Reply To: Penn

[Go Lehigh TU OwlParticipant]

I was also at the game.

I thought the DL played well until the secondary broke their spirit midway through the 2nd quarter. That one drive where JMU completed two or three 3rd and 14’s was when the writing started on the wall. I thought the DC had the defense pretty well prepared. The defenders where in place to make tackles on those stretch runs and flare passes. They just failed miserably to tackle. JMU was going to get 35-40 points even with a better defensive effort.

CAA teams UNH scored 48 and Towson 38 in 2011 on a Dave K defense. Even his D’s gave up points to the better CAA teams. What was frustrating about Saturday is Lehigh failed to make rather routine plays/tackles that would have limited JMU’s point total by 2 or 3 scores. The tackling was simply awful. I can’t even emphasize how bad it was. #7 in the secondary was the one guy who I thought played with smarts and a bit of nastiness. He was attacking the blockers and made some solid plays.

The offense would move the ball but the lack of big plays ultimately bogs down the drive. The closer they got to the end zone the more difficult it is for this type of offense to operate. The OL did not do Shaf any favors but Shaf himself did not help his cause. He does not sit in the pocket and survey the field. He wasn’t able to outrun JMU’s defenders like he did against CCSU.

Until Lehigh is able to generate some big plays down the field points are going to be difficult to come by. The early drop by TP across the middle hurt. As did the wr who danced around on a 3rd down and missed the first by a yard. Those are two plays on offense that need to be made in a game like that.