D Plus

From his perch in the Princeton Stadium press box, TigerBlog could see Jeremiah Tyler in warmups before the game, before he even put on his uniform, and he could tell that Tyler was about to play really well.

And that's exactly what happened.

There was something about the way Tyler was getting ready that really stood out, for some reason. By halftime, the junior linebacker from Detroit would have six tackles, three for loss, as the Princeton defense already showed what kind of night it was going to be.

The final score was Princeton 28, Lafayette 3, as the Tigers improved to 4-0 on the year, heading into a sprint of six Ivy League games in six weeks.

Princeton threw a complete blanket over a good Lafayette offense, one that came into the game with an average of 383 yards per game. How dominant was Princeton's defense? Consider all of the following:

* Lafayette had 162 yards of total offense

* Princeton held Lafayette to 1.5 yards per rush and seven first downs

* Lafayette had the ball 12 times. Only once did the Leopards cross midfield

* Of those 12 drives, they ended with eight punts, two interceptions, once on downs and the one field goal

That's a pretty good night for the Princeton D.

Even better is that Tyler was hardly a one-man wrecking crew. It was more like an 11-man wrecking crew on essentially every play.

No player had more than six tackles, and 13 players had at least two. There were two other players with six tackles, including Joey DeMarco, who had two sacks to go along with the tackles. Delan Stallworth was the other player with six.

There were five players who had at least half a sack - DeMarco, Tyler, James Johnson, Matthew Jester and Daniel Beard. Two other players - Sultaan Shabazz and Jayden Wickware - had interceptions.

Princeton's defense has allowed an average of 260 yards per game, a number that ranks second in the FCS, trailing only Kennesaw State. Princeton is also second in the FCS in scoring defense, allowed 10.8 points per game. TB will get back to the team that is first in a minute.

Keep in mind, this is a defense that lost, among other players, two first-team All-Ivy League linebackers from a year ago. And yet the Tigers have been on wipe out mode all season.

Princeton also comes at you in waves on the defensive side of the ball. It's a unit with a lot of depth, a lot of it young depth.

Up next for this team is a trip to Brown, where the Bears average 414 yards of total offense per game. That game will be the halfway point of the season.

And where do things stand as the halfway point approaches?

Princeton is 4-0, winner of 14 straight. The Tigers are one of three teams in the FCS who are unbeaten, along with top-ranked North Dakota State and Ivy rival Dartmouth.

The Big Green have been very impressive so far this season, especially this past Saturday's 42-10 win over Yale. Princeton and Dartmouth meet in Week 8, Nov. 9, at Yankee Stadium, as part of the 150th anniversary of college football celebration.

Princeton has three games between now and then - the trip to Brown, a home game against Harvard and a trip to Cornell. In other words, there's just way too much to do between now and the game at Yankee Stadium for anyone to even think about a second-straight 7-0 vs. 7-0 matchup featuring Princeton and Dartmouth, who played an epic game last year that Princeton won 14-9.

Harvard, along with Princeton and Dartmouth, is unbeaten in the Ivy League. No league game is going to be easy.

Still, Princeton has looked very sharp so far this year. Maybe the best part is the fact that it's been a total team effort, and each week it's hard to figure out which players to nominate for Ivy Player of the Week because there are endless options each time.

A week ago, the team's official Offensive Player of the Week was offensive tackle Henry Byrd. After the Tigers rushed for 203 yards and had an 11-minute edge in possession time against Lafayette, TigerBlog nominated center Alex Deters.

Princeton has gotten to this point of the season exactly where it wanted to be - unbeaten, with room for improvement and laser focused on the coming challenges.

It's a good place to be 40 percent of the way through your season.