I
can remember more than once during my high school and college days that the
score on a single test brought my overall course grade up considerably. It then
became a matter of whether I could hold on to the higher average the rest of
the term.
Well,
the score I’m thinking about today was 31-24. It was anything but knocking it
out of the park, but for the Lafayette football team, a victory over favored
Central Connecticut State, which was earned with a drive that was completed
with only 33 seconds left in the game, boosted the Leopards’ mid-term grade (at
least in the mind of this one “professor”) from a probable best of D- or a
worst of F to a C and the possibility of even better before the end of the term
at something around 4 p.m. on Nov. 17 in Fisher Stadium.
The
first four games of the season, including three in which Lafayette didn’t score
a touchdown, looked eerily like the 2017 season. John Garrett’s team scored
only 26 points and gave up 142. Coach Garrett had told us that his team was
“miles” ahead of last year, his first on College Hill, but the results didn’t
back up that assessment.
The
four-game rushing yards average was up from 15.8 ypg to 46.8, but point
production was down from 53 to 26 because passing average was down 57 yards per
game. Rushing touchdowns were up (from 0 to 1), but passing TDs were down (from
7 to 2). Fumbles lost were zero last year, four this year. Ball security must improve.
Defensively,
the Leopards intercepted six passes in the first four games of 2017, just one
in this year’s first four. The second and third quarters continued to be the
biggest problem. Opponents outscored the Leopards 116-9 last year and 90-10
this year in the middle periods.
The
bottom line was that the Lafayette teams of last year and this year were both
winless entering Game 5, and into all that negativity came a CCSU team that was
the preseason favorite to win the Northeast Conference.
