Silver's Thoughts post-game

[jrazz12]

http://snyuconn.com/uconn-2/football/post-game-uconn-western-michigan/#more-2143

A few points I want to highlight:

Failures on the o-line continue, 6 sacks today including totally blown blitz pickup on the play of the game.

Recognizes the Wildcat for a failure and Deleone's scrapping of it finally.

No pressure by the D today and lots of use of the 3-4. Not a coincidence.

Rips on the scheduling big time, playing in that atmosphere, and is 100% correct.

 

[jbdphi]

Agree with most of his points and yours. The only thing I guarantee is wrong though is that we will see the Wildcat many times again this year to the distress of many (including myself). He gave up on it when playing behind 17 points but I bet you five ways to Sunday that he'll trot it out again in the beginning of the Buffalo game and assuming we get a lead there, it will keep on coming.

 

[whaler11]

It's pretty easy to rip the scheduling, but USF was at Ball State, Louisville was at FIU and Baylor was at ULM so I guess it's not as easy as people seem to think it is.

 

[TRest]

It's pretty easy to rip the scheduling, but USF was at Ball State, Louisville was at FIU and Baylor was at ULM so I guess it's not as easy as people seem to think it is.

If we don't pay big money for home games we are stuck playing return games at empty little stadiums in the midwest. Is he blaming the "atmosphere" for the players not being mentally up for the game?

 

[UconnFamily]

The team was great on offense without that dumb wildcat in play... I hope its scratched for good! The coaches should focus on rotating the backs...

 

[TRest]

Also, I haven't read the blog before, but he is either writing on his phone or needs to run it past an editor.

 

[Srqhusky]

This is a team who is trying to find out who they are. This team was beaten in all three areas if football. Offense defense and special teams. We had no pressure on their qb but stil only yielded 21 points despite never lplaying with a lead. Offense had turnovers but improves statistically. This is a team starting to fin out who they are. We will be fine. All the players take responsibility and know what they have to so better. We do not make the same mistakes week to week. Next week buffalo but we are tested after that. Renember eight wins is still very possible.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

The way I see it the most telling statement in the article was this by Whitmer:

'We felt we were in a rhythm and were doing good things.'

The biggest detriment to the wildcat (especially for a team as inexperienced as ours) is that it immediately takes us out of an offensive rhythm. Everything involved with a passing game (from route running to pass blocking to QB reads to the pitch and catch) is based on rhythm and timing.

 

[defense]

I have a credibility isue with Silver. What game wa he watching? He says in his blog that Pruitt played a bit at DE and Wirth played some DE. Well, Pruitt played most of the game at DE and Wirth did not play any DE. Willman, Norris and Campeni played very little. All three of these guys have made positive contributions this season, but were on the bench Watch the replay of the game.........on second thought, don't watch it.

 

[huskysupporter]

The team was great on offense without that dumb wildcat in play... I hope its scratched for good! The coaches should focus on rotating the backs...

If the offense was great, i am assuming McCombs had a nice game. Why would you want to rotate backs right now?

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[BG79]

If the offense was great, i am assuming McCombs had a nice game. Why would you want to rotate backs right now?

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The offense was looking better (I don't want to say great) because the game situation forced Deleone to actually pass the ball in situations that werent 3rd and long. I really can't for the life of me understand why we only use one RB and with that one RB we use him like a square peg trying to shove it into a round hole. If they insist on running it right up the gut so often why not put someone in there with some more gurth. At least you can help wear out a D while you're getting your 0-1 yard gains on those wasted plays.

 

[Skiblets]

The offense was looking better (I don't want to say great) because the game situation forced Deleone to actually pass the ball in situations that werent 3rd and long. I really can't for the life of me understand why we only use one RB and with that one RB we use him like a square peg trying to shove it into a round hole. If they insist on running it right up the gut so often why not put someone in there with some more gurth. At least you can help wear out a D while you're getting your 0-1 yard gains on those wasted plays.

This..

 

[jdb50]

I would rotate backs for the same reason the Giants have run Andre Brown and moved Wilson to the bench. You might find something. PP is 7-9. McCoombs has great ball security, sticks his nose in on pass blocking, usually falls forward on running attempts but I see things that are missed and the top end breakaway speed isn't there. Due to his size he doesn't punish defenders. Don't bench him but Brown/Dixon, Dixon/Todman. That's why!

 

[UConnDan97]

Lyle McCombs - 23 carries, 119 yards, 5.2 yards per carry.

Now either the people on this board feel like 23 carries is too much for our number 1 back, or that 5.2 yards per carry isn't sufficient. I'm not sure which, but I'm pretty sure that both statements are crazy. There were a lot of things wrong yesterday, but McCombs wasn't one of them...

 

[huskysupporter]

Lyle McCombs - 23 carries, 119 yards, 5.2 yards per carry.

Now either the people on this board feel like 23 carries is too much for our number 1 back, or that 5.2 yards per carry isn't sufficient. I'm not sure which, but I'm pretty sure that both statements are crazy. There were a lot of things wrong yesterday, but McCombs wasn't one of them...

It truly is mind boggling. Of all that went wrong people still saying McCombs isn't the right back or others should carry more. He is our best offensive player.

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[ASweet3781]

John Silver is 100% correct on ripping on scheduling a series like this.

The 2 worst series this school ever scheduled were Temple and Western Michigan. What did UConn have to gain? You have Temple whose 50 fans actually detest us and have it in their delusional minds that we "replaced" them in the Big East. So you can bet their team wanted to kill us. We are very lucky we did not go 0-4 in that series. We treated that game like it was just another game. They treated it like their Super Bowl. UConn had nothing to gain from that series and it took a gift call to save it from being a disaster.

