Klitzman | This ‘D’ could lead Penn to even more

BOSTON —

Two weeks ago after beating Brown in overtime senior linebacker Jake Lewko said, “The hell with the old history of bad breaks, bad snaps, missed kicks, interceptions, fumbles — it’s over.”

Back then he was talking about snapping an overtime losing streak that spanned four years. But after Penn’s 17-7 victory over Harvard on Saturday to clinch at least a share of the Ivy title, Lewko’s words can apply to something much greater: Penn’s streak of six years without an Ivy title, which was the longest in coach Al Bagnoli’s tenure.

As Bagnoli can now finally celebrate his seventh championship in 18 years, he better be sending his congratulations to Lewko and his fellow defenders, since their play, especially on key fourth downs, gave Penn the Ivy trophy.

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The defense only allowed eight combined yards on Harvard’s first four drives. So when the Crimson finally reached Quakers’ territory with about six minutes left in the first half, Harvard coach Tim Murphy decided to go for it on fourth and one from Penn’s 30.

Yet for the second straight down Penn stuffed running back Gino Gordon, and Harvard failed to score.

Then in fourth quarter, the defense emphatically shut the door on any hope of a Crimson comeback.

Harvard was on its best drive of the game since its lone touchdown march, and needed some kind of score to cut the deficit to one possession.

But after a 33-yard pass gave them first and goal from Penn’s eight-yard line, the Crimson failed to convert, including a fourth-down stop from the half-yard line.

It was just more clutch play from one of the most clutch defenses in recent Penn history.

“We kind of had to ride the backs of the defense at the beginning of the year until we could get the offense healthy and clicking on all cylinders, and it was no different today,” Bagnoli said. “They’ve played terrific the entire year.”

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It seems the defense gets extolled after every game, but the truth is that this defense is absolutely dominant.

Two weeks after limiting the Ivy passing leader to roughly 50 yards below its average, the Quakers held the Ivy scoring leader to more than 20 points below its average.

Even outside of the Ivy League the defense has dominated.

The top Football Championship Subdivision team in the Jeff Sagarin ratings is Villanova at No. 43. You might remember ’Nova as the team that could only muster a single offensive touchdown against Penn (No. 123 in Sagarin and ahead of 17 Football Bowl Subdivision teams).

The Quakers also surrendered just 17 points in regulation to Lafayette, which has only lost two games by a combined eight points and is ranked No. 20 in the FCS media poll.

So after seeing the defense dominate yet again — they’ve now given up 14 points on defense in their last 18 quarters and prevented Penn from trailing for all but 5:14 of its last 420 minutes — it’s a real shame that the Ivy League unfairly prohibits its champion from competing in the FCS playoffs.

Penn probably wouldn’t win the FCS Tournament. Nor would it necessarily win games against FBS teams.

Yet when your defense gives up a ridiculously low 10.56 points per game — which is second in all of Division I to just BCS No. 1 Florida by .06 points per game — you’re going to have a great chance of winning a game or two in a 16-team tournament.

That’s all hypothetical, but right now the Quakers at least have a great consolation prize. They can finally answer Coach Lake’s immortal call of “Ivy what?” with an emphatic “IVY CHAMPS!”

Zach Klitzman is a senior history major from Bethesda, Md., and is Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is klitzman@dailypennsylvanian.com.

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