The View From Section 241 -- The 2011 Season

[metsfan2323]

So the offense was about the same, quote]

How was the offense about the same? Our running game wasn't nearly as good and we tripled our sack numbers.

 

[IMind]

It happened ALOT under Edsall, but it felt like it happened more this season.

This is just because it was more recent.... we were REALLY bad under Edsall. We actually got significantly better this year in overall 3rd down conversion rate. We just gave up way to many big plays overall this year.

I'll disagree a little bit with BL in that I don't think our pass defense was poor because we played a more aggressive style of defense. Or well.. maybe with a less aggressive style of defense our personnel issues are less apparent...

 

[Carl Spackler]

Another terrific effort by BizLaw.

So the offense was about the same, the defense was a bit worse as were the special teams. That's a fair assessment.

My beef this year is with the head coach. And it boils down to a few criticisms that I have not been shy about.

1. Declaring the QB race finished when only one QB was given a fair chance. What makes that worse is that P. broke his word. He said the race would be decided by production and then during the Vandy game he decided "continuity and flow" were more important. Soon after he handed the ball to Mac - who hadn't earned it with production- and doomed the season.

2. Get the ball to Nick Williams. Nick had one tough game where he dropped consecutive slants, however, he was the only Husky capable of turning a five yard pass into a touchdown. He won Buffalo game, almost won the WMU game, his ST plays were huge in the RU game and made a sensation catch against Cinny. Although Nick averaged over 20 yard-per-catch, he only caught 11 balls and in five games caught none at all. According to quotes. Deleone only apparently noticed that Nick should be part of the game plan after 10 games. YIKES!

3. The team seemed often to have trouble getting the correct personnel grouping onto the field. Once on the field we were hit with numerous illegal formations. What's worse is this continued throughout the season. Perhaps it was excusable against Vandy but it's a coach's responsibility to make sure the proper personnel are on the filed and lined up correctly. Yes, it is the coach's fault.

In short, this team had the talent to go 5-0 OOC and Cinny, L'vlle were winnable games. The players lost L'ville pretty much by themselves. But I expected much more from P. From now on, he gets judged on his actions not his words, so far, not so good.

#1. False pretense. Need to show that other QB's were NOT given 'fair chance'. The way you hang on to this nonsense, it seems to me that you're more concerned about running a QB competition during actual games for you to watch, rather than actually trying to win games. And as if consistency on the football field through the chain of command and the offensive huddle isn't of utmost importance. You posted that thing on Eli Manning. THink you're going to get anything close to that kind of leadership in college if you're yanking around the QB position based on the outcome of one or two plays?

And the season was doomed in September? Puke. I'm pretty sure we played for a post season berth on Dec. 3rd. The national championship goal was gone after the Vandy game, so yeah - I get where you're coming from, because that's the standard right? THe big east champoinship goal was lost in that very game where #2, is given the pass in your next point, but I'll get there in a second. I get the NC thing though, it should be the stated goal, except football is a lot different than basketball when it comes to that level of success, and we're not near that level of making a statement like that realistic yet. Need to become a regular top 25 program first.

#2. I think you'd be surprised at the number of offensive plays that were run in 2011, where Nick Williams was part of the offensive package. But then again, why would you care if something went against what you think? Probably wouldn't change your mind. A lot of people were actually trying to tell me that pulling Williams off of special teams practices would be a good idea to help the team a while back. The guy did the most he can for this team, was most valueable to the team, in handling the ball on kicks, and furthermore he's acknowledged as much in public. Then again, why would you care.

#3. Agreed, that's the coach's fault. But you fail to recognize what they're at fault for. They're at fault for installing 3 different offensive packages in the time between spring training, summer camp and opening day, on the limited practice time you have in college football, and with a roster that they didn't have a good handle on player capabilities. They probably could have done things differently, and not had as many costly errors over the course of the season. The risk/reward for doing that remains to be seen.

I think you just like to complain.

5-7 is failure to reach major season goals. FAILURE. In that respect, the coaching staff failed. Not just under-achieved as noted elsewhere. Failed. I fully expect a better overall season next year.

You know what I'd like to see? I'd like to see you point out everythign positive you can come up with on your own about the 2011 season.

 

[Carl Spackler]

One thing that I think has been passed up on in that very poorly researched and thought out originial message , is that there was a new rule put into the college game this year in kickoff return blocking. No more wedges. I'm not exactly sure how the rule actully reads and I'm not lookin git up right now, but it's similar to what was done in the NFL in that you can't have more than two blockers close together on the field on a kickoff.

I know that BL lamented that we don't have the wedge busters any more on kick coverages, going the other way, but that's simply because the wedge blocking systems no longer are there.

It's not an excuse for poor kick coverages, returns that i"m making. No way. Just pointing out that what we really seemed to excel at before with finding players that had that 'touch' to go down there and play human bowling ball on kick coverages, is no longer part of the college game.

With a full year of working on new blocking and coverage systems, and the new rule, I also expect improvement there.

 

[Excalibur]

This is just because it was more recent.... we were REALLY bad under Edsall. We actually got significantly better this year in overall 3rd down conversion rate. We just gave up way to many big plays overall this year.

I'll disagree a little bit with BL in that I don't think our pass defense was poor because we played a more aggressive style of defense. Or well.. maybe with a less aggressive style of defense our personnel issues are less apparent...

The scheme was/is not fit for the personnel. That much is obvious. My observation is that we dialed down the blitzing later in the year, and third down conversions were still a major problem.

