Please Tell Me Why - Second Half Swoon

[rich1122]

I finally had a chance to watch this debacle on ESPN 3. If you did not have a chance take a look.

Why is it always that at the beginning of the game everything is clicking. The first score looked too easy. This happened at Temple last year. The interception was not a bad one. Whitmer looked really good - good balls to Phillips and Davis . McCombs made some really nice runs. The protection was good - Hemingway did a a good job. The D was not great and except when West got outside (Obi got lost on that one) , they looked decent. The screw up by the coaching on the "too many men in the huddle" was catastrophic - we should have scored.

So we come out in the second half and lay an egg on both the O and the D. I thought under Weist that would change.

Would be interesting to run a year of stats for the first half and second half. If you just watched the first half, there are plenty of positives.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

The opponent makes in game adjustments, we don't subscribe to that school of thought.

 

[Carl Spackler]

It's crystal clear what's happening. I was duped. The fact is that our roster was extremely thin, and we had significnat deficiencies int he roster in 2011, and going into 2012 for the level of competition we are at, and what our schedules look like - especially now in 2013 moving forward. Combine that with the track record that Pasqualoni did have in college football prior to arriving at UCONN, and the knowledge he had of recruiting for a program in the northeast for so long, and I was OK with the inconsistencies on the field. A cushion I gave. Even so much as to vocal in defending the obvious problems.

What's happening is that these guys have not moved into the current century of college football. THey are still game planning and approachign football like they did before, like they were reinforced in the NFL. We come out scripted, and effective in games, and then we're supposed to rely on talent to finish the job.

The thing is - and the proof is everywhere in athletics, across sports ( UCONN v. George Mason anyone?) #2's beating #15's basketball people? that the gap between the athletes being recruited to division 1A sports, to those being recruited to lower levels is no longer as wide as it once was. Moreover, the coachign abilities, are closer too.

 

[BoatShow]

The opponent makes in game adjustments, we don't subscribe to that school of thought.

Really all there is to say about that.

 

[Excalibur]

The thing is - and the proof is everywhere in athletics, across sports ( UCONN v. George Mason anyone?) #2's beating #15's basketball people? that the gap between the athletes being recruited to division 1A sports, to those being recruited to lower levels is no longer as wide as it once was. Moreover, the coachign abilities, are closer too.

I'm going to hijack this thread to make a point relating to the whaler vs. art debate in another thread.

The gap between the level of players at the Alabamas, LSU's and OSU's of the world and the middle of the FBS pack is huge. But the gap between #25 and #75 is almost zero. There is significant up and down movement in that range from year to year. The difference is a coaching staff that can develop players and teach them properly.

 

[Dooley]

The opponent makes in game adjustments, we don't subscribe to that school of thought.

Yup. Time and time again we see this. Temple, Buffalo, Western Michigan, Towson...we come out looking like a ranked team in the first quarter. Then when our opponents make the necessary adjustments, we are always caught off guard as if we think adjustments are illegal.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

The most telling thing is P's quote that he should have given Hemingway (pass blocking) help. He couldn't figure that out while the game was going on? How the hell was this guy able to make a career out of being a football coach if this is how he thinks today?

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I know that folks are clamoring for TJW to take over now but some of this is on him too. It's not all P and GDL. It takes a concerted effort from everyone (including the players) to produce the level of stinkfest we saw last week.

 

[Stinger92860]

PP and GDL take a nap at half time. Too much excitement for one evening.

 

[rich1122]

We were not going to win by 20, but we looked like the better team for sure.

Collapse BOTH O & D - they take in 95 yards down our throats.

TJW no impact on our culture of biting the bit in second half. Again played not to lose.

If you watch the end of the second half with ball on 6 inch line, the coaches look clueless as to what is going on when the penalty is called. Just call the bloody timeout for god's sakes.

 

[willie99]

we get out-coached at halftime, it happens on a regular basis

PP is the antithesis of JC

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

Same as the last 2 seasons.

P & D can't adjust.

How is it that they need to see the game tape to adjust ???

The next game, the coach will know what were adjusting, and be fully aware of what were gonna do differently, and expose it.

Vicious friggin cycle

 

[jdb50]

Watched most of the replay. KC Keelers points during the game were that Whitmer can throw it but we need to keep him upright, inability to convert on 3rd and short is a carry over from last year and will kill us, and that UConn sure would have been happy to have West as our RB. The sequence resulting in the to many men in the huddle penalty showed not enough has changed from last year. Still not very sharp on the sideline.

