Not Chief’s Briefs - But Random Observations | The Boneyard

Not Chief’s Briefs - But Random Observations

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C

Chief00

This is not meant to be the usual comprehensive dissection of a game that people expect when they read Chief Briefs. Rather, just some observations.
There are some guys on defense now who can make plays. DJ Morgan really shined as did Coyle. I also thought moving Kevon Jones to DE worked well. Watts really has great speed for a DE. On the Illinois touchdown run, he got suckered but he showed great effort and speed chasing the ball carrier down from behind. The dude from Edmonton, #98 seems bigger than last year and he demonstrated good athleticism. Travis Jones clogs up the inside when he is in the game. He gets doubled all the time and now that we have the start of some guys turning into play makers that will give them the space to make it happen.

Overall, we tackled with physicality, something that was missing under Crocker. You see the progress under Spanos and Matt King with the heavy metal.

On offense, it seemed we averaged less than one yard per carry. However, our play calling until the second half was conservative or suicidal. We lost the game in the first half when we refused to gamble and settled for field goals with ultra conservative Edsall play calling despite turnover momentum. The defensive time out killed us at the end of the first half and that led to Illinois deciding to attempt a field goal.
After the first half, I thought our QB looked pretty good. I liked his spiral and how the ball came out of his hand. He also seemed to place the ball well with accuracy. I recognize the casual fan will focus on his interceptions but Chief is telling you what the eye test tells me.

The receivers after some early drops looked good. Chief thought we missed an opened Donovan Williams a few times. I think he could be a good weapon, if we only used him.

The OL did not move people on the running plays. The early Peart injury may have hurt. However, there was also not a lot of jail breaks to the QB, so their pass protection was ok. Chief doesn’t like the idea of an OL Coach doubling as the Offensive Coordinator. That’s basically what DeLeone did and how did that turn out? Bad idea.

In closing, Chief talked to a couple basketball players and the subject of the student lot came up. Basically, this Herbst led malfeasance needs to stop now that she is thankfully gone from power and is merely gaming the state’s pension system at the taxpayers expense as a professor. Stop kicking the students out 45 minutes before game time.
The idea students don’t travel from Storrs is a total myth. They come to East Hartford but go back to Storrs in scores of buses packed by thousands of students before the game starts. There are many simple ways to get the students in the stadium and not by kicking them disrespectfully out of the parking lot. Chief will now be taking some steps personally to solve this problem for a variety of reasons but also to stop the damage it does to our basketball recruiting. Enough of this police state thing that Herbst imposed. Chief tells the kids, I don’t blame the police, they are just following orders. But given where many recruits and current players come from that’s not what they are going to see in their eyes.
 
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This is not meant to be the usual comprehensive dissection of a game that people expect when they read Chief Briefs. Rather, just some observations.
There are some guys on defense now who can make plays. DJ Morgan really shined as did Coyle. I also thought moving Kevon Jones to DE worked well. Watts really has great speed for a DE. On the Illinois touchdown run, he got suckered but he showed great effort and speed chasing the ball carrier down from behind. The dude from Edmonton, #98 seems bigger than last year and he demonstrated good athleticism. Travis Jones clogs up the inside when he is in the game. He gets doubled all the time and now that we have the start of some guys turning into play makers that will give them the space to make it happen.

Overall, we tackled with physicality, something that was missing under Crocker. You see the progress under Spanos and Matt King with the heavy metal.

On offense, it seemed we averaged less than one yard per carry. However, our play calling until the second half was conservative or suicidal. We lost the game in the first half when we refused to gamble and settled for field goals with ultra conservative Edsall play calling despite turnover momentum. The defensive time out killed us at the end of the first half and that led to Illinois deciding to attempt a field goal.
After the first half, I thought our QB looked pretty good. I liked his spiral and how the ball came out of his hand. He also seemed to place the ball well with accuracy. I recognize the casual fan will focus on his interceptions but Chief is telling you what the eye test tells me.

