A Nearly Perfect First Half

The visiting team locker room at Brown Stadium sits under the main grandstand, and it has a grassy area in front of it that serves as a rallying point for team members, coaches and support staff.

TigerBlog was standing in that area shortly after Princeton's 65-22 win over Brown Saturday afternoon, on an absolutely perfect day for football in Providence. He was talking to Christian Brown, a defensive back who had four tackles and an interception, and Jacob Birmelin, a wide receiver who had a lot of catches and a lot of yards, before they were interviewed by Jay Greenberg for the Princeton football blog.

TB had one question for Birmelin. Did he know how many receptions he had in the first half?

The junior from Royal Palm Beach, Fla., said he didn't. Then he thought about it and said "seven?"

Nope. Not even close.

Birmelin had 11 catches in the first half. Eleven - by halftime. For 179 yards and two touchdowns. He'd catch one more on the first play of the second half, for another 10 yards, and that was pretty much the end of his day.

He came into the game as Princeton's leading receiver with 19 receptions. He left it as the Ivy League's leader with 31, which is eight more than any other player in the league.

Birmelin had seven career receptions for 44 yards for his career prior to this season. He has been great all year, part of a rebuilt receiver corps that began the year as a major question mark and now has become a major strength.

As for the game itself, TB stood on that same grassy area just before the kickoff as well, and it was quite telling. 

First he was talking with offensive coordinator Andrew Aurich, who seemed very calm, like it was a Tuesday or something, not a few minutes before an Ivy League.
From inside the locker room TB could hear Bob Surace, the head coach. He couldn't hear what Surace was saying, just the tone with which he was saying. Surace wasn't yelling or anything like that. He was just talking.

Then, after the national anthem, the team began to file out. There was no screaming, no jumping on each other.

What was there? Focus.

There was lots of that. TB could see it and sense it.

Then the game started, and it proved TB was right.

Princeton would win the game 65-22 after a first half that featured a season's worth of highlights. It was an extraordinary first 30 minutes, which ended with the Tigers ahead 51-19. That's 51 points in the first half.

Was that a record? TB has no way to look it up. He can say it's the most a Surace-coached Princeton team has ever scored in the first half.

Princeton's first half drive chart was this:

Field goal
Touchdown
Touchdown
Interception
Touchdown
Touchdown
Touchdown
Touchdown
Touchdown

The person who had the most wild first half was Jacob Birmelin, who would finish the game with 12 receptions for 186 yards and two touchdowns. His first half alone? He had 11 catches for 176 yards and both touchdowns, and 61 yards on three punt returns.

Kevin Davidson threw for 271 first half yards and finished the day 27 for 35 for 379 yards and five touchdowns.

If you recall a year ago, Davidson made his first career start in the game against Brown when John Lovett was injured and threw for 299 yards and four touchdowns. In his two starts against Brown in his career, Davidson went 53 for 75 for 678 yards and nine touchdowns.

How good was Davidson? He even dropped a pooch punt inside the 5.

Princeton finished the first half with 21 first downs and 429 yards of offense.

The second half was played at a much slower tempo, and every player who traveled got into the game.

In addition to the dominant performances that Princeton got from Davidson and Birmelin, it was also a great afternoon for three Tiger seniors.

Tyler Campbell came into the game with 86 career rushing yards. Against Brown he carried 12 times for 91 yards, including an awesome 37-yard run that came on a fourth-and-one in the first half, when Princeton went for it on its own 35. That was 1) a gutsy call and 2) a lot of faith in Campbell.

The other two seniors were Sam Johnson and Zach Kelly, who each had his first career touchdown reception.

The win improved Princeton to 5-0, with 15 straight victories. Up next is Homecoming, Saturday at 1, as Harvard comes to Powers Field at Princeton Stadium.

Princeton, Dartmouth and Harvard are all 2-0 in the Ivy League.

That's really all you need to know to figure out that Saturday's game is big.