All trash talk aside, I have some Q's here.

[CodyJ.]

I have watched the game twice. At the feild and at home on SNY's power hour. I dont think this win was as bad as everyone is saying. We jumped to big lead and got complacent. Then Whtitmer almost through an INT and tossed an ill advised shuffle pass. Once that happend, the breaks were put on and they went into "dont lose" mode.
A lot of things ooked like night and day from the beginning of the season. I see vast improvement in Offense.

Areas of concern that i do see is we arent getting the QB like we were, and Gratz was picked on. He looked like a weak link to me accept on one beautiful play he made. If Gratz were up against a better QB he would have gotten burned for 6 three or four times.

What are your thoughts on why people are going nutzo on this W?
What do you think about the D getting to QB's?
Is Gratz a liability?

 

[jbdphi]

I don't think the offense held back to save plays for the Big East. I agree with you and with what PP said later. The played it safe to minimize the chances of losing the game which obviously pissed off a lot of people here and elsewhere.

To get that lead however, despite running on virtually every first down, I thought the team looked pretty good. Funny thing and nobody mentions it here but with all the complaints about play calling and timidity on the part of PP and GDL, I was happy that they went for the 4th down play on the goal line and scored the TD. Good call (because it worked) and I thought that gave us all the separation we needed from Buffalo unless something drastically wrong happened.

 

[jbdphi]

And on Gratz, I still think he is a very good CB who sometimes has lapses. Both of the big plays he gave up to Neutz were perfect passes and good catches. It's tough to stop them all as a CB.

And I don't think they were picking on him. I think they had only one receiver worth a damn in Neutz so they were always targeting him.

 

[J187Money]

I said the same in another thread. 17 points on our first three drives. Finally.

I just didn't feel that bad watching the game again. The game was a two score game until 4:23 to go. I was frustrated while in the stands but watching it again I'm not sure I'd have done a lot different.

 

[CodyJ.]

I said the same in another thread. 17 points on our first three drives. Finally.

I just didn't feel that bad watching the game again. The game was a two score game until 4:23 to go. I was frustrated while in the stands but watching it again I'm not sure I'd have done a lot different.

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Was very different watching it again. In terms of it looking better than in person.

 

[mattp]

I'm more happy about what we saw than disappointed with what we didn't see. Let's not forget that over the last two games Whitmer has thrown something like 60% for 500 yds and 4TDs 0INTs. That's a good way to head into BE play. That being said there were a lot of plays in the first half that wouldn't have been successful against a BE team. There were several runs where the difference in ability gave us a few more yards than we'd have had against a typical BE team. Hopefully against RU we'll see nonstop balls out play like we saw against them last year.

 

[ZooCougar]

I think it's possible and I hope it is the case, because otherwise we could be in a world of hurt.

On a positive note, Whitmer is at 61% completion rate and he's already gone over 1000 yards on the season. If P and D decide to air it out more, things could get a little more fun again. Fingers crossed.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I don't believe we've been holding back but I pray to God that I am wrong and that the past month has been nothing beyond an attempt to give the remainder of the BE conference afalse sense of security.

 

[CodyJ.]

I don't believe we've been holding back .

Well, that's a bit far fetched I think. The extent that I was making a point to was maybe they are trying different things in the OOC schedule and not really putting our "real" playbook on display. Partly because they dont want to show it, partly because it is still being fine tuned or created depending on what our team does best.

Thoughts on Gratz anyone??

 

[husky210]

I don't think it's us holding back. We have seen some flashes of the things our offense can do when deleone opens the playbook. I just don't know weather the conservatism is a function of confidence in the players, the coaching philosophy in general or a combination of both. I guess we will find out soon.

 

[gars44]

I don't believe we've been holding back but I pray to God that I am wrong and that the past month has been nothing beyond an attempt to give the remainder of the BE conference afalse sense of security.

LOL. Wishful thinking.

 

[SubbaBub]

Buffalo and Western Michigan.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[CodyJ.]

Buffalo and Western Michigan.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

huh?

 

[SubbaBub]

huh?

Our offense and defense basically played Buffalo and Western Michigan to a draw. Add in the bad optics of several aspects of the team's play and you have your reason for all the hand wringing around here. Add in a loss to a NC State team that we should have beaten, and there you go.

We hope the team will get better and beating RU and Temple these next two weeks would help immensely but, everyone can plainly see that the efforts to date won't get that done.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[J187Money]

I don't think we are holding back as much as we are opening up the playbook slowly to a guy that was making terrible decisions during the first couple of weeks. The better he plays, the more he can be trusted. Bottom line, I think we will continue to be more aggressive week by week as he gets more game experience.

 

[Husky25]

I have watched the game twice. At the feild and at home on SNY's power hour. I dont think this win was as bad as everyone is saying. We jumped to big lead and got complacent. Then Whtitmer almost through an INT and tossed an ill advised shuffle pass. Once that happend, the breaks were put on and they went into "dont lose" mode.
A lot of things ooked like night and day from the beginning of the season. I see vast improvement in Offense.

Areas of concern that i do see is we arent getting the QB like we were, and Gratz was picked on. He looked like a weak link to me accept on one beautiful play he made. If Gratz were up against a better QB he would have gotten burned for 6 three or four times.

What are your thoughts on why people are going nutzo on this W?
What do you think about the D getting to QB's?
Is Gratz a liability?

1) Playing not to lose = expecting to lose.
2) Tough to get to the QB when 2 major horses up front are unavailable. The Youngsters HAVE GOT to step up on the D-Line and produce results. I'm not talking about effort, We all know they are trying hard, but this is supposed to be the Big Time...
3) Yeah, probably, but who else is there? The only thing you can do is role coverage to his side for help. On the other hand, this prevents the LB's from blitzing because they have to fall back into coverage to fill the gaps left by the safeties, which forces the inexperienced 4 up front to generate pressure. alone. If they can't generate consistent pressure, the QB has more time to pick apart the Defense. Full Circle...

