Pasqualoni said one thing does another.

[metsfan2323]

I think you guys all pay too much attention to lack of INT's, and not enough attention to "balls that should have been INTs". With that being said...

I have no doubt Johnny has been the best QB in practice. PP just has no reason to play an inferior player who is also older. Can't think of a single reason he'd do that.

I think all of us who want Nebrich need to take a different stance, though. It's not that he isn't getting a fair shot. We want him to start because in a REBUILDING year, we want to, you know, BUILD for the future. I can totally deal with going 2-10 (which I think is about 1 game less than MC might get us to) if it means witnessing our QB of the next three years growing up.

Sorry, but I'm not willing to continue the "wait til next year" game with Casey Cochran. He isn't going to be an automatic answer just like Nebrich wasn't. But we need to DEVELOP the guy we have.

This would be a very valid argument if this were McEntee's last year. He better be coming back next year.

 

[gabect]

If Nebrich was practicing so poorly, why was he listed as OR on the depth chart for four games? That makes zero sense.

There was no QB competition. Production was thrown out the window. One guy was handed the job.

Mac did much better against WVU but he had a very clean pocket for most of the game. He had plenty of time to set up and throw. If P had given Nebrich virtually four full games to learn the system, no telling where he would be. And we'll never know, but I have hunch.

Mac was the most accurate in the spring game too even though they all sucked. He was the front-runner all year long despite white Des may have made you believe.

 

[whaler11]

Seems like an odd week to complain about the decision at quarterback.

 

[businesslawyer]

Seems like an odd week to complain about the decision at quarterback.

On this board -- doesn't make the top 100 of oddness.

 

[uconnfan68]

I'll grant you that Wilburn got beat pretty badly Saturday and I would have gone with a sub and at least tried to stop the bleeding. I'm not sure why that didn't happen. The other two points are pretty nonsensical.

It wasn't just Wilburn. They had 3 (!!!!!!!) 100yd receivers. The problem was the defensive geniuses as coaches. Stuff them at the line at least. Throw the timing off just a little. Don't just give up 5-7 yds cushions EVERY DOWN.

 

[freescooter]

It wasn't just Wilburn. They had 3 (!!!!!!!) 100yd receivers. The problem was the defensive geniuses as coaches. Stuff them at the line at least. Throw the timing off just a little. Don't just give up 5-7 yds cushions EVERY DOWN.

You know, I actually agree with that. Somewhere I postedthat while Wilburn was bad, he was far from the only one who got beaten. Our debacks seemed utterly confused.

 

[upstater]

Weren't we due for a step back at some point?

We have hit so many homeruns with our RB recruiting, that IMO, we were due for a year or two of "average" production.

We haven't recruited as well as we should have. It's not a matter of taking a step back, it's a matter of getting bodies in here. Even if they stink, at the very least, you can say, HEY, he was a 3-star, several other BCS schools wanted him, but he came to UConn because it's a place where RBs thrive. That hasn't happened.

 

[upstater]

Wait -- you can't understand how other than recruiting Caulley, Brockington, Brown, Dixon, Todman, Matt Lawrence (who did make the NFL but couldn't crack our rotation), and maybe even Robbie Frey and Bellamy, we weren't able to recruit TBs?

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, did you like the play?

We were caught short this year. But we were caught short in part because Todman, Frey and Wylie all left with eligibility remaining. Had any of the three of them come back this year, we wouldn't be having this conversation now, McCombs would have had another year to get ready before being "the guy" and any of Dobbs, Foxx, Delorenzo or Lee might have been contributing fine as a back up. Stuff happens.

Schools have 3 or 4 backs in play. Losing a senior like Frey should be no surprise, and with all respect to Wylie, I don't see him making a big difference if he were here. Besides, that long line is from years ago. Only Todman as a senior stood in front of potential freshman recruits. UConn has to do much better than that.

 

[upstater]

It wasn't just Wilburn. They had 3 (!!!!!!!) 100yd receivers. The problem was the defensive geniuses as coaches. Stuff them at the line at least. Throw the timing off just a little. Don't just give up 5-7 yds cushions EVERY DOWN.

So, get rid of blitzing?
I'll give you the fact that slants should not have been allowed. But if you're playing bump and run while blitzing, you better have some all world talent at CB. Especially with a QB with a fast release.

 

[Waquoit]

I think you guys all pay too much attention to lack of INT's, and not enough attention to "balls that should have been INTs". With that being said...

To be fair, JMac has cut down on the balls that should have been INT's as well.

 

[gabect]

To be fair, JMac has cut down on the balls that should have been INT's as well.

Agreed.. I only counted 2 last game and they were all early.

 

[Carl Spackler]

There's a huge issue that goes along with playing the RB position. It's called BLOCKING. It's kind of an important thing to an offense, if you're going to be passing the ball. The tail back position, especially if you're going to be passing out of a single back set, is absolutely essential in pass protection, and it's one of the hardest things for a RB to do, is to be part of identifying the defensive front, and working with the OL to know who to pick up and where they might be coming from at the QB.

