Lehigh Football Nation

Yale is a good team. They did things against this Lehigh defense that nobody has been able to do for a long time. But horrible execution in the overtime period by the offense doomed our chances before Yale's offense even took the field. What sticks in my mind is: We had 1st-and-goal at the 7. And came away with nothing. And it's not like Yale did a fantastic job on defense. We gave all three downs away on preventable mistakes. This failure on offense was not the product of one player. It was a team failure on three straight plays, starting with the "O" line. Making these types of mistakes in early part the game would have been bad enough. Making them in the ultimate crunch time is completely inexcusable. Lehigh is not a good team right now. Period. We are sitting at 2-4 and unable to make the big plays to win football games. I'm tired of getting close yet again to beating somebody, but falling short. This team has to find a way to win these games. The old saw is ...

1st and goal from the 6. Run left to McGowan, missed assignment, loss of 2. 2nd down - one-hopped to Thompson. 3rd down - Threatt runs into his own man, while two WRs are wide open in the end zone. 4th down - missed FG from the right hash. Yale, of course, is now 2nd-and-goal from the 5.

Lehigh wins the toss, and elects to go on offense. Interesting call.

NO GOOD! SHANKED LEFT!

Yale lining up for a 37 yard FG.....

2-and-9 Yale at the Lehigh 45. Yale has 1 TO left.

Yale 4th-and-2, and they... Punt? They do pin us deep. Let's go Lehigh! We can do this!

YEAH!!!! TD and 2-pt conversion good to Landon Maggs! Coen just seemed to go to Threatt and say, "Just think back to the schoolyard." Then Threatt again made it look easy on a great drive! Lehigh has momentum. Now, a big stop here....

When was the last time Lehigh had a back gain 100 yards against them? Well McLeod has over 150 yards, and a big 30 (or so) yard reception against us. That tells you that our "D" simply hasn't been effective enough stopping the run. Yet, the "D" has to be given credit. They have toughed up enough at the goalline. A huge fumble by Fay at Yale's 40, however, could be the difference in this game so far. It's our ball at the opening of the 4th quarter. It's time for the playmakers to step forward again.

Yale drives downfield quickly on the first play of the second half, and Lehigh takes all of 3 plays to respond with a TD. McGowan forges over tackle to get the points. On the 2-point conversion, Threatt gets sacked and didn't convert, but coach Coen ripped the officials for not calling a defensive holding call in the end zone by Yale. I 100% agree with the 2-point conversion call there. Shaping up to be interesting.

Not the most inspiring half of football, unless you're a defensive guy. Defense has singlehandedly kept us in this game. Yale has kept Sedale's chances to a minimum and have been effective in the red zone against us. But if we win this game, the team will be pointing to that fumble recovery at the Lehigh 2 yard line as a huge play. Red zone chances have been the story of this game so far. Yale is 2-for-3, while Lehigh is 2-for-2, but Yale has the only TD so far. McLeod has been killing us, though, and on the "D" line we have not been winning the battle at the line of scrimmage. Some individuals are making plays, but also quite often missed tackles and not enough LB speed has allowed McLeod to get nearly 100 yards so far, even before halftime. If we win, it will be because we firm up that battle in the trench against the Yale "O" line and get some consistent play on offense. It seems to be shaping up for an exciting second half. GO LEHIGH!!!!!

HUGE fumble recovery at the Lehigh 2, peventing a near-certain score. Lehigh back on offense. Even if we don't convert, that was a huge stop.

The rollercoaster ride continues. Yale's QB Polhemus fools the defense and gets in on the first drive of the second quarter on a nice bootleg play. Then a Lehigh drive stalls at midfield - and a Yale blocker, uncovered, blocks the kick and Yale recovers at the Lehigh 10. Then, the Lehigh defense did a good job stopping the Elis. Good pressure on Polhemus on all three downs by Mohler and Fabre, though Yale's WR Hendley came awful close on 3rd down to getting a TD. Way too early to condemn or praise. Still waiting-and-seeing.

