Double Down on Brown

As I mentioned before, Rocktober was a great month for the Beav. In between road trips to Ohio and Florida, I was able to squeeze in some Ivy League action in Providence in the form of Princeton @ Brown. Points are awarded if you already picked up on the fact that this was my second viewing of the Brown Bears this year. Heading into the match up, both teams were winless in my experiences seeing them live (Brown 0-2, Princeton 0-1). So by the end of the afternoon something would have to give and one team's winless streak would come to an end.

More on the game in a minute. First, let me set the stage for you should you ever find yourself in Providence on game day. Saturday morning Mrs. Beav and I awoke in Newport, RI, the morning after our friends' wedding. Upon departure from the hotel, we caught our breakfast at the Coddington Brewery in Middletown, RI en route to the game. Coddington Brewery is a brewpub that serves their own hand-crafted beers, made on site. They also serve a clam chowder that was loaded with dill, which almost made it unbearable. Nonetheless, it is worth a visit to check out their atmosphere...Just stay away from the chowder.

With fuel in our stomachs we hit the road for Providence, arriving slightly late for kickoff (the brewpub didn't open till 11 so we were held up). Tailgating had been wrapped up by the time we got to the stadium, however it did not appear to be a raging tailgate scene to begin with.

Once inside, we found ourselves seated on the visiting sideline, which turned out to be a game-breaker since we were out of the wind and could basically sit wherever we wanted to amongst the Tiger faithful. I would highly advise sitting on the visiting team's sideline if you attend a game at Brown Stadium, as you are much closer to the action and can hear most of the sounds of the game because of the proximity to the field.

Princeton took a game effort into the second half, when eventually Brown pulled away and asserted themselves as expected. The Bears played a better game all day, but suffered from penalties, inopportune turnovers (is there such a thing as an opportune turnover for an offense??), and stalled drives, which kept the Tigers in the game. Alas, the hometown Bears took home the victory, notching their first win in the games I've seen them play live.

As far as an overall game day experience, you are probably not going to find a crazy scene at Brown Stadium if you go. You will, however, find a stadium nestled in amongst the neighborhood streets of Providence that hosts a high caliber of football with a chance to be close to the action. All things considered, its a great place to take a kid to a game. But if you're looking for something rowdy or you need more than the bare bones of a college football game to keep your interest, Brown Stadium probably isn't your bag, baby.

Beav