Game 1 Good, Bad and Ugly

[Chin Diesel]

Overall B+/A-.

Would have liked to see the offense blow them away the first four series, but que sera, sera.
Good:

Defense and special teams are A+++ (Ralphie fantasy essay grade in Christmas Story good). Less than 60yds allowed, defensive TD, special teams TD, 3-3 on FG's, Nick looked great on returns and coverage teams did what they needed to do.

Injuries. Looks like we made it through good. Only player we saw need attention was Jennings.

Passing game. Seven different players had at least one catch for 10+ yds. I would have liked to see the offense try to stretch the field in the first half, but again, I think everything we saw tonight was intentionally done to give NCSU exactly the amount of film we wanted them to see.


Building Depth. Samra's redshirt is gone. Obviously the staff feels he's going to be needed throughout the season and might as well put feet to the fire ASAP. Adams played good on defense and completely blew up one reverse.

Sio Moore. Nuff said.

McCombs YAC. Yards after contact. Loved the run in the red zone where he carried a Dlinemen three yards down to the one. Last year, no way he does that. And it happened in the second half when he isn't at 100% strength. He also did a great job picking up blitzes and blocking on a reverse.

Geremy Davis. Welcome to the offensive rotation. You've earned the playing time, keep on keepin on.

Bad:

Run blocking and YPC. Couldn't consistently move the pile on the run. If the line can't blow UMass off the line, who can they blow off the line? A concern of zone blocking schemes is passiveness. Would love to see these guys move the line more consistently.

Ugly:

3 TO's. Two of which were unexcusable. The INT on the attempt to throw out of bounds was absurd. He's outside the pocket, he can put it three rows deep ( no one was sitting there, so no harm, no foul). He outsmarted himself by seeing a defender standing out of bounds and threw right at him. Unfortunately it allowed the defense to make a spectacular play. Don't give them the chance to make a spectacular play. McCombs fumble at the two yard line is equally bad. Can't give away points. Whitmer's INT on the crossing pattern wasn't great, but it happens.


Overall, exactly what Uconn wanted. A win that wasn't ever in doubt, health going forward and some measurable improvements over last year in the passing game.

One play that really stuck out was during the first half when Uconn had a second and seven or second and eight. The pocket collapsed and Whitmer stepped up and fell forward for a gain of 1-2 yards. Nothing spectacular, but if he panics and gets sacked its 3rd and 11. He stepped forward got a yard or two and it was 3rd and 5. Way more manageable set of plays when it's 3rd and 5 instead of 3rd and 11. And Uconn went on to get the first down and extend the drive. Small plays like that extend drives, give our defense more rest and keeps their defense on the field for another set of downs. Small stuff that matters.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I have no idea whether it was by design, but I thought we ran WAY too much wildcat packages tonight.

Not much to complain about though.

Nick Williams is one heck of a football player.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I have no idea whether it was by design, but I thought we ran WAY too much wildcat packages tonight.

Not much to complain about though.

Nick Williams is one heck of a football player.

Whether we liked it or not, I *think* everything we saw from the offense after the first quarter was entirely intentional leading up to the next two games. A ton of different formations that only had one or two plays run out of. So NCSU and the Turtle have to prep for a lot of looks but only saw one angle of those looks.

 

[jbdphi]

Generally agree. Defense and Special Teams were awesome. Really no complaints on those fronts and Christen's kicking definitely made me feel more comfortable going forward.

Minor thing that I liked - we actually put in the second team offense towards the end. We won't always have a chance to do so, but it was good to see DeLorenzo have a nice run. Johnny Mac is Johnny Mac but still good to get him live reps and avoid injuries among the first stringers.

For the first team offense though, I have to say I was really disappointed. I don't think we had less than 4.0 YPC to fool NC State for next week. Our OL was just not getting the push and the holes were not really there. Very few runs greater than 10 yards (one by Williams, two by McCombs I think and the one by DeLorenzo). No runs greater than 20 yards.

I was not impressed with the Wildcat offense for the most part. Either UMass played it well or we didn't - don't know which. The McCummings fumble on the exchange with McCombs is not the first time he has had ball security issues.

In terms of the passing game, I agree on the throwaway INT. Lesson learned I hope. What concerned me more was the lack of separation we were getting by our WR corp against their defense. Only seeing the game on TV, I don't know if there were a bunch of other guys that were wide open (which would bring up another problem) but it seemed to me that on most routes, UMass had pretty decent pass coverage, particularly on the deep routes. We don't have a burner that can stretch the field and make the defense respect the long ball.

Obviously next week brings a much higher level of competition. To me, with our Defense and Special Teams play, we should be able to hang with almost anybody but we cannot afford to give the ball to the other team three times like our Offense did this week. We also need to establish some sort of running game. I think Whitmer has the potential to make other defenses respect our passing game but we need the OL to step up and give Lyle some room.

 

[jbdphi]

One more thing. I hope we were "hiding" our TE seam plays for next week. We had some great ones last year and Griffin and Delahunt are definitely assets that we need to take full advantage of. The reverse / option throw to Griffin took way too long to develop but Griffin made a fantastic jump and catch. He can do far more.

 

[Srqhusky]

First I want to say nick Williams and Lyle mccombs are two of the best football players Period. Nick Williams knows how to move the football and Lyle mccombs pushing d-lineman back for three yards and he pushes the pile back too. Holy cow. Coach p showed how to make nick Williams a weapon.
I was very surprised with the coverage by umass they had most of our receivers covered all game and some pass interferences that were blatant weren't called witch could of made the game uglier.
Those who are criticizing the running don't forget they have a very large d-line And they are. Well coached. Give umass some credit they covered well and had some size. I thought we has a big edge on their qb experience va our defense. This defense wil keep us in games with anyone in the country period
Overall with whitmer despite the stats I'm not worried. There was a lot of stepping forward as far as confidence and smoothness I the offense I didn't see last year
The wildcat... Why does it always seem as if they give it to the other guy the other guy will blow by the defense.
Great job by Jordan Todman tonight hope he did enough to make the team. 76 yd touchdown. Run way to go!!

 

[john2153]

I thought Whitmer looked pretty good....I definitely would like to see what he can do with more plays to get the offense into a flow. I like McCummings and the wildcat package but I think we used too much of it tonight. But maybe we are just throwing everything out there for future opponents to look at.

The defense looked amazing, I don't think anyone could have expected UMass to not cross midfield before the game.

 

[CL82]

Minor thing that I liked - we actually put in the second team offense towards the end. We won't always have a chance to do so, but it was good to see DeLorenzo have a nice run. Johnny Mac is Johnny Mac but still good to get him live reps and avoid injuries among the first stringers.

I don't know. I think that I'd rather see McCummings in there for those downs. More reps will make him more effective.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Let's all be grateful that we can debate how the distribution of snaps between the 2nd/3rd QB went tonight.

Indicator that the game went well.

 

[SAMCRO]

I like the fact that our RB's, FB, WR, and TE's were all thrown to last night.

 

[UConnDan97]

The wildcat is really starting to irritate me, especially against an opponent that we are clearly better than. Let Whitmer get his reps, get his comfort level, and continue to build a rapport with all of the receiving crew. Also, I'm a little concerned with the fact that we had a hard time establishing the run last night. It's the first time I've been concerned with the UConn running game since Terry Caulley got hurt!

Still, it is hard to complain too much about a 37-0 win, especially when we are breaking in a new quarterback, getting the OLine together, and working out the wrinkles. We'll have to hang 60 on NCState...