Some thoughts following Lehigh's 41-0 win over Georgetown:
1. Five Phases: Yes, another 60 minute beating in this series. College football has an uncanny way where rivalries follow to form even when they shouldn't, and with two exceptions, each Georgetown game versus Lehigh has been an annual beating.
At a distance, it's not like Lehigh particularly gets "up" for this game in the same way it might be up for, say, Lafayette. Nor does Georgetown take this game somehow for granted. But as far as games at South Mountain go, they're just not competitive. Lehigh has won 11 of 12 games at Goodman Stadium by an average of 27 points.
As for this game, it was as a complete a win as Lehigh has put together all year, and not just because it was its first shutout since, oh, well...2009, versus Georgetown.
Coaches like to talk about winning all three phases of the game. I'll go two better: they won all five phases.
Offensively, the Engineers did what they needed to do and never looked back: touchdowns on three of its first four drives. The first two of these were methodical, well executed ten play drives, the third, a defensive breakdown and a 41 yard run to the end zone. The rush game averaged six yards a carry, and the Lehigh offensive line did not allow a sack; in fact, Georgetown got just one tackle for loss all afternoon. It's highly unusual for a run-focused team to be held to under 28 minutes time of possessions and still dominate the scoreboard as they did.
Defensively, Lehigh was in rare form and Georgetown had no chance. The Hoyas' running game, which has been banged up all year, couldn't make progress, with just one running back carry of more than seven yards. A pair of 18 yard scrambles by quarterbacks Dez Thomas and Jack Johnson weren't going to change the outcome, and the Lehigh rush forced six sacks and a pick-six. Lehigh held Georgetown to fourth down stops on the each of the last three series of the game.
The Hoyas got just one red zone opportunities all day and failed, and that speaks to defensive coordinator Rich Nagy and a defensive that does not settle for less than its very best.
The special teams were a one-way street for the Engineers. Its four punts averaged 49 yards with three touchbacks and a single yard of return, a huge difference in field position which gave the Hoyas nothing in the way of opportunity. Lehigh punt returner Nick Peltekian accounted for 90 yards in four returns, accounting for an average of an extra 22 yards on every kick. A blocked PAT was the only mark against a straight flush by the Lehigh special teams in this game.
The fourth phase: coaching. This coaching staff has Lehigh believing in big things, and no one, no one was looking past Georgetown with three weeks to Lafayette. It also caught the Hoyas flat-footed on a fourth down play early in the game.
With 10:43 in the first, Lehigh faced a 4th and two at the Georgetown 25, and lined up in a wildly unbalanced formation: seven men on the line far to the left of the QB, with nothing but a center, a guard, and a running back. Georgetown seemed confused at the start, as if this was just some effort to draw them off side or to force a penalty. If the staff had seen something, a time out was in order. Instead, Lehigh handed it off to RB Matt Michalik, who ran for four yards despite a line of one blocker. Three plays later, Lehigh scored and never looked back.
This was not a trick play, this was a line placed in the sand that Lehigh basically said "come and stop us", and Georgetown was unprepared. I'm not naive to think that had Georgetown stopped them, the outcome would be any different, nor that the Georgetown staff had drilled the defensive on any such maneuver. Instead, it was a Lehigh coaching staff that was so confident in its men that it dared GU to make a defensive stop, and the Hoyas could not do it. Message sent.
The fifth phase: the program. Teams win games but programs win championships. Lehigh has won 13 PL titles with five different head coaches, Kevin Cahill among them. Players come to Bethlehem to win, not to try to. Whatever shreds of doubt that Lehigh wasn't at the top level under Tom Gilmore were quickly flushed after Cahill's 2023 season and Lehigh hasn't looked back since. In a season when people in the PL were worried about "What Will Richmond Do?", it lost sight, perhaps, that Lehigh wasn't going away.
Georgetown continues to be the (pre-Diego Pavia) Vanderbilt of the Patriot League: a good school that doesn't spend like the other schools do, is a nice place for players and their families to visit, a stadium that will always be friendly to road teams, and a fan base that holds no expectations of progress. Recruits to Georgetown may say they're coming to win a PL title, but no one has. Recruits to Lehigh say they're coming to win a PL title, and they do.
Remember Nick Saban's quote? "The only place you're going to play in the SEC that's not hard to play [is] Vanderbilt. When you play at Vanderbilt, you have more fans there than they have, and that's no disrespect to them, it's the truth." Until Vanderbilt's offense punched Alabama in the mouth and carried the goal posts to the Cumberland River, that is.
Georgetown is nowhere close to doing the same.
And as Saban also observed, "Dominant teams rarely are outplayed or outclassed, but they sometimes beat themselves. Just because you are dominant does not mean you are infallible. Remember that dominance does not mean perfection; a lack of focus for even a short period of time can cost you. Do not relax when you are far ahead or dominating your marketplace. That is the time to push even harder."
So far, Lehigh is doing just that.
2. Around The PL:
Lafayette 21, Holy Cross 13: Another late game lapse by the Crusaders, falling to 1-8 before 16,583 at Fitton Field. Despite three early turnovers, this was a one point game entering the fourth quarter and the Crusaders were marching to the tying score with under a minute to play. On a fourth and six at the Lafayette 12 with 29 seconds to play, quarterback Dominic Campanile was sacked 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage. The Crusaders fell to 4-11 over the last two years in games decided by eight points or less.
Richmond 17, Fordham 14: Despite its own 1-8 record, Fordham's defense is playing opponents tougher than anticipated and such was the case in this one, where the Spiders managed just seven points after halftime and held oft the Rams late before 4,847 at Robins Stadium. Fordham QB Gunnar Smith was held to 91 yards and two interceptions by a Richmond defense which gave up just 161 yards all afternoon.
Colgate 23, Merrimack 20: The Red Raiders needed overtime to steer past the Warriors in a non-conference game, 23-20 before 2,713 in Hamilton. Merrimack tied the score on a 47 yard field goal with no time left, but threw an interception three plays into its first overtime possession, which Colgate dutifully converted with a field goal and the win, its fourth in the last six weeks.
This week's games:
Holy Cross at Lehigh, 12:00 noon
Colgate at Lafayette, 12:30
Bucknell at Fordham, 1:00
Richmond at Georgetown, 1:00
