COLUMN: Time to start facing the facts about Football

Jordan Smith, Commentary That Penn's offense was better than a year ago, that the Quakers were building toward the "real" Ivy League season, that the losses that have piled up in the last two years were a question of bad luck -- all of these were givens until Saturday. But Penn's awful performance in every aspect of the game at Lehigh's Goodman Stadium raises another question no one wants to hear: Are the Quakers just bad? Let's review the evidence. The week before Penn met Lehigh, the Engineers lost 61-28, surrendering nearly 700 yards of total offense in the process, to Colgate, a decent team, but not exactly a national-title contender. A good defense cannot allow 484 rushing yards in one game, as Lehigh did, but a massively incompetent one can. Penn scored seven points against the same defense. It was not missing any of its crucial players -- in fact, Penn was pleasantly surprised to have top receiver John James back in the lineup in addition to Jason McGee at running back for only the second time this year. The problem, which Lehigh made obvious, is the offensive line. What good is a first-class quarterback, as Penn's Matt Rader is, if he cannot be given time to find a receiver? What good is a healthy McGee if there are no holes? What good is a first down, if it is immediately followed by a holding penalty? Very little on all counts. Offensive line problems do not just solve themselves. It will be many weeks -- or years -- before Penn will get the production it needs from this senior-heavy, but mostly inexperienced, group. The Ivy League schedule, for the most part, gives teams time to prepare for the important intraleague games. Other than opening day, most of the first half of the season is spent playing against Patriot League teams. The last three weeks have hardly been convincing evidence Penn is ready for an Ivy title run. The offense has degenerated, but even the Quakers' strength, its defense, was taken apart in the second half Saturday. Lehigh repeatedly found receivers open in the empty spaces between the defensive line and secondary. Penn never adjusted, so the Engineers kept throwing underneath, for a total of 245 yards overall. Having the worst defensive half of the year in the last half before the Ivy season begins is not the way to show a team is title material. Neither is running for 68 yards as a team. Since Al Bagnoli arrived at Franklin Field for the 1992 season, the fortunes of Penn football have risen. After a good first year, his 1993 and 1994 teams were undefeated Ivy League champions, followed by another year in contention. Last season, Penn dropped to 5-5 overall and 3-4 in the Ivy League. There were good reasons to think this was a fluke: none of Penn's losses was clear-cut, only one of its wins (in OT, against Bucknell) wasn't. Penn outscored its opponents by almost a touchdown per game, despite its .500 mark. The Quakers seemed to have good football karma coming into this year. But they fumbled away the crucial first game against Dartmouth and the Bucknell game, too. Then they beat lowly Towson and were drilled by Lehigh. Where in these results is the sign of a good football team? Nowhere. Penn goes to New York in two days, and only Columbia's own foibles, like losing by 29 at home to Holy Cross, make it seem possible the Quakers will win. Still, it is Columbia which has won two straight in the series. The loss to Lehigh may have been a turning point, not for this season, but for this football program. The obligatory "Penn-is-one-of-the-best-teams-we'll-face-all-year" speeches that have been a standard part of opposing coaches' media spiels for most of the decade are disappearing. And the only way to explain it is because it's no longer true.