First Half Holy Cross

[Hawkineer2Participant]

The game, so far, is an embarrassment.
Pelletier is superb, but the play calling and running game are terrible.
Lehigh should be up by two touchdowns but figures ways to throw things away.

[hawkineerParticipant]

After 8-3/4 games, I have drawn one conclusion. While Shafnisky is a tough kid and a decent runner/scrambler, I’m not sure that he is the long term answer at QB. He has no arm strength at all which severely limits the offensive options. He leaves points on the field because he continues to underthrow the deep ball and is not consistently accurate on the intermediate throws. They need a QB who can get the ball down field. In addition, his decision making at times is poor (ie. the wounded duck before half that resulted in another HC TD).

The defensive line seems to be much better in the last two games. The dbacks, not so much.

[RichHParticipant]

Another would,coulda,shoulda game.We seem incapable if playing a full game. LU good,good,bad,good,very bad,very bad,very good,good ,bad etc etc. Describes our season.

[vanParticipant]

Crossers basically took running game away and made Shaf beat em, looks to be a good strategy

[RichHParticipant]

Yeah. Still dont understand calls on Cross 2 ,smh.

[sundayamqbParticipant]

At first I was pissed I could not find an archived version of the game.

Then I accidentally saw something while looking for the archived video on one of the websites. Read the game story and play-by-play. A game like this was very un-Lehigh-like with Cecchini around — penalties, key turnovers, key failures, etc. (Anyone ready for a new OC?)

You dominate the other team in yards and time of possession and come up short?

This combined with the average defense that gives up big plays is a recipe for a long, cold 150. Good news is there should be lots of tickets on StubHub.

Is it worth the time to watch next week’s game? Darn, I’m starting to sound like an LU student.

We were more competitive when we DID NOT pay kids to play.

Sorry to sound so negative’ I know a lot of kids make great efforts today — and Pandy had two FGs. 4 p.m.s were last week, I think.

Will things really get better next year? You have to wonder.

[hawkineerParticipant]

I agree that the Folmar has been less than impressive so far this year. I do believe that Shafnisky’s inability to throw downfield does place limitations on this offense. I hate that LU has turned into some kind of read option team because of the QB’s strengths/weaknesses. The play calling in Q1 on the 1st and goal situation was so predictable. I continue to ask the question, “Where’s Andy?” He seems either unable or unwilling to inject himself into the game day situations. As an ex OC, why does he stand by when he sees Folmar struggling?

Here is my bottom line concern – when Andy had Cecchini, the offense returned to being more of what LU was/is? When Andy had Brown and now Folmar, the offense was anything but Air Lehigh and was/is very predictable. I continue to struggle as to why Andy is not more involved on Saturdays.

[RichHParticipant]

Nick his limitations but he is not the reason we are 2-7. He has completed almost 60% of his passes for over 2000 yds. Made lots of inexperience mistakes ,tho he is getting better. Would be nice if he could throw deep but many of our QBs lacked arm strength. My season long confusion with Folmar continues. Some great designs and calls and some WTF calls,like today. Have no idea whether that is him or circumstances . IMO,we have a perfect storm of inexperience,injuries,a very tough schedule and an almost total changeover in staff. Does not excuse our inconsistent season but part of the reason. Andy’s task was to put it all together. For the above reasons ,he failed. Unlike last yr when the team gave up when things got tough,these guys haven’t. That gives me hope for next year. We have the talent to play with every team on our schedule and almost did. Would be surprised if we win last two games but I am optimistic for next year.

[RichHParticipant]

Oh,one comment on today. Andy highlighted not scoring TD from the 2 . He noted line was banged up. Why then call line smashes over and over again . One of those WTF series of play calls.

[toddcuddParticipant]

Back on subject, I still feel that Sodeke and Yosha are more than capable. The vanilla play calling on the 2 was the problem. I half-jokingly said something about wishbone recently, but honestly, a triple-option might be effective with what we currently do well. I grew up watching Navy football, and our strengths at the moment remind me of their teams.

[RichHParticipant]

LG
Besides being offensive your post was about the dumbest you have ever put up here.You think Pelletier and Kelsey afe slow . You conveniently forget about Knott and Kee.
and Anderson. You must have hated Keith last yr because he is so slow.Gosh,guess you dont like Casey either,also a sub 4.5 guy. But he probably sucks cause he’s a white guy and they are all slow.
Problem today was not lack of speed,it was our own dumb mistakes and some bizarre play calling.

[toddcuddParticipant]

@Sunday, re: this quote:

We were more competitive when we DID NOT pay kids to play.

Been thinking about that. Is the big difference, to us, that we can now give $ to kids whose families have $? If so, that might be a net loss for LU. We have been good, historically, with need-based aid. Might we have lost an edge?

[lfnadminKeymaster]

If there is one thing that aggravates me about this game it’s that we didn’t even try to stretch the field vertically to try to wear out the front seven. It really displayed itself in the goal-line situations, where Lehigh ran into a mass of purple instead or trying to stretch to the outside. HC’s strength is in the interior of their defense – why, in Heck’s name, don’t you go more after the outside guys?

It was only at the end, when it was almost too late, that Lehigh did just that, with Yosha’s outside run to cut it to 27-20. But the game wasn’t lost there, it was lost after a first half where the game, conservatively, should have been 10-10. Instead the blown LU red-zone chances and the incredibly ill-advised throw by Shaf gave HC plenty of opportunity to get that critical second TD.

JMU recently made it to 7-3 with their win over Stony Brook, and if they beat Richmond and Elon they are no-doubt-about-it in the FCS playoffs this season. Lehigh had them on the ropes at home in the first game of the year, but they just couldn’t find the right play to come away with the win. Nine games in, this team still hasn’t learned how to win this type of game. They still make too many critical mistakes.

The offense is like an engine with every third piston firing. At times, there are great surges of power and flashes of strong play. When they’re not firing, it’s a standstill. Good teams don’t do this.

[RichHParticipant]

No todd,most of these schollie guys would not be here. Nick and Evan would be t UNH. Pelletier st UMASS ,Cavenas t Army. Kelsey at one of the Ivies or W &M. We still get the same kds but now we also get ones we would not have gotten without aid.
LFN liked your idea of the option sweep.Anything outside of he Ts would have scored.

[toddcuddParticipant]

Good to hear. The one, biggest positive I see this year – Pelletier will be a star in the PL. Athlete, with great instincts. One of those guys who makes little plays into big plays.

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