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He also hit Lamelle on the run on the play that set up the winning FG.
Maine Thoughts
- Thread starter Stainmaster
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Was at game, re-watched on DVR, thoughts at end of first half.....
1 - Only had 1 TO left, coaching staff continues to burn timeouts early because they do not get the plays in quick enough. This has to stop, its inexcusable.
2 - Personnel grouping with 3 wide receivers & Davis was springing guys open all over the field.
3 - 1:20 left, 1st & 10 @ 50yd line - Sheriffs had Thomas wide open going vertical down the numbers....and under threw him to the wrong shoulder. A well placed throw would have been six. As an added bonus, Gresh's commentary on the play was simultaneously contradicted by the video replay he was talking over, it was a Tim McCarver special. One of many Tim McCarvers uttered by Gresh last night.
4 - 1:03 2d-10 @40yd line - Thomas wide open in left flat, there was literally nobody within 25 yds of him, and Sheriffs missed the throw. Worst case scenario, the YAC would have put the ball inside the 10.
5 - 3d-10...Sheriffs tucked and ran for 0 yds, leaving 47 seconds on 4th & 10 with no timeouts.
For this drive, its on the coaches for not having timeouts left in the well, but not the play calling.
1 - Only had 1 TO left, coaching staff continues to burn timeouts early because they do not get the plays in quick enough. This has to stop, its inexcusable.
2 - Personnel grouping with 3 wide receivers & Davis was springing guys open all over the field.
3 - 1:20 left, 1st & 10 @ 50yd line - Sheriffs had Thomas wide open going vertical down the numbers....and under threw him to the wrong shoulder. A well placed throw would have been six. As an added bonus, Gresh's commentary on the play was simultaneously contradicted by the video replay he was talking over, it was a Tim McCarver special. One of many Tim McCarvers uttered by Gresh last night.
4 - 1:03 2d-10 @40yd line - Thomas wide open in left flat, there was literally nobody within 25 yds of him, and Sheriffs missed the throw. Worst case scenario, the YAC would have put the ball inside the 10.
5 - 3d-10...Sheriffs tucked and ran for 0 yds, leaving 47 seconds on 4th & 10 with no timeouts.
For this drive, its on the coaches for not having timeouts left in the well, but not the play calling.
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Ha ... how can you say anything about a WR not with a #5?
WHO the hell knows what we got in Mayala or Beals? We saw enough last year to think ... a long time now ... that they can play. Neither saw a ball. I simply can't understand how you can knock those two.
As for the Spread guy? We ain't running that. That isn't anywhere near a UConn practice field until 2020. You can roll that around your egghead all you want; it's not coming. We can run a Stanford/NE Patriots type Offense ... Verducci (IMHO) didn't come close last night to my vision of what we should be doing. Myers and Bloom are playmakers. Shirreffs impressed; but, we need some downfield attack that actually has potential. And my memory of the long gone Edsall era, we USED to move the chains in the first quarter. bump bump bump FIRST DOWN ... bump bump bump FIRST DOWN. Lorenzen was good at that. I felt we were too into "establishing our rush game will" or something. Just make football easy FV.
WHO the hell knows what we got in Mayala or Beals? We saw enough last year to think ... a long time now ... that they can play. Neither saw a ball. I simply can't understand how you can knock those two.
As for the Spread guy? We ain't running that. That isn't anywhere near a UConn practice field until 2020. You can roll that around your egghead all you want; it's not coming. We can run a Stanford/NE Patriots type Offense ... Verducci (IMHO) didn't come close last night to my vision of what we should be doing. Myers and Bloom are playmakers. Shirreffs impressed; but, we need some downfield attack that actually has potential. And my memory of the long gone Edsall era, we USED to move the chains in the first quarter. bump bump bump FIRST DOWN ... bump bump bump FIRST DOWN. Lorenzen was good at that. I felt we were too into "establishing our rush game will" or something. Just make football easy FV.
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Yes Diggs made some big plays, but he's lucky he wasn't flagged a few times. Celebrate with your teammates. Don't be about yourself.
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Sherriffs wasn't perfect and yes he missed some throws but every quarterback misses some. And he is a run first guy. Just have to accept that. Generally those guys are serviceable but don't win championships but I don't think we expected that this year anyway. He played fine and better than fine over the final drive. And as I said last night if everyone else played btw like he does it wouldn't be as frustrating to watch this team.
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First ball was off, but absolutely should have been caught. Second throw was horrendous.
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uconnphil2016
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On the fumble return for the TD, who was it that missed their blocking assignment? I've watched highlights from ESPN that show the play, but it's too blurry to make out who whiffed on the block
I haven't rewatched the game yet, but I did notice last night the Lemelle was wide open a several plays but Shirreffs never even look to his side side of the field. Of course, I couldn't tell whether or not Shirreffs had enough time to go his second option on any of those plays (assuming that Lemelle was a designed second option for any of those plays).
