The score of Saturday night's game was just an illusion.
If someone walked into Franklin Field during the last two-and-a-half minutes of the game and saw the scoreboard, they might assume that this had been a neck-and-neck contest all the way.
They would be wrong.
The reality was that the 27-20 finish does not reflect the way that the Quakers played on Saturday night, in a game that was characterized by sloppy play and missed opportunities.
And Penn coach Al Bagnoli agrees.
"Whether or not we deserve for it to be this close? You know, I'm not sure, just looking at the stats," Bagnoli said.
And looking at the three touchdowns that the Quakers put on the board is a good place to start.
All three came off of big plays and all originated from outside the red zone - two coming from their own territory.
The first score came when Gregory Ambrogi returned a punt for a touchdown, the second occurred off of a 26-yard trick-play pass and the last was on a 74-yard run by Joe Sandberg.
Scoring from across the field isn't a bad thing, but in order to succeed this season, the Red and Blue will need to navigate deeper into their opponents' territory.
Except for the last drive of the game and one in the second quarter that resulted in a touchdown, Penn was unable to mount any serious drives into Villanova territory.
Only once in the second half did the Red and Blue break the midfield mark, while the Wildcats took the ball into the Penn red zone seven times throughout the game.
The Quakers had nine drives in which they took the ball under 20 yards and were left with third-and-longs in many instances.
To ensure success in the future, Penn must be able to stage strong, down-field offensive drives.
Still, the game's outcome wasn't decided until Bryan Walker's pass fell incomplete in the end-zone as time expired.
Villanova squandered many opportunities to put the Quakers away. But Penn also seemed unable to take advantage of these failures.
In a wild series of events, Ambrogi intercepted the ball in front of the Quakers' goal-line and then fumbled it on the same play.
"You can't fault the kid for effort," Bagnoli said. "He made a great play and then they came back and stripped it and it's a free-for-all."
More of that type of sloppy play characterized the second half, on the part of both teams.
Ambrogi dropped a punt that Villanova recovered. Quarterback Robert Irvin threw two interceptions during the game.
Penn managed to recover two fumbles from the Wildcats, but couldn't capitalize.
"It was interesting, there was a lot of unusual play in the second-half, to say the least," Bagnoli said.
That's not to say that Villanova didn't have its share of troubles as well. The Wildcats missed two field goals, an extra point, and lost the ball twice on four fumbles.
This is another factor neglected on the final scoreboard: If Villanova had made those field goals, Penn would have been out by two possessions at the end, and the last drive would have been meaningless.
After beating a ranked team the previous week, the Quakers may have thought they had everything figured out, but after a wake-up call this weekend, they need to go back to the drawing board.
Krista Hutz is a sophomore in the College from Philadelphia. Her e-mail address is hutzkm@sas.upenn.edu.
