PP postgame: Offense didn't have 'killer instinct'

[huskysupporter]

I'm upset about how we called the game and handled ourselves when we saw even the smallest most remote amount of success against what should be considered a small time team (24-7)......A team that we should schedule knowing that it is simple a fine tuning game to gear up for the competitive games on our schedule......I'm pissed off we created a game against a team that should be a walk over......Do I think if we blew them out we gain respect nationally....hell no....I'm not delusional....but do we creep further and further from gaining respect by playing the way we did....yes....Would a Top 25 team/Big east Contending or winning/Nationally respected team ever win by 7 to BUFFALO @ home......NO......Bottom line is take care of business like professional/high class college football teams would against inferior competition.....We need to do that both from a player and coaching side and we just didn't do that.....Not even close....

You would be surprised how many nationally respected teams win close games or outright lose to teams in inferior conferences. Happens every year, multiple times.

 

[ZooCougar]

You would be surprised how many nationally respected teams win close games or outright lose to teams in inferior conferences. Happens every year, multiple times.

Well in our case, it happens to us every year, multiple times.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

I think we started eight drives at our forty or better.

 

[ZooCougar]

I think we started eight drives at our forty or better.

We might as well take a knee on every first down. Same result...

 

[huskysupporter]

We might as well take a knee on every first down. Same result...

The frustrating part is why are we running a straight dive up the middle on every first down run? What about a stretch run, or a sweep? Quick pitch? That is what is mind boggling to me.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

The frustrating part is why are we running a straight dive up the middle on every first down run? What about a stretch run, or a sweep? Quick pitch? That is what is mind boggling to me.

We ran our 225 lb 2nd string RB around the end (which worked great by the way) and when our 170 lb RB is in, his runs are always between the tackles (unless of course they use him as a lead blocker).

 

[UConnDan97]

The frustrating part is why are we running a straight dive up the middle on every first down run? What about a stretch run, or a sweep? Quick pitch? That is what is mind boggling to me.

Agreed. I don't mind the amount of times that they are running the ball, but I mind the manner in which they are running the ball. If it looks like the same play to me, it must certainly look like the same play to the defensive coordinators. Personally, I'm a big fan of the delayed draw play, especially when your QB is doing some nice things in the air. It loosens up the linebackers a little and gives the back a second to analyze the holes. I wish we used that a little more...

 

[kcc1442]

You would be surprised how many nationally respected teams win close games or outright lose to teams in inferior conferences. Happens every year, multiple times.

No.... I'm not sure I would be surprised...I watch plenty of college football.....And when a nationally respected team wins a close game to a team that is inferior or from an inferior conference it usually and almost always signifies one of 2 things.......Either the team they played is an anomaly for the year and their team is senior laden experienced and having an unbelievable year (which is definitely not the case with Buffalo) or that the nationally acclaimed team is WAY down and they don't have a contending team that year. But (which is not the case with UCONN) that nationally acclaimed team has plenty of prestige to overcome the loss the next year with a new team and be respected. And I wouldn't consider our team to be Way down by our standards either.....(PLAYER WISE)

I'm not trying to say we are these programs......But how laughable would it be if any of the likes of Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, USC, Ohio St., Oregon.....were to win a game to Buffalo by 7..............

Yeah I know were not those teams....But if we aspire to be in that class and we feel we have the players to be in a class similar to that they we better win games to the likes of Buffalo by more than fecunditying 7 points......

 

[Duncan Idaho]

We ran our 225 lb 2nd string RB around the end (which worked great by the way) and when our 170 lb RB is in, his runs are always between the tackles (unless of course they use him as a lead blocker).

That was great! funny stuff.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

What you brilliant folks don't realize is that Buffalo is a very well coached defensive team, our offense was picking them apart in the first half, and they adjusted in the second half, and our QB is still essentially a freshman, and threw a pass early in the second half, into the gut of a Buffalo LB, that he had no idea was standing in the middle of the field, and luckily that LB dropped it, and our QB was befuddled the rest of the half. He'll put up the film tomorrow, and learn from it. But he wasn't figuring it out on the field, and the play calling changed. Couple that

with the fact that we are playing with a sprint league starting tailback, that no one seems able to surpass on the depth chart.....and as great a football player he is, he can run with every bit of heart and soul into a pile, or hit and hole and try to get by somebody, and never move it, and get tackled every time, and you get a second half like we did.
We got the W, but there's a ton to learn from - every bit of weakness on this team, in all three phases, was on display, and Rutgers will be going after it next week.

Stop! Please stop. You are making excuses for UConn's continuing ineptitude on offense. Stop, just in case your solitary opinion might convince Manual to stay the course with Zzzzzzzzzzz.

 

[huskynation]

I don't know what you call throwing a ball straight to a LB and having multiple balls batted at the LOS scrimmage, but to me - that means befuddled, and If I"m calling plays, and I've got a 17 point lead, I'm playing it safe, and counting on my big guys up front to do their job, and you know what? They did.
.

