Skip to main content

2018 Week 2 Lehigh Players of the Week And Report Card: Villanova

It's a lot less fun to go through the "Players of the Week" and report card after a loss, but it's still got to be done. 

Last week's somewhat humbling 31-9 defeat comes at a point of the season where it's more of a learning experience than a death blow to the season, and also came against one of the very best teams in all of FCS.

It wouldn't surprise me to see Villanova win the CAA this season.

In any event, here we go.

OFFENSE
QUARTERBACK: C-
In the run-up to the game, I thought one of the keys to the game was for QB Brad Mayes and RB Dom Bragalone to form a good run/pass balance to move the Lehigh offense.  Progress was uneven at first, though during the very first drive leading to Lehigh's first score it was working pretty well.  When Bragalone was lost for the game, Mayes and the offense had to shift strategies against one of the best defenses in the nation, becoming almost exclusively a passing team.  Though a challenging task, Mayes wasn't successful in breaking the logjam until late in the game.

RUNNING BACK: C-
It was tempting to put "Incomplete" here, but injuries are part of the game, and when Bragalone went down with injury, Lehigh hardly ran the ball with RB Rashawn Allen and RB Evan Chadbourn.  No rush went longer than 9 yards and as a team Lehigh only averaged 1.3 yards per carry.

WIDE RECEIVERS: C
As a unit, the receiving corps didn't show the consistency that was necessary to pull off the upset.  There were a few bright spots, notably WR Dev Bibbens' late TD catch, but it wasn't nearly enough.

OFFENSIVE LINE: C-
Early in the game the young offensive line did some good things against Villanova's tough front six, but as the need shifted to pass block each down it seemed like the offensive line wore down somewhat, keeping Mayes unstable in the pocket too often.

OVERALL OFFENSE: C-
The game clearly changed drastically once Bragalone left the game, and as mentioned a bunch of times, Villanova's defense looks like it may prove to be one of the best at the FCS level.  Still, it was disconcerting to see so many 3-and-outs from a Lehigh offense.


DEFENSE:
FRONT SIX: B
The strength of Lehigh on Saturday came from the entire defense, but it was especially heartening to see the Mountain Hawk front six stop Villanova so effectively on 3rd down and get the Wildcats stuck for so many tackles for loss.  Led by senior LB Mark Walker's 11 tackles and 3 tackles for loss, the front six created some good momentum at times for the entire team - though it wasn't always the case, when QB Zach Bendarczyk got that extra second to zip a big play pass in there or a run by one of Villanova running-backs-by-committee.  In any case, for the second straight game I liked what I saw.

DEFENSIVE BACKS: C+
Not all the great play came from the front six.  Senior S Sam McCloskey also had a whale of a game, with 8 tackles, 7 of them solo, and 3 passes defensed that all elicited cheers from the crowd.  Though burned for a couple of big plays, most of the time the secondary were delivering some big hits and working really well with the front six, especially when it came on 3rd down.  I see signs of this unit becoming a really good unit - but they're not there yet.

OVERALL DEFENSE: C+
In the end you have to see "31" on the scoreboard for Villanova and say that it wasn't a total success on Saturday defensively.  But I can see this unit continue to grow, and it will be exciting to see how they stack up when they play Navy.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B
Special teams was truly difficult to assess this week.  On the one hand, the kicking game of PK Ed Mish was outstanding, with 10 punts averaging over 43 yards per kick and adding a FG to start the game.  There were also two missed FG by Villanova, at least one I believe that was partially blocked.  However a killer play on a Villanova punt, where the ball hit a defender and was recovered by the Wildcats, was a huge momentum drain and the type of mistake that you can't make versus a Top 10 team.  The Wildcats also got plenty of yards on returns.

LFN Players of the Week:

Offense: WR Dev Bibbens (5 catches, 73 yards, 1 TD)
Defense: LB Mark Walker (11 tackles, 9 solo, 3 TFL including 1 sack)
Special Teams: PK Ed Mish (10 punts, 43,3 average, 21 yard FG)
Underclassman: LB Erik Slater (4 tackles, 1 1/2 TFL)

Comments

Unknown said…

get a latest world wide sports news,such as tennis or basketball or football and cricket many people play latest cricket news with their friends.

Popular posts from this blog

How The Ivy League Is Able To Break the NCAA's Scholarship Limits and Still Consider Themselves FCS

By now you've seen the results.  In 2018, the Ivy League has taken the FCS by storm. Perhaps it was Penn's 30-10 defeat of Lehigh a couple of weeks ago .  Or maybe it was Princeton's 50-9 drubbing of another team that made the FCS Playoffs last year, Monmouth.  Or maybe it was Yale's shockingly dominant 35-14 win over nationally-ranked Maine last weekend. The Ivy League has gone an astounding 12-4 so far in out-of-conference play, many of those wins coming against the Patriot League. But it's not just against the Patriot League where the Ivy League has excelled.  Every Ivy League school has at least one out-of-conference victory, which is remarkable since it is only three games into their football season.  The four losses - Rhode Island over Harvard, Holy Cross over Yale, Delaware over Cornell, and Cal Poly over Brown - were either close losses that could have gone either way or expected blowouts of teams picked to be at the bottom of the Ivy League. W

Made-Up Midseason Grades for Lehigh Football

 We are now officially midway through the 2023 Lehigh football season.  The Mountain Hawks sit at 1-5 overall, and 0-1 in the Patriot League. I thought I'd go ahead and make up some midseason grades, and set some "fan goals" for the second half. The 2023 Mountain Hawks were picked to finish fifth in the seven team Patriot League.  In order to meet or exceed that expectation, they'll probably have to go at least 3-2 the rest of the way in conference play.  Their remaining games are vs. Georgetown, at Bucknell, vs. Holy Cross, at Colgate, and vs. Lafayette in The Rivalry. Can they do it? Culture Changing: B+ .  I was there in the Bronx last week after the tough 38-35 defeat to Fordham, and there wasn't a single player emerging from the locker room that looked like they didn't care.  Every face was glum.  They didn't even seem sad.  More frustrated and angry. That may seem normal, considering the agonizing way the Mountain Hawks lost, but it was a marked chan

Fifteen Guys Who Might be Lehigh's Next Football Coach (and Five More)

If you've been following my Twitter account, you might have caught some "possibilities" as Lehigh's next head football coach like Lou Holtz, Brett Favre and Bo Pelini .  The chance that any of those three guys actually are offered and accept the Lehigh head coaching position are somewhere between zero and zero.  (The full list of my Twitter "possibilities" are all on this thread on the Lehigh Sports Forum .) However the actual Lehigh head football coaching search is well underway, with real names and real possibilities. I've come up with a list of fifteen possible names, some which I've heard whispered as candidates, others which might be good fits at Lehigh for a variety of reasons. UPDATE: I have found five more names of possible head coaches that I am adding to this list below. Who are the twenty people?  Here they are, in alphabetical order.