Penn begins winless streak vs. Bears

The loss was the start of a 17-game winless streak that would last until early in the 1980 season. The winless streak was part of a four-year stretch (1978-81) in which the Red and Blue would win just 4 out of 38 games. PROVIDENCE, RI -- Two years ago, the Penn football team travelled to this town and encountered the same monsoon conditions at Brown Stadium that they discovered here Saturday. The then 0-3 Quakers squad did little offensively, but still managed a 7-6 upset win over a 3-0 Brown team that was to go unbeaten the rest of the year. This time, a superb Bruin defense shut down Penn again. But there was no "miracle," as Brown (2-2, 2-1 Ivies) whitewashed the Red and Blue (2-2, 1-2) 14-0 in surprisingly easy fashion. "Our (the Brown defense) attitude was that today they wouldn't score," observed Bruin linebacker John Woodring. "Our slogan all week as 'B-T-B' -- break the bone." And break it they did. Last week against Columbia, Penn collected 346 yards on the ground. Saturday, Brown held the wishbone to 73 yards in 48 rushing attempts. Quakers quarterback Tom Roland, who waltzed his way to a near school record 213 yards against the Lions, was held, for the lack of a better word, negative 12 yards. In other words, the Red and Blue were stopped dead cold. "On a day like today," observed Penn fullback Denis Grosvenor, "it's just gutsy football -- man-to-man right on the front line. That's where they beat us. We couldn't seem to get rolling." But ironically enough, after each team's initial drive got nowhere, the West Philadelphia wishbone got into gear. Marching from their own 29-yard line, the Quakers moved downfield on the strength, oddly enough, of Roland's passing. Completions to Tim Timlin and tight end Tim Trautman moved the drive deep into Bruin territory. But on fourth-and-five (on the Brown 27), Roland just missed a wide-open Phil Avila at the 10-yard line. The Bruins countered with a well-orchestrated, 73 yard seven-play touchdown march. Brown quarterback Mark Whipple hit his favorite target, Mark Farnham, last season's leading Ivy receiver, for gains of 22 and 14 yards. He flared a short pass to his tailback Marty DeFrancesco for 17 more before Marty Moran put the home team ahead 7-0 on a three-yard slant off right tackle. "We had confidence that we could move the ball on them," observed Whipple. "They were playing just a basic 5-2 defense. I think our linemen were a little too quick for them." If the Brown offensive front was too fast for the Quakers, then the Bruin punt return unit must have been the 400 meter relay team incognito. Two long returns thwarted Penn's attempt to get back in the game. The Quaker attack fizzled again. Roland punted and this time Rick Villella grabbed the boot. "I looked upfield and saw a beautiful wall," observed the sophomore. "It was just like in the playbook." His 41-yard return, down an unguarded left sideline, left the ball, first-and-10 on the Penn 20. "We work on kick coverage every day," sighed Gamble. "I don't understand it. It put ourselves in quite a hole." Seven plays later it was a 14-point hole as the only other score of the contest came on Whipple's five yard scramble around right end. "That," said Whipple, "took the sting out of the wishbone." "We knew what to expect," said Penn running back Kevin Blake. "We worked hard on their defense all week. Things just didn't mesh today. They were very tough on defense. Give them an awful lot of credit." "The middle of the field was six inches deep of mud," noted Grosvenor. "But they, at the same time, mastered it. The rain, the conditions -- no excuse. They just beat us." Even in the fourth quarter, when the home team suffered a relapse of turnovers that had plagued the Bruins the first two weeks of the season, the Red and Blue offense sputtered. Whipple's fumbled handoff to Moran gave the Quakers the ball on the Brown 26. Then a Bruin face mask violation and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty moved the ball to the seven-yard line, first-and-10. Penn couldn't score. "Brown was very aggressive on defense," commented Gamble. "And the few opportunities that we had late in the game, we couldn't capitalize on." Then he added, "I don't think that the weather was that much of a factor."" "I knew Friday that it would rain," remarked Brown coach John Anderson. "I told the kids it would be more detrimental to Penn than to us... although I wasn't sure that it was true." Anderson doesn't have to worry anymore.