A bye week can dull, but not the dim the opportunity lost in Georgetown's 43-6 loss to Lehigh. It wasn't so much that they lost but how they did, and the recurring theme in the world that is Georgetown football.
Lehigh was a five point favorite entering the game, and that lasted about 15 minutes and 12 seconds. With Danny Lauter's interception on the first play of the second quarter, the progress of the 2024 season began to unravel before a crowd at Cooper Field who, if they have been to enough games, has seen this before.
One play, 7-0.
Three plays, zero yards, Georgetown punt to Lehigh. Three plays, 14-0.
Three plays, six yards, punt to Lehigh, 57 yards on second down, 21-0.
A late field goal with 22 seconds to halftime and it's all over. Oh, there was still 30 minutes and two more interceptions to follow, but this has never been a comeback program and PL teams know it. When a Patriot League team has scored 24 points on Georgetown since 2001, their record is 85-4. When that team is not named Bucknell, it's 78-2.
As has been said for many years, the defense can't do it all. Danny Layer has thrown two or more interceptions four times this season. The run game, always a victim of underrecruiting, grinds down in November and can't threaten a defense which knows the Hoyas run short of options thereafter. Georgetown ranks last in the PL in points scored in conference games despite leading the league in first downs. When the Bucknell video announcer saw the score later that day, her remarked on ESPN+ that it seems that when the "bright lights" of PL play dawn every year, Georgetown just isn't ready. Looking in the mirror notwithstanding, that's the perception in other schools.
Two games remain on the schedule. If the Hoyas can't beat a 1-9 Fordham team, there's little chance against Holy Cross. A 6-5 mark versus 5-6 is a big deal, especially at a school which hasn't enjoyed a real football "moment" among students or alumni in, well, when?
Until then, it's more of the same.
