First-year offensive coordinator Bill Schmitz probably had other thoughts about how the debut of his offense would unfold Saturday. Instead, the loss of its main playmaker proved the kiss of death for his unit, and the Quakers paid the price in the loss column.
On Penn's second drive of the game, the offense marched 57 yards behind 31 from tailback Joe Sandberg, the last of which came on a one-yard touchdown run for the senior.
Despite good work on the ground, Penn's offense showed some problems that would only be compounded with the back out of the game with a muscle strain. It carried only those seven points into halftime.
With Sandberg gone, the Quakers' offense accomplished next to nothing the second half. Before his exit, Penn had rushed for a respectable 94 yards, all but 11 of them coming on Sandberg's carries. After the break, Penn ran the ball 12 times for a measly nine yards, showing just how much the team relies on its feature back and just how far the rest of the components must come before the new offense can begin testing opposing defenses.
"Obviously, when you lose a key component of [the offense], you're fighting uphill," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "We never established a run game after that, and they just went from blitzing to keep blitzing, and obviously we just never seemed to get into any type of normal down and distance."
Backup Kelms Amoo-Achampong had a night to forget in his newly-expanded role. He finished the game with 24 yards rushing (14 in the second half ) on 15 carries.
In the fourth quarter with under seven to go and a 7-3 Penn lead, Amoo-Achampong rushed for two and five yard gains inside the Penn 20-yard line. Then after a penalty, he was stuffed on the one-yard line for a five-yard loss and set up Penn's ensuing safety.
Lafayette coach Frank Tavani, however, thinks Penn's offense is just fine.
"Our defense just played incredible," he said of the unit that held the Quakers scoreless after the third quarter. "You're facing a good Penn team that had 16 returning starters, a new OC, and no film. I really give a lot of credit to [defensive coordinator] John Loose and our defensive staff."
Despite Tavani's praise, there is little doubt in anyone's mind the value that Sandberg adds to the team, and just how much trouble it might be in if he can't get past his injury.
