Penn offense looks good, not great

Judging by the Franklin Field scoreboard, the Penn offense had a good night Saturday, racking up 38 points in an easy win over Colgate. But the scoreboard doesn't always tell the whole story. Actually, the Quakers' offensive performance could be best described as adequate. The hapless Red Raiders had as much to do with the Red and Blue's productivity as anything else, and, after the game, the Quakers were hoping they could develop a more consistent attack. With seven fumbles and two muffed punts, Colgate was quite the generous guest. Penn took advantage of the first miscue to take a 7-0 lead, but two more Red Raiders fumbles in the game's first six minutes yielded nothing for the Quakers. Penn did take advantage the next time Colgate put the ball on the carpet, but the two-play, one-yard drive that resulted from Red Raiders return man Marcus Cameron's dropped punt was hardly a challenge. "That first half was a complete aberration offensively," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "We just can't come out of there scoring 17 points. Not with the field position we had and the opportunities. We just can't do that and beat a real good team." The Quakers did manage to move the ball for much of the game and wound up with 404 yards of total offense. But Penn stumbled quite a bit as well. Penalties plagued the team all night, and a fumble by junior fullback Rick Granata at the end of the first quarter gave Colgate the ball on the Quaker 12-yard line and set up the Red Raiders' only score. Granata's mistake was one of three turnovers that hurt Penn. The third came in the third quarter when Colgate linebacker Adam Sofran stopped a Quakers drive by picking off a Teodecki pass on the Red Raiders' one-yard line. Bagnoli had hoped to show the Red Raiders more of the Quakers' passing game, and, although the rain interfered with those plans, Penn did throw the ball 34 times. "We fully recognize that for us to be a good offensive team, we're going to have to open it up," Bagnoli said. Teodecki did a good job of keeping all of his receivers happy -- seven different Quakers caught the ball. Tight ends Travis Arbogast and John Ricchio became unexpected weapons, teaming up for five receptions. Most of those came on bootlegs designed to take advantage of Teodecki's mobility, including Arbogast's four-yard touchdown catch that put Penn up 24-7 in the fourth quarter. "When you run the bootleg, that's what happens a lot of times," Teodecki said. "[The tight ends] run the drags, and that's what gets them into the offense more." As for Teodecki himself, he completed 15 of 29 passes for 151 yards with one touchdown and an interception. His performance in his second career start was better than his first, according to Bagnoli. But the coach thinks it will take more time for Teodecki to be completely comfortable as the starter. "If you're working on Wall Street, they don't give you $50 million and say, 'Go invest it,' on the first day," Bagnoli said. "They kind of ease into it a little bit. So we're trying to do it intelligently. He's got some ability, he can do some things, and I think he demonstrated that today." Teodecki was happy to get his first win, but he realized that he and the rest of the offense will have to be sharper when the Quakers move into the rest of the Ivy League schedule. "In the long run, if we're going to have the season we want to have, we've got to convert a lot more than we did tonight," Teodecki said.