The View From Section 241 — Rice

[businesslawyer]

Since the shorter, numbered format last week was followed by a win, I’m going to stick with the format.

1. That was pretty good QB play yesterday. It’s quite possible that there is a good deal of talent there, and as the rust comes off from not really playing much since high school, plus the knee injury, we’re going to have good QB play for a while. One can hope.

2. Glad for the team that they could stay together and fight hard despite the absurd way they fell to 0-5 the week before. Good for them. It would have been very easy to quit down 14-0 and getting beaten in all three phases.

3. That having been said, let’s not pretend the fact that we won is much of a signal that we turned the corner. They outplayed us sufficiently on Saturday, and we won because they turned it over repeatedly and we played clean. I’m not in any way downplaying the win — you win or you don’t and we did. But if you are looking for wins that change how you think about a team and its ability to win a lot going forward, this wasn’t it.

4. Which leads directly to this — our defense has totally fallen apart. Rice sliced through our D like it was nothing. I can hope it gets better the second half of the season and we can win a bunch of games, but I’m not seeing evidence of it.

5. USF is a must win coming up if we have any chance of having less than a total disaster of a season. 0-5 at home, with only a chance to beat Sacred Heart left, is simply not acceptable. Getting to a bowl at this point would require perfection (as winning at Tennessee is not a possibility), but let’s extend the possibility of 6-6 for a bit longer by getting it done next game.

6. Does anyone on the staff get sick of seeing us have blocked extra points? Another thing i don’t see proof of.

 

[Skies2018]

Since the shorter, numbered format last week was followed by a win, I’m going to stick with the format.

1. That was pretty good QB play yesterday. It’s quite possible that there is a good deal of talent there, and as the rust comes off from not really playing much since high school, plus the knee injury, we’re going to have good QB play for a while. One can hope.

2. Glad for the team that they could stay together and fight hard despite the absurd way they fell to 0-5 the week before. Good for them. It would have been very easy to quit down 14-0 and getting beaten in all three phases.

3. That having been said, let’s not pretend the fact that we won is much of a signal that we turned the corner. They outplayed us sufficiently on Saturday, and we won because they turned it over repeatedly and we played clean. I’m not in any way downplaying the win — you win or you don’t and we did. But if you are looking for wins that change how you think about a team and its ability to win a lot going forward, this wasn’t it.

4. Which leads directly to this — our defense has totally fallen apart. Rice sliced through our D like it was nothing. I can hope it gets better the second half of the season and we can win a bunch of games, but I’m not seeing evidence of it.

5. USF is a must win coming up if we have any chance of having less than a total disaster of a season. 0-5 at home, with only a chance to beat USF left, is simply not acceptable. Getting to a bowl at this point would require perfection (as winning at Tennessee is not a possibility), but let’s extend the possibility of 6-6 for a big longer by getting it done next game.

6. Does anyone on the staff get sick of seeing us have blocked extra points? Another thing i don’t see proof of.

Great analysis as always. I think it’s interesting how far our D has fallen after keeping us alive all of last year. Also, I think you make a good point about them outplaying us. I think last year a lot of our wins came down to a lot of favored going our way. And this year I think the opposite can be said (see USU). That being said though, I think we definitely have a chance to salvage this season. 4,5,6 wins would be acceptable outcomes. Not ideal by any means but not a complete embarrassment. And hopefully enough to keep the recruits commuted.

 

[giddyup]

Our D has really regressed. The tackling is horrendous and the 3 man rush is entirely ineffective. Why we didn’t bring more pressure was bizarre given it was effective in disrupting an immobile QB.

Specials are a mess and it’s a head scratcher how it continues to breakdown week over week. They have get better personnel out on coverage, and that means putting starters out there is necessary. Not adjusting to a squib after big return after big return is equally strange.

Charlton is still a disaster. Take 2 TDS off the board gratis the D. His play calling down the stretch almost cost us big time. Charlton needs to Roberson throw vertical a lot more. He still keeps running plays against the edge and losing, but persists. The guy is a huge liability.

Glad the team stuck together. They clearly had their heads somewhere else for the first quarter but got it together.

Let’s keep fighting and beat USF!

 

[uconnric]

Sick of teams running kickoffs back to the 40+. Missing Brandon Bouyer-Randle and Tre Wortham more than I thought.

 

[UConnJim]

Thanks BL.

I am encouraged by the Rice game. Why? Rice made critical mistakes and UConn capitalized and minimized mistakes and that is what wins college football games. Clearly, there are positives and negatives to the game, but I think the biggest positive is the team did not give up down 14-0 when they were playing poorly. (Even though I almost gave up!) Other positives?

