Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credit: Eric Schumacher ) It was billed as the Patriot League Championship game - a winner-take-all game between the two best teams in the Patriot League in 2011. In the end, though, the game ended up looking a lot like the last eleven times the Hoyas lined up against the Mountain Hawks. Lehigh's offense racked up over 500 yards of offense and held onto to ball nearly 38 minutes as they took home their second consecutive Patriot League championship with a fairly convincing 34-12 victory.

It's the Patriot League Championship game, it's being played in Bethlehem on a spotless November Day, and it's bound to be a great game. Below the flip, see Georgetown broken down, as well as my "Keys to the Game" - and, of course, the "Fearless Prediction".

(Photo Credit: Rick Sinclair/Associated Press via the Washington Post) Head coach Andy Coen tried to say it, in a preseason article in the Morning Call. (subscription required) . I tried to say it, in a preseason piece on the Hoyas called: " Know your 2011 Opponents ". Even the casual blogger Casual Hoya said it, too, with a refreshingly ill-researched homer piece about how the Hoyas were going to compete this year for the BCS National Championship. The consensus was: Watch out for Georgetown. Now, in Week Eleven of the college football season, the first winning record for the Hoyas since Georgetown joined the Patriot League isn't simply a feel-good story about a team that's spent more than a decade losing a lot of football games.  It's a story about a Patriot League Championship game, taking place in Bethlehem, for sole possession of the title and autobid. And for the Hoyas, potential payback for last year.

(Photo respectfully taken from CrossingBroad and @jon_wertheim) To say Joe Paterno was a college football legend - the word "legend" just doesn't seem legendary enough to describe the man who had coached at Penn State for 46 years in Happy Valley. I have been to Happy Valley to see "big-time" college football at Beaver stadium. I have seen up close the near cult-like behavior Penn Staters had for the guy they called JoePa - a personality cult that seemed goofy and a little harmless. But I don't think it's goofy or harmless anymore. The resignation of a leading Penn State fundraiser, the athletic director, and even the president of Penn State evoked sadness, outrage, and a call for justice.  But when the Penn State board of trustees fired the coach that had been given God-like powers, it set forces in motion that are as frightening as they are sickening.

(Photo Credit: Stephen Flood/The Express-Times) Picture-perfect weather.  An announced crowd of over 9,000 fans - and almost certainly more than 10,000 fans in the seats (if you count students, who get free admission). Most importantly, though, a gutty win for the guys in Brown and White. And a win that folks are still talking about in the Lehigh Valley - setting up a winner-take-all showdown next weekend against Georgetown for the Patriot League championship and autobid.  (Yes.  Georgetown!) A bunch of different articles highlight the win - and start to set up next week's game, too.

Below the flip, see my Top 25 for this week.

Last year, I used the word" "Fun" to describe a particular Lehigh victory , and in that "Sunday Word" I ended up recalling the Fun Bunch, the Washington Redskins' offensive players ( WR Virgil Seay , WR Charlie Brown and WR Alvin Garrett , along with TE Rick Walker and TE Don Warren ), that had their own unique celebrations after  touchdowns. It's funny that this year, I'm going to refer to a favorite quotation from their coach at the time, the legendary Joe Gibbs .  (Even though I'm not a Redskin fan.) Rich Tandler , author of the book " Gut Check ", says that "gut check was a favorite phrase of Gibbs’, as in 'it was a real gut check out there,' in referring to a particularly challenging game situation." After watching Lehigh battle Holy Cross last weekend, I knew almost instantly that I was going to go with "gut check" as a "Sunday Word". For if there was ever a "gut-check" ...