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Edsall-Crocker

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huskyrob1

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Anyone notice some sniping on the sidelines between the two coaches during the early 2nd half? I thought I noticed some, judging by the arm and hand motion. Maybe I'm reading too much into it though. If anything it was an animated discussion.
 
huskyrob1 said:
Anyone notice some sniping on the sidelines between the two coaches during the early 2nd half? I thought I noticed some, judging by the arm and hand motion. Maybe I'm reading too much into it though. If anything it was an animated discussion.
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I think I saw the same thing you saw.

Definitely was some animation but I couldn't tell if it was positive or adversarial.
 
huskyrob1 said:
Anyone notice some sniping on the sidelines between the two coaches during the early 2nd half? I thought I noticed some, judging by the arm and hand motion. Maybe I'm reading too much into it though. If anything it was an animated discussion.
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I felt the same way. Kind of awkward
 
Crocker is a disaster that needs to end ASAP. Today's defensive performance deserves a D-minus. An FCS team bludgeoned our D up and down the field for the entire game. It was totally disgraceful.
 
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Anyone who believed Edsall was going to run a gimmick defense lonf-term should be drug tested. He too one look at the D-linemen he inherited and knew he would never find four or five required to run a 4-3. He brought in some kind this year and went back to what he knows. Not to mention, our LBs are way to slow and raw to run a 3-3-5.
I don't blame Crocker. I don't blame Edsall. This isn't about X's and O's. It's about Jimmies and Joes. And right now, our guys aren't ready. But I think they will be in a couple of seasons.
 
Irish Loop said:
What our defensive players lack in speed, they make up for in lack of strength and technique.

I'm not sure what kind of scheme you can draw up for people who don't know how to tackle someone.
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When I was playing in junior college my coach showered me with similar praise. He frequently said, “you may be small, but you’re slow”.
 
Last season the defensive disaster was Lashlee’s fault since his offense scored too fast or did the no huddled and out in 3 quick plays. But, now that Edsall actually hired Dunn at OC, Crocker has to take responsibility.
 
There’s something drastically broken with the defense. I realize we lack experience and athletes, but we simply never stop anyone. I don’t think we have a single red zone stop this season. Has anyone even attempted a FG?

We never seem to be in position and tackling is beyond awful. There’s something fundamentally wrong and, frankly, I’m surprised to see it in an Edsall coached team. I don’t see how Crocker keeps his job.
 
uconndogs said:
There’s something drastically broken with the defense. I realize we lack experience and athletes, but we simply never stop anyone. I don’t think we have a single red zone stop this season. Has anyone even attempted a FG?

We never seem to be in position and tackling is beyond awful. There’s something fundamentally wrong and, frankly, I’m surprised to see it in an Edsall coached team. I don’t see how Crocker keeps his job.
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Opening drive last week against Boise.

The idea of keeping plays in front of you with a defense that can't tackle seems futile to me.
 
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uconndogs said:
There’s something drastically broken with the defense. I realize we lack experience and athletes, but we simply never stop anyone. I don’t think we have a single red zone stop this season. Has anyone even attempted a FG?

We never seem to be in position and tackling is beyond awful. There’s something fundamentally wrong and, frankly, I’m surprised to see it in an Edsall coached team. I don’t see how Crocker keeps his job.
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I agree, there are things you just don’t see on a well coach team regardless of talent and experience.
 
UConnNick said:
Crocker is a disaster that needs to end ASAP. Today's defensive performance deserves a D-minus. An FCS team bludgeoned our D up and down the field for the entire game. It was totally disgraceful.
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Quite frankly, I am trying to understand why it’s a “D-“ not an “F”?

Is it because we won and had a couple nice blitz’s that last series? Or because of our youth?
 
Everybody knows that UConn defense is last in all FCS teams ranking. The problem is either the coaching or the players or both. HCRE has a major problem that's needed to be fixed or the season is practically over. 49 points allowed to RI of all teams and saved by a sack at the 12 yard line in the last second.
 
If the ending taught us anything they should work on a bunch of blitz packages. Here is why:
  • Make the opposing QB prove that he can consistently make the right decision. College guys really can't do that consistently. They won't be facing any 40year olds named Brady.
  • It also puts way more pressure on the O-Line to prepare and forces them to do more than win individual battles.
  • RE talks about being aggressive and having fun. Well blitzing is a great way of simplifying things and letting them run wild.
  • Blitzing creates turnovers and big plays on D, thus increasing confidence.
  • There really is no increased risk. We are giving up big plays without blitzing and not getting enough stops.
  • The base D is not giving them the 3 or 4 stops per half that you need to win. It is not realistic to pitch a shutout, but a few more stops will make a difference.
The offense has performed well in 2 of 3 games. Wins could be had this year if the D can get a few more stops and force a couple more field goals and turnovers. I think this is the only way given the experience level.
 
