Huskies Fall 35-21 to Army, in Heartbreaking Fashion
The Huskies fought to the end, in front of a raucous crowd of 27,453 at Yankee Stadium, but ultimately fell 35-21 to Army, a gut-wrenching loss.
UConn QB Chandler Whitmer threw an interception with under a minute to play, that was returned 99-yards by Chris Carnegie, for the game-clinching score.
The Huskies had fought back with a hurry-up, quick passing attack, after falling behind 28-14 with 4:22 to play. Whitmer led the Huskies on an 8-play, 68-yard drive, that ended with a 1-yard pass to Noel Thomas, that closed the deficit to seven, 28-21.
UConn then attempted an onside kick, which was recovered by freshman CB Jamar Summers, the second consecutive week he’s come up with a big special teams play and the Huskies were in business. Whitmer put the team on his back, running four times for 46 yards, to the Army 6.
With the play clock winding down, the Huskies had to rush to the line and quick snap it. That’s when Whitmer forced the ball into traffic and Carnegie came up with the interception. On the play, Thomas was run off of his in-route over the middle, which forced Whitmer to leave the pocket and force the ball on the run.
“It was disorganized from the start,” Whitmer said following the loss. “We didn’t quite have what we wanted in there and I should have taken a timeout. Then, I made a bad play worse, by trying to improvise and be a hero in a situation where we had at least two or three more plays. It wasn’t a situation where we had to get into the end zone right away. We had a few more plays we could have run and we still would have had to play in overtime, but that sucks and it’s tough.”
Diaco talked about that play after the game.
“That wasn’t the game,” he said. “Chandler Whitmer, that play didn’t lose the game. He played hard, got us down there. He’s crushed, I wish he wasn’t, I feel terrible for him, but it wasn’t his fault. He didn’t lose the game for us. He played hard and gave a valiant effort. We just had too many errors on offense, the whole group.”
Earlier in the fourth, the Huskies thought they had a turnover of their own, down 21-14, when CB Jhavon Williams ripped the ball out from the ball carrier and came away with possession at midfield. The officials, however, thought that forward progress was stopped, which was the ruling on the field and announced the crowd that the play was under further review. Forward progress, however, is not reviewable and no explanation was given. Army then proceeded to score their fourth touchdown on the drive, after being given a second life.
“I didn’t have any thoughts on the play,” Diaco said following the loss. “I just listen to the officials and whatever they say, goes. I don’t spend too much time thinking about it and I’m sure that those guys are professionals and make the appropriate call. I don’t look at stuff like that. You get some bounces, you don’t get some bounces, it all works out. Some things go for you, some against you, you don’t sit up here and make excuses. We didn’t execute well enough to win the football game and we have a long way to go as a football program.”
The difference in the game, however, was the inability for the Huskies to get off the field against the option attack from the Black Knights, who ran the ball 60 times for 327 yards and won the time of possession battle 35 to 25.
“We missed assignments,” LB Graham Stewart said following the loss. “If you lose your eyes, you’re not going to make the play. You need to fight and scrap and claw on every play because of the type of offense they were running. Kudos to them, they did a good job today. We just needed to do a better job on our execution.”
The team once again showed grit, not giving up, even though they were down multiple scores, on more than one occasion.
“We were fighting, that’s why I think this one hurts a lot,” Whitmer said. “We went down the field, scored quickly and got the onside kick. Everything we wanted to happen, happened and everybody was stepping up, making big plays, doing whatever we could. We were all fighting. We don’t like to be in those situations, but we seem to do pretty well in them.”
The loss eliminates the Huskies from bowl contention for the fourth consecutive year.
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