Ball State Post Game Thread

[gsmooth]

Walking away with two main feelings

1. We’ve lost the last two weeks because we didn’t close out free wins and threw them away. Shoutout Cam for being a monster all game and for closing it out for us. A win is a win at the end of the day

2. This team’s ceiling gets significantly lower every week

Point #2 hits hard because it's harsh but true. I am glad they won, but that win was anything but satisfying. It just reinforces the notion UConn Football is not ready for the big time. We all wanted this team to take a step forward from last year and it looks like it regressed. It's not like they were all that great last year as they had some ugly victories over crap competition.

 

[Jetskies]

Brock's defense is a mess. It lacks quality starters on the D Line and there doesn't appear to be much depth. Once the D Line is gassed teams can move the ball at will against the Huskies. A private sit down and ass chewing by Mora towards Brock is appropriate.

just an opinion of course, but I think the first part disproves the "sitdown/ass-chewing" part. Who is more at fault; Brock for running a "bad" D, ORRRR..... Mora for not effectively replacing guys like McDonald, Jelani Stafford, & Pryce Yates?

Brock is still Brock and he did well with the pieces he had last year. I say these D players are not getting it done. Saw some really uninspiring DLine play the last few weeks, dudes bouncing off OLinemen and trying again, and bouncing off again. no penetration at.all. You can't outscheme being consistently bullied at the line, you need to win some of the time, which we just cannot do to save our lives. And this is being bullied by the likes of CCSU and Ball State, to boot.

 

[Chin Diesel]

We have no speed on defense. Slow to the ball.

The D Line makes up for that by being easy to block and push down field.

 

[maple]

After two consecutive collapses to lose in OT, I’ll take the win.

But I’m not happy about it.

 

[Milo65]

Brock needs to switch something up defensively because its clearly not working this year. The last two drives by Ball State were atrocious, especially the touchdown where the receiver dragged 3 defenders 5 yards into the end zone.

I counted at least 7 at one point.

 

[ZooCougar]

Buffalo is now a must win if we’re going to go bowling

I give us a 40% chance at 6 wins now.

 

[Zerostatic]

8 games left and we need 5 more wins to meet my criteria of a successful season. Fingers crossed.

 

[HuskyFan16]

just an opinion of course, but I think the first part disproves the "sitdown/ass-chewing" part. Who is more at fault; Brock for running a "bad" D, ORRRR..... Mora for not effectively replacing guys like McDonald & Pryce Yates?

Brock is Brock and he did well with the pieces he had last year. I say these D players are not getting it done. Saw some really uninspiring DLine play the last few weeks, dudes bouncing off OLinemen and trying again, and bouncing off again. no penetration at.all. You can't outscheme being bullied at the line.

Frustrating, but it does seem like the issue isn’t really the coaches’ in-game schemes/calls/adjustments. That wouldn’t result in the same problems week after week after week. We’ve seen enough to admit, that especially on D and perhaps the O-Line, the staff just didn’t sign the jimmies and joes who can play at the level the program needs to be at.

 

[JMick]

gotta disagree about effort on defense. Effort was lacking on plenty of plays. Guys just getting steamrolled, allowing yards after contact, etc. Defense is physically weak.

I just don't think a lot of the guys are very good. I don't think it was for lack of trying today. The DL is really bad. Worst one we've had in ages

 

[Forte]

The defense collapses at the end of every game (and overtime).

"The 3-3-5 defense is a high risk, high reward defense. It is a defense that is derived from pressure and athletic defenders." - Throw Deep Publishing - Books and Videos About Football Coaching

I think we found our problem..... Too late now but wonder how things would look under a 4-2-5

 

[Chin Diesel]

just an opinion of course, but I think the first part disproves the "sitdown/ass-chewing" part. Who is more at fault; Brock for running a "bad" D, ORRRR..... Mora for not effectively replacing guys like McDonald, Jelani Stafford, & Pryce Yates?

Brock is still Brock and he did well with the pieces he had last year. I say these D players are not getting it done. Saw some really uninspiring DLine play the last few weeks, dudes bouncing off OLinemen and trying again, and bouncing off again. no penetration at.all. You can't outscheme being consistently bullied at the line, you need to win some of the time, which we just cannot do to save our lives. And this is being bullied by the likes of CCSU and Ball State, to boot.