 

[joey3$trike$]

I believe the first 15 plays are scripted, probably should script the whole game then. O definitely looked more confident and upbeat. I think the scoring drive i saw Hypolite as the rb for the play-action td. Also I believe max had a run or caught a pass during the drive. Hey if scripting all the plays regardless of score and d tendency works why not. I applaud the rotation of rb's and plays, didn't it start of with a Foxx end around? Looks like we went to GDL plays in 2nd half.

 

[metsfan2323]

I think it's also fair to question the cardio conditioning of our team, I'd be willing to bet that Ambrose and Edsall run more grueling practices. Would McCummings show up grossly overweight with Edsall at the helm?

Are our guys gassed in the second half?

 

[Waquoit]

It's crystal clear what's happening. I was duped.

Yet you went out of your way to attack and insult those who weren't duped, the ones that knew what they were talking about months ago. Perhaps if you've learned something along the way it won't be all for naught.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Yet you went out of your way to attack and insult those who weren't duped, the ones that knew what they were talking about months ago. Perhaps if you've learned something along the way it won't be all for naught.

I've already said my apologies, but here you go - again - I'm wrong. I was very wrong. I can't stand when people choose to go with negative energy rather than positive energy, and I let myself get completely jacked up for this season, and failed to observe the obvious, in favor of my positive enthusiasm for a new season.

I will speak softly, but I'm still going to carry a big Debbie Stick ™. I'll just choose to use it more carefully.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

I finally had a chance to watch this debacle on ESPN 3. If you did not have a chance take a look.

Why is it always that at the beginning of the game everything is clicking. The first score looked too easy. This happened at Temple last year. The interception was not a bad one. Whitmer looked really good - good balls to Phillips and Davis . McCombs made some really nice runs. The protection was good - Hemingway did a a good job. The D was not great and except when West got outside (Obi got lost on that one) , they looked decent. The screw up by the coaching on the "too many men in the huddle" was catastrophic - we should have scored.

So we come out in the second half and lay an egg on both the O and the D. I thought under Weist that would change.

Would be interesting to run a year of stats for the first half and second half. If you just watched the first half, there are plenty of positives.

The defense was unsettled on many snaps of the ball during that 95 yard td series, especially inside the 20.

 

[ZooCougar]

The better team won.

 

[Waquoit]

I've already said my apologies, but here you go - again - I'm wrong.

I will speak softly, but I'm still going to carry a big Debbie Stick ™. I'll just choose to use it more carefully.

Again, it's not being wrong that was the issue. The only way one can never be wrong is by never taking a stand. Retire the stick.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Nope. Look I've admitted my mistakes, more than once, and that's that. I've learned and moved on. I won't let myself be fooled that way again. WHen you lose as many starters as we did on defense, and you change both coordinators, things are going to be rough. You couple that on top of the other issues involving mistakes, energy, adjustments and we're swimming upstream right now. I let myself get excited about a new season to the point where I wasn't balancing it with reality - and I'll go as far to say, as that I was probably influenced to ignore those things becuase the people that were pointing them out in writing, tend to be the negative ninnies that piss me off and I end up ignoring anyway. Lesson learned.

You don't like my opinions? You don't like the way I write, or respond or address others in a forum like this, or what imagery I come up with to get an opinion across?

You don't like my Debbie Stick ™?

Fine - come up with a rebuttal of yoru own or ignore me.

 

[Waquoit]

You don't like my Debbie Stick ™?

Fine - come up with a rebuttal of yoru own or ignore me.

Again, for me this isn't about your being 100%, totally and completely wrong about P. It was your incessant smearing of those disagree with you, those that were correct real time. You were relentless, seeming to attack every, single post that didn't meet your Little Mary Sunshine test. Folks had real concerns and made strong cases for those concerns yet you just dismissed them all out of hand, hanging insulting labels like hater and downer on the accurate ones. I think you've shown that you don't have what it takes to handle the Debbie Stick properly or judiciously and therefore you should stick it somewhere, permanantly.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Again, for me this isn't about your being 100%, totally and completely wrong about P. It was your incessant smearing of those disagree with you, those that were correct real time. You were relentless, seeming to attack every, single post that didn't meet your Little Mary Sunshine test. Folks had real concerns and made strong cases for those concerns yet you just dismissed them all out of hand, hanging insulting labels like hater and downer on the accurate ones. I think you've shown that you don't have what it takes to handle the Debbie Stick properly or judiciously and therefore you should stick it somewhere, permanantly.

Spackler, for all of his condescending nonsense over the summer, has taken his medicine like a man. I could be wrong, but I think he genuinely is regretful that he spoke to people in that fashion. Hey if you want to give it to him......he's earned that. But there are others who haven't taken this like a man and have not offered up any mea culpa's or apologies. Those are the ones that piss me off. I won't name names.