McCombs has gotten a lot better at it through 5 games, and he's had a much longer time to be coached at it than anybody else on the roster right now, but bless the guy, if he's matched up on a 6'3+ 230lb+ LB coming in on a blitz, it's trouble.

Shoemate was our best guy we had going into the season to help with the protections in the passing game, and he's gotten very little action and is now gone. True freshman coming in from high school, much like college backs going into the NFL, are very much unprepared for the speed, size and complexity of what they need to recognize in pass protections out of the backfield, and if you've got a backfield that can't pick up protections, you get a pancake QB.

 

[BlueMAB]

Agreed.. I only counted 2 last game and they were all early.

How did you miss the last one?

On either the last drive, or the second to last drive, he hit a wide open safety square in the numbers. The safety somehow dropped the pass and the ball was deflected to one of our receivers, but that game should have been over long before the Griffin fumble.

 

[freescooter]

That happens in the game of football. Sometimes guys hold on, sometimes they don't. Westerm Michigan guy caught a ball that was deflected by a UCONN defensive lineman. When do you see that happen? The stats count completions, incompletions and interceptions. there is no catagory for Almost intercepted, or should have been intercepted.

 

[gabect]

How did you miss the last one?

On either the last drive, or the second to last drive, he hit a wide open safety square in the numbers. The safety somehow dropped the pass and the ball was deflected to one of our receivers, but that game should have been over long before the Griffin fumble.

I remember that now, play happened at the opposite end of the stadium from where I was sitting and I didn't even see our receiver catching the deflected pass to be honest. I had a sentence in there saying "I might've missed 1 or two" but then I deleted it and posted without it.

 

[BlueMAB]

That happens in the game of football. Sometimes guys hold on, sometimes they don't. Westerm Michigan guy caught a ball that was deflected by a UCONN defensive lineman. When do you see that happen? The stats count completions, incompletions and interceptions. there is no catagory for Almost intercepted, or should have been intercepted.

Ok, so we should just pretend it didn't happen since there is no stat category for it. Gotchya.

There's no stat category for missed assignments, broken plays, missed tackles, or missed blocks. I wonder if the coaches go over that stuff in film study or if they just say that stuff "happens in the game of football".

/sarcasm

 

[Carl Spackler]

the problem we had in defense was that with the offense we were facing, the best coverage shell to get into is a single deep safety to take away the middle of the field deep from the passing game and force things to the sidelines, and we put junior back there most of the day, but we were molasses slow from the linebackers in the up safety in picking up the coverages, especially the guys in the slots. There is one defensive play were we have a linebacker and I think a safety practically running into each other trying to get into coverage in the slots, inside the box, while the ball is being snapped and there's nobody line up over the slot receiver, b/c WMU was running the play clock so fast. The WMU receivers were lining up and churning their arms in a signals to get the ball snapped on many an occasion as the defense was slow getting to their spots.

that is absolutely a coaching, schematic thing, assignment thing that the coaches absolutely need to get cleaned up. Need to be able to know what base defense your in, know your role in that defense, and identify where the downfield options from the offense are lining up and get your assignment AND be able to do it in a matter of seconds.

When we you do the single deep safety, which is something entirely new to most of these players that have been around for a while, you open up the sidelines and quick slants for attack by the offense, but the middle of the field routes are usually not good options against a defense like that while that deep safety is eyeing the QB where he's going with the ball.

This is exactly what they did, they found the single coverage options on the field, and exploited them. The closest I saw a player get to actually breaking on a timing route and successfully defending one of those timing slants in the slot was Byron Jones. He was right on top of the receiver as the ball got in to his gut, but it was a perfectly thrown ball, and the play still went for I think 8 or 9 yards and a first down. I think Gratz defended one or two sideline out patterns well, but we were still going for chunk yardages. They were runinng WR screens and our guys were being blocked out of the play on defense an dit was taking a thrid defender to come up and make the tackle on those plays. I bet the defense got laid into at half for letting that happen. You absolutely cannot allow a single player and ball carrier to successfully beat two defenders.

Our defense got torched by the passing game. Bottom line. We weren't getting into position to defend properly in many cases, and in many cases when we were, we did a bad job of it.

All of this - is wonderful preparation for what we'll face in Morgantown, and I fully expect to see improvement.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I remember that now, play (pass deflect off a safety to our receiver) happened at the opposite end of the stadium from where I was sitting and I didn't even see our receiver catching the deflected pass to be honest. I had a sentence in there saying "I might've missed 1 or two" but then I deleted it and posted without it.

As said many times before, nothing is ever as good as it seems, and nothing is ever as bad as it seems, when you get to the point of breaking down what actually happened in a football game.