The receivers after some early drops looked good. Chief thought we missed an opened Donovan Williams a few times. I think he could be a good weapon, if we only used him.

The OL did not move people on the running plays. The early Peart injury may have hurt. However, there was also not a lot of jail breaks to the QB, so their pass protection was ok. Chief doesn’t like the idea of an OL Coach doubling as the Offensive Coordinator. That’s basically what DeLeone did and how did that turn out? Bad idea.

In closing, Chief talked to a couple basketball players and the subject of the student lot came up. Basically, this Herbst led malfeasance needs to stop now that she is thankfully gone from power and is merely gaming the state’s pension system at the taxpayers expense as a professor. Stop kicking the students out 45 minutes before game time.
The idea students don’t travel from Storrs is a total myth. They come to East Hartford but go back to Storrs in scores of buses packed by thousands of students before the game starts. There are many simple ways to get the students in the stadium and not by kicking them disrespectfully out of the parking lot. Chief will now be taking some steps personally to solve this problem for a variety of reasons but also to stop the damage it does to our basketball recruiting. Enough of this police state thing that Herbst imposed. Chief tells the kids, I don’t blame the police, they are just following orders. But given where many recruits and current players come from that’s not what they are going to see in their eyes.
Still need to work on the missed tackles, but they are improving.
 
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Frankly, I was encouraged by what I saw.

I tuned into the #21 Syracuse @ Maryland game, also. That was fun, too!
 

QuickDraw

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The D actually making tackles instead of bouncing off of opposing players is definitely a plus, and the young QB shows promise but he will need to be schooled on tucking the ball away when he has to take off but did show elusiveness in the pocket when the O-line gave him a bit of time to throw . To me the game was lost on our second to last possession which should have been our last if we could have drove it down the field , 1st and 10 from our 10 and the run a draw up the middle on first and 3rd down which no one was fooled by. I called it as did others around me in the stands before the snap which tells me Illinois knew it too.
The teams is way better than last year and I'm optimistic going forward but the player aren't the only ones that need to grow.
As for those calling this a moral victory I say no. If this was a top tier team that we hung with I would say yes but we played a team struggling to get out of their basement as well so we will need to do this against a quality opponent for any moral victories.
Light at the end of the tunnel, I'm not sure yet but I'm starting to believe they can get the 3 wins this year if they continue to improve.
Here's to hoping
 
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THW got torched pretty much the entire game and Fortt still takes the worst angles to the ball in FBS. Outside of those two guys I thought there were some positives put forward by most.

Gilly is a tough guy but man you can’t expect to compete at this level with a guy that small at lb.

Watts is a fighter. That guy doesn’t give a . I got fired up with he took the hands to the face, lost his helmet and chased the guy down. Penalty aside that’s the aggression I want from my guys. You can’t teach that we can teach the penalty aspect.

Uguak May be something by the time he’s a senior. He shows flashes, I think he has the body and athleticism he’s just still growing into it.

I know Morgan will have 1 more year of eligibility and not sure if he’ll stay since he’s already a grad student but boy I hope he stays just to bridge the gap a bit more before we get more capable guys in here. He’s not great by any means but he’s certainly steady at the lb position.

Ardell brown is legit. Drayton is maybe my favorite player on the team.

Zergiotis slings it. The picks I’m fine with for his first start. I’m sure he wishes he had the fumble back, but if we turn it over by airing it out those are growing pains I’m willing to sustain. He does have a little swagger. Beaudry seems timid compared to this guy. I don’t think our guys were ready for the zip he puts on the ball. We had some drops that I chalked up to these guys not seeing balls that fast in practice from Beaudry and Steven Krajewski. Jack Zergiotis spins it so with more reps maybe they’ll be more accostumed to the fast ball?

Rose is a good goon. He seems to finally have found his place. He absolutely cracks people on his blocks and I love it. He’s a freak athlete as shown by his catch I think he just has a hard time harnessing it but watching him develop into his role has been fun.

