Heartbreak City: Cornell Falls Short in Fourth Quarter Comeback, Fall to 0–3

By JOON LEE, Sun Assistant Sports Editor

They really did try to flip the narrative of the season. In the early part of the season, the Cornell football team has been on the wrong end of comebacks in both games of their young season.

Down 27 points in the fourth quarter, the Red (0–3, 0–1 Ivy League) had a chance to make Colgate University (2–3) feel the pain, just as they had the first two weeks of the season, when they dropped massive leads to Bucknell and Yale.

Instead, all they came out of the first night game at Schoellkopf in the history of Cornell football was more pain, coming ten yards short of a touchdown on the last drive of a game, a win that would have changed the team’s fortunes. Instead, the Red dropped the contest to the Raiders, 28–21, and fell to 0–3 on the season.

“We’re so close,” said senior wide receiver Ben Rogers. “There are three games right there that we feel that we should be 3–0.”

Indeed, with the luck of the draw, Cornell’s record could be looking at itself in the mirror and the Red could be the most surprising undefeated team in the Ivy League. A stop on a miraculous touchdown pass against Bucknell, a sack of Yale quarterback Morgan Roberts and a completed pass from Somborn ten yards out against Colgate and the Red could be undefeated on the year.

Instead, the Red have experienced fourth-quarter heartbreak, a feeling that they have known all too well so far this season. This time, coming so close, the pain was just as bad for head coach David Archer ’05.

“It hurts all of the way until tomorrow morning, when I wake up in the morning and I’m so thankful for the opportunity that I have with these kids,” Archer said. “I know this is all part of our making in program and we have so much of our season ahead of us.”

Somewhere out there, Colgate junior quarterback Jake Melville is still running and running and running and running in circles away from the Cornell pass rush. Melville ended the day with 257 passing yards on 18–0f-28 attempts, two touchdown passes, 99 rushing yards on 14 carries and another score on the ground. The gunslinger’s direction of the Raiders no-huddle offense ultimately set the tone for the majority of the game.

“I’m hoping [Mellville]’s a senior,” Archer said. “If not, maybe we can get him an accelerated graduation program.”

The Red defense struggled to keep against Melville and the Colgate uptempo offense through the first three quarters of the game, allowing 419 total yards versus their own 176. Frequently, Melville rolled out of the pocket after feeling pressure from the Red rush and would scramble and dance around defenders.

“We make sure that we have a good conditioning program all year long to play against the no-huddle,” Archer said. “I think it was more Melville than anything else, to be quite honest with you.”

Melville often salsaed, shimmied and scampered his way through the Red defense until a gap opened up for a quick scramble or a receiver opened up. Cornell simply had no answer for the Colgate no-huddle offense, which totaled 484 total yards of offense, 257 through the air and 227 on the ground in the game.

The Red struggled to keep up in both the running and passing game, leading to a touchdown pass from Melville to wide receiver Alex Greenwalt for the first touchdown of the game. After the first touchdown, the team’s inability to stop Melville proved to be the Red’s biggest downfall.

Colgate football head coach Dan Hunt, who lead the Raiders to a 27–12 over the Red in 2014, had kind words for Archer’s squad.

“I’ve been saying all week that of all of the teams that we played last year that we played again this year, I think Cornell is the most improved team,” Hunt said. “We knew all week that they were going to be good and their defensive style is aggressive.”

The next step for Archer’s squad is making that leap, being one play away from victory to making that last play for the victory. Archer said that the team needs to put four quarters of good football together, something that the team has struggled to do this season.

“I’ve been on Cornell teams and been a coach on Cornell teams where there is no shot that they come out in the second half and play that brand of football,” Archer said. “They just let it become a runaway. That’s not what these guys chose to do. They chose to make it within a play. It’s totally different.”

What went wrong for the Red

• Junior wide receiver Collin Shaw left the game in the second quarter after injuring his ankle. Cornell trainers helped Shaw off the field and kept pressure off of his right ankle.
• Through the first half, Colgate’s no-huddle offense absolutely had their way with the Cornell defense. Melville completed his first eight passes of the game and did an excellent job evading the Red pass rush throughout the first half and extending plays.
• When Archer put sophomore quarterback Jake Jatis in with a little under nine minutes left in the fourth quarter, the gunslinger threw a deep pass down the field that was intercepted deep in Colgate’s territory. Jatis, who has been used sparingly for direct snap runs so far this season, was a questionable choice to throw a deep pass given Somborn’s success through the air in the previous drive, which ended with a touchdown throw to sophomore wideout James Hubbard. “All you’ve ever seen Jatis do is run it,” Archer said. “If you give a play-action ball, you have a really good chance of making a play and it was a couple of feet, a couple of inches to being a big play to Hubbard. The thought process there is that if you watch the film, all you saw Jatis do was run it.”
• Junior quarterback Robert Somborn continued his struggle with pressure in the pocket in the first half. During the Red’s first two offensive drives, Somborn extended plays with his legs but ended up taking sacks after not throwing the ball away, killing the momentum of the Cornell offensive unit.
• Senior Ben Rogers, who appears to have taken over return duties after Junior Luis Uceta muffed a punt against Yale and made some mental errors against Bucknell, dropped a kick.

What went right for the Red

• Senior running back Luke Hagy collected his sixth straight 100-yard rushing game, running through the Raiders defense for 121 yards on 11 carries for two touchdowns. Hagy’s night was highlighted by a 79-yard touchdown run.

• Cornell displayed fight through the end of the game. Despite giving up an interception and being down by 21 points heading into the fourth quarter, the Red continued to play hard and made pushes towards the end of the game to shrink the Colgate lead. Led by Somborn’s excellent 13-for-21 on passes, 231 passing yards and touchdown toss in the fourth quarter, the Red made an absolutely furious comeback.
• Rogers and Hubbard had strong showings, despite a strong Colgate pass defense. Somborn connected with Rogers for 6 catches and 127yards and Hubbard for 4 catches and 62 yards.