 

[mattp]

This is just because it was more recent.... we were REALLY bad under Edsall. We actually got significantly better this year in overall 3rd down conversion rate. We just gave up way to many big plays overall this year.

it seems like this year we'd have them to 3rd and 12 or so and then give up a big play, whereas with Edsall it'd be 3rd and 6 and we'd play a 10 yard cushion and give up the first down. that we're getting them to 3rd and long more often seems promising. we gave up a lot of big plays this year, but we've always given up a few of those. i'd rather give them up when we're being aggressive than when we're playing a conservative defense. at least it seems like you're trying

 

[Carl Spackler]

it seems like this year we'd have them to 3rd and 12 or so and then give up a big play, whereas with Edsall it'd be 3rd and 6 and we'd play a 10 yard cushion and give up the first down. that we're getting them to 3rd and long more often seems promising. we gave up a lot of big plays this year, but we've always given up a few of those. i'd rather give them up when we're being aggressive than when we're playing a conservative defense. at least it seems like you're trying

Pass defense was a big problem this year. I expect that it will get addressed in the offseason adn going into next season.

 

[businesslawyer]

[quote="Carl Spackler, post: 112309
I think you just like to complain.

.[/quote]

And people say lawyers are verbose? Everything you needed to say in your post in response to Palatine's could have been said in those seven words.

 

[Mr Blueskin]

BL, great analysis as always. I have to completely agree with Palentine on his Point number 1. Hate to bring up a point that him and I complained about all season and CS can't stand people bringing up BUT....CS, you can put another rookie QB in when your 1st choice continues to have AWFUL 1st half performances. After giving Nebrich a few chances in the first couple games, it seemed as though PP was trying to go "cold turkey" on him after he named JMac the starter. There were many opportunities where he could have brought us something different that McCummings didn't have as well. One had an arm, one had the feet, why not take just a little more of a chance on the guy that had both? One big excuse I keep telling myself is we had alot of new and unfamiliar this year with many new pieces, hoping to see much improvement next year. Can't wait for spring game, hoping for good weather and some good competition at the QB position.

 

[Husky68]

The amazing this is both Frazer and McEntee have the innate ability to throw balls that defensive players drop. They both could have thrown another half dozen picks very easily (and probably more for JMc).

Had to be at least a dozen for JMc. He must throw a hard ball to catch! One game I think he had 4 or 5 that could have been picked and a couple that were pick 6's.

Another terrific effort by BizLaw.

So the offense was about the same, the defense was a bit worse as were the special teams. That's a fair assessment.

My beef this year is with the head coach. And it boils down to a few criticisms that I have not been shy about.

1. Declaring the QB race finished when only one QB was given a fair chance. What makes that worse is that P. broke his word. He said the race would be decided by production and then during the Vandy game he decided "continuity and flow" were more important. Soon after he handed the ball to Mac - who hadn't earned it with production- and doomed the season.

2. Get the ball to Nick Williams. Nick had one tough game where he dropped consecutive slants, however, he was the only Husky capable of turning a five yard pass into a touchdown. He won Buffalo game, almost won the WMU game, his ST plays were huge in the RU game and made a sensation catch against Cinny. Although Nick averaged over 20 yard-per-catch, he only caught 11 balls and in five games caught none at all. According to quotes. Deleone only apparently noticed that Nick should be part of the game plan after 10 games. YIKES!

3. The team seemed often to have trouble getting the correct personnel grouping onto the field. Once on the field we were hit with numerous illegal formations. What's worse is this continued throughout the season. Perhaps it was excusable against Vandy but it's a coach's responsibility to make sure the proper personnel are on the filed and lined up correctly. Yes, it is the coach's fault.

In short, this team had the talent to go 5-0 OOC and Cinny, L'vlle were winnable games. The players lost L'ville pretty much by themselves. But I expected much more from P. From now on, he gets judged on his actions not his words, so far, not so good.

This post is spot on. Uconn plays in a weak league with a weak OOC schedule. Good coaching (not great, good) wins a lot more games.

 

[Husky68]

QB play this year was neither good nor good enough. I do believe, however, that the numbers do show that, if you ignore the sacks (which you can't) and focus on from the moment the ball left the QBs hands, JM was somewhat more effective than Zach was and the passing attack this year was better than the passing attack last year. Having said that, it is an incredibly low standard to surpass and not enough to get us to where we want or need to be.

You can make an analysis of QB play sans when he runs, but hardly makes any sense. JMc made plays 390 times, 335 passes and 55 runs. Zach made plays 290 times, 261 passes and 29 runs. If you factor in pass and run yardage and total plays made (running and passing) get JMc at 5.03 per play and Zach at 4.96 per play. Hardly better, and better portrait of "what QB does when its his play", also with all JMc's runs he was a drive killer. Most importantly, Zach had the problem of playing for a very poor offensive game coach who continually put his QB in 2nd and 3rd and long situations. At least coach P started calling some early pass plays rather than waiting for 3rd down. Probably Clausen and Scam Newton are pretty close "once the ball leaves their hands".

 

[Jarhead_1775]

The only thing that isn't really all that telling is that yes we did have a stifling run defense that gave up very few yards. Um, pretty much cause no one needed to run. How many career passing games did we give up? 12?

 

[businesslawyer]

The only thing that isn't really all that telling is that yes we did have a stifling run defense that gave up very few yards. Um, pretty much cause no one needed to run. How many career passing games did we give up? 12?

No. The yards per carry given up was outrageously low. No one had to run against us, but no one could, either.

 

[Jarhead_1775]

No. The yards per carry given up was outrageously low. No one had to run against us, but no one could, either.

Huh, I'd have thought otherwise.