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I was able to watch that clip on super slow and noticed the following:
i) The FB totally whiffed on the blitzing corner.
ii) The FB also missed on the DE/LB who came down the line and pursued Newsome thanks to the play action.
iii) The TE stayed in to block, so with play action + FB blocking + a TE blocking you are left with only the two WR as options
iv) The WR on the bottom was running in double coverage. Wasn't going to be an easy play.
vi) Noel Thomas had just an LB to beat had the ball gone to him. Had he adjusted is route to a square out it would have been a TD as the left side was totally vacant. A sophisticated NFL team could be expected to make that adjustment in game/at the line of scrimmage, probably not reasonable here.
Bottomline, I don't think we can win with plays that have a FB, RB and TE bottled up leaving the QB with just two WR options.
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Agree a lot of times the hole was there (very small, but there), but he (Newsome) seemed to search from contact instead of using quickness to avoid it. Bro, you're 5'7" (if that) and 115 lbs soaking wet....you're not going to run over middle linebackers
And it kind of ruins the Thunder and Lightning combo if both RBs are trying to be Thunder
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If you go back to the play to Brian Lemelle (final one of the game), he missed a wide open WR running a post after the Safety committed hard to Sherrifs scrambling....I know it didn't matter and make the easy completion to win the game, but it just goes to show that he is zeroing in on WRs and not seeing the whole field....it will hurt us when we start playing higher level caliber secondaries
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The RB was Johnson.
The other person in the backfield was Tyler Davis (who was /TE) who took a dive and then got up and was suppose to be the primary receiver in a TE screen as Gresh pointed out in clip.
My "guess" is Thomas' assignment was to engage/chip CB and drag across middle. Not knocking speedy Goode off balance/path gave Sheriff no chance because he was looking down to sell the PA/Handoff to Thomas.
Seemed to be a designed gadget play at arguably the wrong time with shaky execution(but so was the Anderson TD pass against Houston),
Or, you could say, we kept our FB, RB & TE in to block and the QB still got blown up. Probably not going to win with that type of execution, either
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Yep - the FB had to pick up one of those blitzers and even then, it wasn't going to be a great play against that D unless Sherriffs makes a nice connection to Thomas or there was enough time to throw the corner fade to Hergy near the endzone.
I think what they expected was for the corner to follow Thomas leaving the FB to pick up one blitzer or if no blitz, for the FB to run the seam route. Meanwhile Thomas looks to get open in the middle with the LB pulled forward by the play action. It was a fantastic call by the Maine D.
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I can't argue that it wasn't designed for Davis. Seems like it was for Davis or for Thomas should the LBs bite hard on the play action.
The play highlights how the best chance to kill an offensive play is in the first 1.5 seconds. The play was over the moment the CB blitzed and Davis fell. The CB bltiz was probably a shock to Davis.
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It looks like the goal was maybe to have everyone head right and then have Tyler Davis leak out to the left in the flat. But, as the video shows, Tyler Davis tripped. And yeah, the FB looks like he did a poor job on his blocking assignment. Thanks for the better quality vid Medic--Noel Thomas did do a poor job on the block, but he was also supposed to be running a route. Our left guard and center were double teaming their tackle, leaving the FB blocking the other lineman. Looks like we just screwed up all around. Perhaps the plan was to double team their tackle, but an FCS lineman shouldn't require a double team. To top it all off, Shirreffs keeps his head down after the play action (not that there was really anything good for him to see). All around awful play.
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Seriously. How do you send out so few receivers and still get the QB smoked in .5 seconds
Whoops, I just saw this...you said everything I said, just 20 minutes earlier
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FYI - the FB was Tyler Davis. Tyler is the one that fell and the one that had to pick up one of the two blitzers.
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Not sure where to start. Traveled home this am to NYS and had a lot of time to ponder game.
There was a time we went to these games, had a little concern because some team had an SEC transfer or someone, but wound up blowing them out in the second half. I guess those days are over.
Our O-line stinks, especially veterans Knappe and Levy. guys have been there forever---they may look svelte, but they are terrible. I give them one more game, and I want to see some young eager, more talented guys if they don't show me something in a hurry. Talent and skill trumps experience.
I could not handle Diaco's comments after the game that fans must have found the game exciting. I live in NY and could only think about the comments I would face here if we lost to Maine, i.e., time to go back to the Yankee conference, and other such thoughts. I don't look for an exciting game against Stony Brook, Villanova or Maine......I enjoy only a blowout.
