The football team lost, 28-13, Saturday night against Lehigh. Much of what happened in the game was expected. The Mountain Hawks were heavy favorites, and came out of the gates acting like they were. The Tigers' own mistakes resulted in lopsided play for three quarters and only glimpses of execution. Turnovers and drops gave Lehigh momentum and stopped the Tigers in their tracks.
Lehigh was able to take advantage of its time in the yellow zone — the area inside the opponent's 35-yard line, still 15 yards from being able to score a touchdown, ideally, on every play but in field goal range for most kickers. The teams combined to enter the yellow zone 11 times on Saturday —six for Lehigh, five for Princeton. Only Lehigh capitalized.
The significant periods of the game for scoring were Lehigh's first three drives of each half, all of which broke into the yellow zone. In each half, the Mountain Hawks scored touchdowns on two of those three drives and missed a field goal on the other.
It's easy to say that the early-game steamroll in Lehigh's first three drives was due to inexperience on the Princeton defense.
"There were a lot of glassy-eyed kids out there," head coach Roger Hughes said.
But it is more demonstrative to look at a three-play stretch that threw momentum around like a beach ball.
Lehigh missed a 50-yard field goal. Then Princeton's junior quarterback Matt Verbit threw an interception that was returned to the Lehigh 25-yard line, essentially giving the Mountain Hawks eight yards and a new set of downs for that missed field goal. The next play was a touchdown pass to Lehigh's Adam Bergen.
Looking at the results, it may seem that the inexperienced, defense was getting pushed around in its few drives of the season, but this is not the case. The defense made a stop, forcing a missed field goal, but Verbit's pick bailed Lehigh out.
Bergen caught four drive-saving third down passes in the game and gave Princeton fits all night with his size and hands. "It's obvious where we need work," head coach Roger Hughes said. "Defensively, we had some issues with covering the tight end. Bergen looked like an All-American tonight."
The young linebacking corps did a better job than expected at stopping the run, but they were no match for the athletic Bergen, who was too big to be consistently covered by a defensive back either.
Bergen caught two balls for 18 yards on Lehigh's first drive of the second half, leading to their third touchdown. He also caught a 19-yard pass on the next drive to move the ball into Princeton territory for Lehigh's last score.
More than the outstanding play of Lehigh's offense, Princeton's offensive mistakes stole the day.
Verbit's interception killed momentum once, and the fumble two offensive drives later was even worse.
Verbit singlehandedly moved the ball down to the Lehigh 12 yard-line. On third and inches, his handoff to senior fullback Tim Bowden was fumbled, and Lehigh recovered. The drive before that, there had been a dropped pass on third-and-two, only one of many drops from Princeton receivers. Two drives after this fumble, Verbit lost the ball on a scramble.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, most of the mistakes in the game were deemed unfixable by the team.
How do you stop turning the ball over? "There's nothing really you can do about it," Verbit said. "Just stop turning the ball over."
What do you say to a player who has dropped passes? "There's nothing you can say," junior wide receiver B.J. Szymanski said. "No one wants to drop the ball. It just happens."
Discounting major mistakes like turnovers (a big thing to discount), the Tigers were effective when Verbit scrambled and when he threw, and sophomore tailback Greg Fields provided balance in the backfield.
Princeton stopped making these mistakes in the first five-plus minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Tigers made Lehigh go three-and-out on its first three drives of the quarter and squeezed in two touchdowns between them.
The first touchdown seemed anomalous, a 75-yard bomb to Szymanski, but Princeton put together a quick, efficient drive its next time up.
It was too little too late, and Princeton did nothing after Lehigh's third straight three-and-out.
Verbit ran effectively all day, but he fumbled four times and lost three of them. Add the interception, and four turnovers makes it hard to win a football game.
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