The only things I knew about Western Michigan were, 1. We needed a career day from Dan Orlovsky to beat them in 2003 I believe 2. They beat Michigan at Michigan a couple years ago and 3. they seem to be a solid MAC team. We should be playing terrible MAC teams. We should not be scheduling MAC teams that put up a lot of points when we haven't had a good D1 offense since Orlovsky graduated (sans 2009).

UConn was in a lose/lose situation with both of these series against teams from the MAC. You win it's expected. You lose you have what we have on the board today. We cannot afford that type of stupidity from our athletic dept.

 

[huskysupporter]

I would rotate backs for the same reason the Giants have run Andre Brown and moved Wilson to the bench. You might find something. PP is 7-9. McCoombs has great ball security, sticks his nose in on pass blocking, usually falls forward on running attempts but I see things that are missed and the top end breakaway speed isn't there. Due to his size he doesn't punish defenders. Don't bench him but Brown/Dixon, Dixon/Todman. That's why!

I think that is what I am missing here. I would love to have something like Brown/Dixon, Brown/Todman. But it appears we don't have that 2nd guy. Coaches are watching these players practice and have determined that for whatever reason, the backups don't warrant carries at this point. If these players are struggling in practice, why should they get 8-10 carries in a game?

 

[businesslawyer]

I have a credibility isue with Silver. What game wa he watching? He says in his blog that Pruitt played a bit at DE and Wirth played some DE. Well, Pruitt played most of the game at DE and Wirth did not play any DE. Willman, Norris and Campeni played very little. All three of these guys have made positive contributions this season, but were on the bench Watch the replay of the game.........on second thought, don't watch it.

I saw Wirth line up at De. How much, given the coverage, I douldn't tell you.

 

[bmayuc]

It truly is mind boggling. Of all that went wrong people still saying McCombs isn't the right back or others should carry more. He is our best offensive player.

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Its not about this game. I love mccombs as a space player. Draws,screens, counters...

But some games you need a grinder, sometimes a certain style works better against different personnel/fronts. Sometimes just give the defense a different look. Going into this game mccombs was at 3.4 a carry, and not a hell of it came after contact.

Now you may say we don't have that guy, but until we see anyone else who's to say?

What's it going to hurt?

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[Excalibur]

http://snyuconn.com/uconn-2/football/post-game-uconn-western-michigan/#more-2143




Recognizes the Wildcat for a failure and Deleone's scrapping of it finally.

The WC was only scrapped because Mateas got hurt and we couldn't get the timing right. It will probably be back.

 

[freescooter]

John Silver is 100% correct on ripping on scheduling a series like this.

The 2 worst series this school ever scheduled were Temple and Western Michigan. What did UConn have to gain? You have Temple whose 50 fans actually detest us and have it in their delusional minds that we "replaced" them in the Big East. So you can bet their team wanted to kill us. We are very lucky we did not go 0-4 in that series. We treated that game like it was just another game. They treated it like their Super Bowl. UConn had nothing to gain from that series and it took a gift call to savwhen the league averages e it from being a disaster.

The only things I knew about Western Michigan were, 1. We needed a career day from Dan Orlovsky to beat them in 2003 I believe 2. They beat Michigan at Michigan a couple years ago and 3. they seem to be a solid MAC team. We should be playing terrible MAC teams. We should not be scheduling MAC teams that put up a lot of points when we haven't had a good D1 offense since Orlovsky graduated (sans 2009).

UConn was in a lose/lose situation with both of these series against teams from the MAC. You win it's expected. You lose you have what we have on the board today. We cannot afford that type of stupidity from our athletic dept.

I agree on scheduling MAC teams for what its worth. We really shouldn't play them on the road. Maybe UMass in a 2-1 deal. But I've always hated these deals with Buffalo and Temple and now this one. And particularly games at Kent State, WMU, Buffalo where 15 people show up. At least when we went to Ohio we got a reasonable crowd. But when the league averages 17000...those are just not the kind of road games we ought to be playing...I'd almost have preferred another 1AA game, or go after a Sunbelt team. I understand that this series was on eof those last minute deals that Hathaway put togehter after ending the Navy series and then haivng TCU back out of the Big East, but totally agree that we need to look at things like playing one offs with Illinois or someone rather than this sort of stuff.

 

[whaler11]

Sun Belt home games cost a million dollars.

 

[Mr Blueskin]

The WC was only scrapped because Mateas got hurt and we couldn't get the timing right. It will probably be back.

Saying we couldn't get the timing right is accepting the premise that we had the timing right before. The Wildcat timing has never been right. It is a false start machine yet these stubborn old guys keep using to kill drives and momentum. The times we need to use it are few and far between especially if Whitmer starts getting comfortable.

 

[Excalibur]

Saying we couldn't get the timing right is accepting the premise that we had the timing right before. The Wildcat timing has never been right. It is a false start machine yet these stubborn old guys keep using to kill drives and momentum. The times we need to use it are few and far between especially if Whitmer starts getting comfortable.

I'm not advocating that we use it more, just stating that we will probably see it again, just as often as we did before.

 

[freescooter]

The wildcat is a fad. if you watched the Jets yesterday you saw them use it in certain situations too. And you see other teams do the same thing. it is no different from the fads of the past like having you r back up qb play the second quarter which everyone was doing around 2002-04. But just like that one, the wildcat is slowly but surely dying out because it doesn't work in most cases. it screws up the offense as much as it does the defense. doesn't mean that for cetain teams and in certain situations a running quarterback wouldn't be a reasonable option, but as a strategy it will slowly but surely be reduced to a rare event within a year or so.