Football Monday

Welcome to the world, Michael Croxton.

Though he wasn't due to make an appearance until this week, Michael checked in a few days early, joining his mother Michelle, father Warren and oldest sister Theresa Friday. 

When Warren told TigerBlog that he'd named his son "Michael," TB was a bit surprised. He figured it would be more like "Bryce Harper Nick Foles Croxton," and his nickname would be 41-33. 

They can still call him that. 

Warren, in addition to being one of the biggest Philadelphia sports fans TB has ever met (he's probably in the top three), is a member of the Princeton Office of Athletic Communications staff.

Ah, the birth of a child. People say it's the greatest of days — eclipsed only on that magical day where your youngest is financially independent. 

TB's kids are in their mid-20s now. Anytime someone he knows has a baby, he thinks back to when they were born, and also to the overwhelming challenge that is taking care of a newborn. Your second, and presumably any subsequent ones, are rougher; just when you thought you were done with diapers and car seats, here you go again.

Now that Warren is a father of two, TB says "Mazel Tov" to the Croxtons on the arrival of the new one. And better them than he.

TB texted his best to Warren and asked if he'd be watching the Princeton-Brown football game a few hours after his son's birth. The answer was that he'd probably have it on.

Warren, after all, is the OAC football contact. 

The game he watched was a rough one for Princeton fans, as Brown rallied from two touchdowns down in the fourth quarter to win 28-27 in overtime. The loss was Princeton's first in the league after opening with a win over Columbia.

There are football games like this. Princeton appeared in control, shutting down Brown's high-scoring offense after allowing a TD on the first drive. The Tigers, in turn, got three very different touchdowns of their own — first a 37-yard Jiggie Carr run during which he seemed stopped for a loss, then a gorgeous 45-yard pass and catch from Blake Stenstrom to AJ Barber and lastly a bruising one-yard run by John Volker. 

Yes, but being up 21-7 in the fourth quarter of a football game is much like being up two goals in the third period of a hockey game. You're in control, sort of — but as soon as the other team scores once, suddenly your comfort zone is gone, the other team has momentum and now you feel like all the pressure is on you. 

And that's exactly what happened. Brown scored. Got a stop it needed. Got another score. Two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Two long drives. Overtime.

The league standings now have Harvard at 2-0, six teams at 1-1 and Columbia at 0-2. To show you how the league is this year, Columbia lost to Princeton 10-7 after the Tigers had that incredible drive for the winning points late in the game and then 20-17 to Penn Saturday after leading 17-10 in the fourth quarter. 

That's how slim the difference between 2-0 and 0-2 is. Imagine how much fun it would be if there was an Ivy League football tournament this year with the top four teams.

Of course there isn't. What there is, though, is a major chance at redemption this Saturday for the Tigers, when they host Harvard on Homecoming Day (kickoff at 1).

Harvard has certainly looked good to date. The Crimson are 5-0 overall, with its most impressive win the one over Holy Cross, who was ranked in the top five in the FCS at the time. 

In the league Harvard has taken down Brown 34-31 and Cornell 41-23. Again, that's a three-point win over a Brown team who could be saying both "hey, we could be 2-0" and "hey, we could be 0-2."

It's that kind of year in Ivy League football. 

It was a long bus ride home from Providence for the Tigers. Once they got back, though, it was time to turn the page. There's no getting that game back. Now there's only the chance to make up for it this coming weekend.