Pennsylvania Penal Colony
Lafayette 24 Columbia 21
Why Lafayette Won
Leopard QB Rob Curley just refused to lose, overcoming several mistakes and setbacks to rally his team time and again. He finally lead an 88-yard drive to win the game in the final minutes.
Why Columbia Lost
A series of dubious calls by the refs negated a TD, and several defensive stops. The offense was not as aggressive in the second half and did not score after halftime.
Key Turning Points
-Leading by 21-10 in the final moments of the first half, a beautiful TD pass from M.A. Olawale to Austin Knowlin was called back on an illegal motion penalty. The replay showed no such penalty. Columbia would not score again in the game.
-Still leading by 21-10 to start the third quarter, the Lions went three and out on the opening possession and a short punt gave Lafayette the ball on the CU 39. The Leopards scored a quick TD and had the momentum from then on.
-Still trailing by 21-17 with about 4 minutes left, a great punt pinned the Leopards down on their 12. But Curley made a number of acrobatic plays and a killer pass interference call on Ross Morand on a pass that may have been too high to catch anyway sealed the Lions fate.
Columbia MVP
I have to give this one to Austin Knowlin, who scored one TD, set up another with a kickoff return to the Leopards 20, and finally broke Don Lewis' 26-year-old Columbia career receptions record.
A close second goes to M.A. Olawale, who completed his first nine pass attempts, again did not have an INT, threw one TD pass, ran for another, and did just about everything he could to help the Lions win.
Going Forward
I know I and even a lot of Lafayette fans felt Columbia was the better team last night. There is a lot of cause for the Lions to be very confident about their remaining six games all against Ivy opponents.
The excitement of Homecoming should be a great tool to help Columbia shake this tough loss off.
Please do what you can to show up next week and show your appreciation for these guys.
posted by Jake @ 7:02:00 PM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Truly heartbreaking loss. But despite the bad calls we have to accept the responsibility for losing. I mean you can't put up three td's on your first three possesions and go scoreless the rest of the way. I think the second half play-calling by the Lions definitely seemed out of sync and kept us from putting any drives together. The defenses really seem to be focusing on MA keeping the ball and Rangel is getting big gains off tackle but on touches the ball I think ten times? MA ball fake and run up the gut does not seem to work as well as when he fakes to Rangel and counters to the other side, not up the middles so consistently. First down yardage was not good enough to let us keep it on the ground and maintain ball control.
Very tough loss but would rather have it come against the Leopards then an Ivy opponent. The real season is here on out. We have shown we have the talent to compete in every game. One game at a time and good things will happen, Hope Gross is ok for Penn?
I think that we seem to tighten up offensively when we are playing with a lead. At least we did last night. We seemed to stop stretching the field even though Lafayette could not stop our vertical passing game. The officiating was a disgrace. Even though iot was our game to lose the refs should be ashamed of themselves. Any word on the injuries? PS, I can't bear the thought of reading voyforums today. That loss kept me up most of the night. Our kids played their hearts out. I oculd never be a coach! Norries, if you are reading this, chin up. You are The Man.
Lions need to gain motivation from this loss and pound (what seems to be a weak) Penn. Team leaders need to step up.....
I think Columbia fans are the only ones who think Columbia was the better team. Look at the Stat lines. Take away Lafayette 3 INT's in the Red Zone and it's not a close game. The DE 59 is a beast though
There is a real line between simple aggressive play on defense and actual pass interference. At least twice, including the final Lions penalty which led to Lafayette scoring the game-winning points, I'm also pretty sure Columhia defenders did not cross it.
The officiating was this bad: on every pass play, whoever played RT for Lafayette would merely attach himself, squidlike, to a Columhia rusher and backpedal at an angle so the defender could neither free himself nor have even a chance at bumping into Lafayette's QB. Yes, there are tactics to shake off such a ploy, but still...The one time Lafayette was called for holding, it was instead against, I believe, a Lafayette back.
Still, very bad officiating (clearly "home oriented") notwithstanding, we have to tackle better. Curley is neither that big nor that strong, yet time and again he managed to shake off defenders and either rush himself or throw a pass. He is definitely no Aubrey Morris of CCSU,
And the final Lafayette drive, no matter that its final success depended on a seemingly questionable interference call, was admittedly a marvel of time-killing.
I'm pretty sure, however, we'll play better at home against Penn. (We'd better.) And get well, Alex Gross!
We lost. But these guys were the best we played so far!
GO LIONS
See you all on Saturday in the Big Apple.
BT
Guys...Columbia lost the game.
The refs didn't. Bad officiating goes both ways. Need to move on a focus on pounding the "Quakers".
Yes, bad officiating goes both ways: Lafayette's way in Easton, and other Patriot League teams when playing on their home fields. Give me an example of where Lafayette got screwed in this game.
The Neckman
The officiating stank, pure and simple. The Lafayette OL held us all night. The bogus illegal procedure penalty was a joke,a nd the replay proved it. Who were those officials anyway? Were they Patriot League guys? We should scream long and loud. Those pass interference calls on us in the final drive were just plain home cooking. We were on the verge of breaking open the game when that TD of ours was nullified. We would have been up 28 to 10, and they never would have come back. Good team, for sure; they kicked Yale's butts. But we were the better team on Saturday. Hopefully this will make us mad enough to blow out the Quakers, my own personal favorite for most hated Ivy opponent.
Stretch the field! Good things happen when we look down the field for AK and Stephens. Especially with single coverage. MA has developed an excellent long range passing game. Kennedy can play TE like a WR; go vertical to Kennedy as well. Make them stop putting 8 and 9 guys in the box.
Post a Comment
<< Home