Yale has been driving against our "bend but don't break" defense, but a 30ish yard FG was blocked by senior LB Matt Mohler in a huge play. From there, Threatt and the offense had a nice sustained drive that ended in a 19 yard FG (off the right hash) that is all the scoring so far on the day. Yale is threatening at the end of the 1st, at around the Lehigh 20.

Just saw the show. As predicted, Lehigh/Lafayette was #9. Aside from the fact that Lehigh/Lafayette is obviously #1, it was a fine job by ESPN with lots of great shots of Murray Goodman and even a shot of old Taylor Field. (For you youngsters, Taylor Field was where the new business building is now.) Great shots of the "Klingerman catch" to be seen, and other great moments in the rivalry! It's all too brief, but it does a good job of showing both schools and even has coach Coen on there talking about the '95 game (he was offensive coordinator at the time). Overall, ESPN did good. They're "off notice" now. Now, on to Yale!

I think you all knew that I was getting sick of that water cooler graphic that looked like it came from a diversity training film, so instead I got a guy who looks like Richard Nixon. I don't think this is that much better, but hey, any ad that looks like it has Joan Crawford and Richard Nixon in it has to have some sort of camp value, don't you think? Important Announcement If you get nothing else out of this "Water Cooler", please get this TiVo Alert: know that tonight at 7:30 EDT on ESPN2 there will be a special show on "ESPNU Honor Roll: College Football's Top 10 Rivalries", and Lehigh/Lafayette is featured. I'll probably add my 2c on this special tonight as well after it airs - whether I love it or hate it. Where Have You Gone, Barry Switzer? You all know the Ivies have been flattening the Patriot League this year - collectively, Ivy teams have so far gone 11-3 against us. You also know that Harvard, the best team in the Ivy, has gone through...

Last year, I wrote that the Yale game took on new importance. Since we had lost to Holy Cross the week before, a bounceback game was necessary to get any momentum going into league play. This year, although we're entering the Yale game off a 28-3 win over Georgetown, it's equally as important to keep the winning ways going another week for the same reason. I think for this team specifically, getting on a roll and maybe, hopefully, getting another solid win under our belts, would be a great confidence and psychological boost going into the games that will determine the league champion. We have been bloodied by the Ivy League this year, going 0-2 versus undefeated Harvard and Princeton. The rest of the Patriot League has done no better against them either, going an insane 3-11 against them overall. Winning against one of the real contenders in the Ivy League title chase would not only reassert our league a little bit against the Ivies - it would put ourselves just one little tiny...

It took me a while to hunt down this photo of this past weekend's Lehigh/Georgetown game, but I think we can all agree this is a beauty. This was the catch by senior WR/PR Frank Trovato that put us ahead 14-3 at halftime. There will be more to come, inlcuding my game balls and the press roundup for the Lehigh/Georgetown game, but first, it's a TiVo alert for this Friday, October 13th. The Lehigh/Lafayette Rivalry will be featured on ESPNU's Honor Roll , a show where the Top 10 college football rivalries of all-time will be counted down from #10 to #1. Since I was not consulted nor did I contribute material for this show, I have to assume that Lehigh/Lafayette will be featured at #10 or #9 rather than at #1, #1a, and #1b. (Note to self: must increase ESPN lobbying efforts - perhaps going to the ESPN SportsZone bar & grill might count?) As of right now, as far as I'm concerned ESPN is still "on notice" for last year featuring an online poll ranking college ...

So here I am, trying to come up with a word on this week in Lehigh football, and I stumble upon David Brooks' NY Times editorial about the Mets . It was pretty serendipitous, as I could care less about the Mets and the World Series in general (well, now that my beloved Red Sox stunk up the joint in August and September, and the Yankees were happily humiliated against the Tigers). But Mr. Brooks did have a quote from Arisotle that I thought was worth repeating. "As Aristotle says, the more one is possessed of excellence, the more one will be pained at the thought of elimination." After reading this, I realized that I had found the sentence that perfectly describes the angst of the Lehigh fan not just this year, but for all time. We, as Lehigh fans, know we have good, talented teams. But the pain of losses, the potential of losing the Patriot League title again this year, despite our obvious talent, is real. Aristotle, man. He put all of our angst into one easy-to-remember ...