Game 1: Lafayette - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The two-time defending champion Quakers laid an egg in their first 2011-12 game, losing to Lafayette, 37-12. Here is the first of our weekly post-game breakdowns of all things good, bad and ugly.

The Good: The aerial attack didn't exactly take flight (we'll get to that in a minute), but Penn's ground game looked as strong as ever against a physical defense. The Quakers finished with 185 rushing yards on the night on the strength of a balanced attack -- bruiser Brandon Colavita rumbled his way to 67 yards, quarterback Billy Ragone scampered for another 52, and fullback Greg Schuster added a surprising 30. I also can't forget to mention Justyn Williams' ridiculous blocked extra point return, which he took 92 yards to the house for a two-point conversion after juking a Lafayette defender 40 yards from paydirt. Maybe the most exciting Penn football play I've seen in my three-plus years here.

The Bad: Al Bagnoli has eight rings to prove that he's a great coach. But in sorting through this mess of a game, Bagnoli's playcalling definitely needs to be questioned. He looked to be trying to open up the playbook early on, but the offense clearly was not ready for that. This loss is by no means the end of the world -- in fact, it means nothing in the long run -- so maybe Bagnoli was trying to see where his team stood during its first game action. If you're looking for a reason why this particular game turned into a romp, however, look no further than the Quakers getting away from what worked, i.e. pounding the rock. Of course, completely losing momentum after Williams' electrifying play was also crushing.

The Ugly: Where to start? The Quakers were thoroughly outplayed in all three phases of the game. They were "embarrassed," "humbled" and given a "good old-fashioned rear-end kicking" -- Bagnoli's words, not mine. So there's a lot of ugly to pick from here in trying to find the ugliest of the ugly. I'll go with: 1) Ragone's nightmarish game -- 8 for 23, 91 yards, 2 INTs. You never want to overreact to the first game of the season, but Ragone looked completely off in this one. Did he catch a lot of teams off guard with his running ability last season? With a year of game tape, will teams develop game plans to shut the junior down? Time will tell, and it will be a fascinating subplot.

2) The defense was gashed for big play after big play. I'll give credit to Cal for calling this one. Everyone assumes the defense will be good, because the Bagnoli-era Penn defense is almost always good. But tonight, we saw the consequences of losing so many starters from last year's team. Can't say I expected to see a line of 230 passing yards and 4 TDs for the Lafayette QB.

3) Everyone has an off week (though the Quakers didn't seem to have one last season). What made this loss "embarrassing," though, was the fact that Penn seemed to roll over when it the Leopards fought back. That's a sign of an overconfident team -- something senior DB Matt Hamscher admitted afterward -- that expected to win just by walking on the field. As both Bagnoli and Hamscher pointed out, a spanking like this could be good in the long run. Tonight, though, it was all ugly.