On some days, even a mediocre on-field performance will yield a victory.
Saturday was one of those days for the Penn football team, which beat Columbia, 14-3, with a showing that resembled its sluggish play in its 16-13 loss to Villanova at Franklin Field earlier this season.
This was not the same Penn offense that tallied 32 points against a vigilant Bucknell squad two weekends ago -- the Quakers did not need such output to keep the Lions winless this season.
All the Red and Blue (4-1, 2-0 Ivy) needed was a couple of big plays to incapacitate Columbia (0-5, 0-2).
It was not pretty, but it was enough to give Penn its 17th straight Ivy League victory, tying the Ivy League record set by the 1992-95 Quakers.
"It was not a stellar game for us by any stretch of the imagination," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "Some of that was caused by Columbia."
Penn's first touchdown was set up by its special teams. After junior kick returner Adam Francks spun and juked his way into Columbia territory, the Penn offensive unit slowly chipped away at the Columbia defense. With the ball at the Lions' 2-yard line, Penn quarterback Pat McDermott threw into the end zone to senior Dan Castles, who caught the ball as he was pushed to the turf by a defender.
It was the 25th career touchdown reception for Castles, just one short of the Penn record.
Another good Penn drive came in the second quarter, but it ended with a sight that Penn fans have known all too well this season -- senior kicker Evan Nolan's 28-yard field-goal attempt missing wide.
Fortunately for Penn, Columbia's next drive ended the same way -- kicker Nick Rudd arched a slow, floppy attempt that clearly missed from 22 yards out.
"There must be something in the water that [kickers] drink at these schools," Bagnoli said. "This year, everyone is floundering and I don't know why."
Penn hit the final nail in the coffin in the fourth quarter -- McDermott went 5-for-6 on a drive, including a 29-yarder to Castles and a 28-yard touchdown reception by sophomore Matt Carre, the first of his collegiate career.
"We run that play in practice every day, so it was nothing new," Carre said. "I leaned to the inside, [the defender] went that way, so I just broke to the corner and beat him there."
Columbia has used its running game as its primary weapon the entire season, and Saturday was no different -- the Lions amassed 49 rushing yards in the first half to successfully move from red zone to red zone.
"They're pretty hard to tackle," Bagnoli said of Columbia senior running backs Rashad Biggers and Ayo Oluwole. "We didn't do a good job of getting them to run to the sidelines."
Still, Columbia could only amass 68 yards on the ground in the game.
When Penn focused its defensive energies to the running game, Lions quarterback Jeff Otis had the chance to close the door on Penn with his passing game, but failed.
He overthrew deep passes the entire game to his primary receiving targets, senior Wade Fletcher and junior Brandon Bowser, who were frequently beating the Penn secondary off the line of scrimmage.
These missed chances allowed Penn to shut down Columbia's running game -- the Lions ran for only seven yards in the fourth quarter.
Penn held Fletcher to 49 receiving yards, 72 fewer than what he had against Lafayette in his first game back from injury.
"He probably isn't 100 percent [healthy], but I appreciate his effort," Columbia football coach Bob Shoop said. "He is certainly a tremendous weapon for us."
The Columbia defense, which gave up 408 rushing yards to Bucknell this season, held Penn running back Sam Mathews to 2.4 yards per carry on Saturday.
Columbia "really had us off balance," Bagnoli said. "We always seemed to be a step behind."
Even with the offensive struggles, the Quakers preempted the Lions' offense with excellent punting by senior Josh Appell.
"That was key to the game," Shoop said. "With [Appell], that defense and not turning the ball over, that's a formula."
While Bagnoli would have liked to see more growth from a team with such great winning experience, he said that games like these are necessary, even for record-setting ones.
"Sometimes you win pretty and sometimes you win ugly," he said. "But the bottom line is that we made enough plays and hopefully we'll move on and try to get better for next week."
NOTES: Columbia's third- quarter field goal was the team's first on the season. The Lions had missed four kicks in their five games so far this season.
