Sacred Heart Post Game Thread

[Rewster]

Nice to see TR run a bit. Would like to see more of that. And the toss up kicker slot is puzzling. Nice 50+ yarder by McFadden with the wind. The 40 yarder not so much.
Why the back and forth with Ruelas with no announcement prior?

Listened to the pre game .
Ruelas has a hip issue

 

[uconnfan68]

We do look slow at times. But the players — overwhelmingly the same players — weren’t too slow to go 6-6 last year. Why is that. How can the defense return 8.5 starters (counting Shearin as a half) and be this much slower? How can the offense have pushed two starters — Z. Turner and Clercius — and one rotation sub — Flynn — to the bench and gotten this much slower?

There has to be more here than that. Especially on D where we weren’t too slow for utterly dominating defensive performances against BC and Fresno State last year.

The LB group lost a lot. The OL lost their center, and Walker just isn’t the same, but he’s been getting better. I think it’s more execution than speed.

 

[RSTuthill]

Hadn't seen them in awhile. Nice throw and catch in the first TD. But TR missed some wide open targets. If UConn beats UMass I will be pleasantly surprised.

 

[NEforceUConn]

It just baffles me as to why Charlton was not let go before the season ended. It was clear as day that the offense was not working and needed a different direction. A new QB was not giving us the new direction we needed but was a huge help. Was it a financial strain that we couldn't let him go midseason? Does he have dirt on Mora? Is he essential to getting a recruit? I can't figure it out for the life of me.

Why don’t you tell us how you really feel?

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Two plays. One first half one in the second half we run an end around and no one blocks #0 and he destroys the ball carrier in the backfield. How does that happen? How does our running game drop off so badly with only a personel change at center in the offseason? No one in the program has addressed this publicly. No one watching can miss the chances a good running QB would have to run when we are on offense and yet we always hand off to a RB. We have no plays for a TE on the line of scrimmage to run down a seam for a quick pass or a longer throw. Joly is a big wideout who lines up inside often but not with his hand in the dirt.. We had better move heaven and earth to keep him. Other posters have mentioned route scheme to get players open on pass plays. We need to improve in this area bigtime. Watching Sacred Heart run wideout sideline bubble screens and we completely stink at them was maddening. We do not put receivers out on the edge that block well and there's the problem. It's game 11. Sheesh

Few receptions from the TEs last year too. Led to believe Hansen was going to be used differently, more varied as a H-Back.
Another reason is the TEs that play a lot this year are not very good run blockers. Last year Niemenski played most of the snaps at tight end.
He got hammered for the xtra point block, and the false starts in 2022 but I would invite everyone to view last year's highlights and notice that his downfield blocking was a big part of the running success especially on those chunk plays. No pancakes but effective.

 

[giddyup]

We do look slow at times. But the players — overwhelmingly the same players — weren’t too slow to go 6-6 last year. Why is that. How can the defense return 8.5 starters (counting Shearin as a half) and be this much slower? How can the offense have pushed two starters — Z. Turner and Clercius — and one rotation sub — Flynn — to the bench and gotten this much slower?

There has to be more here than that. Especially on D where we weren’t too slow for utterly dominating defensive performances against BC and Fresno State last year.

It’s a real head scratcher. But, you can literally see it. Can’t run a wide out screen, can’t run anything outside out tackles, can’t get open. On D it’s even more maddening how we can’t cover and close to the ball, and LBs are constantly missing in action.

 

[zmart]

Think it should be acknowledged that Roberson threw 4 Perfect TD passes today.
The throws could not have been better.

 

[ktuck911]

I don’t know if anyone read the articles from the players perspective, a reporter told Cam Edwards about Mora not having much to say about the victory and Edwards replied “you never know with him and his emotions and how he feels” this is striking a nerve for me. Like do some of these kids not feel what Mora is feeling? If anything the response should be yea it’s great to win but we should have dropped 60 points on them or we left too many points on the board … maybe I’m reading into it too much, but is almost as if Mora is letting the fanbase know some of the kids on the team do not have the killer instinct mindset that he wants on being able to physically and mentally outmatch their opponent. Also doesn’t help that our OC handicaps our offense and does not come out aggressive with the playcalling. Also TQ is good statistically speaking with having good wr’s like Joly and Ross, but he can’t go through his progression and he’s single handly slowing the offense down by not running with his feet more.

On your "killer instinct" point, I don't see it (enough) either. Not nearly enough. There are a couple guys here and there that show that gladiator type mentality out there. I've seen it with our lesser talented blue collar teams that ended up in bowl games year in and year out, but not nearly enough as of late. Looking fwd to seeing those "hard a**es" come in and help bring that out again....that toughness seems to be missing.

 

[ktuck911]

Think it should be acknowledged that Roberson threw 4 Perfect TD passes today.
The throws could not have been better.