Mensah just doesn’t have burst. He kinda just plods his way out there, he can’t get the edge and between the tackles I don’t think he can cut/has the vision to make routine 3-4 yard runs into 7,8,9 yard pick ups.
 

Chin Diesel

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Still need to work on the missed tackles, but they are improving.

On the missed tackles topic, last year there were whiffs and weak arm tackles which didn't slow down opponents.
This year, there are earnest attempts at real tackles and the rest of the defenders can come in and make the play.
It's college and even elite teams have missed tackles.
 
C

Chief00

THW got torched pretty much the entire game and Fortt still takes the worst angles to the ball in FBS. Outside of those two guys I thought there were some positives put forward by most.

Gilly is a tough guy but man you can’t expect to compete at this level with a guy that small at lb.

Watts is a fighter. That guy doesn’t give a . I got fired up with he took the hands to the face, lost his helmet and chased the guy down. Penalty aside that’s the aggression I want from my guys. You can’t teach that we can teach the penalty aspect.

Uguak May be something by the time he’s a senior. He shows flashes, I think he has the body and athleticism he’s just still growing into it.

I know Morgan will have 1 more year of eligibility and not sure if he’ll stay since he’s already a grad student but boy I hope he stays just to bridge the gap a bit more before we get more capable guys in here. He’s not great by any means but he’s certainly steady at the lb position.

Ardell brown is legit. Drayton is maybe my favorite player on the team.

Zergiotis slings it. The picks I’m fine with for his first start. I’m sure he wishes he had the fumble back, but if we turn it over by airing it out those are growing pains I’m willing to sustain. He does have a little swagger. Beaudry seems timid compared to this guy. I don’t think our guys were ready for the zip he puts on the ball. We had some drops that I chalked up to these guys not seeing balls that fast in practice from Beaudry and Steven Krajewski. Jack Zergiotis spins it so with more reps maybe they’ll be more accostumed to the fast ball?

Rose is a good goon. He seems to finally have found his place. He absolutely cracks people on his blocks and I love it. He’s a freak athlete as shown by his catch I think he just has a hard time harnessing it but watching him develop into his role has been fun.

Mensah just doesn’t have burst. He kinda just plods his way out there, he can’t get the edge and between the tackles I don’t think he can cut/has the vision to make routine 3-4 yard runs into 7,8,9 yard pick ups.

Agree, with your Watts comment. Also, agree about how it takes time for receivers to adjust to a QB under game conditions. Doesn’t hurt too if a QB is a real leader and the receivers know he will chew them out for not catching it. I also think, Hopkins was underestimated at RB and we never replaced him in the big back role.
 
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Zergiotis is a slinger with a very quick release. Good accuracy, although he had a couple of obvious overthrows. Reminds me of Joe Theisman.
 

storrsroars

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Disappointed. A casual fan could've written that up to the part about the student lot. Every single point and more was mentioned during the game chat.

I'll even note that most of the play calling in Q1 was anything but conservative.

Maybe you can join the next chat vs Indiana and see what us casual fans talk about.

(I just want to add that I chide Chief because he's generally a good sport about it.)
 
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storrsroars

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Zergiotis is a slinger with a very quick release. Good accuracy, although he had a couple of obvious overthrows. Reminds me of Joe Theisman.

What impressed me about Jack was more than quick release, it was the touch he had even when under pressure and throwing into coverage on a couple of his deep balls. The INTs were bad, but I think he'll improve on that with more film work and experience. While he's certainly got a live arm, he needs to learn that arm won't make up for bad decisions - that was a big difference when you look at how Peters threw some key passes where only his guy had a chance at catching them.

Also concerned about his mobility and ability to move in the pocket. Z has the kind of arm where if he can buy himself some time, he can be very very dangerous. But he at least protected the ball when he knew he was going down.
 
C

Chief00

Disappointed. A casual fan could've written that up to the part about the student lot. Every single point and more was mentioned during the game chat.

I'll even note that most of the play calling in Q1 was anything but conservative.

