The Defense

[noeynox]

That is as bad as I remember a UConn D looking against an fcs team ever.
Granted the HC QB, was nice, but we had trouble keeping up with their speed, and appeared to have a lot of confusion in our LB, and our secondary.

We shut them out in the 2nd half but they moved the ball at will even then.

 

[JMick]

If the offense continues to go 3 and out and turn the ball over it's going to make them look a lot worse than they are. I also feel like we didn't get out of the base set until it was 20-7. Hopefully we just didn't want to put too much on tape.

 

[Carl Spackler]

That is as bad as I remember a UConn D looking against an fcs team ever.
Granted the HC QB, was nice, but we had trouble keeping up with their speed, and appeared to have a lot of confusion in our LB, and our secondary.

We shut them out in the 2nd half but they moved the ball at will even then.

You must have been hiding your eyes or somethign, when we played Towson State a couple years ago.

 

[SBILL]

Maine was 10 times worse.

 

[noeynox]

You must have been hiding your eyes or somethign, when we played Towson State a couple years ago.

You know I forgot about that game.

 

[Carl Spackler]

You know I forgot about that game.

Lucky for you. I didn't.

 

[Jax Husky]

Maine was 10 times worse.

Yeah, last night wasnt bad once the Defense settled in. That was without Foley too. Second half gave up no points. Maine and Towson were both much worsee.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I've been knee deep in other stuff for so long that I barely follow much anymore - just not enough time in a day. But soaking in what I could in the past 24 hours, it looks like Randy has made a conscious decision with D that will follow what Dick Rod did at WVU a while back. The 3-3-5 stack is an effective D, and can be flexible to face any offensive scheme - and it's going to make recruiting for UCONN a little easier. Recruiting deficiencies are going to show up on the line of scrimmage, and with the 3-3-5, we don't need to hit on as many DL's, and we've got a history of producing NFL talent DB's that goes back over a decade now Perkins and Branch. We're going to be able to draw talent for the defense based on NFL rep.

Just spitballing, but that's my hot take.

Most important spot in the 3-3-5 stack is the nose tackle. Need a monster 2-gap player there. Losing #93 early last night was a pretty big deal.

 

[Hamms30]

the 2 TD's were scored off turnovers that left HC with a very short field and huge momentum. The D gave up yards, but I don't think it is the s***storm that some people on the boards have been making it sound like this morning (nobody in particular).

 

[SubbaBub]

Guys were running free, our guys were not in coverage, and not driving on the ball.

With all that it is hard to judge the scheme but from the stands, it looked like the base was man to man on the outside covered by one "safety" on each side but, not the Tampa 2 deep safeties. They were closer to the line.

At the snap it didn't look like man coverage but a zone. A static guarding a piece of turf zone that was easily beaten by cross routes, overloads, and delay routes.

Whatever it was supposed to be it looked like it was played badly. My main concern is that it is going to rely on playmakers and sure tackling at the point of attack. Things I don't think we possess at the moment.

 

[Carl Spackler]

the 2 TD's were scored off turnovers that left HC with a very short field and huge momentum. The D gave up yards, but I don't think it is the s***storm that some people on the boards have been making it sound like this morning (nobody in particular).

eh - it's not the morning after on the boneyard if there isn't complaining about something. (nobody in particular). Wait til we lose a game.

This is entirely accurate though. Without the turnovers, the 2nd and 3rd Q's of the game would be a lot different. Bonehead's elephant in the room thread tricked me. I thought it was going to be about fumbles. This game is entirely different if not for the fumbles. That's always the case with turnovers.

It's just my opinion and observation, but I think the defense is going to be fine. We're paper thin with depth at key spots for now, and if we need to get into the depth of the roster we're going to get mudrolled by stronger teams than Holy Cross, but not much you can do about that, but make sure you're recruiting like hell.

 

[JMick]

the 2 TD's were scored off turnovers that left HC with a very short field and huge momentum. The D gave up yards, but I don't think it is the s***storm that some people on the boards have been making it sound like this morning (nobody in particular).

everyone just wants to be mad today. I don't get it. What could they have realistically expected?

 

[J187Money]

You must have been hiding your eyes or somethign, when we played Towson State a couple years ago.

Don't you mean Townson?

 

[noeynox]

For the record, I'm not mad, I just couldn't believe how many guys they had running wide open, they also killed us with bubble screens. I was expecting them to have trouble moving the ball, but losing Foley really hurt. Looked like Kevin Murphy was in the rest of the game, who spelled Murphy? Never noticed.

 

[noeynox]

Foley? Does he start next week or sit out the first half? Read in the Courant he sits, but I'm pretty sure that is incorrect info.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Don't you mean Townson?

