LEHIGH 45 FORDHAM 24

[ngineer]

Just got back from Goodman, and what a game. Lehigh's offense was smokin' and the young QB found his mojo. Andy Coen football, hopefully, has arrived. The playbook was thrown wide open: halfback options on 4th and 1, fleaflickers for 50 yard plays, reverses and some nice verticle passing along with McGowan's hard running between the tackles. Very balanced, and once Lehigh grabbed the lead, we began pounding the ball.
Still a lot of mistakes: too many penalties, missed extra point, and fumbles, but overall a game that, hopefully makes a statement that the Mountain Hawks are not to be overlooked in the PL this year!!

[Go...gate]

Congrats to the Engineers on a nice win over a good Ram club.

[Ivytalk]

Congrats to the Hawks. Should be a good one in Cambridge next week.

[carney2]

Do we have a Lehigh turnaround or a Fordham meltdown? I'm hoping for the former, but let's see how things play out before we get too excited either way.

[crusader11]

Fordham, who was picked in the preseason to be the PL champ, has all but been eliminated from winning the PL championship.

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

Good win for the Hawks but i wouldn't go too crazy celebrating it. Fordham is an ok team, nothing special. They'll struggle to get to 6 wins IMO. With that said Lehigh's execution was the best i've seen since HC in
'06. They came out very prepared and fired up after a tough loss last week. For the first time in a couple years they rose to the occasion and seized the moment putting away the Rams. Clark will be the real deal, he's going to a staple in this league if he can keep improving. The O line has gotten a lot better which has had a huge impact on the team. Last week they picked it up and today they kept Fordham off of Clark almost all day. I like Lehigh's WR's, Yansane had a clutch catch today and Fitzergerld seems to be a solid guy over the middle. The defense, especially the secondary remains a huge concern. They seem likely to get lit up the next couple weeks if they tighten it up bigtime. The DL was great agaisnt the run and finally got some good pressure on the QB. They need to keep that going during the MA bus tour. Also Leo has to get better at hitting XP. There is no reason he should be struggling to make XP's. His miss last week basically got them and it could have gotten them today. He's a great punter but a below averaga FG kicker. At the end of the day a 3-5 start seems still probable. Between Harvard and HC i'd think HC looks more "beatable" because of their poor defense and Lehigh should have some serious revenge in mind for that one.

[ngineer]

No, I'm not going crazy, but one can definitely see an improvement in this team from week to week. The DC finally started dialing up some blitzes in the second half that paid dividends. Harvard is going to be a real challenge up there and I agree on the secondary needing to 'tighten up' (Archie Bell and Drells where are you?!). What was really good to see was the team coming back after two very tough losses, both at the last second, against a team that, itself, had it's back to the wall knowing a loss likely eliminated them from repeating as champs.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.com/2008/10/lehigh-45-fordham-24-final.html

This was - no question - a HUGE win, and one that Lehigh had to have. Had Coen lost his third straight, Lehigh fans would have been openly wondering who his successor will be and how soon they'd be seeing Chris Lum. Now, Lehigh can think about Patriot League wins week to week - and maybe..?

Think about this: Lehigh just put up 45 points against last year's PL champs. Not Georgetown, not 2006 Fordham - the defending PL champs. And most of that same Ram cast was back this year - the same QB, the same receivers, most of the same defense.

This was a huge win. HUGE.

[The Historian]

http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.com/2008/10/lehigh-45-fordham-24-final.html

This was - no question - a HUGE win, and one that Lehigh had to have. Had Coen lost his third straight, Lehigh fans would have been openly wondering who his successor will be and how soon they'd be seeing Chris Lum. Now, Lehigh can think about Patriot League wins week to week - and maybe..?

Think about this: Lehigh just put up 45 points against last year's PL champs. Not Georgetown, not 2006 Fordham - the defending PL champs. And most of that same Ram cast was back this year - the same QB, the same receivers, most of the same defense.

This was a huge win. HUGE.

It would have been Lehigh's fourth loss in a row -- the first time that would have happened since 1992!

The biggest change was the offensive play calling, which dispalyed the attitude of playing to win, not playing to not lose.

[ngineer]

It would have been Lehigh's fourth loss in a row -- the first time that would have happened since 1992!

The biggest change was the offensive play calling, which dispalyed the attitude of playing to win, not playing to not lose.


Agreed. Some very aggressive calls that were missing at Princeton, especially, and Cornell. Hopefully, Leo can get his mind focused. Missing these extra points is inexcusable at this level.

[dawwggboy]

Lehigh played, even with the mistakes, hardnose football. The were able to put pressure on the qb. Three sacks by Benning alone. Look out Harvard.