LFN Preview of Lehigh vs. Cornell

[Lehigh Football Nation]

http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.com/2008/10/preview-of-cornell-vs-lehigh.html

Lehigh needs to win this game. Don't I say this every week?

[ngineer]

Very much agreed. The game has no meaning from a 'standings' point of view, but I see it critical to balance of the season. A win if seriously needed to jump start the rest of the season and with Fordham on deck. Coen has to come out and take the restraints off Clark and let him fire away. His decision to take a knee before the half last week with 30 seconds and 2 timeouts said he didn't have confidence in the offense. He needs to reverse that and let them play and have fun.

[ngineer]

What the hell is up with the weather??!!. Forecast was 'sunny, high in upper 60's'...I'm leaving in 20 minutes for Goodman and it's cool and raining.. Big crowd was expected today with the weather and Alumni Weekend festivities. Hopefully this is a 'passing thing' inasmuch as I want to see some 'passing things' this afternoon. Lehigh has to open it up and be more aggressive against a very tough Big Red defense that held Yale's All-American RB McCloud to 55 yards last week. Two of Lehigh's last three touchdowns in two games were set up by the defense. Everyone knew going in the defense of Lehigh was going to have to carry the load in the beginning. Well, it's now October and time for the training wheels to come off the offensive bicycle. Will check in this evening with my observations of, hopefully, a good and unexpected (by many) Lehigh win.;)

[Lehigh Football Nation]

I'm heading up too. I wasn't originally going to go up but my plans changed and I'm available to go.

Hope Lehigh wins, or else this is going to be a very, very long year. Oh yeah, I'd like more than 21 points in the game too.

[ngineer]

What a kick in the gut. Cornell scores a touchdown on a 20 yard pass with no time left on the clock to win 25-24. Second week in a row Lehigh loses on the last play of the game.
Yes, there were a lot of positives with QB J.B. Clark showing improvement and some beautiful downfield passes. Yes, he threw into coverage at times, but definitely better than last week. Cribb's punt return was stellar and Zurn's downfield block to spring him the final 30 yards was a thing of beauty. Defense played well, but was tired at the end--on the field for 84 plays. Not enough blitzing by coaches. Cornell's QB too good to let him sit back there.
While there was some more aggressive play callng, coaching was too predictable with the same or similar screen passes in the flats being called rather than verticle plays. Neither team had a running game, which was due to the defenses.
Some very questionable calls that aided the Big Red late in the game. A phantom pass interference call on Diamond and a 'horsecollar' call wherein the LU player grabbed the CU RB by the jersey--hand between the numbers and pulled him backward....no where near the collar.
However, Lehigh left 11 points on the table. Yansane dropped a pass in the endzone leaving LU to kick a FG. McGowan fumbled at the CU 10 yard line. Leo missed an extra point.
Talent wise, the differences between Lehigh and Cornell and Princeton are as close as the scores have been. Someone has to win/lose. Lehigh has not learned to win, yet. Next week will be absolutely huge in telling what kind of team we have to come back from two last second losses. They have to refocus that in the PL they are undefeated and keep improving, and the season is not lost. If they let these two weeks bother them, the season could turn ugly. Coaches have a big job this week.

[bison137]

Unfortunately that's two weeks in a row that the Big Red won one point games over the PL, having beaten BU the week before 21-20 on a missed extra point.

[bulldog10jw]

Unfortunately that's two weeks in a row that the Big Red won one point games over the PL, having beaten BU the week before 21-20 on a missed extra point.

Not exactly. They had a win over Yale in between the PL games.