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Just saw a replay of the ending and Crocker’s reaction. I try not to over analyze emotional reactions, but that was weird.
 
uconndogs said:
Folks keep on talking about blitzing more. We’re sending a LB almost every play. They just never get home. Pretty sure that’s what I’m seeing.
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Correct. And Eli Thomas showed on several plays some ability to beat lineman with his speed. Control at the line of scrimmage starts with speed off the snap and unfortunately our mainline Dline crew is not there yet. However Eli did show he could beat lineman with his first step and affect the pocket. Beavers had several snaps rushing the QB, he was far less effective. He tended not to get the step on his lineman that Eli did. Syracuse will be ready for this.

Btw - Kevon Jones got to the QB for his sack with a sneaky slightly delayed blitz. He wait until the Oline was set in pass protection and then ran right around them catching them flat footed. We need more smart plays like this to offset our physical mismatch.

I want to see T Jones and Fines, etc doing some more twists/stunts against Syracuse.

Overall, physical and speed deficit for a few of the positions on this team remain pretty apparent, but I thought it was a decent debut for Robinson and Lucien.
 
Nothing here is complicated. Youth=inexperience. Youth=lack of strength. Multiply the youth factor by 11 players dependent on each other in varying complex high speed plays over the course of a game what you see is the totally expected implosion. I tend to give the experienced coaches a pass until they have players competent to excel and this won’t happen until we have matured upper classmen.

I do see an improvement in speed in our freshmen. This is a necessary building block to what will eventually be a competitive unit given proper coaching.
 
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Palatine said:
I think Buddy could improve this defense mightily.
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I think Buddy Ryan could do better at demanding effort across the board from snap to whistle. First Rhody TD pass the kid stopped playing I think because he thought the WR stepped out of bounds before catching the ball but for god's sakes play to the whistle. Same thing in the fourth quarter when there was half hearted effort as the Rhody kid ran down the sideline to score. The TD was called back because the kid stepped out of bounds about 10-15 yards earlier, but the whistle hadn't blown and replay had to over turn it.

It almost seems as though these kids have heard that they are young/inexperienced and maybe not very good so much so they play like they have a hall pass to be young/inexperienced and not very good. That's a bad mind-set even if the description is true. Overcome the youth/inexperience with effort and attention to detail.
 
Chief00 said:
Quite frankly, I am trying to understand why it’s a “D-“ not an “F”?

Is it because we won and had a couple nice blitz’s that last series? Or because of our youth?
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Yes, because we finally made the stop we had to have to win the game at the end. The defense deserves some credit for that. Otherwise it's an F rated performance.
 
Palatine said:
Was URI faster than our defense? I don't think so. What are you guys talking about?
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I, anyway, am talking about it being more than speed. URI’s experience and strength on offense proved that point.
 
UConnNick said:
Yes, because we finally made the stop we had to have to win the game at the end. The defense deserves some credit for that. Otherwise it's an F rated performance.
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In weeks 1 & 2, UConn's D failed miserably not only against starters, but backups. Games were effectively over at halftime. Adjustments weren't made or didn't work. And players were beat regularly by large margins, as well as being out of position and unable to make stops for pretty much the entire 60 minutes.

Yesterday, URI needed to score on every possession. Their first unit played the entire game (granted its FCS, but a lot of upperclassmen vs UConn frosh nonetheless). UConn did make enough stops. The margins on getting beat were smaller. There was progress, although not enough for most fans. But progress regardless. Therefore, if first two weeks were Fs, this was at worst a D-minus, IMO.
 
uconndogs said:
There’s something drastically broken with the defense. I realize we lack experience and athletes, but we simply never stop anyone. I don’t think we have a single red zone stop this season. Has anyone even attempted a FG?

We never seem to be in position and tackling is beyond awful. There’s something fundamentally wrong and, frankly, I’m surprised to see it in an Edsall coached team. I don’t see how Crocker keeps his job.
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URI was in the red zone yesterday and they were stopped at the end of the game.
 
Exit 4 said:
I want to see T Jones and Fines, etc doing some more twists/stunts against Syracuse.
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Yeah, I had my binoculars on the D-line most of the game. The DT's were platooning. T. Jones and Fines were one pair and Kevin Murphy and Caleb Thomas were the other pair. They alternated defensive series. Jones got double teamed quite a bit. They rarely ran up the middle but they exploited the DT/DE gap all day and the LB's just never plugged the hole. It was like UConn was playing without LB's. Guessing some stunts like HCPP's teams used to do would work wonders.
 
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