I've said it before in other threads and I'll say it here too. The 3-3-5 is a defensive scheme leaving no room for error. There's a reason why almost no one uses it. If the coordinators calls the wrong set, offense will get chunk yards. If the defender blows his assignment, offense will get chunk yards. And if you don't have big uglies who can stand there ground to free the LB's and hybrid DB's, the offense will get chunk plays.
So, yes, part of this is on Mora not backfilling the losses from last year, and part of it is on Brock not realizing he doesn't have the same talent and making adjustments to the talent he does have on this year's team.

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

Brock's defense is a mess. It lacks quality starters on the D Line and there doesn't appear to be much depth. Once the D Line is gassed teams can move the ball at will against the Huskies. A private sit down and ass chewing by Mora towards Brock is appropriate.

Is it scheme….talent….or both? This D-line does not seem able to execute Brock’s defense. He may need a new approach…or find guys on the bench who can execute his plan. Doing the same thing with the same guys next week…seems like a bad idea.

 

[DoctorWho85]

Went from expected 10-2 to 6-6 maybe

 

[B1GEast]

Buffalo is now a must win if we’re going to go bowling

Every game is a must win

 

[Jetskies]

Frustrating, but it does seem like the issue isn’t really the coaches’ in-game schemes/calls/adjustments. That wouldn’t result in the same problems week after week after week. We’ve seen enough to admit, that especially on D and perhaps the O-Line, the staff just didn’t sign the jimmies and joes who can play at the level the program needs to be at.

yep. I sorta wish the issue was the coaches - u can fire your coach and move on. you can't fire your players, it is what it is till the offseason. Brutal

 

[KryHavok]

Good news, we win and Cam absolutely saved the day. We're not turning over the ball due to INTs or fumbles.

Bad news, the team TWICE was up by 14 points and let the other team march down and get within a score. There is a lack of closeout mentality on defense. I worry we'll see more of the last two weeks than this week in terms of Wins and Losses.

 

[Jetskies]

I'm heartbroken for this offense, truly. Can you imagine the ceiling on this season, if we had a competent defense? not even an elite one.

we'd have beat syracuse by 14, Delaware by 28, and ball state by like 40 easy. heartbreaking

with our luck, we may not have an offense this good again.

 

[Stinger92860]

Bell, Cam and Parham are excellent. Jury is out on the rest of the team.

Nieder also bringing it on Saturdays

 

[freescooter]

Partly this is a case of portal misses. I think a number of teams have seen it. It’s a hit or miss thing and it looks like this year was a miss. This game should have been 31-10 or something similar. Any competent defense puts them away. Ours is just not good. They need to revamp the whole mess. I’d put in an extra linebacker and play a straiight 3-4. See what happens. The offense scored 31 points. It was a little messy but the running attack worked and we passed ok at key points even if for less than 200 yards. Or maybe take my Delaware advice. Next week just play 11 Orange cones on defense and hope for the best.

 

[Ctrane]

I never had any use for a dc who forces on a system regardless of the physical capabilities of the players. At any level.

 

[Jetskies]

I've said it before in other threads and I'll say it here too. The 3-3-5 is a defensive scheme leaving no room for error. There's a reason why almost no one uses it. If the coordinators calls the wrong set, offense will get chunk yards. If the defender blows his assignment, offense will get chunk yards. And if you don't have big uglies who can stand there ground to free the LB's and hybrid DB's, the offense will get chunk plays.
So, yes, part of this is on Mora not backfilling the losses from last year, and part of it is on Brock not realizing he doesn't have the same talent and making adjustments to the talent he does have on this year's team.

this is probably the reasonable take. everyone's to blame. just let me be angry at the players!

 

[Forte]

Partly this is a case of portal misses. I think a number of teams have seen it. It’s a hit or miss thing and it looks like this year was a miss. This game should have been 31-10 or something similar. Any competent defense puts them away. Ours is just not good. They need to revamp the whole mess. I’d put in an extra linebacker and play a straiight 3-4. See what happens. The offense scored 31 points. It was a little messy but the running attack worked and we passed ok at key points even if for less than 200 yards. Or maybe take my Delaware advice. Next week just play 11 Orange cones on defense and hope for the best.

This

 

[RSTuthill]

I said after the CCSU game that I was surprised how bad the defense was. Nothing has changed. Nor will it this year. Every year is a portal crap shoot. We are not in the money this year.

A bowl game is now less than even money.

The offense seems to be getting worse.

 

[Jetskies]

ladies and gentlemen your 2025 uconn huskies defense

 

[uconnbaseball]

We might not win another game all year. Ball state and CCSU were the 2 worst teams on our schedule

FIU is as bad as Ball State. UConn will probably beat FAU as well.

Rice is going to THUMP UConn. The Owls are much improved. Air Force has been a disappointment but is, at best, a toss-up.