NEW YORK -- Saturday saw the return of Mike Mitchell to Penn's starting lineup, where he quietly had a 264-yard passing performance. The senior quarterback entered the starting lineup against Columbia after a one-game absence due to a sprained ankle at Dartmouth.
After a subpar game against Bucknell last week -- when he brought down four passes for 42 yards -- junior receiver Dan Castles quickly returned to form, racing past undersized Columbia defensive backs for 120 yards on nine catches.
Yet the story of the Penn offense was not on either end of the Quakers' passing attack.
In front of 13,785 fans -- a number that featured a large contingent of Penn alumni -- sophomore running back Sam Mathews broke through the Lions defense for a career day, mounting personal highs for rushing and all-purpose yardage. Overall, Mathews rushed for 190 yards on 29 carries and also hauled down three catches for 59 yards.
"I think it's a real big credit to the offensive line," Mathews said. "They played great, pushing people all over the place and making holes big for me."
With the help of a dominant line, Mathews played power football the entire game.
But getting past the initial Columbia tacklers only demonstrated half of Mathews' ability. Once he broke the initial tackle, Mathews showed blistering speed, outracing the entire Columbia defense down the field.
On the first of his two touchdowns, Mathews caught a screen pass, shed a tackler and raced 45 yards for the score -- no Columbia player was within 10 yards of the Penn back.
"Mathews got into our secondary and there was too much space," Columbia coach Bob Shoop said.
Even when he didn't get the ball, Mathews' play laid the groundwork for what Penn did offensively. During the first drive of the fourth quarter, Mathews ran the first three plays from scrimmage for 10, 28 and seven yards, respectively.
The next play, Mitchell attempted a deep bomb to receiver Joe Phillips. Only a diving Prosper Nwokocha kept the Quakers from making a 32-yard completion.
Penn eventually had to punt on the drive, but Mathews' legwork gave offensive coordinator Andy Coen the freedom to mix the play calling as he wished.
Though Mathews won't mount 250-yard all-purpose days every game, his breakout performance against Columbia ensures that defenses need to deal with yet another threat on an already loaded offense.
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