big day, big disappointment

geezer and i were getting to know each other before home coming kickoff.  we agreed readily that our seats (sec g,row ww, #s 62 and 61)were the best in the house.  first, because of the back support supplied by the stadium’s rear wall.  secondly, they were incomparable because of the view – across the harlem and through the spuyten duyvil to the hudson and its blazing palisades – prettiest location of any stadium in the ivies, no question, g said.  and finally, they were supreme for the felicity of our meeting and the opportunity to share our informed opinions about the difficulties facing the 2013 squad which provided the occasion for a further delving into the arcana, history and frustration of cheering on the long suffering blue.  no greater bliss to be found, but our chance encounter came at a deeply troubling time for the lion gridders. they had not won since opening day over a month ago, had been pounded by princeton in their ivy league debut, and then spent two weeks wandering as well as losing  in the wilds of pennsylvania.

no sooner had i started to mention the feasibility of a no huddle approach for the lion crew than g cut me short. “say what you will but football is tackling and blocking. all the rest is a consequence. the game starts up front.” “exactly,” paulie b responded. “and both our lines are undersized and a trifle underskilled.” g readily agreed and insisted that rolling sean brackett out of the pocket was a sensible, and necessary, corrective to the offensive line’s deficiencies.  paulie b pointed out that coach mangurian felt brackett was quite efficient in the pocket when he made his reads correctly and ran through his progressions before selecting a receiver or hightailing it for positive yards on his own. g was dismissive of this line of analysis.  mangurian is not the answer to this team’s problems was the unprofane version of his response. no sooner had g offered this not unflattering view of coach than one of g’s more familiar neighbors at baker wandered over to inform us that he had just concluded a chat with coach m and that the lions’ leader considered the hanoverian visitors big and strong but uncomplicated in their approach to gridiron mysteries.  victory, he thought consequently, was likely.  the g and i exchanged dubious glances and steeled ourselves for the upcoming struggle.

some brief recounting of the lions’  last two unhappy contests will be helpful in savoring  the particular dramas of this season’s homecoming.  the lions, you should recall, had been humbled by the despicable south jersey tigers on september 29 and subsequently departed the homey atmosphere of wien stadium for less populous western climes.  there they tangled first with the formidable lehigh mountain hawk eleven.  those gents had not lost a regular season contest since september 10, 2011 and they wasted little energy while throttling the lions by 35 -14.  the second saturday in october found our heros traveling to venerable franklin field in philadelphia.  the blue has not won there, nor beaten the resident quakers in nyc for that matter, since 1996 when they downed penn in double ot.  my sons and i were in the crowd that rained down huzzahs on our fellows from the stadium’s top deck that day and fancied that the magnificent defensive end marcellus wiley raised his helmet triumphantly to us in answer.  that version of the lions, in fact, posted the squad’s last winning season, going a highly commendable 8 – 2.  since then, dull failure occasionally contrasted with sad mediocrity has been our fare.  thus, many a lion fan leaned  toward the radio with nervous expectancy as the lions came bursting out of the half time locker on october 14 and established a 20-10 lead  over coach al bagnoli’s  philadelphians early in the fourth quarter.  alas, penn qb billy ragone would refuse to yield to his intellectual betters.  the pesky quaker rallied his associates for an 86 yard scoring drive followed by one for 62 yards that ended in the go ahead td with less than one minute remaining on the clock.  though columbia battled manfully on its final drive, sean brackett’s  last completion ended inside the penn five.  game, but beaten 24-20, the light blue  boarded the bus and headed home at 1 – 4.

the lions have been nothing if not  consistent in their slow starts this autumn.  they seldom score in the first quarter and they lived up to that standard against dartmouth.  fortunately, neither did the green dirty the score board with any points.  the second quarter offered a contrasting flurry of offense as dartmouth managed to post a td which was answered by columbia via a luke eddy field goal and then a last minute td from qb brackett to chris connors for a 10-7  lion half time lead, much to the pleasure of  a noisy homecoming crowd which numbered an immense, for columbia, 11,000 plus.   the vistors regained the lead in the third quarter but our jubilation resumed late in the fourth when marcorus garrett tore off three big runs, the last of which, for 14 yards,  finished in the end zone.  the hitherto impeccable luke eddy managed to yank the p.a.t. wide and the lions were left to defend a 16-14 lead with just about 2:45 to go.

dartmouth, however, was not done and took the ensuing kick off rapidly down field for a go ahead td with but a minute fifteen to go.  though columbia was gifted a very short kickoff by the green and started their last possession at midfield, they could only manage a holding penalty, a sack and a no gain on the next three plays.  on fourth and really long, brackett hoisted an interception that finished the blue with 27 seconds left in the game.  the huge, silenced crowd sat contemplating a second straight, very late game loss in an eminently  winnable game.  “we’ll get yale,” g said.  spoken like a lion fan.

peace out, d up

paulie b