Can we put it on the board?

This week, Penn gets a gift from above in playing 0-5 Georgetown. Ideally, this will be a week to rest Robert Irvin's arm, let the swelling go down in running back Joe Sandberg's back and get back on the winning track at the same time.

The start of this game will be a key - if the Quakers get off to a big lead by halftime, they can let some of their key banged-up players sit, while still getting the young guys -- like corners Chris Wynn and Joey Brown, wideouts Marcus Lawrence, Tyler Fisher and Kyle Derham and defensive end Josh Neubert -- some experience and gain some confidence as well.

We always pick Penn to win in the Swa... I mean PrognostiQuakers, but here are a few reasons why this should, finally, be an easy win for Penn.

Georgetown, once again, is terrible. And is getting worse. After nearly beating Stony Brook in the opener, they lost by 21 to Lafayette, and dropped a 28-14 contest to Yale. Those seem like bad results, but the Hoyas followed it all up with a 55-0 loss to Holy Cross two weeks ago, and a 45-7 drubbing at the hands of Cornell.

In that game, Georgetown had no turnovers, and yet couldn't get on the board until it was down 31-0 in the third quarter. This may have been because the Hoyas went a Penn-like 0 for 3 on fourth down conversions, to go along with a measly 288 yards of total offense, 115 on the ground on 39 carries. They also couldn't stop running back Luke Siwula, who tore up the Washington, DC school for 119 total yards and three touchdowns on only 20 touches.

Here are a few quick hits about Georgetown, and why students in The Line this weekend will get to see Al Bagnoli's first win of the 2007 season.

Cornell sacked the Hoyas five times last week. Penn's young secondary needs all the help it can get, and if Naheem Harris, Mike Marinelli and the rest of the linemen are getting pressure on quarterback Matt Basseuner, Wynn will add to his already-robust list of acrobatic interceptions this season.

Georgetown has only forced three interceptions in five games. I don't think I need to explain why this is a plus.

About the only thing Georgetown does better than its opponents is punting, where it boasts an impressive 42.7 average (38.3 for opposing squads). Still, the Hoyas must have terrible punt coverage, or only kick line drives because they fall behind their opponents in net yards 35.5 to a pretty sad 31.8.

In five games, the Hoyas still haven't made a field goal ... let alone attempted one. Yes, they're 0-for-0 on the season. I should have looked at these stats before choosing a score of 24-13 Penn in the paper, though I guess a missed extra point is far from unexpected. I'll unofficially re-correct my score to 24-7, Quakers.