 yards on seven carries, including a career-long 60-yard jaunt, as well as his second career touchdown. Senior
Jake Jatis also had 42 yards on six carries. All told, six different rushers had a carry of at least 10 yards thanks to an offensive line that put together its third consecutive strong game. In its last three contests, the Big Red has averaged 209.0 rushing yards and surrendered just five sacks (73.0 rushing yards, 17 sacks over first three games). When he wasn't handing it off, junior
Dalton Banks completed 19-of-26 passes for 228 yards and spread the ball around to eight different receivers. Sophomore
Owen Peters caught five passes for 65 yards, both game highs, and Walker caught three for 46.
Junior place-kicker
Zach Mays booted a pair of field goals to put the Big Red ahead early, and sophomore
Nickolas Null brought it home. Null made all three PAT attempts and put all three kickoffs through the end zone for touchbacks after Mays left the game at halftime, all the while handling his punting duties - averaging 44.2 net punting yards on five attempts to help the Big Red dominate the field position battle.
Brown's pass-rushing star Richard Jarvis had a game-high nine tackles and a sack and Richard Varner notched eight stops, including a sack and a forced fumble. Nick Duncan completed 10-of-26 passes for 136 yards and a 2-yard touchdown throw to Anton Casey midway through the fourth to get the Bears on the scoreboard.
Notes To Know
• The 27-point victory margin was the largest in a home win since opening the 2013 campaign with a 45-13 triumph over Bucknell in the coaching debut of
David Archer '05.
• Cornell held a 40:20-19:40 edge in time of possession, the first time with more than 40 minutes since holding the ball for 44:07 in a 2005 win over Columbia.
• Senior
Collin Shaw moved to 16th on the school's receiving yards list with 1,246.
• The win was the biggest for the Big Red over Brown since 1990 - also a 34-7 home win for Cornell.
• No defensive player had more than four tackles, no receiver had more than four catches and only returning first-team All-Ivy running back
Chris Walker had more than seven rushing attempts.
• After turning the ball over 11 times in its first three games (0-3), Cornell has given the ball away just three times in its last three (2-1) contests.
• Three Big Red players made their first career starts -
David Jones at corner,
Jelani Taylor at strong safety and
Mo Bradford at middle linebacker.
Run To Daylight
• Cornell had four rushing touchdowns in a game for just the third time since 2008 and is tied for the most by a Big Red team since scoring on the ground five times in a 45-7 rout at Georgetown during the 2007 season.
• The Big Red's 276 yards on the ground was the second 200-yard rushing game this season without having a 100-yard individual runner and is the most in a game since piling up 284 yards against Fordham in 2009.
More Defense
• The 161 yards allowed was the fewest in a game by a Big Red defense since surrendering 149 at Penn in a 16-7 victory over the Quakers in the 2005 season finale.
• Brown's 18 rushing yards in the fewest allowed by Cornell in a game since limiting Yale to zero yards on 28 carries in a 17-14 victory in the 2008 home opener.
• Over its last four games, the Cornell defensive unit has allowed just 960 yards - the fewest in a four-game stretch since the final four games of the 2005 campaign (923 yards).
• The Big Red's 20 sacks is the most put up by the team since 2006 (20).
Sights and Sounds
Next Up
• After four consecutive games at Schoellkopf Field, the Big Red returns to the road to visit Princeton on Saturday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. at Princeton Stadium.
• The contest will be televised by NBC Sports Network.
• The contest promises to be another in a long line of exciting games between the programs.
• Peppered with last-second finishes, crazy endings and upsets galore, eight of the last 13 contests have been decided by a touchdown or less, with that stretching to 11 of the last 17 meetings and 18 of the last 27.
• Thirteen games have been decided by a field goal or less or in overtime during a 27-year span.