 

[Palatine]

Pasqualoni is the one who said he would choose based on production -not me- the head coach. Then a QB goes out, doesn't produce and he leaves him in. That is saying one thing and doing another.

Whether Nebrich would have done better (or worse) misses the point. He rewarded one QBs lack of production. He didn't give another QB the chance to show if he could produce.

I find that an odd way to make a choice if it was to be based on production. And if he was judging it on "practice" production (huh?). That obviously didn't translate to games.

 

[businesslawyer]

Pasqualoni is the one who said he would choose based on production -not me- the head coach. Then a QB goes out, doesn't produce and he leaves him in. That is saying one thing and doing another.

Whether Nebrich would have done better (or worse) misses the point. He rewarded one QBs lack of production. He didn't give another QB the chance to show if he could produce.

I find an odd way to make a choice if it was to be based on production. And if he was judging it on "practice" production (huh?). That obviously didn't translate to games.

You really should spend more time watching football and less watching football press conferences. You might find it more fun.

 

[gabect]

As said many times before, nothing is ever as good as it seems, and nothing is ever as bad as it seems, when you get to the point of breaking down what actually happened in a football game.

Agreed... on that last drive though, the entire stadium expected another score no matter how many near-picks Johhny threw. The 4th quarter both offenses were on fire, unfortunately one defense made play and the other didn't.

 

[freescooter]

Pasqualoni is the one who said he would choose based on production -not me- the head coach. Then a QB goes out, doesn't produce and he leaves him in. That is saying one thing and doing another.

Whether Nebrich would have done better (or worse) misses the point. He rewarded one QBs lack of production. He didn't give another QB the chance to show if he could produce.

I find that an odd way to make a choice if it was to be based on production. And if he was judging it on "practice" production (huh?). That obviously didn't translate to games.

So is this what you think Pasqualoni should have done at quarterback? Taken an unproven true freshman who had apparetnly not performed as well in practice, nor as well in his admittedly limited game opportunities and given him the starting job? Or shoudl he have taken a clearly one-dimentional quarterback and used him? And if we assume that the coach wasn't just pretending that Shoemate and Hippolyte were injured, who should he have used to replace McCombs? The guy that started the season #4 on the depth chart? And what do you consider "not producing?" for a running back who has 3 100 yard games and 5 tds?

 

[mattp]

Pasqualoni is the one who said he would choose based on production -not me- the head coach. Then a QB goes out, doesn't produce and he leaves him in. That is saying one thing and doing another.

Whether Nebrich would have done better (or worse) misses the point. He rewarded one QBs lack of production. He didn't give another QB the chance to show if he could produce.

I find that an odd way to make a choice if it was to be based on production. And if he was judging it on "practice" production (huh?). That obviously didn't translate to games.

the fallacy is in your first line. he said he'd put in the player that was most productive. we all agree there. just because McEntee didn't produce to your liking doesn't mean he wasn't the most productive, and evidently he was. he gave the other QBs time in practice and, he did give him time in games.

personally i would have liked to see Nebrich start against Buffalo, but i didn't see him in practice all year so i don't know if he earned it or not. none of us did. for some reason you seem to think you know better than the coaches, players, and even Nebrich himself, who said he wasn't ready (not sure where i read the last part, i'd seen it mentioned a couple of times, and if it's not true feel free to correct me).

 

[mattp]

You really should spend more time watching football and less watching football press conferences. You might find it more fun.

that's the part that i don't get. some people here analyze every word spoken by a coach as if it's a carefully worded contract. it was unbelieveable to me that so many people made such a big deal out of P's claim that he would play the most productive QB. every coach says they'll put in the most productive players. i had to watch about 2-3 press conferences before i realized it's pretty much the same canned B-S every time. for anyone to spend more than a minute analyzing it is a waste of your time. do you also get excited when players say they'll give 100%? wow, now they're really trying.

 

[freescooter]

Ok, so we should just pretend it didn't happen since there is no stat category for it. Gotchya.

There's no stat category for missed assignments, broken plays, missed tackles, or missed blocks. I wonder if the coaches go over that stuff in film study or if they just say that stuff "happens in the game of football".

/sarcasm

Of course those things get reviewed. But that isn't the same as arguing it would have cost us the game. Sure it might have, but what happened is what happened. In a close football game there are probably a couple of dozen plays that might have changed the outcome. If Moore doesn't get flagged for roughing on 3rd and long, maybe we get the ball back and score. If the WMU saftey hangs onto the ball, maybe they win. If their punt returner simply gets out of the way, maybe they have an insurmountable lead. If the Tight end secures the ball, maybe we score and pull it out. If Teggart hits the first field goal, maybe we have momentum and pull away...and those are only the obvious ones I can think of...But plays happen as they happen. Moore did get flagged. The saftey dropped a pass, the return man didn't get out of the way, the tight end got stripped, the field goal kicker missed. Any one of those plays MIGHT have changed the outcome if it played out differently. But none of them did. And the outcome was what it was.