[rogers3]

I was thoroughly surprised (as was Laffy fans, I'm sure) at how our special teams got worked throughout most of the game. This is where we've done well (particularly coverage and returns) and we gave up 21 points right off of ST mistakes. Defense really stepped up in the 2nd half, as did offensive production. I'm surprised that we did so poorly in the red zone; last week, we had some really great production using Hayes and Brown with some plays that kept the defense guessing. We seemed to be much more vanilla this week and Laf. did a great job keeping anyone from going outside. 4 chances to get 5 yards- we were outplayed and under-prepared. Their LB Roman was stellar- he gave Rashad and the O-line fits.

The upside is that I don't have to bite my nails anymore, as I don't think the selection committee will give us a second look; with this kind of home loss, and such close wins against teams that are looking worse and worse, I don't think I'd give us a second look if I were them, either.

[rogers3]

Can we make a rule, just for the sanity of many on here? If you post something, you at least have to add one positive. It can be five bad things, but mention a positive. Please.

Again, I get to stop biting my nails!

[Mixitup]

Guys, this may be one of the most talented teams ever to wear the LU uniform. This loss is devastating but, the talent is there to get us to the playoffs. Coach Rocco got out coached in the first half. He out coached the LC coach in the 2nd half. A few costly mistakes made the difference in the game. It's hard to overcome so many costly mistakes especially when you know you have the better team on the field. This is the first game this year that our mistakes caught up with us.

[LUFlamer09]

I haven't read through all of the game-thread, or even the Postmortem thread but I have one question.

Was anyone else extremely frustrated with the play-calling? We came out with 4 wideouts in the Gun seemingly every drive. Brock is a great QB at this level, but we have one of the best backs in the nation. I felt Rashad was underutilized early in the game.

Also, I realize Bolden is dangerous in space and he did break the first screen for a TD. But they kept going back to that same play. How about going over the top once or twice? One of Brock's best weapons is the deep ball and I never saw it. I did miss one drive though so I may have missed it, but even so I wish we would've seen more vertical passing when we were running the predictable screens. The screen right before the half was a terrible call as well. It's a no-no.

[SuperJon]

To answer the deep ball question, you have to look at the wind. That wind was whipping around pretty hard inside the stadium. They may have thought it would've changed up the flight of the ball too much to be accurate.

[01LUGrad]

ugh. After a 3 hour drive home, I'm still not over this one. It seemed like the team from back in my day was running around in the new and improved flames uniforms. I hope they figure it out and run the table.

By the way, I'm not sure the attendance was accurate. It didn't seem like that big of a crowd to me, but I could be wrong. It was my first game of the year.

[01LUGrad]

To answer the deep ball question, you have to look at the wind. That wind was whipping around pretty hard inside the stadium. They may have thought it would've changed up the flight of the ball too much to be accurate.

Given Brock's accuracy today, that might have given them a better shot at a completion.

I keed.

[Fumblerooskies]

To answer the deep ball question, you have to look at the wind. That wind was whipping around pretty hard inside the stadium. They may have thought it would've changed up the flight of the ball too much to be accurate.

Yes...we were going INTO the wind the entire 2nd and 3rd quarters.

[krh44]

When we had the punt blocked and returned for a TD I would not have thought we would have a chance to cut the lead to seven later in the game. With that said 4 straights plays from the 5 with the same player. I don't know maybe mix it up???? Vey frustrating game to watch. I don't think anything went our way starting with the muffed punt to start the game after I D held them on their first series. Missed FG and another missed FG after a penalty took points off the scoreboard. As bad as we played we had a chance to cut to a seven point game. They were a good ball club but I think they were better prepared.

[flameshaw]

I will preface my remarks by saying, I am still PO'ed, but here goes.

First congratulations to LC, they deserved to win, I am not convinced they are the superior team, but they definitely were today. Their fans were first class from my limited interaction, would like to play them again, which I guess we will do next year.

