On a day when a young, costumed Quakers fan was booed for donning the garb of Donovan McNabb as part of an Abner's Cheesesteak Giveaway, visions of another popular Philly punching bag haunted the home squad all afternoon.
"These guys are good receivers, but I think a lot of us came into this game thinking they were Terrell Owens," All-Ivy Penn corner Chris Wynn said. "I think our real problem was we gave them more credit than they deserve."
Indeed, the defensive backfield, led by Wynn and senior captain Tyson Maugle, was the unquestioned catalyst of the Red and Blue's perfect start through three Ancient Eight games, surrendering a conference-best 129.5 yards per game through the air.
But against Brown on Saturday, with a Homecoming crowd in tow, the Quakers had no answer for Bears signal-caller Michael Dougherty, who picked apart the vaunted secondary for 234 yards and four touchdowns.
"We had a ton of coverage mistakes," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "It's really the first time all year that we've had some of these mistakes."
According to Wynn, the corners' respect for the big-play threats of Buddy Farnham and Bobby Sewall turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy, causing the defenders to give more cushion than usual off the line of scrimmage.
"Played off the ball too much," Wynn said. "And when [the receiver] runs the hitch, you're a little too hesitant to break because of the idea that maybe he's about to run a 'go.'"
That would help explain the ease with which Dougherty orchestrated short strikes to Sewall and Farnham in the early going, taking the Quakers' dangerous front seven out of the equation with quick screens out wide that allowed his receivers plenty of open real estate with which to create after the catch.
And once the Bears had established their proficiency with the dink-and-dunk, they went over the top of the secondary for the big play the Quakers had dreaded in the first place.
Taking over from its own 43-yard line after Penn had seized its first lead of the game with 1:15 left in the second quarter, Dougherty faked a handoff to tailback Wayne Ritter on the drive's second play, before turning his shoulders to the right sideline.
Farnham had a step.
"It was actually going to be a post - I converted it," said Farnham, who led the Bears with 120 yards and two touchdowns on six catches. "They were playing a soft Cover 2. They had a safety on the hash, so I kept turning on the jets."
Securing the pass in stride, Farnham tip-toed the sideline near the 15-yard line, regained his balance and pranced in untouched the rest of the way.
The 57-yard connection - the team's first true shot downfield after a series of short and intermediate routes - supplied the Bears with a jolt of momentum to end the half, and left Bagnoli wondering which poison he fancied most.
"You talk about stopping big plays on defense," he said. "They had three or four of them."
With the corners on their heels again, Dougherty collected two of three second-half touchdowns on receiver screens to Farnham and Sewall, respectively.
"We're a throwing team. That's what we do," the senior gunslinger said. "Very few teams are able to stop us."
Wynn and the Quakers, it seems, knew this all along.