I get it that we don't want to show our upcoming opponents that much in our arsenal and that we ought to be able to stomp on these teams or at least wear them down with basic power FB...........but deciding a game on a field goal with our defense unable to pressure the QB and feeling downright lucky to win, well that leaves me pretty pessimistic when I think of Navy, Virginia, 'Cuse, Cinci, Houston, Temple, et al.
Last, I don't want to see these dudes flexing their muscles and posing for Mr. Atlas on the big screen again until they win a meaningful game. Something tells me that all this hype about the weight room, body fat, and diet provides a false impression that they are ready to show me the kind of football that knocked off Notre Dame and South Carolina in 2009. The backup Maine receiver went up between two safeties to score, their defense pressured our QB and their defenders hit pretty hard. Wonder what kind of weight room and diet program they have in Orono?
There was a time we went to these games, had a little concern because some team had an SEC transfer or someone, but wound up blowing them out in the second half. I guess those days are over.
Our O-line stinks, especially veterans Knappe and Levy. guys have been there forever---they may look svelte, but they are terrible. I give them one more game, and I want to see some young eager, more talented guys if they don't show me something in a hurry. Talent and skill trumps experience.
I could not handle Diaco's comments after the game that fans must have found the game exciting. I live in NY and could only think about the comments I would face here if we lost to Maine, i.e., time to go back to the Yankee conference, and other such thoughts. I don't look for an exciting game against Stony Brook, Villanova or Maine......I enjoy only a blowout.
I get it that we don't want to show our upcoming opponents that much in our arsenal and that we ought to be able to stomp on these teams or at least wear them down with basic power FB...........but deciding a game on a field goal with our defense unable to pressure the QB and feeling downright lucky to win, well that leaves me pretty pessimistic when I think of Navy, Virginia, 'Cuse, Cinci, Houston, Temple, et al.
Last, I don't want to see these dudes flexing their muscles and posing for Mr. Atlas on the big screen again until they win a meaningful game. Something tells me that all this hype about the weight room, body fat, and diet provides a false impression that they are ready to show me the kind of football that knocked off Notre Dame and South Carolina in 2009. The backup Maine receiver went up between two safeties to score, their defense pressured our QB and their defenders hit pretty hard. Wonder what kind of weight room and diet program they have in Orono?
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What the heck is Peart doing there?
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Moment in time screen shot...
How much time did the QB have to throw, for God's sake? Why the hell did he have to run? Lighten up.
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C
Chief00
If a QB is a leader and his OL isn't blocking - he gets in their face.
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Um, no he doesn't. Where on earth did you get that from?
C
Chief00
Maybe it's old school but Tom Brady and Peyton Manning would both do that. Not to show anyone up but in the huddle they would get the message out.
hool
This also creates a problem for the OL in pass protection. It makes it very hard for them to pass protect if they have no idea where the QB is. The QB's role in pass protection is vastly underrated.
My re watching of the game last night convinced me that the o-line was not all that bad. Richard Levy looks great at the guard position. Tommy Hopkins had some trouble and Peart missed a few plays but looked great on other plays like on Newsome's touchdown where he drove his guy 5 yards into the end zone. Teams like Maine can't match up against UConn size wise. So to combat the great size difference, they try to utilize various blitz packages to stop the run and the pass. The worst thing that we can do in these case is just what Bob did in the first half. He ran a very vanilla and predictable offence with Shirreffs under center handing the ball off to Newsome. Alabama can get away with that kind of offense but UConn can not. In the second half, UConn open up the playbook, put Sherreffs in the shotgun formation and throw more passes. Basically Maine could not stop ours offensive in the 2nd half except when we poorly executed the fake run of Johnson to the right and a pass back to the left to apparently Thomas. Tyler Davis and Noel Thomas missed their blocks which led to the fumble. One of my biggest complaint with Diaco and Verducci is that they seem have coached Shirreffs to pull the ball down and run with it he he reads blitz. Well maybe that made sense last year and certainly two years ago when Chandler Whitmer was getting killed behind a terrible offensive line but it doesn't make sense now where you have an improving offensive line. You miss too many chances to hit wide open receivers when your line picks up the blitz. On Maine's first touchdown Vontae Diggs blitz from the left side of the field. The Maine quarterback read blitz left and threw is pass to the left to wide open receiver. That is very basic quarterback fundamental. Casey Cochran did that very well when he played for Weist a few years ago. Shirreffs needs to stay in the pocket more and make the same kind of reads for this offense to get better. Many times its not going to turn out to be a positive play and Shirreffs will have to throw the ball away. But he has to learn that skill for this offense to get better.
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It is stupid and not effective. A leader grabs his o lineman and gives him a pep talk. Not yell at them for missing a block.
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