Maybe you can join the next chat vs Indiana and see what us casual fans talk about.
Chief goes to home games NOT the casual chats and its best to have a take away message at the end.
#ChiefSchooledEm
 
C

Chief00

What impressed me about Jack was more than quick release, it was the touch he had even when under pressure and throwing into coverage on a couple of his deep balls. The INTs were bad, but I think he'll improve on that with more film work and experience. While he's certainly got a live arm, he needs to learn that arm won't make up for bad decisions - that was a big difference when you look at how Peters threw some key passes where only his guy had a chance at catching them.

Also concerned about his mobility and ability to move in the pocket. Z has the kind of arm where if he can buy himself some time, he can be very very dangerous. But he at least protected the ball when he knew he was going down.
He also needs to learn when the play is broken and to throw it away - confidence/ego can work both ways.
 
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What impressed me about Jack was more than quick release, it was the touch he had even when under pressure and throwing into coverage on a couple of his deep balls. The INTs were bad, but I think he'll improve on that with more film work and experience. While he's certainly got a live arm, he needs to learn that arm won't make up for bad decisions - that was a big difference when you look at how Peters threw some key passes where only his guy had a chance at catching them.

Also concerned about his mobility and ability to move in the pocket. Z has the kind of arm where if he can buy himself some time, he can be very very dangerous. But he at least protected the ball when he knew he was going down.
You didn't see the play where he scrambled out of the pocket under pressure, and made some time for himself? He continued running a slant toward the sidelines and found his receiver twenty yards down field, he threw a dart on the run and the guy caught it. I thought it was his best play all afternoon.
 

storrsroars

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Chief goes to home games NOT the casual chats and its best to have a take away message at the end.
#ChiefSchooledEm

Well, it's a 9+ hour drive for me, but if they keep playing like this I might make a game before the season is out.

But... I was expecting you to at least address the futility of sending Mensah wide time and time again against a defense that was very good going east-west.

So, I remain disappointed, but you can redeem yourself in your forthcoming more detailed wrapup ;)
 

storrsroars

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You didn't see the play where he scrambled out of the pocket under pressure, and made some time for himself? He continued running a slant toward the sidelines and found his receiver twenty yards down field, he threw a dart on the run and the guy caught it. I thought it was his best play all afternoon.

One play out of a number where more pocket awareness would've been useful.

Like I said, I think/hope he'll get better. He took a couple of sacks that were definitely on him and not the OL (and I'm excepting the one Mensah blew).
 
C

Chief00

Well, it's a 9+ hour drive for me, but if they keep playing like this I might make a game before the season is out.

But... I was expecting you to at least address the futility of sending Mensah wide time and time again against a defense that was very good going east-west.

So, I remain disappointed, but you can redeem yourself in your forthcoming more detailed wrapup ;)
Chief always considers feedback but only incorporates it after evaluation. Fortunately, Chief doesn’t have to cater to anyone.
 
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You didn't see the play where he scrambled out of the pocket under pressure, and made some time for himself? He continued running a slant toward the sidelines and found his receiver twenty yards down field, he threw a dart on the run and the guy caught it. I thought it was his best play all afternoon.
That was to Donovan Williams I believe
 

Purple Stein

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In closing, Chief talked to a couple basketball players and the subject of the student lot came up. Basically, this Herbst led malfeasance needs to stop now that she is thankfully gone from power and is merely gaming the state’s pension system at the taxpayers expense as a professor.

I can't imagine, given all he teaches us, that Chief isn't also a professor of some sort.
 

storrsroars

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I can't imagine, given all he teaches us, that Chief isn't also a professor of some sort.

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Wasn't there, didn't warch it (long sgo plans that would have required a very heavy price to change). But what comes through to the distant observer is that this year's team is not last year's team.

However, one HUGE question I have is what is the status of Peart? Without him, life will be difficult.
 

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Some defenders just throw a shoulder instead of wrapping and that goes to for most of the of the DB's.

Something to work on the next week before Indiana game
 
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