Not that angry about today's loss

[nelsonmuntz]

Finally finished rewatching the game all the way through this morning. My view (from Section 241):

- Great start, and great play calling on the first 3 drives - game planning was on point
- I like a team with guts, so I will reverse what I said before. In the flow of the game I think you go for it there. I wanted to at the time (and I was all pumped up and a little drunk), came off that position, but watching it again worth a shot. Up until that point the D was playing great.
- The D made a huge save stripping the ball at the end of the half. Otherwise it is 14-10 at half.
- Watching the 3rd quarter in rapid fire - all we did was pass. And all Whitmer did was either move the ball or get sacked. The coaches were NOT protecting a lead (ala Buffalo).
- D made great play after great play in the 4th quarter, even after being put in bad situations
- The play where Whitmer fumbled was atrocious. A THREE man rush got to the QB in about 2 seconds, while the C and two Gs stood around looking at each other. Might be the worst pass blocking I'd ever seen at any level on one play. I have no words for what that looked like, but the D bailed us out again. And before people start yelling about "zone blocking" and GDL and Foley, how about something called "effort"...they looked lost.
- The ball to Nick Williams was catchable. Not a perfect throw, but that is something you need to catch.
- We ran "ok" the entire game. Because we weren't running all the time, it was ok. Mix of decent gainers with getting stuffed. Not much to say there. Max earned himself more playing time and Joe should get some carries.
- The last possession - timeout needs to be called there. Whether that is 100% on the coaches or the defensive play caller on the field I'll let others decide, but they are often moving around and so it might not have been obvious to the coaches that the D wasn't where they wanted to be. If you watch how we operate, there are often late shifts and it looks like they are making the adjustments on the field and not from the sidelines. So I don't know if it is up to P to call a TO or up to the players. But a TO probably saves the game, even with all of the other miscues.

My overall assessment? Temple isn't a pushover, and we made too many mistakes. On the whole the D did their job (keeping them to 14 points). The O did their job in the 1Q and sporadically after that. Specials were a train wreck. The O Line needs to protect Whitmer. Ugly.

Good recap.

 

[BlueMAB]

Just as you are giving UConn a first down from 4th and 2, even though we all know a run was coming up the middle, and I'll let you figure that out...

When a team is punting from their own endzone (without the same run up for the punter), teams normally expect the ball around midfield.

Playcalling from a team on their own 7 is VASTLY different from playcalling from the 20, and we all know it. You cannot assume that they score the TD if the ball is properly fielded at the 7 yard line. It was a simple catch, but he let it bounce...PP's fault, I assume...

It was 4th and 1. I didn't give them a first down. I said the risk/reward is in our favor. Get the first down, and we keep the chains moving with the chance to score. Don't, and they get the ball at the 43. Since they drove down and scored from the 20, I'm conceeding they would have done the same from the 43. You need to pretend they got the ball at the 7 in order to justify the decision. I'm going based on what actually happened. And now you're blaming the touchdown on the fact the playbook was opened up because they got it at the 20? They scored that TD thanks to two long runs, 33 and 24 yards. They went run, pass, run, run, run, run (TD).

You can't assume they would be punting from the endzone. They didn't down the ball at the 7, they got a touchback. They didn't even punt on that drive, they scored a touchdown.

Your entire argument is based on something that didn't happen. I'm sure you've seen a ton of football, this can't be the first time you've seen a ball go into the endzone from a punt inside the 50, right?

I don't blame P for the player's mistake. I blame him for putting them in that position, rather than going for the first down and the jugular.

Whenever a ball is punted from inside the 45 yard line, it's more likely to result in a touchback. At best you've got a 50/50 chance of downing it. What are the chances you pick up 1 yard on 4th down? Better than 50/50? I say yes. Even on a bland run right up the middle.

 

[Carl Spackler]

You guys are still going on about this huh. Good. Football discussion. Here's my two cents. You either adhere to the concept of a team game, and playign to your team's strenghts or you don't, and fly by the seat of your pants. I will never criticize a coaching staff for going to it's team's strengths during a critical decision, with lots of variables. What to do on 4th down at the 40 yard line or so, is one of those decision amking times. Our defense was playing stellar. We had 200+ yards to their less than 10 yards. I assume that all of you are locked in on the second 4th down in that area in the second Q, and not the first. On the first - at about the 50 or so, mid field, we punted, pinned them at the 15, and the defense pushed them back 8 yards before they punted.

Team win in that battle.