I like how Roberson is developing as he had not played an entire football games since 2018. I still don't think he is 100% recovered from his injury. Rosa continues to improve and I like the way Edwards runs hard. And, I think they have figured out better utilization of the WRs/Joly. Buckman has good hands, but he has struggled to get separation and it seems they de-emphasized him this week and gave more opportunities to Ross, Porter, Joly, and even Clercius. People seem to forget that UConn brought Ross back slowly from his injury and I don't think he was 100% ready at the start of the season. I know this won't be popular, but I have warmed to Charlton who is probably the second best OC UConn has had in the past 10+ years. On D, it seems we have started to play more new players and I think the DL has played solid. And, I have to give Stafford a huge shout out!

On the negative side, I really don't like that UConn doesn't have a DC and sometimes the DBs don't look ready before a play. It didn't help that the 2 most experienced DB starters missed the Rice game. But, how do you rush just 3 in some of the long 3rd downs when Rice's QB couldn't run? Unfortunately, LBs are not performing as well as last year, but I think they are solidifying. Special teams have been a mess this year, and I don't think the problem is the ST coach. McFadden doesn't seem to be fully recovered, but he struggled with KOs in 2021. This year he is averaging 58.4 yards on kick offs with 40% touch backs and the average kicker is about 63 yards with 60% touch backs. For those hoping to see Ruelas, he was 60.5 yards on kickoffs with 31% touch backs last year. I do think the lack of depth is showing up on ST kick coverage this year. Losing Houston and Brewton has really hurt returns.

My biggest concerns going forward? Unlike Rice, UConn is going to face teams that have a QB that can run and we have seen how that can gash UConn's D. Hopefully, Mora will decide to spy the QB or find another way to contain the QB. Clearly, there has to be ST improvement as you can not give teams the ball on the 40 yard line after a kick off. Finally, although I have warmed to Charlton, he needs to improve play calling.

 

[CTBasketball]

Defense just lacks the bite it had a year ago, way too many mistakes. Roberson looked good which is a good sign of things to come.

If we can sneak by USF at home then there’s hope for salvaging this dumpster fire of a year.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Great to see Langston Hardy on the field. Been wanting to see him play since he committed. He had injuries to both legs so keeping fingers crossed and that he becomes a productive player on D. DBs are a mess on their responsibilities with Brinson struggling at the corner.

 

[Bubba1957]

The special teams have been so bad. I think we are going to start seeing more starters (or guys in the rotation) playing on specials. While there is a core of guys who have the desire and ability to compete, they haven't played on specials.

Positives:
Roberson!
The O line. I don't recall him be sacked at all. That makes it all look so much better.
Rosa. I'll give you a Sunday comparison; Alvin Kamara. I think they have running styles and versatility.
Turns overs. Like JM said, sometimes it's contagious.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Since the shorter, numbered format last week was followed by a win, I’m going to stick with the format.

1. That was pretty good QB play yesterday. It’s quite possible that there is a good deal of talent there, and as the rust comes off from not really playing much since high school, plus the knee injury, we’re going to have good QB play for a while. One can hope.

2. Glad for the team that they could stay together and fight hard despite the absurd way they fell to 0-5 the week before. Good for them. It would have been very easy to quit down 14-0 and getting beaten in all three phases.

3. That having been said, let’s not pretend the fact that we won is much of a signal that we turned the corner. They outplayed us sufficiently on Saturday, and we won because they turned it over repeatedly and we played clean. I’m not in any way downplaying the win — you win or you don’t and we did. But if you are looking for wins that change how you think about a team and its ability to win a lot going forward, this wasn’t it.

4. Which leads directly to this — our defense has totally fallen apart. Rice sliced through our D like it was nothing. I can hope it gets better the second half of the season and we can win a bunch of games, but I’m not seeing evidence of it.

5. USF is a must win coming up if we have any chance of having less than a total disaster of a season. 0-5 at home, with only a chance to beat Sacred Heart left, is simply not acceptable. Getting to a bowl at this point would require perfection (as winning at Tennessee is not a possibility), but let’s extend the possibility of 6-6 for a bit longer by getting it done next game.

6. Does anyone on the staff get sick of seeing us have blocked extra points? Another thing i don’t see proof of.

Agree that our defense needs work, however in the Rice game our pass rush came alive in the 2nd half as their offensive line was getting beaten up by the end of the 1st half, they sacked Daniels twice, and had several hurries also. What really is bad with respect to the defense is our defensive backfield, they are clueless out there. With the exception of Mitchell, our linebackers could use some improvement as well.

 

[ZooCougar]

Our D has really regressed. The tackling is horrendous and the 3 man rush is entirely ineffective. Why we didn’t bring more pressure was bizarre given it was effective in disrupting an immobile QB.

Specials are a mess and it’s a head scratcher how it continues to breakdown week over week. They have get better personnel out on coverage, and that means putting starters out there is necessary. Not adjusting to a squib after big return after big return is equally strange.

