and that's a wrap

[Carl Spackler]

Great night at the stadium, crowd was as as packed and intense as I can recall seeing anytime recently, and was hanging in there until they couldn't take it anymore in the fourth Q.

Sad to say, but RB and QB is where it's at. Defense did everything they could except actually score. I don't know how many TO's it ended up being? We got 4? and scored so little. Maryland got 9 points directly from the offense - and it wasn't because of the line.

No running game (and the holes were there - I think) and terrible QB play. The first INT - he threw a deep ball into bad coverage, with 1-1 isolation deep on the other side and leverage. Bad, bad decision. ONe of many. Yikes.

I did drive home happy tonight though, and unpacked my car, and all of it. Will sleep well too, and feel fine tomorrow. Last game, it took me a couple of days to even think about unpacking and cleaning up the grill, etc.

So - baby steps.

(Glad to see the new bleachers there, and the milling around drunks being scattered back to their seats.) New lights - everything was good, except - you know - that winning football part.


and I hope Shakim's whatever it was at the end of the game, isn't as significant as it looked.

 

[noeynox]

Like you I wanted to see P succeed cause I love UCONN. Like you im not hurting after a loss. Sure sign the coach has to go. We look hapless on,offense but the defense was a,mess also. No containment on outside runs.

 

[Carl Spackler]

THe only thing that bothered me about the defense tonight, was the same thing that's been bothering the D, through the past 2 seasons, and that is that it seems we come out in the third quarter of games and almost invariably give up a long, crowd killing, clock eating, momentum swinging scoring drive. Kevin Friend went out early, and Heminway played. I think it's pretty clear that Whitmer doesn't trust his line with Heminway. #50 was also in there at RG for Cruz. I gotta say, that I don't think the OL played a particulary bad game. Just bad decisions from Whitmer, and we don't have breakaway speed, or the ability to run over anybody in the backfield.

No matter what, I was happy w/ the environment, becasue for any of the approx 40k that were there, it was a reminder, and a taste of what that stadium used to be, and can be again.

and every single one of those players, gave everything they got, and that I can never be upset with.

 

[CTBasketball]

I've said it from day 1. Whitmer isn't a starting quarterback.

 

[whaler11]

It was electric for a while. Proof a good team would resinate.

 

[sportsart]

I just can't see giving all the blame to the defense. MD would march down the field and then turn it over. The defense looked so fooled on every QB option read. (MD hid the ball better then anyone I can remember seeing).

The missed tackles, the one step late in reacting, the wide open coverage, or lack there of, on the big play before half time. One guy covering 2 WR's?

I'm still not sure why there was no protection for the secondary by blitzing more. I saw Ashiru, a 2nd string LB lined up wide as a DE and rushed the QB. Really....

I saw Willman being the closest guy in coverage on a pass to the sideline. Luckily the WR dropped it.

 

[noeynox]

Yeah they dropped both William and Joseph into coverage. And they seem hell bent on bringing last years fullback as a pass rush specialist and not once did he manage to disengage from the ot.. Just clueless in every aspect.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Nothing any of you have said about the D is incorrect. But the fact is they got the turnovers, and they got several - key - stops. Especially late when it was still a two possession game. You cannot win regularly if you put it on your defense to win games. I turned to look at my buddy at one point when we got yet another KEY turnover, and the offense did nothing with it, and we both at the same time said "Giants game". Maryland is lucky that we don't have an offense that can score like the Dallas Cowboys, and that's not saying much.

WE could not run the ball (and I am not placing that on the OL shoulders for this game) and we had a QB making twice as many bad decisions, and plays as good ones.

You know I forgot about it last night, but on that pick 6, I was a little ticked off at Whitmer for looking at the ref for a flag, while the interception is being run back for a TD around him.

 

[jdb50]

I'm convinced we are going no where with Whitmer at QB. Then you have LM at RB and it just compounds the problem. LM is not an everydown back at any other FBS program. We had Jesse Joseph lining up at defensive tackle with Frank at D end. We are lost.

 

[Srqhusky]

Had a great time at the stadium. Tailgating was loads of fun met some fellow floridians /huskies and some other fourty somethings. All were season ticket holders not sure why they were in the cheap lots. Bought a wrist band by the red cross dude. Walking around the lot and he stated he was at the pitt fl state game and felt we had a more alive crowd. Thought it was a nice compliment thought i would share

Crowd energy felt good although i felt i had to prompt our area(138) to get up on third down.

The guy next to me and i definitely notices the pressure from the right side caused alot of problems for whitmer.

One of the biggest things i noticed is we no huddle but take a very long time to get set. Can some one explain this to me. Almost defeats the no huddle

My wife eho knows nothing about football really when watchi g the TOWSON game felt our players didnt know the plays and looke ld confusef

LOVED the moving of the pile into the end zone in first qtr

Definitely feel like we can be close to winning.

Fourth qtr we cone out smoking with td catch. Then john green makes a couple nive catches. Then team kind of quit

I liked the call of the kickoff instead of onside kick in fourth qtr but it caught the annoincer and maryland off guard. They did t even have a returner back there till last minute

My thoughts. Fwiw. Was a good game until the fourth qtr but we should have been up more in the first half.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Maryland ran and passed up and down the field. They avg 19 yards a completion and 5.2 yards a run on a well balanced 500+ yards for the game. dont remember but one of the turnovers deep in their end. Getting those stops and TOs stopped them from getting 50+. The two 4th down stops were terrific. UMD played the clock in the 4th, we scored late TD and 2pt to close. The pick six effectively ended the game.