Penn's offensive attack: three-for-three in futility

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Does Penn have a football team that is capable of competing for the Ivy League championship? Going by what it has demonstrated on offense through three games, it appears the Quakers may be slipping into the quagmire of Ivy League mediocrity. Penn coach Al Bagnoli would like to think that there are adjustments that can cure the inconsistency that has plagued his scoring attack. But after three weeks and three different offensive problems, even Bagnoli is at a loss for answers. "We're all frustrated because we think we're calling decent plays," Bagnoli said. "And for a variety of reasons -- it's not all [quarterback] Steve [Teodecki] -- we're not getting the job done on that end. We'll have to go back and look at films. But it's certainly frustrating." If the Quakers expect to compete when they begin facing Ivy League schools again this weekend, they will need to sustain more drives. Of the 14 scoring plays in the three games, only one was the result of an effective drive. That was the first drive of the season. Yesterday was another complete abomination for the Penn offense, and it was a combination of choppy play-calling and poor execution by Teodecki. Teodecki looked awful in regulation -- completing only 3-of-17 passes for 90 yards. He consistently overthrew or underthrew his passes or put the ball too far in front or too far in back of the intended receivers. After a broken play turned into a 48-yard reception when Brian Bonanno freed himself behind the safeties while Teodecki scrambled, Penn began looking deep regularly. While adding the long ball after two weeks of 10-15 yard passes seemed to catch the Bison defense by surprise, Teodecki embarrassed himself by consistently launching passes 5-10 yards ahead of his diving receivers. "They were playing a lot of cover," Teodecki said. "They were taking away a lot of our quick game, three-step passing game." To break it down, Penn has essentially three concentrated problems. Against Dartmouth, it was the offensive line's inability to dominate the line -- killing the rushing game in the second half and any hope of taking time off the clock in the last minutes. Versus Colgate, Penn's 15 penalties for 116 yards forced the offense to work twice as hard to put points on the board. And Saturday at Bucknell, it was the complete failure of the passing attack. The running backs did their part, as Penn pounded out 159 net yards. But any semblance of an air attack would have likely prevented the need for overtime. Although the Quakers tried to mix some longer passes into their playbook, the frequency of the passing attempts served only to hinder Teodecki's progress. Saturday's game featured 17 pass attempts -- less than the number called in Teodecki's first start, when there was a concerted effort made to let the running game and the defense win or lose the game. But not since Penn's first possession at Dartmouth have the Quakers demonstrated a balanced offensive attack. With six rushing and two passing plays, Penn scored six points on a 65-yard, 8 minute, 22 second drive capped by a 20-yard TD run by Jasen Scott. But it wasn't long before Penn fell into a rut of shooting itself in the foot. In the opening week, the initial problem was illegal procedure penalties. The Quakers false started five separate times, and when combined with zero net rushing yards in the second half, it was obvious why Dartmouth had kept the game close before scoring a last-minute touchdown. Bagnoli was quick to attribute the poor attack to first-game jitters, but quickly took back that thought after a sloppy 38-9 over Colgate last weekend. Despite the lopsided score, Penn committed another five illegal procedure penalties -- this time in the first half. In addition, the Quakers had only two time-eating drives, and both of those resulted in punts. In the first half, the five minutes taken off the clock was a result of downs replayed because of three Quakers procedure penalties and one delay of game. In the second half, the Quakers started at their own 32-yard line, and, after two penalties, it was first-and-25 from the 17. And after 5 1/2 minutes of possession, Penn punter Jeff Salvino had to kick the ball away from behind the 50-yard line. If Bagnoli is going to find an answer, it will have to be all-encompassing, as it seems each week another facet of the offense goes wrong.