For the second week in a row Penn lost an Ivy League game, and for the second week in a row the special teams played a major role in the collapse.
Penn could not make a kick against Princeton. And while their return defense improved from the loss last week at Brown, they still only moved the ball by an average of 30 yards per punt.
Penn kicker Derek Zoch had an extra point blocked and returned by Princeton for two points the other way, and later had another field goal blocked and one miss wide left.
For the first five weeks of the season, the Quakers had seemingly solved last year's kicking problems. After the team hit 35 percent of field goals in 2004, Zoch began the year a solid 10-for-12, including four field goals in the win at Dartmouth. He also had made 24 of 26 extra points in the team's first five games, significantly better than the percentage of the kicker-by-committee from last season.
Since then, the kicking game has taken a turn for the worse.
"We've had kicking game miscues," said Penn coach Al Bagnoli. "If you look two weeks ago we were [a high percentage] in field goals ... and then the last two weeks we left a lot of points on the board."
Zoch missed two field goals and an extra point against Brown, and did the same in the 30-13 loss on Saturday. While the Brown game saw kicking inaccuracies, on Saturday Penn saw flashbacks of 2004, when they had five field goals blocked.
After going down 14-0 early in the second quarter the Quakers struck back when Joe Sandberg bounced outside for a 25-yard touchdown run to presumably cut the lead in half.
But on the point after, the Tigers easily penetrated the line and blocked the kick. The ball ended up in the hands of linebacker Luke Steckel who alertly bolted the other way, and as he was running out of gas pitched to cornerback Jay McCareins who took it down the sideline for the conversion.
Steckel "knew I was going to be somewhere, and he threw it. I'm a little faster than he is," McCareins joked.
This play was worth more than the three point swing.
"When you block the extra point you take a total negative and turn it into a positive," said Princeton coach Roger Hughes, who beat Penn for the first time in his ten tries. "We had all the momentum and were getting the ball back. It's like getting a safety"
On their next possession the Quakers marched 69 yards, but the drive ended when Zoch was blocked again on a 29-yarder.
Without seeing game film, Bagnoli was not sure who was to blame for the blocked kicks, but he knew they were significant mishaps.
"Whether or not we screwed up the technique I don't know, but those were huge plays obviously," he said. "They're just momentum breakers."
Later in the game Zoch missed his second field goal, this time from 46 yards out. The Quakers sent out the kicking unit on fourth-and-six for the long attempt even though Zoch's previous long is 38 yards, and is zero for three on 40-plus yarders in his career.
There has been a strong correlation between good kicking and Quakers wins. In five victories the Quakers are 9-for-10 on field goals, and in three losses they are 1-for-5.