Charlton is still a disaster. Take 2 TDS off the board gratis the D. His play calling down the stretch almost cost us big time. Charlton needs to Roberson throw vertical a lot more. He still keeps running plays against the edge and losing, but persists. The guy is a huge liability.

Glad the team stuck together. They clearly had their heads somewhere else for the first quarter but got it together.

Let’s keep fighting and beat USF!

Missing both of your starting safeties against 28 year old QB….

Easy there

 

[AllHusky]

Missing both of your starting safeties against 28 year old QB….

Easy there

Any hope safeties return against USF?

 

[huskymedic]

Any hope safeties return against USF?

The timing of the bye week should help them clear the concussion protocols by USF

 

[HCCForever]

Obviously the team can improve in all phases of the game especially Special Teams. What I am most impressed by is how Mora and the team stuck together. It would be easy for them just to mail it in but the team showed good effort and grit. The talk shows talk about how easy it is to lose an NFL locker room after a few losses and they are professionals. Kudos to these college football players for turning it around after losing five straight (seven from last year).

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Missing both of your starting safeties against 28 year old QB….

Easy there

Durante Jones was there

 

[ATLDYKA]

Our D has really regressed. The tackling is horrendous and the 3 man rush is entirely ineffective. Why we didn’t bring more pressure was bizarre given it was effective in disrupting an immobile QB.

Specials are a mess and it’s a head scratcher how it continues to breakdown week over week. They have get better personnel out on coverage, and that means putting starters out there is necessary. Not adjusting to a squib after big return after big return is equally strange.

Charlton is still a disaster. Take 2 TDS off the board gratis the D. His play calling down the stretch almost cost us big time. Charlton needs to Roberson throw vertical a lot more. He still keeps running plays against the edge and losing, but persists. The guy is a huge liability.

Glad the team stuck together. They clearly had their heads somewhere else for the first quarter but got it together.

Let’s keep fighting and beat USF!

Agree, I just don't understand the rush 3 drop 8 and give him all day to throw. Eventually some one comes open or we leave so much playing field open that the QB runs for a big gain. Need to at least rush 4. Special Teams is a disaster. If McFadden can't kick it threw the end zone then let Ruelas kick off since we are letting up big returns. And yes, overall our tackling is still very bad. One play where both Brown and Bell tried using their shoulders to knock guy down and both missed. Please just wrap up.

 

[freescooter]

I think that your analysis is pretty fair. The defense has been a mystery to me this year.

I get it was Rice, not Tennessee, but we were 0-5 going in, on the road and down 14-0. Your comment #3 might be a tad harsh. In sports sometimes little things can have bigger than anticipated impacts. A simple example. How many times has a hitter in baseball stuck in an 0-July type slump had his hitting suddenly improve after a blooper between the ss and center fielder, or an infield hit that the pitcher and the catcher couldn’t get to? This is an individual example but we’ve seen it with teams too.

And let’s face it, with any luck at all this team could have been 2-3 even 3-2. Sometimes it just takes something good to happen to turn things around.

To be clear, I am not saying we WILL go on a 5 game winning streak. Just that it might give us the confidence, spark or whatever to play better football from here on.

 

[businesslawyer]

I think that your analysis is pretty fair. The defense has been a mystery to me this year.

I get it was Rice, not Tennessee, but we were 0-5 going in, on the road and down 14-0. Your comment #3 might be a tad harsh. In sports sometimes little things can have bigger than anticipated impacts. A simple example. How many times has a hitter in baseball stuck in an 0-July type slump had his hitting suddenly improve after a blooper between the ss and center fielder, or an infield hit that the pitcher and the catcher couldn’t get to? This is an individual example but we’ve seen it with teams too.

And let’s face it, with any luck at all this team could have been 2-3 even 3-2. Sometimes it just takes something good to happen to turn things around.

To be clear, I am not saying we WILL go on a 5 game winning streak. Just that it might give us the confidence, spark or whatever to play better football from here on.

Given the play over 6 games, I don't think I'm being harsh at all. Over 6 games, even excluding the losses to Duke and NC State, we've been badly outplayed from scrimmage. I think we were outgained by over 150 yards Saturday, and we won because we had 3 takeaways, 2 of which had nothing to do with us making a play.

I'll be there for USF. It's not like I've quit on the team. But if you compare the win Saturday to the win over Fresno State last year that turned our season around, last year we won because we outplayed and outphysicaled a team that, over the course of the year, played at a much higher level than us. After that win, you looked at our schedule and saw possibilities. I don't see that here. Hope, yes, but realistic possibilities?

 

[HardFacts]

Our D has really regressed. The tackling is horrendous and the 3 man rush is entirely ineffective. Why we didn’t bring more pressure was bizarre given it was effective in disrupting an immobile QB.

