ITHACA, N.Y. -- Here are three things to watch for during Cornell's contest against Brown tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field.

Stretch Run

When you play 10 contests, every game is important. That goes without saying.

That said, game six begins a five-game Ivy League sprint to close out the year. Building momentum into the second half of the year could be the difference between finishing the top half of the standings and the bottom four.

In 2019, Cornell used its 37-35 win over Brown to springboard through the second half of league play. Triumphs over No. 13 Dartmouth (20-17) and Columbia (35-9) propelled Cornell to its highest Ivy finish in more than a decade (fourth).

The winner of Friday's game picks up its first Ivy win of the season and could ignite a late season run.
 

Building Up The Offense

While Cornell's offense hasn't been as consistently explosive as Brown's, anyone who watched the first half of last weekend's Big Red victory over Colgate knows it can be dynamic.

The Big Red piled up 343 yards and 27 points in the first 30 minutes while riding a three-quarterback system. The trio of Richie Kenney, Luke Duby and Jameson Wang went 18-of-22 passing for 239 yards and two touchdowns and combined for five plays of better than 20 yards before the break. Wang earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week accolades after posting the game's first score through the air and the go-ahead touchdown rushing the ball. In the process, he became the first Cornell freshman to throw and run for a score in the same game in school history.

After committing eight turnovers over the first three weeks, Cornell's offense hasn't turned it over the last two. It also paces the Ivy League in fewest sacks allowed (1.0 per game, including two contests without surrendering one).

No turnovers. Explosive plays. No sacks.

It's a formula for success, and if the Big Red can check all three boxes on Saturday, good things will follow
 

Electric Fence

Brown's offense is electric, particularly through the air, and almost entirely due to the supremely talented senior EJ Perry under center.

Where does it show? Brown is converting better than 46 percent of the time on third down and on 12-of-15 fourth-down opportunities (80 percent). The Bears' 335.6 passing yards per game paces the Ancient Eight.

The Big Red remembers similar game plans on offense built around one player - Jeff Mathews.  Mathews graduated in 2014 ranked among the top 20 all-time in career passing yards in the FCS and set the Ivy League's all-time passing record by more than 2,000 yards. He ended his career with 47 Big Red school records and 18 Ivy League marks for passing and total offense.

The Boston College transfer and nephew of Brown head coach James Perry is more dynamic with his legs than Mathews was, but his passing numbers aren't far off with better than 300 passing yards in all five games in 2021. He has accounted for 16 of the team's 17 touchdowns - 13 through the air and three on the ground. Both have the rare ability of elevating the play of everyone around them. Both also had the burden of needing to outscore the opposition.

Perry has shown over and over again that he's capable of putting the Bears over the top, and that no lead is safe against them. In 2019, Cornell led by two touchdowns only to see the Bears take a late lead in the fourth quarter before Nickolas Null calmly split the uprights with a 41-yarder with nine seconds to play. Earlier this year, the Bears trailed Bryant 33-0 heading into the fourth quarter only to score 29 over the span of 12:23.

Perry and his weapons can do that. Cornell's highly-ranked defense faces one of its biggest challenges to date.