Lehigh 0, Yale 7, Final

I'm sitting here in front of my laptop, struggling to think of what to say.

All I can really say is that anyone who sat through this game, online or - Heaven forbid - in person, deserves a medal.

There is such a thing as a defensive struggle. And Lehigh's defense certainly battled bravely. But every time Lehigh's defense set the table, the offense and special teams could not score a single friggin' point.

That's something that hasn't happened against a Lehigh team since 1986. And Lehigh, before this afternoon, had only been shut out twice since moving from from Division II in 1979, both times by Navy. That means that Lehigh, for the first time ever, was shut out by an FCS team as an FCS team.

You could glorify a Lehigh defense that didn't quit - a defense that kept trying to set the table to score anything. But the offense was pure pain to watch failing again and again - and even field goal tries gave this reporter a sinking feeling that they wouldn't put points on the board.

You could try to pump up Yale as a latter-day Walter Camp-coached team, but they were nowhere near that level. Their ineptitude on offense equalled Lehigh's, as it was a fake punt that Yale senior LB Paul Rice took into the end zone in the only well-executed play for positive yardage all afternoon.

You could try to make excuses - that it was wet, or windy, or that Lehigh had a lot of injuries. But any excuses like that are pathetic. There is no justification for the hideous performance on offense this afternoon.

How hideous? Let me count the ways.

0 for 13 third down conversions.

197 yards of offense.

4 turnovers.

9 first downs.

0 for 2 in the red zone.

Special teams were hideous, too. An opening kickoff return to the 50 yard line. 11 punts, for a whopping 30.1 average net. Three times Lehigh had a chance to down the ball inside the 10, only to see the ball bounce in the end zone to bring it back to the 20. Two missed field goals - there's that 0 for 2 red zone conversion rate.

With a chance to tie the game in the last two minutes - Lehigh took a rare completion (Lehigh quarterbacks only had eight completions on the afternoon) and tried a hook-and-ladder play. It spectacularly misfired, as the ball flew in the air into the hands of Yale junior LB Sean Williams to end the game.

On a week where Lafayette had a historic 35-18 victory against Harvard, Lehigh failed to score a single point against Yale. If that doesn't sum up the state of the program right now, I don't know what does.