Lehigh stays in the driver's seat. We survive once again, and move on. But it's funny; I should be much more elated with this win than I am.
How could that be? We were up by three scores. Our defense smothered Colgate's offense in the first half, for the most part. Senior DT Erik Rakus seemed to be all over the field. Junior QB Sedale Threatt did a great job leading the team on first half TD drives, including 75 rushing yards and 2 TDs. As a Lehigh fan, analyzing the game, there for sure was a lot to like.
Maybe it's simply that both Lehigh and Colgate seemed so... flawed. There's no other way to describe it. Usually Lehigh and Colgate features one or more nationally-ranked teams, with dreams of I-AA playoffs and maybe even a dream run to the I-AA championship. In recent past, these games were always grudge matches between teams with great execution. But this year it was a batttle between a 4-4 team and a 3-5 team, and it showed. More bad penalties, for one. A really soft drive at the end of the first half that gave Colgate free points - fortunately the defense tightened and the Raiders settled for three, which could have been the difference in the game.
It wasn't just us. Colgate sure seemed far removed from the preseason accolades as well. A blocked extra-point - after we gave them half the distance! - followed by another hitting the upright. Both Saraceno and Relph really struggled at times, which couldn't all be attributed to Lehigh's defense. There were plenty of drops and missed chances.
Though Lehigh won, they didn't look or feel like the world-beating team that smacked Holy Cross last week. Worse, we tried our hardest to give Colgate a way back into the game in the 4th quarter. When we went up by three scores, our defense took a nap and gave up two really soft TDs to make this a game. We also got a huge assist after Colgte somehow got flagged for kick interference - a call that got made Colgate's head coach Dick Biddle apoplectic on the sideliens - that saved our bacon on an onside kick the second week in a row. How our defense and special teams can look like world-beaters in one stanza and then make Colgate look like the Chris-Brown-to-DeWayne-Long era is beyond me.
Three hair-pulling penalties in particular leap to mind as to why Lehigh's execution was off.
1. Colgate 1st-and-goal at the 3 - and we get flagged for 12 men on the field, half the distance to the goal.
2. Colgate lines up for the extra point - and we jump offsides. Half the distance.
3. Lehigh 3rd-and-1, we're trying to get a game-killing drive, we get the 1st down, and we get called for an illegal shift. 3rd-and-6.
We did rebound from all this self-made adversity, as we rebounded from senior WR Frank "Al Del Greco" Trovato's fumble on the punt return early in the first quarter. But you know and I know that even though it was enough to beat Colgate, if we hand Lafayette chances like that, they will murder us.
I don't want to sound so down after beating a historic rival pretty handily. I'm really happy we're in the driver's seat for the title and the I-AA autobid, and for every miscue we had we had that player respond with a big play, which says a lot about the mettle of this team. But I see a team that should have stomped on Colgate's throat midway through the third quarter, if not the first half, if we hadn't killed ourselves in one way or another. It was more like the Georgetown game than the Holy Cross game, and that's saying something.
Maybe that's not a bad thing that we won, but not impressively. Maybe that shows that we need to get even better for Fordham, Lafayette or maybe someone after that. Because we do.
How could that be? We were up by three scores. Our defense smothered Colgate's offense in the first half, for the most part. Senior DT Erik Rakus seemed to be all over the field. Junior QB Sedale Threatt did a great job leading the team on first half TD drives, including 75 rushing yards and 2 TDs. As a Lehigh fan, analyzing the game, there for sure was a lot to like.
Maybe it's simply that both Lehigh and Colgate seemed so... flawed. There's no other way to describe it. Usually Lehigh and Colgate features one or more nationally-ranked teams, with dreams of I-AA playoffs and maybe even a dream run to the I-AA championship. In recent past, these games were always grudge matches between teams with great execution. But this year it was a batttle between a 4-4 team and a 3-5 team, and it showed. More bad penalties, for one. A really soft drive at the end of the first half that gave Colgate free points - fortunately the defense tightened and the Raiders settled for three, which could have been the difference in the game.
It wasn't just us. Colgate sure seemed far removed from the preseason accolades as well. A blocked extra-point - after we gave them half the distance! - followed by another hitting the upright. Both Saraceno and Relph really struggled at times, which couldn't all be attributed to Lehigh's defense. There were plenty of drops and missed chances.
Though Lehigh won, they didn't look or feel like the world-beating team that smacked Holy Cross last week. Worse, we tried our hardest to give Colgate a way back into the game in the 4th quarter. When we went up by three scores, our defense took a nap and gave up two really soft TDs to make this a game. We also got a huge assist after Colgte somehow got flagged for kick interference - a call that got made Colgate's head coach Dick Biddle apoplectic on the sideliens - that saved our bacon on an onside kick the second week in a row. How our defense and special teams can look like world-beaters in one stanza and then make Colgate look like the Chris-Brown-to-DeWayne-Long era is beyond me.
Three hair-pulling penalties in particular leap to mind as to why Lehigh's execution was off.
1. Colgate 1st-and-goal at the 3 - and we get flagged for 12 men on the field, half the distance to the goal.
2. Colgate lines up for the extra point - and we jump offsides. Half the distance.
3. Lehigh 3rd-and-1, we're trying to get a game-killing drive, we get the 1st down, and we get called for an illegal shift. 3rd-and-6.
We did rebound from all this self-made adversity, as we rebounded from senior WR Frank "Al Del Greco" Trovato's fumble on the punt return early in the first quarter. But you know and I know that even though it was enough to beat Colgate, if we hand Lafayette chances like that, they will murder us.
I don't want to sound so down after beating a historic rival pretty handily. I'm really happy we're in the driver's seat for the title and the I-AA autobid, and for every miscue we had we had that player respond with a big play, which says a lot about the mettle of this team. But I see a team that should have stomped on Colgate's throat midway through the third quarter, if not the first half, if we hadn't killed ourselves in one way or another. It was more like the Georgetown game than the Holy Cross game, and that's saying something.
Maybe that's not a bad thing that we won, but not impressively. Maybe that shows that we need to get even better for Fordham, Lafayette or maybe someone after that. Because we do.
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