No doubt TR did his thing yesterday... I think we just wanted to finally see our O click on all cylinders, drive by drive... We were looking for a 50 piece (easily). Against a far inferior opponent. We didn't see that. It ain't all on TR for negative stuff. It's a team effort.
Fact is, we are what we are in '23....a growing football program that had a little success too soon ('22)...
Trouble is we're tired of looking so inferior to everybody else in the FBS

 

[ktuck911]

What a joke anyone who is praising this dumpster fire of a team for beating one of the worst FCS teams in the land, (let alone the state) . Lucky we didn't schedule Holy Cross, Villanova or Yale as our "body bag" game this year

We would've beaten all those teams too.

 

[Purple Stein]

We would've beaten all those teams too.

Holy Cross lost at BC by 3.

Yale beat Sacred Heart 31-3.

I think it’s easy to look at Sacred Heart and call them “an FCS team” without realizing just how bad they are. That’s why Mora was pissed about the score.

Neither Holy Cross nor Yale would be guaranteed wins this year.

 

[king conn]

Think it should be acknowledged that Roberson threw 4 Perfect TD passes today.
The throws could not have been better.

Hilarious

The 4th td was a pick 6 by an fbs defender, right through his hands. He jumped the route because Roberson stared down the first read as usual. And how many TD's did he overthrow?

Roberson had the perfect, never have it any better set up yesterday. One of the worst FCS teams in the country at home. Enough time on every throw to pass through the line at Sally's. Heck, old yeller even took a couple of scampers because there was 30 yards ahead of him, although he only got about half of them by heading straight to the sidelines, lest anyone actually placed a hand on him after a slide

Other than all that, yes acknowledged

 

[UCMB88]

This is the play I was referring to. It was actually the third quarter kickoff. Hansen is an up man and signals for a fair catch on the near side 27 yard line. There is not an SHU player within 20 yards of him!

 

[UCMB88]

And when he caught it, the closest SHU player was still 14 yards away.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

IIRC Buckman fumbled the first punt with plenty of room to return. Apology of incorrect. Still don't know why he is still back there.

 

[noeynox]

IIRC Buckman fumbled the first punt with plenty of room to return. Apology of incorrect. Still don't know why he is still back there.

I think cause Ross got blown up on a punt return.

 

[Tdaley]

IIRC Buckman fumbled the first punt with plenty of room to return. Apology of incorrect. Still don't know why he is still back there.

Ct

I think cause Ross got blown up on a punt return.

Ross was nicked up! That is why Buckman was back out there. Not sure why there is no one else on the team that can return punts.

 

[Waquoit]

It was hard day for fielding punts. The one Buckman caught in the 3rd quarter came down like a knuckleball.

 

[gopher2]

Hilarious

The 4th td was a pick 6 by an fbs defender, right through his hands. He jumped the route because Roberson stared down the first read as usual. And how many TD's did he overthrow?

Roberson had the perfect, never have it any better set up yesterday. One of the worst FCS teams in the country at home. Enough time on every throw to pass through the line at Sally's. Heck, old yeller even took a couple of scampers because there was 30 yards ahead of him, although he only got about half of them by heading straight to the sidelines, lest anyone actually placed a hand on him after a slide

Other than all that, yes acknowledged

Yep, the 4th td should have been a pick. I was amazed when the ball ended up in Buckman's hands.

 

[CL82]

How many passes did Charlton drop?

Fair point, on the other hand since his office is ineffectual I think we all can agree that he's "dropped the ball" as OC.

 

[KryHavok]

And when he caught it, the closest SHU player was still 14 yards away. View attachment 93191

Jeez, our special teams sucks. At least they didn't cost the game, but have some friggin' guts to catch the ball and run with it.

 

[uconnric]

We do look slow at times. But the players — overwhelmingly the same players — weren’t too slow to go 6-6 last year. Why is that. How can the defense return 8.5 starters (counting Shearin as a half) and be this much slower? How can the offense have pushed two starters — Z. Turner and Clercius — and one rotation sub — Flynn — to the bench and gotten this much slower?

There has to be more here than that. Especially on D where we weren’t too slow for utterly dominating defensive performances against BC and Fresno State last year.

Losing Bouyer-Randle was a huge loss at linebacker. We seemed more solid at safety last year with Tre Wortham back there. We got burned on long pass plays much more this year.

 

[UCan3]

Think it should be acknowledged that Roberson threw 4 Perfect TD passes today.
The throws could not have been better.

I agree when he’s not under pressure and has time, and can see over the line of scrimmage, he’s as good as passer as anyone.

Those times can be far and few In between in a UConn uniform and he’s not a very good playmaker / runner but yes those were 4 very well thrown balls,

 

[businesslawyer]

Losing Bouyer-Randle was a huge loss at linebacker. We seemed more solid at safety last year with Tre Wortham back there. We got burned on long pass plays much more this year.

The second half of last year Bouyer-Randle only played when we were in a 4-3-4, and we seemed to play a majority of snaps in a 4-2-5. Wortham was absolutely our best corner, but when you return 8.5 defensive starters, yes, you may step back at those 2.5 positions but you ought to be stronger at the other 8.5. We missed Swenson as well but a team that returned so many defenders who contributed needs to get better as a unit, not worse.