NEW HAVEN, Conn. - When backup quarterback Bryan Walker stepped in for the injured Robert Irvin in the third quarter on Saturday, it was clear that continuing to gain yardage in short chunks would not be enough for Penn to break the 14-14 deadlock. The Quakers needed something more.
In past games, it had come from running back Joe Sandberg, who has scored three touchdowns on runs of 36 or more yards this year. Or it would come from one of Penn's receivers, who were now matched up against a Yale secondary that had yielded 240 passing yards per game so far this year. Walker himself was also a likely candidate; he scrambled for a 25-yard gain against Dartmouth two weeks ago.
But a combination of poor field position, sloppy play and personnel changes kept Penn from finding the space it needed to break the game open with a big play. The Quakers had just two offensive plays of more than 10 yards in the second half, which meant that Penn's huge fourth-quarter advantage in time of possession - 9:45 to 5:15 - went largely for naught.
"It's not just down to a singular person or a singular play," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said after he saw his five-game winning streak against the Elis slip away. "It comes down to a lot of things that are cumulative over periods of time, and we really just didn't come up with enough of those plays."
The Quakers' field position certainly didn't help. Thanks to a nice headwind, Yale punter Tom Mante greeted Penn with a 58-yard boot to open the fourth quarter, and four drives later pinned the Quakers on their own 7. Penn was forced to hand the ball off to Sandberg on six of the next eight plays just to get the ball out of their own red zone.
And the few big plays they did come up with didn't yield a score. Tight end Chris Mizell caught a short pass from Walker and got to the outside for 30 yards to push Penn into Elis territory for the first - and only - time in the third quarter. But a holding penalty wasted Walker's next big effort. Irvin then re-entered with a tweaked ankle that had clearly taken the edge off his game - his two incompletions killed what would prove to be Penn's best chance to score after halftime.
With Walker - who does not have the same arm as Irvin despite his mobility - Penn lost some of its aerial threats. Walker completed only 8 of 16 passes, and none even close to the completion he threw to Mizell. Irvin's first-half performance: 144 yards on 13-of-16 passing, including a 57-yard strike to wideout Matt Carre.
Sandberg, meanwhile, could not break free for a run of longer than 11 yards on the day, a decline in production from a halfback who has become an equally potent receiving threat in recent games.
"There were plays to be made, [plays] that were there," Walker said.
Sandberg's 125 yards rushing on the day did enable Penn to keep its head above water - his sustained production kept the field-position battle from swinging too far in Yale's favor.
But in a game that came down to special teams and turnovers, simply keeping pace wasn't enough for Penn.
