Saturday evening marked the beginning of a new season for the football team — new wrinkles in the playbook, new faces in new roles and a brand new 0-0 record. But in Princeton’s 34-22 loss to Lehigh, the problems were all too familiar, all the way up to the final score.
The Tigers — who lost last year’s opener to Lehigh, 35-22 — generally outperformed expectations against a team that was a 19-point favorite and came in ranked 19th nationally, keeping the game competitive until the final minutes. But two of the biggest flaws of last year’s 1-9 squad again reared their unfortunate heads: pass defense and red zone offense.
Though Princeton handled Lehigh’s rushing attack with ease in the first half, senior quarterback Chris Lum from Lehigh and a talented group of receivers tore apart the Tigers’ defense. The Mountain Hawks’ first three scores came on passes from Lum to Ryan Spadola, a combination that netted 214 yards on nine completions.
“I’ve seen pro receivers, and they have guys that are close to pro receivers,” head coach Bob Surace ’90 said. “If you double-cover Spadola, [Jake] Drwal comes out; if you double-cover Drwal, you don’t have enough guys on the field — you need to go to Canada and have 12 guys out there. With two receivers like that, it’s really, really difficult.”
Even as Princeton forced three-and-outs on Lehigh’s first two possessions, the signs were there that the potent Mountain Hawks passing attack would eventually find its groove — Lum missed open receivers with his first three throws, even with little pressure. The senior did indeed recover, completing 28 of his final 34 passes for 384 yards, often finding open receivers on post routes downfield.
“We didn’t do a great job covering those as we would have liked to,” Surace said, referring to Lehigh’s passes down the middle. “They hit both safeties. We’ll get better at that. Those guys are experienced guys. I think they’re athletic enough to do it, but I think the [talent] of those two receivers got us early a couple times.”
Princeton mostly matched Lehigh for the first 80 yards of the field, accumulating 398 yards of offense for the game, better than all but two of its performances in 2010. But the momentum it gained on long drives sputtered near the goal line. Just as in last year’s meeting, the Tigers managed only one offensive touchdown, seeing four drives stall in the red zone and another three end elsewhere in enemy territory.
Senior quarterback Tommy Wornham completed only four of 11 passes inside the opposing red zone for a total of 11 yards.
“The coverage wasn’t that frustrating. It was just shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties — stuff like that,” Wornham said of Lehigh’s red zone defense. “They did a good job playing man coverage in there for the most part. I missed a few throws, but we just have to execute better.”
Princeton’s success earlier in drives was aided in no small part by another returning attribute from 2010: a propensity for trick plays. Surace and offensive coordinator James Perry threw a couple plays they described as “wrinkles” into the playbook for nearly every home game last season, a trend that continued on Saturday. Midway through the second quarter, Wornham threw a short shovel pass behind his back to junior running back Akil Sharp on a designed timing play. Sharp sprinted past a confused Lehigh defense for 44 yards.
Wornham also split wide for one play while sophomore wide receiver and former quarterback Connor Kelley took a shotgun snap. The ball ended up in Wornham’s hands in the backfield, and he threw to an uncovered Kelley for 18 yards.
“It’s nice to have creativity,” Surace said. “Every week, we have something that’s somewhat creative. We have guys that are smart guys — that are really into it — and we practice things like that all the time. When we execute them and they work, it’s fun.”
On the more conventional plays, Perry hinted before the season that he wanted a setup that would allow his running backs to “get in rhythm,” and his sequencing backed that up. Sharp got plenty of touches in the first half, running the ball 10 times and catching four more passes. After intermission, however, he was almost completely replaced by freshman Chuck Dibilio, who tallied 11 rushes in the second half. Dibilio finished with 86 yards on the ground in his first game with the Orange and Black.
“Coming in, I knew I had a shot to get into the game, so I was really happy about that,” Dibilio said. “When I kept getting in, I got really into the game and I forgot that I was playing. I was just into the game at that point.”
There is already one major difference between the Tigers of this season and those of last season — no key players have suffered a season-ending injury yet, two fewer than after the 2010 opener.
The key step now is for the Tigers to improve offensively, rather than regress. Princeton gained 528 yards against Lehigh last season but never got within 100 of that in its final nine games, only once cracking four centuries.
With a defense that may take a few games to find its groove, Wornham and the rest of the offensive unit must continue to move the ball well and start turning field goals into touchdowns for the team to win games.
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