Agreed that the offense played better as a unit, but, by my count, only one pass play on 1st down ain't gonna cut it. It still comes down to play calling. This is not team that can afford to hold back with a vanilla offense. I'll ask the same question I did during the WMU game. Deleone isaware that we don't have to use all three downs to get a 1st, right? It is within the rules to convert for a 1st on 2nd down. The 2nd and longs on almost every single sries will continue to kill the Huskies.

All 5 OOC games were very winnable, but we are 3-2 now and have to hope for 3-4 Big East wins just to be considered (not necessarily invited) to a sub-low level Bowl played on December 14. Wouldn't it have been a better strategy to loosen the passing reigns earlier (read NCST)? No one outside CT expected much for UConn anyway, so there was no point in saving anything for Big East Play.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Was very different watching it again. In terms of it looking better than in person.

What was your and Money's thoughts/feelings on UConn's last drive. on Buffalo's last drive?

 

[Carl Spackler]

I said the same in another thread. 17 points on our first three drives. Finally.

I just didn't feel that bad watching the game again. The game was a two score game until 4:23 to go. I was frustrated while in the stands but watching it again I'm not sure I'd have done a lot different.

EXACTLY!!

 

[Carl Spackler]

What was your and Money's thoughts/feelings on UConn's last drive. on Buffalo's last drive?

I'll give you my thoughts duncan, if you don't mind.

1st down McCombs for three yards. 2nd down. McCombs for 3 yards. 3rd and 4 - timeout Buffalo. If there's one thing that this coaching staff has problems with - it's too much time to think. Line it up again, and run it again. I say. Or play action and go for the throat.

3rd and 4. We come out in a wishbone formation? Have we done that at all, all year? Too much time for the offensive coach to think. SHowing something on the field to rutgers. Whitmer keeps the ball and TFL 6 yards, and I wonder if it was actually an option play at all. Want a play calling argument? there it is. Not this garbage everybody is spewing in the media and on this board about repeatedly running on first down.

I've got my problems with Deleone, I'm not a huge fan, but it's not what everybody else is talking about around here. So what happens?

Punt from the buffalo 46, touchback. Buffalo's got a minute and half and touchdown to score.

As for Buffalo's last possession - the defense played great. Sio's hit, I bet you could hear in the last rows.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Next time UConn is in a similar situation 24-7 lead against an opponent (even one better than Buffalo), let's keep our foot on their throat and run up the score. Run or pass, the name of the game is get in the endzone, not sit on a lead.

 

[J187Money]

What was your and Money's thoughts/feelings on UConn's last drive. on Buffalo's last drive?

I have no issue with the first down run (as a play call) in that situation. You are trying to burn clock and incomplete passes are bad there. And if you get 5 yards, I consider it a win, and run on 2nd down. If you don't, you need to think more on 2nd down. I'd probably look first to move the chains there at all costs.

Even the Packers ran it last night to run out the clock, but passed on 3rd down to move the sticks. And even TDH would agree that they aren't boring.

 

[pj]

I just don't understand why we aren't constantly working on developing our offense. Up 24-7 on Buffalo, use the time to continue to develop the QB/receivers/etc. Practice doesn't necessarily simulate game conditions. Yes, there's a slightly increased chance of a loss, but getting the offense performing better and giving them confidence is equally likely to gain a victory later in the year.

 

[junglehusky]

I think we're not seeing the full playbook yet, but whether it's due to conservatism by the coaches to not put stuff on tape, or because the offense just didn't have enough of the blocking schemes / reads / etc. down, I don't know. From a non-trained eye it looks like the OL is picking up things slowly and obviously Whitmer is getting more comfortable / confident running the offense so we have to hope things progress more. I hope there are a bunch of new packages / plays being worked on this week in practice specifically for Rutgers. Winning this game could be the difference between bowling and staying home. GDL should approach this game as if his job depended on it.

In regards to re-watching the UB game, in retrospect the stalled drive with ~2 minutes left in the 2nd quarter was as frustrating as some of the conservative snooze drives in the second half, in that it was an opportunity to deliver a psychological blow to UB that was wasted. Bad penalties stopped the positive momentum.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I just don't understand why we aren't constantly working on developing our offense. Up 24-7 on Buffalo, use the time to continue to develop the QB/receivers/etc. Practice doesn't necessarily simulate game conditions. Yes, there's a slightly increased chance of a loss, but getting the offense performing better and giving them confidence is equally likely to gain a victory later in the year.

I kind of disagree there pj, I think that by going conservative, they were challenging the blockers and ball carriers on this offense to develop, and they need a ton of development in that area.

There is only one play call, in the entire game, that I have problem with, and I mentioned it already. WTF was that wishbone formation for? Whitmer isn't a wishbone QB, and never will be. 3rd and 4 and Buffalo 40 yard line, up in a single possesion game with 2:30 or so to play.

 

[J187Money]

I kind of disagree there pj, I think that by going conservative, they were challenging the blockers and ball carriers on this offense to develop, and they need a ton of development in that area.

There is only one play call, in the entire game, that I have problem with, and I mentioned it already. WTF was that wishbone formation for? Whitmer isn't a wishbone QB, and never will be. 3rd and 4 and Buffalo 40 yard line, up in a single possesion game with 2:30 or so to play.

Not to mention - he almost coughed it up trying to make something out of nothing. Needs to know in that situation take a dive. If he had fumbled there it is a touchdown as there was no-one else there.