Syracuse post game thread

[Hey Adrien!]

Even though that loss was a bit of a heartbreaker, game was an instant classic. I can never be too upset about endings like this, absolute cinema

I’ve got the other side of opinion spectrum.

This loss pisses me off and we should have won this game…which is good because for years we would have lost this game no contest and rolled over. Feels good to feel this pissed about a Syracuse loss.

Keep the train rollin’

 

[UCan3]

Not a lot has been said about the play at QB.

I am highly disappointed with Joe yesterday. We needed him to show up and play like a 7th year experienced QB.

Instead he missed open players all day… Did not move around in the pocket. Made poor decisions with the ball and the only real plus? He did not turn the ball over.

What was his contributions?

TD Throw? Nope.
Rushing yards - close to zero.
And missed pass and missed pass with a couple good throws here and there. His stats look decent but don’t tell the whole story.

The play in the 2nd half was cringeworthy with the 3 and outs.

Bell never should have caught the ball that was thrown - credit Bell.

I said it last year, play the QB that gives you the best chance to win the game. Last year it was clearly IMO Joe.

This year, I saw we open it up and let Evers start next week.

 

[billybud]

Defense looked good....maybe a little tired late, but they played with heart.

UConn will win a lot of games....the O needs balance....with a more potent passing attack, the ground game will open up.

This game reminded me of the FSU-Miami games of the 80's (Miami would come back in the final minute and FSU had wide rights)...the FSU linebacker famously proclaimed..."In the fourth quarter, we knew we were the better team and they knew they would win."

The Huskies lost a very close game that could have been a win....a lot of season left.

 

[Hoophound]

I’ve got the other side of opinion spectrum.

This loss pisses me off and we should have won this game…which is good because for years we would have lost this game no contest and rolled over. Feels good to feel this pissed about a Syracuse loss.

Keep the train rollin’

It’s really bugging me. I woke up at 3am thinking about it. I’m just so thoroughly disappointed. We had the game won. We gave it away.

It does feel good to know we can win these games though. It’s much better than getting drilled by 50. My greater fear is that we gave this game away and now we have a tough game against an extremely experienced Delaware team with a good QB. If we don’t win that game, we are looking at a mess that just didn’t need to happen. I’m fearful, whereas winning yesterday would have made me supremely confident.

 

[UCan3]

There were a few plays in this game where the call on the field benefited Syracuse, and there was no review despite a lot of uncertainty as to whether someone had possession or not. We still don't know whether or not the correct call was made. However, when Cuse fumbled and UConn recovered early in the game, the play was reviewed and the call was (correctly) reversed. And then there was the bullcrap review of the forward pass that allegedly might have been a fumble (no way), which negated a second-down incompletion (and near interception) as a null play. All of those situations wound up benefiting Syracuse.

We got one important judgment call the whole game (the pass interference in the end zone, a correct call). Meanwhile, tons of obvious holding penalties were ignored, while UConn got flagged on a ticky-tack holding call. Garbage refereeing that shows UConn gets second-class treatment.

How do you not call pass interference in the end zone play? I’ve seen it posted like we were fortunate to get the call. And maybe due to the way they called the game yesterday we were but..

Did you see the replay? He actually interfered with Bell’s opportunity to catch the ball with the second part of that pass interference. It was clinical pass interference and I don’t chuck that up to a good call by the refs just the right call.

 

[UCan3]

I also think based on the sprint’s, maybe we should consider canceling this series with Syracuse and move on,

 

[Duncan Idaho]

I appreciate what Mora has done to pull back the stick on the program.and hoping the game serves as a wake-up call for the game management of the coaching

 

[TMB4405]

I could not even watch any other games after that I was and still am so pissed. I will never blame the guys as I know how hard it is and even in the NiL era they are still just young men who desperately want to win. This one hurt so bad because Mora always says we need to put our guys in best position to be successful. Coaching did not do that yestrday and his 90 second presser basically acknowledged that. A lot had to go wrong to lose that game but it started with the way the staff managed the game and I think Mora knows it.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The team has a lifeline now. Mora is here and we're in the best shape we've been in in over 10 years. The narrative that UConn doesn't belong in FBS doesn't exist anymore. You're acting like we got blown out by today. We hung around and really should've won. The narrative about us is changing. A win against Syracuse wouldn't be the reason UConn is joining the ACC/B12. It's a marathon, not a sprint

Or I guess choose to be down on the loss and ignore all the growth right in front of you.

Your call. You all sound foolish

Hung around - we blew an 11 point lead with 6 minutes to go?

The shape you're in today doesn't matter much at all in the age of the portal. We have a QB that should be looking for his first promotion in the real world and a defense with 9 new starters. The turnover and construction of rosters is insane.