Next possession we got a few yards farther , to the 43 I think, before hitting 4th down again. We punt again. On the next possession, we fail to make proper run fits, on D, and they break off two runs of 33 yrds, and another of 24 yards - the second one going for the TD.

Team loss in that battle. We got the run D fixed after that, and they didn't do that to us again. They started running some pitches and had the QB running, which was harder to stop after that, but we basically shut them down again until the last possession.

Momentum swings? Huge in football. Those failed run D fits, were the huge swings. Not the punts. We recovered from those.

What we didn't recover from, was the stretch of consecutive 3 and outs on offense, that started the second half. But at least we were throwing the ball. Fans wanted that.

 

[UConnDan97]

I don't know how to be more clear about what I am trying to say, because I think that WingU, et al., are misunderstanding me. I am NOT arguing that going for it on 4th down would have been wrong. If PP chose to go for it, as I mentioned earlier, I would not have been upset. What I'm saying is that the punt is the accepted "correct" play that most coaches are going to follow. What I'm also saying is that it is lunacy....absolute and utter LUNACY....to believe that it was THAT play that cost us the game!! To believe that is to simply allow one's feelings about PP to get in the way of reason.

The best you can argue is that going for it on 4th down is a 50/50 proposition versus the punt, and no better...

 

[BlueMAB]

I don't believe one play cost us the game. I believe it helped swing the momentum, and I believe that decision is but one example of the questionable conservative decision making by the staff.

 

[pj]

I actually didn't mind our play calling against Temple. It was just as much the team that couldn't finish it as it was coaching. There were a lot of mistakes all over the field. While the kicks were the most glaring mistake, there were a lot of mistakes that had they not happened would have resulted in us winning the game. What worries me most is we basically did the same thing against Buffalo (and to a degree MD), we were just lucky to run out of time before they took the lead. Temple and Buffalo are nothing special and these are the games we should be flat out dominating, and we're not.

I think some of it's on the coaches, but not finishing games also speaks of the other leadership on the team. I can't remember who the two players were that were celebrating while Temple lined up for another play right before they tied it up, but that's indicative of the player's attitude on the field. So you got a sack, big whoop when Temple still has time and downs to score.

I thought the play calling was good against Temple, but they looked like they hadn't practiced those plays much. Once Temple took away the plays they had practiced this week, nobody was on the same page.

That's my big beef with GDL, he hasn't figured out the team's identity and practiced it enough so that they execute it well. We're jacks of all trades masters of none. It seems to me the playmakers are predominantly in the passing game, so we should have started practicing a spread in August and gotten pretty good at it by now. Right now it's still our best offense, but only works smoothly when the defense isn't ready for it.

Football is an emotional game and I can't be too tough on the defensive players for celebrating their sack. But the coaches have to recognize the problem and call the time out to settle the team and focus them on the situation.

Yes, greater poise and leadership from the players would help, but the coaches need to do a better job preparing them and then stand ready to protect them from mistakes during games.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

My biggest beef with GDL, and this is a minor thing that really gets under my skin, is the constant shifts. What is the point of all that movement before the ball? Why not just have 3-4 primary formations that can be used for run or pass? All I think of when I watch all this shifting before the snap is whether someone will false start and how much practice time was wasted on something that has almost no impact on the game.

 

[huskymedic]

...then stand ready to protect them from mistakes during games.

Care to illuminate this?

 

[mattp]

I think our passing game and running game would both operate better against a more spread out defense, our running game in particular. McCombs needs space, you can't just cram him between the tackles. In reality I think our passing game might be at it's best when we have 2TEs and 2WRs running short-intermediate patterns, with maybe one of them stretching the field to open up the underneath stuff. It seems like our OLine has a hard time holding up in pass protection so I think we would benefit from shorter routes and more blockers in the passing game.

As for celebrating the sack, when the offense is in a hurry up, there's no time to celebrate regardless of the play, but you're right a TO would have helped calm everybody down and get them focused on the task at hand, and I definitely think a TO called would have gone a long way to protecting our lead.

 

[mattp]

My biggest beef with GDL, and this is a minor thing that really gets under my skin, is the constant shifts. What is the point of all that movement before the ball? Why not just have 3-4 primary formations that can be used for run or pass? All I think of when I watch all this shifting before the snap is whether someone will false start and how much practice time was wasted on something that has almost no impact on the game.

I wish we would do more of this. Have 3-4 formations, with a few well practiced audibles at the ready in case the QB doesn't like the defense. That's really all you need to move the ball. GDL should put his wallpaper in the bird cage.