http://www.yalebulldogs.com/sports/m-footbl/2018-19/releases/20181103q4bgpc
The third Yale Football home game of the season was against a team called Mercer, but due to the fact that it was raining and cold we decided not to go to that game. This means if the rest of the games go as planned we'll only have four home games this season and it's been a few weeks since our last game but the final two Yale home games are back to back Saturdays. This brings us to Brown, who are... not a very good team. There was supposed to be something with inflatables before the game but it was never set up. It was somewhat raining when we left so we stopped at McDonald's before the game and while inside eating the sun came out.
When we got to the Yale Bowl, there was nothing set up for special activities beforehand and I don't blame them one bit because as we were waiting for tickets this huge gust of wind came through and managed to take a t-shirt rack with it halfway across the street. Some of the shirts even came off and fell to the wet ground. I'm not sure why they set up that merchandise area outside of the Yale Bowl. I rarely see anyone using it and this week seemed like a particularly bad choice since it wanted to blow away.
Once in the Yale Bowl, about twenty minutes before kickoff, we would learn there was a bigger force to take into account today than Yale's opponents Brown: the weather. Strong winds still came through, often knocking over the benches on the field, though Brown had this one trash bag which never flinched and it remained a mystery as to how to both my Dad and I. Leaves and other such objects like small bits of trash were flying everywhere which made it difficult to tell if the referee was throwing a penalty flag down or not. It was also this combination of warm when the sun was directly on us but much colder when it went behind the clouds.
The game itself was a lot of fun because I, obviously, enjoy seeing Yale win and it wasn't a complete blowout. Brown has only one (non-Ivy League) win this season so I made the comment to my Dad that if a team has no losses they're undefeated so would that make Brown "defeated"? It's not that Brown had a terrible team as much as that they kept trying the same plays and they didn't always work. This was the game where I saw the most quarterback sacks ever by Yale and that probably is some kind of record since there seemed to be one on every Brown possession.
Another fun aspect of this game was a rowdy group of Brown fans sitting behind us. This group- which was mostly one woman- was overly loud, her voice certain to be sore the next day, and also overly drunk, the empty bottles of Fireball left as they eventually changed seats. They would yell such obvious things that it was quite laughable. But perhaps even more to the point, I enjoyed that something would be yelled for all to hear such as "Don't give up any yards, Browns!!" and then they'd give up twenty yards. Brown didn't score until this woman left for the bathroom and then later on when she quieted down, so perhaps there is something there: all her obnoxious and obvious thoughts are creating too much pressure and Brown would win if she'd just shut up.
By the end of the game I was near freezing though it wasn't that cold out. Yale hopefully built up enough confidence with this game to give Princeton a run for their money, as after their victory over Dartmouth the Tigers are still undefeated. Funny how Yale can go from playing a defeated team to an undefeated team, isn't it? But many of the Yale starters are injured so hopefully giving newer players some field time will benefit the team overall next season if everyone else is able to come back healthy. Then Yale can return to championship form. As long as it's not too cold and raining too hard, we shall see the end of the Yale home season next week against Princeton which should be either an exciting game or a terrible loss for Yale.
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