Football looks to run through Brown defense

The Quakers hope to keep the Bears' top-rated offense on the sidelines tomorrow. Strap on your seatbelts, Quakers fans, this could be a wild ride. At high noon tomorrow, the Penn football team (4-1, 2-0 Ivy League) takes on the Brown Bears (2-3, 0-2), who have the second best air attack in Division I-AA. Brown is averaging 339.4 yards passing per game, thanks in part to All-American wide receiver Sean Morey, the Ivy League's all-time leading pass catcher. Morey is tops in Division I-AA with 47 receptions for 584 yards in just five games this season and already has five touchdowns. Needless to say, the Penn secondary will have a keen interest in Morey's whereabouts tomorrow at Brown Stadium. "Obviously you have to keep an eye on where [Morey] is," Justin Gallagher, the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week, said. "He's going to get his catches, we just have to limit them not to 70 yards a catch." Last week, Morey and the Bears beat up on the Fordham Rams, with Brown running an uncharacteristically balanced offense, passing 46 times and rushing 46 times en route to a 38-27 victory. Brown's offense held the ball for almost two-thirds of the game, amassing 555 yards. The ball-control style offense is atypical to the Bears, who average only 108 yards rushing per game, 10 yards less than Penn running back Jim Finn. The Quakers defense, which shutout Columbia in last week's 20-0 drubbing, expects Brown quarterback James Perry to come out throwing tomorrow. But co-captain and safety Joe Piela was wary of Brown's running game, which put up 203 yards against Fordham and ate up lots of clock time. "If they're going to be able to run the ball, then we're really in trouble," Piela said. "[But] I think they're going to come out and try to throw the ball on us like they've been doing all year. "They put up a lot of points and throw for a lot of yards, so we're going to have our work cut out for us in the secondary." Piela and co. will have their hands full not only with the All-Everything Morey, but also with wideout Steve Campbell and tight end Zach Burns, who both rank in the top 20 in receptions per game in Division I-AA. "We're going to have to stop a couple of their players -- or at least contain them -- in order to be successful," Piela said. "They obviously have Morey, but [Burns] is not a bad receiver and Campbell is pretty decent too." The Penn defense will try to bother Perry and his receivers with lots of different looks on defense. "If we just play our regular zones, mix in a little man, change the coverages up more so than we would against a regular offense, that [might make] the quarterback pump the ball or something so we can get under it," Gallagher said. As good as the Brown offense has been, the Bears defense has been at least as poor. The Brown "D" is giving up over 406 yards per game, placing it near the bottom of Division I-AA, and almost let a 35-6 lead slip away last week against Fordham. But Penn quarterback Matt Rader said that the statistics can be deceiving. "A lot of that is because they are on the field so much," Rader said. "Their offense puts them in that situation, throwing the ball as many times as they do. "They don't run a lot of time off the clock, so their defense is on the field a whole lot. I think that's why, statistically, they are not as good as some of the people we've faced," he said. Finn expects to get a lot of carries, as the Quakers offense will try to run a ball-control game and keep the explosive Brown offense off the field. "Going into the game we want to keep our defense off the field," Finn said. "We want a ball-control offense, keep the ball for about 40 minutes -- that's what our game plan is." Against Columbia, who had not allowed a rushing touchdown before Finn's score last week, Finn rushed for only 77 yards on 27 carries. He should have a bit more success against the Bears, who are giving up 188 rushing yards a game. "[Columbia's] stress is to stop the run, so obviously I hope to run more than I did against Columbia," Finn said. "I don't think I'll be throwing anytime shortly," added Finn, who threw for a touchdown pass last week on a halfback option and has a quarterback rating of 441. Penn coach Al Bagnoli stressed the need for a complete game in three aspects -- a ball-control offense, a smart kicking game and a frustrating defense. "It's an emphasis on offense to try to keep possession of the ball, to try to run the clock down, to try to minimize the number of possessions we give them," Bagnoli said. "It's an emphasis in the kicking game to try to execute and lengthen the field up. "And it's an emphasis on defense to mix up enough coverages and enough blitz and do enough trying to confuse the quarterback [so that] he doesn't ever get into a rhythm." With field position a high priority for the Quakers, Bagnoli will give backup quarterback Reed Werner the start at punter in place of the freshman Ryan Lazzeri, although Bagnoli also hopes to get Lazzeri some kicks tomorrow.

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