UCD Post Mortem

[RichH]

A beat down by a much better team.
UCD streaming is pathetic. Surprisingly inept for the Big Sky and UCD.
Radio only. Impressions
OL at least as ineffective as last year. Injuries and reshuffling.
We started out nervous and tight. Mistakes started to cascade as players tried to amp up. That set the tone for our O for most of the game.
Credit UCD DL and LBs. They kept intense pressure on keeping us off balance. Some good plays, some overthrows, a few drops, missed assignments.
Upsides. Yeah there are some
Portorreal,Bibbens stood out.
Henning was outstanding
Hill, Hope and Lucas showed flashes . As did the OL occassionally in the 4th quarter..
D shut down UCD's run game.

One eyewitness report.
He highlighted the OL mess. "No continuity on OLine, guys being shuffled around and missing blocking assignments." He noted concern for QB safety as he was getting repeatedly hit. Other than in the 4th Lehigh O made no other adjustments to combat UCD pressure.
Major issue for D was inability to stop UCD on 3rd and 4th downs. 3 TDs scored on 4th down plays.
I am truly looking forward to a Bye week. As is my wife.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

I listened to part of it on my way back from the Clemson-Cuse game. Lehigh was completely outclassed in all 3 phases from what I could gather. The bye is desperately needed but I'm honestly not confident it's going to make a difference. The team is really not improving and the issues that we knew were issues aren't being addressed. Not even a little bit imo. UC Davis was clearly a really good team but that shouldn't excuse getting thoroughly dominated and never really competing. At some point there has to be true reason for optimism. At this point we're looking for the thinnest of silver linings.

This is the lowest I've ever seen the Lehigh program in my lifetime. They are truly awful right now. It also coincides with the lowest point of PL football in general. It's even worse than those mid 90 years of just complete irrelevancy; post HC scholarship teams before the playoffs. I.E. lose by Idaho and Delaware by 50+ but still be good enough to win the league.

[RichH]

Not quite as sanguine about team. Worst? No not nearly. But a true mess on offense. I go back to the 60s. Those were truly terrible teams. One year we scored 47 pts total in 9 games.
D is actually decent and will do very well for the rest of the year.
Offense?? Dunno. Not optimistic. Until the OL is settled, if ever, O likely will stay a muddle. So far we have shown very little abilty to adapt to these Ds. 3 games basically facing the same types of D sets. High pressure fronts.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Not quite as sanguine about team. Worst? No not nearly. But a true mess on offense. I go back to the 60s. Those were truly terrible teams.
D is actually decent and will do very well for the rest of the year.
Offense?? Dunno. Not optimistic. Until the OL is settled, if ever, O likely will stay a muddle. So far we have shown very little abilty to adapt to these Ds. 3 games basically facing the same types of D sets. High pressure fronts.

I don't go that far back to remember the 60's. Over the last 30 years or so this is as ugly as I remember.

Hopefully they put together a good effort against Merrimack to build some confidence/belief heading into the Colgate game.

[van]

I remember when the quick kick was our most effective play, and I am not sure that this year is really worse the the past two, check back with me in a few weeks on that though

[RichH]

I wonder if we can schedule more Byes. 2 not nearly enough.

[Lehigh74]

Our defense has been pretty stout against the run. UC Davis only averaged 2.8 yards per carry. The problem has been defending the pass. The offense, as you say is a mess. There is clearly talent at the skill positions. We make some nice plays but can't sustain drives. Since this seems to be a rebuilding year, does it make sense to consider playing a quarterback who has more than one year of eligibility? I see that Lafayette is playing a freshman at quarterback.

[RichH]

To be fair, Monaco is eligible for a 5th. That said I wouldnt mind see more of Shoup and Beesmer. Even Somerville. Lets see what we have in the stable. Beesmer clearly the best in Spring and Fall practices. .

[mookie]

Sad how some still mention Lafayette as if they are some sort of measuring stick.

[LU808]

LC 's QB is the real deal....Shoemaker will be haunting us for years.