For Openers

Did you see the non-fair catch touchdown on the punt return in the North Texas-Arkansas game?

Here it is:

The only thing that could make the North Texas fake fair catch better is Celine Dion #GoMeanGreen pic.twitter.com/T6x9RZDQ8u

— Anthony Brown (@AnthonyBrownPKP) September 16, 2018

TigerBlog has all kinds of problems with this. First of all, he concedes that it was masterfully planned and executed, and the acting of the return man was perfect.

Here's the problem TB has with it: There are only two outcomes of that play. One is what happened - everyone is fooled and he scores an off-the-charts unique touchdown.

The other?

Well, considering he has purposely made himself defenseless, the other outcome isn't as good. The Arkansas players were well within their rights to tackle him, and, as often happens on punt returns, they could have tackled him violently. As a result, the risk of injury was off the charts too.

And that is not good at all. Safety of the athletes in all sports has to be paramount, and especially so in football.

And what if an Arkansas player had drilled him? Then what? It would have been a penalty against Arkansas for unnecessary roughness in all probability.

However well executed the play was, TigerBlog thinks it was a bad, bad idea. North Texas won 44-17, by the way.

TB also watched the end of the Purdue-Missouri game Saturday night. He has decided to keep his allegiance to Purdue that began when he attended a men's basketball game there last winter.

The Purdue-Missouri game featured one of the most maddening things that TB ever sees in football games. The game was tied at 37-37 with little more than a minute to play when Missouri threw a 25-yard pass to set up a first-and-10 at the Purdue 14.

The Boilermakers had two timeouts left. There was about 1:30 to play. About the best case scenario at that point would be to hold Missouri without a first down and use the two timeouts. This would have set up at worst a 31-yard field goal with about 25 seconds to go.

That was the best-case. The worst case is what happened. Missouri got a first down. Purdue spent its two timeouts. Missouri took it down to four seconds and then kicked a 25-yard field goal as time expired.

Hey, Purdue - and everyone else who's listening. When they get inside the 15 there, let them score on the next play. Yes, you need a TD, but you have two timeouts and about 1:15 or so, not to mention a quarterback who had thrown for a school-record 572 yards already.

Instead, play it out the way you do and you're almost surely going to lose, which is what happened. In fact, had Purdue let Missouri score, Missouri should have made sure it didn't, but hey, make them make that decision.

The game that TB was most interested in was Princeton-Butler. TigerBlog was at the men's soccer game, a 1-0 win over Boston University that would have been 5-0 or so had it not been for an amazing effort by BU goalie Mike Bernardi, who made 14 saves, many of them spectacular.

The first time TigerBlog checked Twitter for a football score, it was 14-0 Princeton. By the time he got to his car and turned on the radio, it was 24-7. It was 30-7 by the time he turned it on his computer. The final was 50-7.

Prior to the game, the fact that Butler had beaten Youngstown State and was playing its third game to Princeton's first was attention-grabbing. As it turned out, this game was over quickly.

John Lovett, playing his first game since collecting the 2016 Bushnell Cup as the Ivy League's Offensive Player of the Year, picked up where he left off, with two rushing touchdowns and two passing touchdowns.

Charlie Volker ran for 162 yards and two touchdowns of his own, and then there was Jesper Horsted. The senior wide receiver/baseball outfielder caught seven passes for 140 yards and two more touchdowns.

Princeton had a 326-66 edge in rushing yards and a 540-259 edge in total offense. What does it all mean?

Well, there are always takeaways.

One, it was good to get out there and play. The Tigers were playing for the first time ever in the state of Indiana and had a rare flight to a game. All of the buildup of training camp and then the travel finally gave way to actually playing.

Second, it was important for Lovett to reassert himself. He definitely did that.

Third, it appears that the Ivy League will be very interesting this season, at least based on the first weekend.

There's a long way to go, of course. Princeton next hosts Monmouth Saturday at 4:30 in the home opener. Monmouth is 2-1, with wins over Hampton and Lafayette after an opening loss against Eastern Michigan.

After that will be the Ivy opener at Columbia. It'll all happen very quickly, the way the season always unfolds.

For now, though, there's the obvious satisfaction with how the opener went. And with good reason.