This was the first game in 2 1/2 years, I would have guessed KK was still walking our sidelines. Not so much from a coaching perspective, but we didn't get any breaks at all tonight and the other team just played a perfect game. I do believe we made a couple of very poor decisions on offense. First, on first down and goal from the six, we throw a pass the first play? And then on third down try to use Rashaad on a sweep play? On the last drive we go for it on 4th and goal from the 1, which was a good idea, but give it to Rashaad, when everyone in the stadium knew he was going to get the ball? When they were sure RG was going to bet the ball, he did not fare too well today. We could have tried a bootleg, put Hayes in to run to the open side of the field? Seemed like we were very predictable today on offense.

Finally, I hate to say it, but we are not a top 25 team yet. We haven't beat anyone of consequence, YSU got beat 33-0 today and they were out best win so far this year. You can't be a ranked team and make the mistakes we did today at home against a good but unranked opponent.

Hopefully, we can run the table and still make the playoffs, but we had some major weaknesses exposed today. Getting ZT back will help some, hopefully it will be enough.

Deep breath, I do feel a little better.

[Hold My Own]

while walking out I heard a few football minds saying they felt as if we were out coached...I'll be interested to read the fishwrap to see if there is any take on that

[Rooster Cogburn]

Danny said so himself in the Post game press conference.

I'm still too ticked to say much. We played bad all over the field. They played well all over the field. We seem to have been out coached. The fake punt up two TDs with :53 left was total chicken crap. I guess you can tell me it's good football, but I thought it was JUNK!

[SuperJon]

That fake punt was absolutely perfect. One of the best calls in a game I've seen in a long time. On par with Rashad sliding.

[Hold My Own]

Danny said so himself in the Post game press conference.

Oh ok, interesting ...the more I thought about it on the way home the more I agreed that we were out coached....every dog has his day, I'll still take our dog though

[Rooster Cogburn]

That fake punt was absolutely perfect. One of the best calls in a game I've seen in a long time. On par with Rashad sliding.

What did it do that meant anything to the outcome? It just simply rubbed our noses in it. Yes, it killed the clock and didn't give us the ball. But what was the point. are we going to tie it in :53? I guess I am just already so ticked that just pushed me over the edge!

It really is good coaching I guess, but I didn't like it!

[carney2]

Thanks for the hospitality, folks. You've been great. See you next year up north.

[whmatthews]

That's it! I'm ill. CSU will bow down next week.

[coolhandluke]

I really hope we go 11-1, but that will not happen if we play like we did today.

If we play like today, we are going to be 9-3 or worse.

And with Gardner-Webb playing a pretty good Georgia Tech team so close... we could catch a lose to them.

Hopefully this game was a fluke and we will run the table and finish 11-1. This may have been our wake up call...

On another note, I had alot of my friends from NC give me crap and tell me that we should stop scheduling so many high school teams...

Its probably true that if we have played a few more quality teams before this game we would have been ready for the Leopards!

[Pard94]

If it is any consolation the Lafayette fans are absolutely thrilled about this victory because we believe you guys are as talented a team as we will face all year. We are calling this our biggest non-league win since 1988. Coach Tavani was very complimentary of your coaches, players, students and entire organization after the game. I don't think he was trying to rub your nose in anything with the fake punt. I just think he didn't want to give you guys the ball back and allow the chance of another score. We need to impress the selection folks as well and a two score win to a quality opponent goes a lot further than a one score win.

Even if we hadn't gotten the outcome we got yesterday I can tell you that all of the fans were really happy to see a quality southern, full scholarship opponent on the schedule. We're tird of playing in our own backyard. I for one can't wait to play you guys again next year. I hope that we can negotiate games well beyond next year as well. Of course we Lafayette fans are rooting for you guys from here on out. It makes our win yesterday all the more impressive. GO FLAMES and GO LEOPARDS!

[Sly Fox]

Fumble on kick return turns tide against Flames

By Chris Lang
Published: October 19, 2008

Liberty coach Danny Rocco called it a “poor, poor decision,” the play in the first quarter that changed the entire tone of the Flames’ game with Lafayette on Saturday.

