Mano-A-Mano: Three-peat on the line

So the Watch the Throne squad wasn't fazed by the end of their streak. Nothing like the Princeton JV varsity football team when you need a bounce-back, confidence-boosting win. But that blowout only set the stage for this Saturday's much-awaited showdown in Cambridge. For the third straight year, Penn and Harvard will meet for all (or most) of the marbles. Quakers' fans could easily find our analysis in the newspaper -- everybody reads "The Edge" and Swamis, right? -- but since we're new-age journalists, let's bring this segment online.

Question: Who will win Saturday's Penn-Harvard football game and why?

Kevin Esteves: Speaking objectively, I think this one goes to Harvard. The Crimson have been doing this year what Penn did in its previous two championship seasons: dominating on both sides of the ball. Harvard averages 11.1 more points per game than anybody else in the league (11.1 points!) and has the Ancient Eight's No. 1 run defense (3rd best defense overall in the league). Sure, Penn does pretty well in those categories as well, but Harvard's main weakness is its pass defense, which is not something the Quakers can just easily exploit (Penn's pass offense ranks just 5th). Princeton, which owns the Ivies' 2nd best run 'D' held Penn to just 76 yards last week. The Crimson rush defense is even stingier than the Tigers, so I expect more of the same. That means the Quakers may have to again rely on a strong passing game, but this time against a strong opponent — this just isn't the greatest matchup for Penn, or anyone in the league for that matter.

Brian Kotloff: No debate here. I'll take it a step further and say Harvard could be this Penn team's worst nightmare. Where the Quakers have a weakness, the Crimson have a strength. The main difference lies in the passing matchups. From what I've seen, Penn has struggled this season when forced into sure passing situations (save for Homecoming against the lowly Tigers), when the threat of the ground-and-pound game or creatively designed Billy Ragone runs is gone. Ragone may face many of those situations this week because of the strength of Harvard's run defense. On the other side of the ball, the Quakers' secondary faces the Ivies' hottest quarterback in Collier Winters. QBs have had their way with the Quakers this season, especially when opponents can establish a running threat first. In my mind, Harvard's offense is too balanced and too prolific to be stopped right now.

We can't sign off for the week without going out on a limb, so let's give our sure-to-be-wrong score predictions. I'll say Harvard 27, Penn 21.

KE: Crimson 35, Quakes 27.