Specials are a mess and it’s a head scratcher how it continues to breakdown week over week. They have get better personnel out on coverage, and that means putting starters out there is necessary. Not adjusting to a squib after big return after big return is equally strange.

Charlton is still a disaster. Take 2 TDS off the board gratis the D. His play calling down the stretch almost cost us big time. Charlton needs to Roberson throw vertical a lot more. He still keeps running plays against the edge and losing, but persists. The guy is a huge liability.

Glad the team stuck together. They clearly had their heads somewhere else for the first quarter but got it together.

Let’s keep fighting and beat USF!

Hard to say our D has regressed when at 6 games last year we had given up 221 points and more yardage. Maybe you guys would like to go back to RE2 defenses. The defense has had some issues no doubt but Rice probably had 150 yards plus on the first two possessions. They had two more ball possessions resulting from the defensive causing turn overs. We had a 2 yard scoring drive and fumble recovery for a TD. I still believe they have been holding back on opening the offense up to control the ball and time of possession. We have scored 30 plus in the last 2 games since more made a point
of saying we need to score more points. Roberson has played better every week and 78% completion rate this week is off the charts.Too many people have forgot how ugly games 2-6 were in 2022.

 

[UConnJim]

What has regressed with the defense from last year is tackling and I'm not sure why. We have now played 6 games, so I think this point is relevant: Based on what our opponents have averaged for offensive yards vs. how many UConn has allowed, the difference for the 6 games is -19 yards. So, we are basically allowing the opponents to gain as many yards as they are currently averaging. Three games UConn gave up less yards than their average and 3 games they have given up more.

 

[huskymedic]

Since the shorter, numbered format last week was followed by a win, I’m going to stick with the format.

1. That was pretty good QB play yesterday. It’s quite possible that there is a good deal of talent there, and as the rust comes off from not really playing much since high school, plus the knee injury, we’re going to have good QB play for a while. One can hope.

The UConn Daily does a nice job breaking down the Roberson>Joly TD today:

The UConn Play That Beat Rice

 

[Duncan Idaho]

The UConn Daily does a nice job breaking down the Roberson>Joly TD today:

The UConn Play That Beat Rice

Frustrating, that play or similar is available to any other player lined up as a TE not named Joly for these last two years.

 

[Tdaley]

Hard to say our D has regressed when at 6 games last year we had given up 221 points and more yardage. Maybe you guys would like to go back to RE2 defenses. The defense has had some issues no doubt but Rice probably had 150 yards plus on the first two possessions. They had two more ball possessions resulting from the defensive causing turn overs. We had a 2 yard scoring drive and fumble recovery for a TD. I still believe they have been holding back on opening the offense up to control the ball and time of possession. We have scored 30 plus in the last 2 games since more made a point
of saying we need to score more points. Roberson has played better every week and 78% completion rate this week is off the charts.Too many people have forgot how ugly games 2-6 were in 2022.

As a group I think we are stronger at the cornerback position this year although no one has played as well as Wortham played last year. Many of the mistakes are poor communication with the safeties. Our linebackers as a group are not as strong as last year but they seem to be playing better as the season has progressed. Overall I think our defense is about the same as last year. We were all hoping for improvement over last year’s defense but that hasn’t happen. Also the quality of opposing quarterbacks the first half of this season are better the quarterbacks we faced in the second half of last season. The next 4 games we are not getting any breaks in terms quarterbacks that we will be facing.

 

[RSTuthill]

There are two weeks. Hopefully they can get in a couple of full contact practices. The idea that you can teach tackling at less than full speed I think is a fatal fallacy. It's a freakin' physics problem for crying out loud!! How do you close down space while retaining enough agility to hit the ball carrier hard enough to be able to wrap him up long enough that you can bring him down? Despite the ball carrier's agility to make the tackler miss. I fail to see how you can develop the footwork and timing at anything less than full speed to do that.

Regarding pass defense, it is helpful to remember UConn was down two DB starters. So, it is work in progress when the depth is what it is.

 

[king conn]

There are two weeks. Hopefully they can get in a couple of full contact practices. The idea that you can teach tackling at less than full speed I think is a fatal fallacy. It's a freakin' physics problem for crying out loud!! How do you close down space while retaining enough agility to hit the ball carrier hard enough to be able to wrap him up long enough that you can bring him down? Despite the ball carrier's agility to make the tackler miss. I fail to see how you can develop the footwork and timing at anything less than full speed to do that.

Regarding pass defense, it is helpful to remember UConn was down two DB starters. So, it is work in progress when the depth is what it is.

Add to that fact, practicing against our receivers at full speed is like facing our opponents at half speed

 

[giddyup]

Missing both of your starting safeties against 28 year old QB….

Easy there

Giving a super talented arm all day to throw did our young safeties no favors. Playing 8 in cover seems smart but doesn’t work. Not picking on the DBs.