Friday, November 08, 2024

Game Day, Uh, Night

Nothing has changed in the forecast for tonight's game: 62 degrees and clear skies at kickoff in Princeton. Going down to 57 by the end of the game with a gentle 9 mph breeze.

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The local Valley News has a preview of tonight's Dartmouth-Princeton game HERE. As always, it is behind a paywall but if you are just an occasional visitor or haven't checked out the site in a while you can access the story.

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Here's the lede from a Daily Princetonian story (LINK):

A victory for the Tigers, however unlikely, would shake up the Ivy League standings and open a chance for the team to avoid a losing record for the season.

The last time Princeton finished with a losing record was in 2011 — the second year of head coach Bob Surace’s ’90 tenure. That season, the Tigers ended the season 1–9.

Green Alert Take: You have to know people around the Princeton program loved that, "however unlikely" shot.

As part of the story the Princetonian included predictions from staff members. They went like this:

Dartmouth 31, Princeton 14
Dartmouth 35, Princeton 21
Dartmouth 34, Princeton 17
Dartmouth 31, Princeton 17

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Jake Novak down at the Columbia Roar Lions 2024 blog has Dartmouth winning. Jake writes (LINK):

Princeton looks very lost, and the Big Green needs this win. 

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Craig Haley of STATS Perform takes a look Dartmouth-Princeton in his Week 11 preview and writes (LINK):

Dartmouth (6-1, 3-1) has the most favorable remaining schedule among the three teams atop the Ivy League standings, especially with the other two about to face off – No. 24 Harvard (6-1, 3-1) hosts Columbia (5-2, 3-1). While Dartmouth has an Ivy-record 21 league titles and Harvard is part of a three-time tie for second with 18, Columbia has the eight-team low of one – a shared title in 1961. Defense has been a difference maker for first-year coach Jon Poppe, with the Lions the best in the league with defending the red zone and against the pass, ranking sixth nationally in allowing 16.3 points per game.

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Still no traditional game notes out of Princeton that I could find, but there's a story with a few notes on the athletic department website HERE.

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Old friend TigerBlog has other things on his mind this weekend but he did toss out this gem of an understatement that I might have to tease him about ;-)

Princeton is unlikely to get into the mix for the championship this season.

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Betting on Ivy League football is not a good idea. Don't say you haven't been warned. All that said, there's actually some OK analysis in an Action Network preview of the game posted HERE.

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And before I forget, BGA Overtime took a look at tonight's game HERE.

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Jake's Power Rankings on his Columbia blog look like this through seven games (LINK):

1. Harvard
2. Dartmouth
3. Columbia
4. Cornell
5. Yale
6. Penn
7. Brown
8. Princeton
 

Of Dartmouth he writes:

The Big Green was bound to suffer an end to their luck, but now they have what seems like an easy schedule down the stretch. 

And of Princeton:

It will never be easy to accept seeing a Bob Surace-recruited team not be competitive for two years in a row.  

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And finally,  Dartmouth earned a 17-13 win over Princeton in a virtual game despite wearing the never-to-be-seen-again Lone Pine helmets:

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EXTRA POINT
This is not a political site and never will be, but holy moly, the memes coming out of the election are unbelievable. I just saw another one that I'd so like to share, but as I said, this is not a political site, dagnabbit.