Liberty forced the Leopards to punt on their first series, and Lafayette coach Frank Tavani elected to use place kicker Davis Rodriguez rather than punter Tom Kondash. With the Leopards punting into the wind, Tavani wanted Rodriguez to boot a low, soccer-style kick that would negate a big return.

Dominic Bolden waved his hands at the ground, signaling his teammates to stay away from the ball. It bounded forward on the turf and took another tricky bounce toward the sideline. Bolden tried to field the kick but muffed it. Lafayette recovered the fumble and, seven plays later, scored a touchdown.

“I saw the gunner pass it up, so I really felt like if he was the only one playing contain on his side, I’d have a really good chance of returning it,” Bolden said. “It just didn’t work out that way. I had to put it behind me.”

Click Here for Full Story

[Sly Fox]

Flames left at a loss after first defeat

By Chris Lang
Published: October 19, 2008



Some Liberty players rushed off the field. Others trudged along, their heads hung low. But one look at Flames center Mike Godsil told the entire story. He stared straight ahead as he walked into the tunnel that leads to LU’s football opera-tions center, his eyes filled with conflicting emotions.

Anger. Frustration. Cold determination. The Flames were left to ponder a strange feeling Saturday, one they hadn’t felt in more than a year. Defeat. Lafayette, a perennial Patriot League contender, played sharp and focused and took advantage of a disastrous game by Liberty’s special teams to beat the Flames, 35-21, and end two 11-game Liberty win streaks.

Click Here for Full Story

[Sly Fox]

And here is Chris making a little more coin for a fishwrap up Medic's way ...

Lafayette football stuns 14th-ranked Liberty as Romans delivered key blocked punt
Sunday, October 19, 2008

By CHRIS LANG
Special to The Express-Times

LYNCHBURG, Va. | For all that Andy Romans had accomplished in his Lafayette College career, he had never blocked a kick.

Until Saturday. Romans stormed untouched through the Liberty University line on a punt early in the third quarter, blocked Matt Bevins' punt, scooped the ball at the Flames' 15 and ran in for a back-breaking touchdown.

Click Here for Full Story

[Champion]

First, some good stuff. Generaly being overlooked is that LU outplayed Lafeyette on offense. ( a huge advantage in total yards) Believe it or not the defense played pretty even with Lafayette, but still showed that they have a compplete inability to stop the short passing game. Everyone knows the weakness and it is continualy being exploited. The game changer was the one area that it was thought we would have a huge advantage and that was special teams. We had a muffed punt return, a blocked punt, and gave up a huge return. The defense was on the field WAY too long as Lafayette had the time of possession advantage. Lafayette also had two goal line stands. One from the two-yard line where they pushed LU back so far they had to try a long field goal into a strong wind and then got another chance from the one-yard line late in the game where Rashad was stuffed on four attempts. (no offensive line surge at all) Finally, Andy Romans is an awesome player and an All-American, but couldn't somebody occassionaly block him? He disrupted the offense all day, blocked a punt for a TD, ran for a first down on the game ending fake and was the one person who consistantly brought Rashad down on his big runs. LU must now run the table for any shot at getting into the playoffs and hope that Elon maintains its lofty rating. 11-1 would not get them in under normal circumstances, but if they beat a top three team in the last game of the season it would be hard to overlook with an 11-1 record. Also, Liberty needs to hope that Lafayette run the table as well or this "bad" loss will look really, really, really bad.

[Kolzilla41]

I wanted to add my two cents. I believe the two plays that cost us were the Punt that Dominic touch and Lafayette recovered after the three and out hold by the D. The second play that cost us was the blocked punt. If those two hadn't happened , the field goal we missed would have been the game winner. Clearly ST cost us the game.

[Rocketfan]

We need to impress the selection folks as well and a two score win to a quality opponent goes a lot further than a one score win.

Hmm thats sounds familiar.....i wonder why.......