Getty Former Boston College QB EJ Perry leads Brown against Princeton on Saturday.
Off to a 4-0 start and ranked No. 16 in the FCS coaches poll, Princeton makes its way to Providence for a matchup against 1-3 Brown on Saturday afternoon.
The game (12:30 p.m. ET start time) won’t be on regular TV anywhere, but you can watch it live right here on ESPN+, the digital streaming service from ESPN that has exclusive coverage of dozens of college football games and other live sports every week, all the 30-for-30 documentaries and additional original content (both video and written) all for $4.99 per month.
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Princeton vs Brown Preview
After going 10-0 overall and 7-0 in Ivy League play last season, the Tigers have extended their winning streak to 14 games with four straight victories to begin the 2019 season.
And these aren’t narrow wins, either. Princeton is blowing teams out right now, sporting a 154-43 margin of victory in their triumphs over Butler, Bucknell, Columbia and Lafayette. They rank 12th among all FCS teams in points per game (38.5) and second in points allowed per game (10.8), joining No. 1 North Dakota State, No. 2 James Madison, No. 4 Kennesaw State and fellow Ivy Leaguer Harvard as the only teams in the Top 12 in both stats.
Things haven’t been going quite as swimmingly for Brown. After a 35-30 win at Bryant to open the season, the Bears have dropped three in a row at Harvard and at home against Rhode Island and Holy Cross. Their last Ivy League win came in 2016.
Nevertheless, after two straight 0-7 Ivy campaigns, the Browns are showing some positive signs in their first year under James Perry. Namely, the offense has exhibited immense improvement, averaging 414.3 yards and 25.25 points per game compared to 285.5 and 14.3 last year. Dual-threat QB EJ Perry, a transfer from Boston College, has proven to be a dangerous weapon, averaging 344 yards of total offense (250.5 passing, 93.5 rushing) per game to go with 10 touchdowns (eight passing, two rushing).
If the Bears are going to even think about pulling the upset on Saturday, the offense will need to be clicking. The defense isn’t likely to slow down Kevin Davidson and the ultra-efficient Tigers offense, but there is an outside chance that Perry and Co. could turn this thing into a shootout. That’s still a tall task against Princeton’s defense, but it is likely their best route to competing against the Ivy League’s defending champs.
Ultimately, Princeton just has too much talent and should roll in this game. But Brown has been more competitive this year than the last two, and this could be a good litmus test to see just how much they’ve improved under Perry.
Following this one, Princeton returns home for a big game against Harvard, while Brown goes on the road to take on a struggling Cornell squad.