The loss was inexcusable and you can't just pocket goodwill for fake moral victories this year.

 

[tedsdrunk]

Just when I think I should care about the football program they do some dumb stuff to me like this

 

[CTBasketball]

I appreciate what Mora has done to pull back the stick on the program.and hoping the game serves as a wake-up call for the game management of the coaching

To Mora’s defense, the play-calling in the first two and a half quarters should have netted us 30+ pts. I’ve never seen our offense make the same mistakes over and over, especially at QB. Even when something looked like it would work, we made it not work.

Didn’t give Sammis/Mora a lot of confidence going into the 4th.

 

[Scoe]

To Mora’s defense, the play-calling in the first two and a half quarters should have netted us 30+ pts. I’ve never seen our offense make the same mistakes over and over, especially at QB. Even when something looked like it would work, we made it not work.

Didn’t give Sammis/Mora a lot of confidence going into the 4th.

Our offense should be scoring 30 pts every game. We score 31 we win this game comfortably.

 

[cellocgg]

Hung around - we blew an 11 point lead with 6 minutes to go?

But that's part of college football. It's not some UConn-specific problem, games like that happen practically every week. K-State just blew a 10 pt lead in the fourth to a meh Army team. On the G5 side of things, Troy was up 16-3 on a ranked Clemson squad at half, similar to our score, and Clemson rallied back over the third to win while Troy stopped responding

So you're saying UConn wasn't hanging around with Syracuse because they messed up during 18% of the total game time? Well what about the 82% where we were outplaying Syracuse?

 

[ScottVib]

Right before Cuse scores the go ahead TD we have a first down at the Syracuse 39 and rattle off these 3 AWFUL plays before an extremely disappointing decision to punt and a subsequent inability to down the ball. Just complete crapping of the bed. Get the ball to Mel Brown on any of these plays and we win the game.

The problem is before those three plays the fourth quarter passing attack was 0-5 for 0 yards (and Syracuse was finally starting to get pressure on Fagnano); while the running attack was 8 for 57 yards; including 31 yards on the two rushes immediately preceding.

IMO - The first run was fine.
The 2nd down play was where I would've liked to see a relatively safe screen pass called, to take advantage of a Syracuse front that was extraordinarily selling out to stop run. Take advantage of their quest for penetration into the backfield and drop a screen pass over the top of them.
3rd down -- I didn't love it, but didn't hate it; and don't think it was completely the wrong call. They ran a reverse with the team's best play-maker. If you've already committed to running the clock as much as possible, you gave it a shot on a gimmick run on a relatively unlikely 3rd down to pick up (it's 3rd and 17). It was an unlikely first down to pick up regardless; you don't risk losing significant yardage on a sack (and again, Fagnano was starting to see a lot more pressure (and would continue to see more pressure throughout the rest of the game).


The two biggest complaints for me were the 2nd down play-call and while Syracuse seemed to eventually make an adjustment to get pressure on Fagnano (who before that 0-5 (which would become 0-8 prior to Bell's grab on 4th down)) the O-Line was never able to counter it to keep Fagnano from having to scramble to buy time (where, as it was pointed out, in the chat, he was not accurate on the move).

 

[ScottVib]

I thought we might see Jackson Harper on offense. Had 5 catches vs CCSU. Did he line up at WR today? It looked like our options shrunk down to like 3 or 4 guys this week.

Harper's targets & catches last week were all with the second offensive unit coming after it was already 42-13 (last 7 minutes of the third and the fourth quarter).

 

[ConnHuskBask]

But that's part of college football. It's not some UConn-specific problem, games like that happen practically every week. K-State just blew a 10 pt lead in the fourth to a meh Army team. On the G5 side of things, Troy was up 16-3 on a ranked Clemson squad at half, similar to our score, and Clemson rallied back over the third to win while Troy stopped responding

So you're saying UConn wasn't hanging around with Syracuse because they messed up during 18% of the total game time? Well what about the 82% where we were outplaying Syracuse?

Not saying it's a UConn specific problem - but it has an outsized affect on us because we don't have the budget that most of the P4 teams have. So when we have a good roster, a more talented roster than an ACC team, you can have to capitalize on it and win.

You build sustainable enthusiasm and momentum and maybe sway a few more NIL bucks from winning these games. We didn't and it sucks.

 

[ScottVib]

The other thing that hasn't been commented yet, is the back-to-back weeks with snapping miscues on punts. I don't know if Christinant is rushing to get downfield on coverage or what (he's been perfect on Place Kicks, it's only been the punts where he has coverage responsibilities that have been a problem); but miscues on snaps has been responsible for the first points allowed in each of the two weeks.

