RICHMOND, Va. ââ'¬" During the third weekly CAA Football teleconference of the season on Monday, Villanova head coach Andy Talley gave his thoughts on the Wildcats' first home game against Lehigh and how the team is preparing for the home conference opener against Towson this Saturday afternoon. Below is a transcript of Talley's comments.

On last week's win over Lehigh: We were lucky to win. The ball was in the hands of our defense at the end of the game. Lehigh was driving the field. I always feel good when the game is on the line, and it's in the hands of our defense because that's where our strength is right now. We ended up stopping them at the end, but Lehigh played very well. They came down and gave us a great game, and they played I think, probably better than we had seen them on tape, which I knew they would. I think we just had a little bit of a hangover from the Pitt game. It happens every year, every time we play a I-A team. We come back the next week and we're just not as high, and I don't know how to get over that. But we have not been able to get over it. So, we struggled. First half, we played awful, and the second half we gathered ourselves. We were down at halftime. When you win those games, it's a good exercise because you fight to get back in the game and you come back and win the game in the end. In the CAA, you're going to have wars like that every week. So, it was a good exercise for us. We did not throw the ball very well. We ran the ball well. We had two runners that were over 100 yards apiece. Defensively, we didn't play great, and we gave up 20 points. So I was a little disappointed defensively. Our kicking game was not good. Again, we can't kick a field goal and we can't kick an extra point. So, that part of our game right now for the second year in a row has been brutal. We have a great punter, but our extra point/field goal situation, wow. I'm thinking of going for two points every time. So, it's been really disappointing. I haven't been able to get it right. We haven't been able to get it right. So, we're going to keep on trucking. But it's one of those games that you're happy to win, and get in the league now and see what we can be in the league. I think Lehigh is a very good team, and I think the scholarships in the Patriot League are starting to show now. Because all of these teams have more speed, and that's the big thing. They all have good football players, and the speed in our league is really good and they ran us down a little bit. We ran them down a little bit. It looked like a CAA game. So, I think that anybody who plays people in the Patriot League, that league has improved vastly.

On Javon White's performance and the running game: Javon broke his leg last year against Towson. He was really anxious to play. He's a really good tailback in his fifth year. He just got better and better as the game went on. We have a sophomore player, Aaron Forbes, who had a couple of great runs in the game as well. I think we only threw the ball three times in the second half and kind of put the ball in the hands of our two tailbacks and our offensive line. Zach Bednarczyk at quarterback did a terrific job running the ball for us as well. He was really our third running back in the game. I'd like us to be a little better throwing the ball than we our right now. Our deficiency right now is in our passing game. We need to improve it. He's a really good passer, but he did not have a good day throwing the ball. We were just off. Thank goodness we could run the ball. Our O-Line did a nice job and we were able to sneak out a victory.

On how the team is going to improve rushing the quarterback and the passing game against Towson: Towson is a really physical football team. Darius Victor is just an awesome player. Then you have to deal with Emmanuel Holder, who is 265 pounds at the fullback spot. So they come after you. That's a downhill football team. I don't know who their quarterback is going to be, but it didn't seem to matter when the second guy came in because they played pretty well. Towson has a lot of balance. They can run and throw. But when it gets down and dirty, they come after you, and Victor is just a tremendous running back. We have to come up with a way to slow their running game down. We're not going to stop their running game, but you have to try to slow it down a little bit. They can run. Their kids on defense can run, and they're very, very impressive. I've always been impressed by the athleticism of Towson's football team. They are really quality kids that love playing football, and they bring it. They definitely bring it. So we are going to have to be ready to play our best.

On what the team did differently to cut down on penalties in the second half against Lehigh: Well, the first thing I did was talk to the officials when they came off the field. I said, "Are you guys kidding me? We have seven penalties and they have none. That can't be." I know we had a couple of stupid penalties, but seven in the first half, wow. We normally are a little more disciplined than that. But right now, I think our team has a long way to go. We are undisciplined at times. We had two 15-yarders that we deserved to get, which is crazy. Our two kids reacted to stuff that happens in the game, and you just have to walk away from it. You know, first guy pushes you and of course they always get the second guy that pushes back. So, we always tell them to just walk away. You have a helmet on, shoulder pads. There's nothing you can do to a guy. Just get the heck out of there. It's a reflex action when a guy pushes your face down and you're a ball carrier and he gets up and knees you or something like that. So that kind of stuff happens. But we were undisciplined on Saturday for sure.