LOL

 

[businesslawyer]

the 2 TD's were scored off turnovers that left HC with a very short field and huge momentum. The D gave up yards, but I don't think it is the s***storm that some people on the boards have been making it sound like this morning (nobody in particular).

I think it was a s***storm. We gave up enough easy yards all night long that they easily could have put 35 on the board if they were better in the red zone. Glad we won, and the yardage given up doesn't matter if you keep them off the board, but if you're using what happened to predict the season, it was damn ugly.

 

[Carl Spackler]

For the record, I'm not mad, I just couldn't believe how many guys they had running wide open, they also killed us with bubble screens. I was expecting them to have trouble moving the ball, but losing Foley really hurt. Looked like Kevin Murphy was in the rest of the game, who spelled Murphy? Never noticed.

I could be wrong, because I'm going purely from memory of watching the video feed once live, but I think they were rotating the entire line in the second half and shifted the gap assignments from the first half. Murphy did a good job filling in for Fatakusi in teh first half, but he's not a 2-gap player on the nose in division 1 football. I'm not sure if we have another one other than fatukasi to stick in the middle of D and do that, and it sure looked like that's what his role was when we started the game.

 

[noeynox]

I could be wrong, because I'm going purely from memory of watching the video feed once live, but I think they were rotating the entire line in the second half and shifted the gap assignments from the first half. Murphy did a good job filling in for Fatakusi in teh first half, but he's not a 2-gap player on the nose in division 1 football. I'm not sure if we have another one other than fatukasi to stick in the middle of D and do that, and it sure looked like that's what his role was when we started the game.

Any recollection of who went in for Murphy in particular?

 

[Stainmaster]

Any recollection of who went in for Murphy in particular?

They moved Lawley inside from the end a few times.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Any recollection of who went in for Murphy in particular?

No idea. I don't even know many of the names on the roster. I remember the Murphy kid - if I'm not mistaken, he was being recruited as a lineman at Army and Diaco got him - I think he was Diaco's first recruit at UConn.

 

[Stainmaster]

No idea. I don't even know many of the names on the roster. I remember the Murphy kid - if I'm not mistaken, he was being recruited as a lineman at Army and Diaco got him - I think he was Diaco's first recruit at UConn.

Apparently he had a Cincy offer as well. I had high hopes for him as a result.

 

[Hamms30]

I think it was a s***storm. We gave up enough easy yards all night long that they easily could have put 35 on the board if they were better in the red zone. Glad we won, and the yardage given up doesn't matter if you keep them off the board, but if you're using what happened to predict the season, it was damn ugly.

There have been a few posting today where you'd think players were running and tripping over their own feet all game. I don't blame anybody for being skeptical either. I wouldn't try and use tonight as a barometer and I'm really more interested to see how things go next week with USF. I think that'll really show the holes and how effective the D is/isn't. I would expect the D unit to gel more as the season goes on and to see them tighten things up. Not having Foley for 97% of the game was bad. Losing Joseph is badder... really hoping for the best for him. Hopefully there is a bunch of time spent in the film room and after having live game experience the secondary can start to get a feel for where they have help, where they don't and start locking down receivers. HC made a couple long catches last night where I was left wondering how the receiver found that window to settle into with like 4 DB's circling.

If the points stay off the opponent's side of the board, we could give up 700 yds and I'll be happy

 

[Carl Spackler]

There have been a few posting today where you'd think players were running and tripping over their own feet all game. I don't blame anybody for being skeptical either. I wouldn't try and use tonight as a barometer and I'm really more interested to see how things go next week with USF. I think that'll really show the holes and how effective the D is/isn't. I would expect the D unit to gel more as the season goes on and to see them tighten things up. Not having Foley for 97% of the game was bad. Losing Joseph is badder... really hoping for the best for him. Hopefully there is a bunch of time spent in the film room and after having live game experience the secondary can start to get a feel for where they have help, where they don't and start locking down receivers. HC made a couple long catches last night where I was left wondering how the receiver found that window to settle into with like 4 DB's circling.

If the points stay off the opponent's side of the board, we could give up 700 yds and I'll be happy

Judging by many parameters, you're new to the boneyard and uconn football in general. Get used to the complaining. There is always something to complain about, and the past few years have been pretty bad for the fanbase - we're like an abused spouse. Keep coming back.

You should have seen Joseph's tackling form a few years ago. He was knocking himself out of games. At least last night, somebody else did it. Hopefully it's not a season ender, and he gets back in the lineup soon.

Trust me on this - if you're bothered by negativity after this win, don't read after a loss.

I agree with you - the D wasn't as bad as it might seem. That's the thing - the entire game - it's never as bad as it seemed, and it's also never as good. It just is what it is. It was a win, that apparently we needed to use everything in the tool bag to get. Against Holy Cross.

It's going to be a tough season, but as long as you protect the ball, get your assignments right, and play disciplined team football, we'll be competitive.