Villanova, ranked No. 14 in Division I-AA, used speed to its advantage, outrunning Penn on both sides of the ball. You can't beat what you can't catch. After its 34-6 loss to Division I-AA powerhouse Villanova on Saturday, the Penn football team knows just how true this time-honored dictum rings. Not everything went awry for the 1-1 Quakers. The Penn defensive line continued its destruction of opposing ground games, holding the Wildcats to 85 yards on 35 carries. The Red and Blue also kept possession of the ball for 28-plus minutes on Saturday. One needn't look too hard to find bright spots in the gloomy twilight contest. But when the chips were down against 'Nova, the Quakers were just too slow to keep up with the high-octane Wildcats. "There was a significant speed differential at the skill positions -- both in their secondary versus our receivers and their receivers versus our secondary," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "I think we would've done OK if they'd tried to run the ball 30, 40, 50 times." Villanova, much to Bagnoli's chagrin, was not content to keep trying to navigate through the tough Penn run defense. Instead, they put the ball into the capable hands of senior quarterback Chris Boden. And Boden never looked back. The San Clemente, Calif., native threw for a boot-shaking 424 yards. He completed 33-of-43 passes and found the Penn end zone twice by air. This was the 28th straight 'Nova game in which Boden has thrown for a touchdown. "They not only have those skill kids but they've got a quarterback who not only knows where the balls should go," Bagnoli said, "he throws it on time and he becomes very frustrating to play against just because of what he can do." Boden broke his own single-game school record for passing yardage but he was irked by his three errant throws that got picked off by Penn. "I had no idea I was close to a school record," Boden said. "I was just pissed at the three interceptions I threw.? I knew we were throwing the ball a lot but I made some stupid throws and threw some balls." Part of the reason that Boden might have thrown into trouble on Saturday was the failure of the Penn secondary to challenge the much-quicker 'Nova receiving corps. Whenever a team completes 77 percent of its passes, averaging nearly 13 yards per completion, you know that the opposing secondary is overmatched. The Wildcats had four receivers catch more than 60 yards each. "We have a ton of weapons," Boden said. "We're just waiting to use them all." The stats testify to Villanova's dominance over the Penn D-backs. The 'Cats had 18 passing first downs -- more than twice as many as the Quakers -- and converted on 57 percent of third downs. On the opposite side of the ball, there is an eerily similar story of 'Nova speed and Penn sluggishness. While the Wildcats were cruising in fifth, the Quakers were slipping out of gear all evening. Penn managed to rack up only 215 yards of total offense, split right down the middle with 107 on the ground and 108 in the air. In his second Franklin Field start, Gavin Hoffman failed to find many open receivers. Although he connected on 14-of-28 passes, Hoffman was never able to open up the field. "They did well on defense," Hoffman said. "Their secondary was a lot better that I thought this week watching film on them. They had some good athletes out there." Those stellar 'Nova athletes held the Quakers to a scant average of 7.7 yards per catch. More importantly, no Penn receiver seems to have emerged as Hoffman's go-to target. Rob Milanese was the only Penn wideout to tally three catches. Three others -- Mike Verille out of the backfield, Ben Zagorski and Jason Battung -- netted a pair of receptions. Brandon Carson, who is touted to be tops on the Penn depth chart, managed only one catch for eight yards. The inability of the Penn receivers to find daylight on Saturday obviously has a lot to do with the strength of competition, but it is more than a little disquieting to see just how little offense Penn could generate. "Just from casual observation you can see why they're the 14th-ranked team," Bagnoli said. "I'm confident that we're not going to see anyone in our league who has that across-the-board speed." Bagnoli is right to doubt the fleetness of the rest of the Ancient Eight, but the Quakers are going to have to improve in all aspects of offensive production if they hope to repeat as Ivy champions. No team, not even less physically imposing Ivy squads that dominate the remainder of the Quakers schedule, are going to roll over and play dead if Penn continues to falter on passing offense and defense.
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