If no bad snap Syracuse, which lost yardage on the ensuing drive, fails to score the initial field goal. If not for the crazy replay Syracuse doesn't score the second field goal in the first half (the replayed second down gave Syracuse the 5 seconds back they needed for the final field goal).

 

[noeynox]

Just stop the bashing. It will be a cold day in hell before we get another coach of his caliber and character.

I remember when the exact same thing was said about Edsall.

Now overall I love Mora and what he has done, but he absolutely gagged that game away yesterday. There are no two ways about it. He is the HC. If he didn't like what the OC was calling, the defense got you the ball back up 11 like 6 consecutive times. One of those times you could have expressed some urgency about getting points instead of trying to run clock.

 

[king conn]

I remember when the exact same thing was said about Edsall.

Now overall I love Mora and what he has done, but he absolutely gagged that game away yesterday. There are no two ways about it. He is the HC. If he didn't like what the OC was calling, the defense got you the ball back up 11 like 6 consecutive times. One of those times you could have expressed some urgency about getting points instead of trying to run clock.

What people don't want to consider is that Mora actually told the OC to call the game the way he did late in the game. We will never know.

 

[huskymedic]

-> Fran Brown made his team run sprints: Syracuse won 27-20, but the head coach was so upset by the way his team played against UConn that he kept it on the field for postgame running. Was the punishment warranted? Well, Syracuse looked dead in the water with seven minutes left, trailing 17-6. Two quick scores flipped the game and put the Orange on top 20-17 with 48 seconds left, but they couldn’t stop UConn from driving 52 yards in 47 seconds to send the game to overtime. Brown was not a happy camper in his postgame interview, and you can understand the frustration. But the wind sprints felt a like a Pop Warner gimmick that makes Brown look like a performative disciplinarian without addressing the underlying issues. <-

 

[RSTuthill]

When the ACC was deciding between us and Louisville to replace Maryland, we beat a Teddy Bridgewater Louisville team at Louisville when they were ranked, we were bad and our QB got knocked out during the game. It made zero difference.

Individual games are not what is going to decide what conference a team plays in. Being better than middling P-4 teams continuously will mean something.

Agreed. And filling the Rent will be important too. Gotta kill the narrative by the nay Sayers that no one cares.

 

[ninety-nine]

How do you not call pass interference in the end zone play? I’ve seen it posted like we were fortunate to get the call. And maybe due to the way they called the game yesterday we were but..

Did you see the replay? He actually interfered with Bell’s opportunity to catch the ball with the second part of that pass interference. It was clinical pass interference and I don’t chuck that up to a good call by the refs just the right call.

I watched the game live, and saw the replay. Like I said, it was the correct call. It's also a call that in practice can be ignored by a referee, even if it's obvious. PI calls aren't always made, even if they should be. They didn't miss that one, but could have, so I mentioned it.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[Windham4th]

Neider is QB1.

End of Message

 

[noeynox]

Well, when this blog goes against your preferred strategy down the stretch kind of says it all.

 

[BigTenFan]

Mora is a very good coach and we are fortunate to have him in Storrs.
Would you rather have Belichick and his 24 year old girlfriend calling the plays?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Mora is a very good coach and we are fortunate to have him in Storrs.
Would you rather have Belichick and his 24 year old girlfriend calling the plays?

That's irrelevant to the fact that the staff blew the game.

 

[businesslawyer]

Agreed. And filling the Rent will be important too. Gotta kill the narrative by the nay Sayers that no one cares.

Attendance and financial support has far more to do with getting where we want to go than winning one or a few games. Anyone making a decision realizes that the on field product will be very different if the school has P-4 TV money to pay players and staff.

 

[B1GEast]

No moral victories.

Absolutely no moral victories at all

This was a game UConn controlled up to the last 7 minutes .

With a 17-12 lead and the way both the offense and defense were playing, we should have sustained the momentum.

You can't lose a game like this. There's no "Oh well, we almost had em"

It's a complete breakdown. They had nothing going for them, their offense stunk, their defense stunk, the crowd wasn't a factor. We controlled the tempo.

But somehow it all fell apart in the last few minutes. That should not have been allowed to happen.

The better team doesn't always win and we witnessed that yesterday.

Not criticizing the players or coach, just a frustrated fan.

It's games like this that make me think that Tony Soprano saw that everyone took UConn getting 6.5 and realized it was going to payout so he contacted Mora through his headset and made sure it didn't happen

It just doesn't make any sense

 

[KryHavok]

Neider is QB1.

End of Message

I love this for no other reason than having a Lawmen as a D1 starting QB.

Watching Sportscenter and other news this morning showing the story about the fruit's classless sprints after the game, I got so enraged again that I would be fine if we never play an all cretins crew team again... At least not until we can bring a different ref crew to our away games.