Penalties, turnovers plague Quakers in win

In sports the term 'PT' has several connotations. Sometimes it can be an abbreviation for points scored and other times it can mean playing time. But Saturday night, the Penn football team put a new twist on the letters 'P' and 'T'. Penalties and turnovers marred Quakers' 38-7 victory over Colgate and surely were at the forefront of Penn coach Al Bagnoli's post-game chat with his players. Versus Colgate, Penn committed an astonishing 15 penalties for 116 yards, lost two fumbles and tossed an interception. If not for the Red Raiders' butter-fingers, which led to eight turnovers, the outcome of the game could have been much closer. It was Penn's nine penalties in the first half which prevented the Quakers offense from getting into a rhythm. Numerous times, Penn failed to benefit from its excellent field position because of fumbles or lame penalties. The Quakers' initial penalty in their second offensive drive should have been an ominous sign of things to come. An illegal procedure penalty was then followed by a holding penalty on the next play. Penn managed to make it through the rest of the quarter without a penalty. However, no sooner did the Quakers solve the penalty problem when the turnovers began to crop up. First, running back Aman Abye fumbled on his longest run from scrimmage this season, giving the Red Raiders possession at the Penn 42-yard line. If not for Colgate's mistakes, the Penn offense might have felt more pressure in the early going. But on fourth down from Penn's 18, Raiders coach Dick Biddle called for a fake field goal which the Quakers special teams easily snuffed out. On the ensuing play, Eastern Michigan transfer Rick Granata was pushed back six yards before losing the handle on the ball. This time Colgate's hapless offense found a way to score from 12 yards out and even the game at seven. With the Quakers offense going nowhere fast and the rain beginning to halt, Bagnoli looked to open up his offense. Turning to quarterback Steve Teodecki, who went 3-of-4 for 17 yards with a big first down toss to Mark Fabish on the drive, the Penn offense looked to get on a roll. But once again, penalties came back to bite the Quakers right were it hurts the most. Each first down was followed by an illegal procedure penalty. In all, Penn had three illegal procedure penalties on that drive and five for the game. Not only did the penalties ruin Penn's drive at the beginning of the second quarter, but this was something Bagnoli had specifically worked to fix in practice last week. After the Quakers' eight penalties for 55 yards against Dartmouth, which Bagnoli attributed to first-game jitters, Penn looked to stop their pre-snap jumps this week against Colgate. Five more calls against the Quakers offense left Bagnoli frustrated and perplexed. "I don't know what to think now," Bagnoli said. "I wish I had better answers, but they are different kids each time. "I mean we are in the Ivy League, so everybody should be able to follow our snap counts. It's only up to three. We're not asking them to find any square roots or anything like that." While Bagnoli joked about the penalties, the two first-half fumbles were no laughing matter. "That first half was a complete aberration for us offensively," Bagnoli said. "You just can't come out of there scoring only seven points or whatever we scored. Not with the field position we had and not with the opportunities we had? We just can't do that." The Quakers did settle down slightly in the third quarter. After a poor first 30 minutes of play, Penn managed to turn the ball over only once and cut down its penalties from nine in the first half to six in the second half. While the Penn offense was busy digging itself into a hole with a mental mistakes, the Quakers defense mercilessly pounded on the Red Raiders' offense. After seven Colgate fumbles, six of which the Penn defenders recovered, Biddle began searching for answers and looking for aspirin to calm his headache. "If you had an answer, I wish you would tell me," Biddle said. "I really don't know what to do. We are just trying to find ourselves offensively. We are trying to do too much instead of just taking what the team has to give us." Despite the victory, Bagnoli is worried that if the penalties and turnovers continue in Ivy League play, the Quakers may not be so lucky to escape with wins. "It is just sloppy play," Bagnoli said. "It's too easy to attribute our play to the weather. Our kids lost their concentration. We have got to do a better job of coaching, and they have to do a better job of staying stabilized and mentally focused."