Photo courtesy Lafayette College
Some thoughts following Lafayette's
24-23 win over Georgetown
Saturday:
1. Opportunities
Lost: If you're new to Georgetown
football, the next two analogies may be irrelevant, so apologies in advance.
The first quarter of Saturday's game harkened back to 1997, a
game against Duquesne that may have been one of the greatest Georgetown home games of its era. In that
game, the Hoyas opened the first quarter with a blocked punt for a touchdown,
forced eight turnovers, and won the school's only recognized conference title
in a 24-0 shutout of three time MAAC champion Duquesne. It was one of two seminal games (the other
being a convincing 1999 win at Holy Cross) that really got Georgetown thinking
it could aspire to be something more than the MAAC, already taking on water by
that time.
Fast forward to Saturday, where Georgetown pulled out all the stops--score a
touchdown, run an on-sides kick. Force your opponent to a turnover on downs deep
in its own territory. Outgain your opponent, at one point, by as much as 138 to
9. Fourteen minutes in Georgetown was up 17-0, the largest margin in a Patriot
League game since it clobbered Lafayette 38-7 in the 2015 Cooper Field
"re-naming" game. Ten minutes
later, it's 17-14. From then, it was a toss-up, because Lafayette
had the kind of talent Georgetown
wants to have, but which the PL admissions rules don't agree with.
The fourth quarter of Saturday's game harkened back to 2009,
the dimming light of a winless season where Georgetown could simply not get
anything right, none more so than in a 14-11 loss to Howard where Georgetown
had a first and goal at the two yard line and settled for back to back quarterback
sneaks on third and fourth down, netting a grand total of zero yards.
While not as dramatic, the finish to Saturday's game was redolent of a
"just don't lose" strategy instead of making a winning decision. The
Hoyas had just converted a fourth and six with a 13 yard pass to midfield. Two
time outs and 3:15 to play...and yet Georgetown
ran a total of six plays in the final 3:08, all to one player (Herman
Moultrie). No wonder Lafayette
shut it down.
To be fair, if Conor Hunt makes that field goal we'd call it
a mastery of clock management. But a career long field goal on the final play of the game
is no sure thing, and longer field goal attempts are, by nature, more of a
lower elevation kick. Rob Spence's play calling was more favorable to a team
that would run out the clock and either take a win or go into overtime. The problem was that Georgetown wasn't going to overtime.
One more point about Lafayette.
John Garrett isn't getting a statue at Fisher Stadium anytime soon and is
probably a middle of the pack PL team. But he is embracing a youth movement in
2021 which will pay dividends down the road. The Leopards start a freshman
quarterback, return their number 2 and 3 rushers, both its starting wide
receivers, and its starting tight end. By contrast, Georgetown loses to graduation two of its top
three rushers and its entire starting receiving corps. Which team will be
better prepared heading into 2022?
2. When Fordham Was a
Rivalry. Since 1984, Georgetown
has played Fordham 25 times, winning just three. But Saturday harkens back to a
day when there really was a rivalry between the schools.
On Nov. 6, 1971, Georgetown
defeated Fordham 30-9 at on a beer-soaked Homecoming at Kehoe Field. "As
good as the rest of the team may have looked, it was the defensive line's day
as Georgetown's
gridders blitzed Fordham's Rams in the Hoyas' first varsity homecoming game in 21 years last Saturday," wrote The
HOYA.
"The Fearsome Fivesome and Friends," Scotty
Glacken's various defensive line combinations, did a job on the Rams that will
be remembered as a major disaster to the Rose Hill mob for years to come. The Rams netted 30
ground yds. all day, but worse yet, their quarterback tandem of Desmond Lawe
and Jim Hurley ended up eating the ball ten times as the overpowered Fordham
offensive line couldn't stop the Hoya rush.
Linemen Bill Brugger (voted the Homecoming Outstanding
Defensive Player) and Dave McPhaden also got a rare chance to demonstrate their
running ability as they ran back kicks for touchdowns. Even the fact that McPhaden's
effort was called back did little to dampen the luster of the day for the Hoya
line."
The game was also known for some hijinks which would neither
be anticipated by today's students nor appreciated by the University.
Early in the fourth quarter, someone unplugged the Kehoe
Field scoreboard for laughs. Later in the game, students tried to rush the
field before the end of the game.
Wrote The HOYA: "Some overeager rooters seized this
occasion to dismantle the south goalpost, but possibly sparked by the threat of
a forfeiture, Georgetown authorities and sundry other restored order; Scotty
Glacken and his coaching, staff, stalwart Raymond "Pebbles" Medley
and a covey of defensive backs including Leo McGill, Tim Graham and Jim Chesley
quickly righted the posts and chased away the imbibers, preserving the day for
the Hoyas."
Expect neither this weekend.
3. D.C. Blues: If you build it, they still aren't coming.
Saturday's game drew an announced crowd of 2,437, with a healthy contingent
from Lafayette
and the inevitable erosion of student support. Students will stand three deep
along the baseline of a soccer game but
they will walk nonchalantly past Cooper Field.
Whatever you think about how soccer is marketed versus the
general local deemphasis of football as a distinctly Washington
pastime, the calculus on Georgetown
students is fairly linear: if you're winning, they support you. If you are not,
they don't. It follows a local trend.
Football is 0-3 at home and is 5-13 over the last four full seasons.
Gone are the days when students would commandeer a car on the weekend and drive
up to see a road game....any road game Their entire experience of Georgetown
football is five home games a year, with minimal promotion and scattered
results. If GU doesn't do a better job to makes these games an event, the fans
vote with their feet.
Football in DC has seen better days. Georgetown is 2-5 entering this weekend, Howard
2-6, Navy 2-6 and the Redskins are 2-6. Only Maryland (5-3) is above. 500, but must play Penn State, Michigan
State, and Michigan
in the next three weeks.
