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Uninspired Tiger Football Feeling Deja Vu As It Suffers 28-13 Setback to Lafayette
By Bill Alden
You couldn't blame Princeton University football coach Roger Hughes if he is starting to feel a bit like the Bill Murray character in Groundhog Day.
The Tigers opened their season on September 20 by falling behind Lehigh 28-0 and then scoring two touchdowns in the final quarter to narrow the final margin to 28-13.
Last Saturday at Lafayette, Princeton dug itself into a 28-0 hole at halftime before scoring 13 second-half points to end up on the short end of another 28-13 setback before 7,107 at Fisher Field.
While the result against Lafayette was eerily similar to the week before, a visibly disappointed Hughes was upset by a sense that his young team had regressed emotionally in its effort.
"I thought we came out flat, I noticed it in pregame," acknowledged Hughes, who now has a 12-19 mark in his tenure guiding the Tigers.
"Emotionally I thought we were real flat and the discouraging thing is that I thought we had one of our best weeks of practice in terms of intensity and focus. We'll go back and re-evaluate things and if we have to, we'll change how we practice. We can't spot good teams like Lafayette and Lehigh 14 points and then climb from behind."
While the Tigers apparently lacked some fire at the outset, the Leopards suffered no such issue as they came out determined to make amends for their 19-13 loss to Towson in their previous effort. Lafayette set the tone of the afternoon with its first drive as it methodically went on an 18-play, 80-yard march which culminated with a one-yard touchdown run by Joe McCourt.
A fumble by Greg Fields gave Lafayette the ball at the Princeton 33 and seven plays later McCourt was in the end zone again, this time on a three-yard scamper.
By the half, the Leopards had matters in hand as McCourt's touchdown catch and a scoring run by quarterback Marko Glavic pushed the margin to 28-0.
The Tigers showed some fight in the final 30 minutes as sophomore receiver Eric Walz made his first career touchdown reception on a 19-yard pass from Matt Verbit late in the third quarter. In the final 15 minutes, Princeton tacked on another score as Branden Benson plunged in from the one-yard line.
Afterward, Hughes wasn't sure whether to be encouraged by his team's second straight week of late productivity in the face of a large deficit. "I would like to think we're playing better [in the second half], I didn't see them subbing a lot of guys," added Hughes, who saw QB Verbit again pile up decent numbers as he threw for 253 yards and rushed for 28.
"It's the same players and the same plays but we're getting a different result. We need to get the same results we get in the second half starting with the first drive."
One small bit of encouragement was the fact that the Tigers did come up with a productive effort in the running game, rushing for 140 yards Saturday as compared to the 104 they had against Lehigh.
"Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems after you look at the tape," said Hughes, whose club actually outgained Lafayette 393-302 on the afternoon. "Certainly we ran the ball much more effectively than last week. As for other positive signs, I'm looking for those right now."
Tiger senior defensive end Joe Weiss, for his part, is determined to make the defensive line into a positive sign. "I definitely have to pick up my performance, the whole defensive line has to" said Weiss, an All-Ivy performer last fall who was in on 10 tackles against the Leopards. "Before the game we said it was going to be won up front. I think they pretty much dominated us up front."
Weiss vowed that he and his classmates will provide the fire to make sure that the Tigers show a sense of urgency over the eight remaining games. "There is a good core of guys who try to spark the team," asserted Weiss. "We're fired up before the game. There are a great group of leaders in my class. I'm ready to get some W's."
With Princeton opening its Ivy League campaign this Saturday evening by hosting 1-1 Columbia, it can't wait any longer to pick up wins. Although the Tigers' start has been disappointing, they can draw some consolation from the fact that the losses have been out of the league and against teams that might turn out to be two of the toughest they face all season.
Hughes hopes that heading into league play will spark the Tigers to work out their kinks. "I guess one of the benefits of having two non-league games before the Ivy is that it gives us the chance to hopefully learn from mistakes and correct them," asserted Hughes. "Certainly we made some corrections defensively but we have to make some better ones."
In order to guide his team out of the discouraging pattern, Hughes knows he can't count on any outside help. "As I told them afterward, we can't go to the waiver wire, we can't make trades, we don't take transfers," said Hughes.
"The people that have to do it are in this room. We have to recommit ourselves to making sure that we don't start out the way we did today. Certainly we'll be looking to find the answer when we get in the league next week with Columbia. We have to start out with higher intensity and a higher emotional level."
Otherwise, Hughes will find himself experiencing an unwanted sense of deja vu.
