Drake at Lehigh

[ngineer]

Lehigh sports website has the transcript of Coen's interview on Wednesday at the weekly luncheon, as well as a new feature with a video of the press conference and interviews with Captains McGowan and Van Ackeran. See www.lehighsports.com then click on 'varsity sports' and then 'football' and then the link to the luncheon.xcoolx

[Herdman]

Drake is bad. Lehigh should win this game by 24 to 28, maybe higher, but I will be extreamly surprised if they let Drake stay with-in 21 points.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Was suppose to go to the game but after waking up and seeing the radar i decided not to watch the impending disaster at Goodman. This is my first missed home game in about 10 years.

[PantherRob82]

Would like to see Drake compete, but not counting on it.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Would like to see Drake compete, but not counting on it.

They're expecting 7 inches of rain in the Lehigh Valley today so anything is possible in this game.

[Franks Tanks]

Watching the game on TV. Lehigh is stuffing the ball right down Drake's throat. The talent gap is pretty evident thus far.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Watching the game on TV. Lehigh is stuffing the ball right down Drake's throat. The talent gap is pretty evident thus far.

Lehigh looks pretty good. I wish Coen would let Clark throw a little more though.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Weather getting worse and the play is getting sloppy. It's a good thing Lehigh jumped out to a quick lead because it might get ugly from here on out.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Lehigh beat up on the Bulldogs for the most part in the first half. Lehigh has won the battle in the trenches on both side of the ball and that's pretty much the difference. McGowen has run hard and Clark has played well but the offense still seems to lack consistency. The defense does look good as advertised although Paul Bode is out for the rest of the game.

[LehighFan11]

I just got back from the game. The conditions are getting terrible. I don't think anyone will score unless it is a blocked punt/saftey those type of scores.

[LehighFan11]

Drake muffs snap on punt, Lehigh has ball at Drake's 20 yd line.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Yahoo video has crapped the bed during the punt. Hopefully they can put it in the endzone.

[LehighFan11]

FG. 16-0. Lehigh got it down to the 2 yard line but Drake held them.

[LehighFan11]

Lehigh did a great job on running the ball and the clock in the 3rd Q. 16-0 at the end of the 3rd.

[LehighFan11]

Drake QB Ingle just suffered leg injury...might be serious

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Did Lehigh score on that previous drive? For some reason i can't get the video to load consistently.

[LehighFan11]

I think they kicked a fg on the last drive. Its 19-0 now with 9 mins to go. Lehigh's ball at own 25. I'm not sure if Lehigh has attempted a pass in the 2nd half.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Lehigh pretty much dominates Drake in a 19-0 win. Had the conditions not been so bad in the second half they score would have been a lot worse. Lehigh's defense was as good as advertised, the front 7 in very outstanding. Drake had 7 yards rushing and a 125 yards total. Lehigh was solid on offense. The did most of their damage early in the game. In fact the Hawks did not attempt a pass in the second half. Clark was 9-12 with 2 TD's, McGowen had a big day as did the OL. Based on 1 game Lehigh does seem improved over last year but there's still some consistency concerns. The one thing i noticed is the increase of size and speed on both sides of the ball.

[LehighFan11]

McGowan had 39 carries for 173. I love to see that, big part of Lehigh's struggles was the absence of McGowan.

[Franks Tanks]

Lehigh pretty much dominates Drake in a 19-0 win. Had the conditions not been so bad in the second half they score would have been a lot worse. Lehigh's defense was as good as advertised, the front 7 in very outstanding. Drake had 7 yards rushing and a 125 yards total. Lehigh was solid on offense. The did most of their damage early in the game. In fact the Hawks did not attempt a pass in the second half. Clark was 9-12 with 2 TD's, McGowen had a big day as did the OL. Based on 1 game Lehigh does seem improved over last year but there's still some consistency concerns. The one thing i noticed is the increase of size and speed on both sides of the ball.

Now Lehigh played a good game but I dont think you can draw the conclusions you have from this game. Drake is not a good football team and its way too early to determine how improved the team is.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Now Lehigh played a good game but I dont think you can draw the conclusions you have from this game. Drake is not a good football team and its way too early to determine how improved the team is.

The have 2 potential first team All-Americans there. The LB group is perhaps the best in school history. They're suppose to be very good and based on the first game lived up to the billing.

[LUHawker]

Now Lehigh played a good game but I dont think you can draw the conclusions you have from this game. Drake is not a good football team and its way too early to determine how improved the team is.

The defense pitched a shutout and the offense put up a few points and controlled the game in terrible conditions. One game does not answer all of the questions, but it starts to. I'll take 1-0 versus the 0-1 starts the past two seasons and look to build from there.

[LehighFan11]

Lehigh still has alot of questions and I think some will be answered in a way we won't like next week. I'm glad Lehigh got off to a 1-0 start so it isn't 0-2 again.

[The Historian]

The LB group is perhaps the best in school history.

The 1999 team had Eason, Appling and Young. They had a total of 9 All PL awards.

The current group is the best in some time, but not in that class.

[Go...gate]

Nice work, Engineers! :)

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Lehigh still has alot of questions and I think some will be answered in a way we won't like next week. I'm glad Lehigh got off to a 1-0 start so it isn't 0-2 again.

I'm not expecting a "W" next week but i'm expecting a team that is capable of competing with Villanova right now. The OL and DL play i thought was very good which is the foundation you want to build off of. I believe Lehigh has the defense to keep 'Nova in the 20-27 point range but i still have my doubts if the offense is capable of producing on a consistent basis against a team like 'Nova.

[LehighFan11]

I'm not expecting a "W" next week but i'm expecting a team that is capable of competing with Villanova right now. The OL and DL play i thought was very good which is the foundation you want to build off of. I believe Lehigh has the defense to keep 'Nova in the 20-27 point range but i still have my doubts if the offense is capable of producing on a consistent basis against a team like 'Nova.

Well, only thing is our corners didn't get tested. I'm not sure what Nova's wr corps looks like but Young sure can throw the ball.

[ngineer]

Well, I was there for the ENTIRE GAME as opposed to some others.;) The conditions were so bad in the second half that it was difficult to really get a measure of things, other than the fact that McGowan is one hell of hard runner when he is healthy. That is tough running in that slop. Clark has a very nice touch besides having a very good arm. That 85 yard TD pass to Yansane was pretty. Leo continued his great punting from last year as well.
Only downside is that Bode didn't play after getting hurt halfway through second quarter--looks like a shoulder. And Jaren Walker appeared to have hurt an ankle pretty bad. We're going to need depth next week at Villanova. Could be a hot day on an artificial field.
A lot of Sophomores out there today playing very well. While Drake certainly is not as good as us, they played hard throughout and were still trying to points on the board at the end. They suffered to tough injuries as well...both leg injuries to #77 big OL and their QB who went down in the fourth quarter. The sub, though looked like he has a nice arm.
Was good to see soph. CB Cribbs get a pick. Our young corners need some confidence.
Finally, the new natural turf field held up well. There were few large divots to be seen. and while you could see water splashing around the players' feet in the fourth quarter, the footing was so much better than in the Albany game two years ago.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Writeup from the game:

http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.com/2008/09/lehigh-19-drake-0-final.html

The upshot is: Hard to see what we "learned" from the game because of the deteriorating weather conditions. These were two very defensive physical teams out there, though. I think Drake will do some good things when they hit their PFL schedule.