Here are whitmers stats for the game, and broken down by half.
15/22 227 yards 1 td 0 int

1st. half
9/12 154 yards 1 td

2nd Half,
6/10 73 yards 0 td

o.k. he had 4 incompletions in 2nd half. (three of which you highlighted with the ball almost picked and two balls batted at the line of scrimmage. But don't forget, whitmer won this game today. He should get alot of the credit for his performance(the first half especially ). You make it seem like the reason the offense struggled in the second half was because buffalo has a clever defense, and whitmer who is essentially freshman, was "befuddled" with their coverages. That is not completely accurate. The offense was very vanilla the second half cause the team was ahead.

Whitmer's second half was similar to the maryland game. Meaning when this coaching staff ( PP and his " Play not to lose the game mentality") has a lead, they are going to be extremely conservative, they will run the ball the first two downs, and then if its 3rd and long, call a conservative pass play, short of the chains, and hope that the receiver can pick up yards after the catch. They will not call vertical plays down the field, most of the routes will be short, ala, TE, RB, FB, quick crossing patterns to the WR,

Now when the defense, pushes the safeties up to the line of scrimmage, and they have 8 or 9 players in the box to stop the run, the coaching staff elected not to attempt to throw the ball over the top and attack like in the 1st half. PP was ahead, and GD and PP believe that the first thing a QB should do is not lose the game. That is central to the play not to lose strategy. They do not want to turnover the ball in those situations, so they call a very conservative play, and they have no problem with putting the defense back out there.

The only reason Whitmer got a chance to throw the ball downfield in the first half is because buffalo took the lead 7-3. When you play not to lose, u only get a sense of urgency when you're behind in the game. ( i.e. WMU game) Its unfortunate, because, I think that with this team, the pass opens up the running game, and not the other way around. The team has to be very aggressive with the pass to attack teams down field, which then softens up the run defense. Whitmer managed the game in the second half, because that's what the coaching staff wanted him to do. Is he still making mistakes? of course, does he need to improve his ball security? absolutely. Could he have torched this buffalo defense, if the offensive play calling was aggressive, of course he could. He's just gotta limit his mistakes.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Good post, husky nation. HCPP playin' not to lose. Ironic, he should lose his job for the sorry state he has put UConn in during the 17 games he has been here. Gosh, I wish he was still in the NFL.

 

[minidarren]

Good post, husky nation. HCPP playin' not to lose. Ironic, he should lose his job for the sorry state he has put UConn in during the 17 games he has been here. Gosh, I wish he was still in the NFL.

As a Giants fan I wish he was still in Dallas.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[jbdphi]

Here are whitmers stats for the game, and broken down by half.
15/22 227 yards 1 td 0 int

1st. half
9/12 154 yards 1 td

2nd Half,
6/10 73 yards 0 td

o.k. he had 4 incompletions in 2nd half. (three of which you highlighted with the ball almost picked and two balls batted at the line of scrimmage. But don't forget, whitmer won this game today. He should get alot of the credit for his performance(the first half especially ). You make it seem like the reason the offense struggled in the second half was because buffalo has a clever defense, and whitmer who is essentially freshman, was "befuddled" with their coverages. That is not completely accurate. The offense was very vanilla the second half cause the team was ahead.

Whitmer's second half was similar to the maryland game. Meaning when this coaching staff ( PP and his " Play not to lose the game mentality") has a lead, they are going to be extremely conservative, they will run the ball the first two downs, and then if its 3rd and long, call a conservative pass play, short of the chains, and hope that the receiver can pick up yards after the catch. They will not call vertical plays down the field, most of the routes will be short, ala, TE, RB, FB, quick crossing patterns to the WR,

Now when the defense, pushes the safeties up to the line of scrimmage, and they have 8 or 9 players in the box to stop the run, the coaching staff elected not to attempt to throw the ball over the top and attack like in the 1st half. PP was ahead, and GD and PP believe that the first thing a QB should do is not lose the game. That is central to the play not to lose strategy. They do not want to turnover the ball in those situations, so they call a very conservative play, and they have no problem with putting the defense back out there.

The only reason Whitmer got a chance to throw the ball downfield in the first half is because buffalo took the lead 7-3. When you play not to lose, u only get a sense of urgency when you're behind in the game. ( i.e. WMU game) Its unfortunate, because, I think that with this team, the pass opens up the running game, and not the other way around. The team has to be very aggressive with the pass to attack teams down field, which then softens up the run defense. Whitmer managed the game in the second half, because that's what the coaching staff wanted him to do. Is he still making mistakes? of course, does he need to improve his ball security? absolutely. Could he have torched this buffalo defense, if the offensive play calling was aggressive, of course he could. He's just gotta limit his mistakes.

Agree. Whitmer did a good job except for the one pass right to the LB and running into the sack once or twice. Overall body of work however was very good. Why we didn't see more action to the Tight End I have no idea. We did one rollout pass and it was a nice one. Never did it again.

I guess I'm not throwing away our chances for the year yet though. We seem to play to the level or our competition and, if pressed, we actually do have the ability to score points through the air. I think we can hang with Rutgers if we call plays and play like we did in the first half tonight. If we have a 17 point lead going into the 4th quarter and we start playing not to lose? That's a separate issue but based on what we've done so far, I think we can keep up with everybody on our schedule. I think we're going to have a lot of games decided by less than 10 points.

 

[businesslawyer]

The frustrating part is why are we running a straight dive up the middle on every first down run? What about a stretch run, or a sweep? Quick pitch? That is what is mind boggling to me.

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