Well, I was wrong. Way, way, way wrong. I said that we were letting our expectations for attendance exceed reality. I knew I was wrong when I got off the Silver Lane exit of Rt. 5 at 1:15, and traffic was backed up onto the exit ramp. I don’t recall it ever being backed up that far. I knew I was wrong when it took 25 minutes to get from the exit ramp to a parking space. And when I was not allowed to park in the blue lot because it was already full despite getting off the highway over 2 hours before kickoff. I knew when I struggled to get my tailgate guests to my space because I had never seen that area before and couldn’t tell them how to walk there. (Yes, I did sent a pin via text — I’m not that old.). And when on the first defensive third down tens of thousand of folks got up with me and started screaming. And when I actually thought the announced attendance was spot on with the number of folks in the stadium instead of being wildly exaggerated. I did not think I would ever again see the Rent as full and as electric as it was during HCRE I. Frankly, there were times yesterday that I was praying for a win less to have the win and more so all these strangers would want to come back, notwithstanding lack of conference and major bowl access and name opponents and all. What a glorious feeling to be brought back to the fun we used to have every week. And that was even before getting into the game.
But there was a game. And what a show the two teams put on. Ten lead changes. No punts in the second half. A Duke team that had every right to be a little emotionally down between two huge ACC games, but instead made more noise from their team bench than I’ve ever seen. We were slightly better from scrimmage and won the turnover battle (again) big time, but the game went down to the end because they were far better in the red zones — every time they penetrated our 30 they scored a TD, and we settled for four FG attempts. I’ll be honest — once they converted the first 4th down and got their drive started, I fully expected them to tie the game with a FG and then we’re back in OT, again, and I would have cried. But then the staff calls the right blitz, Parham, playing yet another great game, is not letting Mensah go anywhere and I didn’t even see the fumble at first — just the wild, emotional, deserved celebration that followed. And can I give the Duke staff some credit — 90% of coaches would have called their two TOs and made us kneel two more times. Duke didn’t. We had a last second win just last year — the improbable ending against Temple — but the reaction there was relief. Last night was joy. Joy that intensifies after the years of suffering this school has had. Yes, the wins against Houston in ‘15 and Fresno, BC and Liberty in 22 and the bowl win last year were all great but this win, in front of a packed house, this to me was the best win I’ve seen since HCRE got on the wrong plane.
Offense, defense and specials. Let’s start on offense. Joe, after a slow start, was just brilliant in the second half. Bell was covered like a blanket all day, so until the last brilliant TD route and catch simply got his yards by catching the ball short and running. We saw shockingly little of Neider but Murphy stepped up huge and had his best game as a Husky. The conventional running game was not good enough — combination of Edwards not being himself but more so Duke’s ability to play the run — and yet we schemed our way through it by playing against tendencies. I’ll give one example from early in the 4th Q. Rosa lined up to Joe’s right, and went sprinting right with Joe rolling right behind him. All year, with Rosa in, a huge percentage of calls have been to throw to Rosa racing from the backfield short towards the sideline. We look to all the world like we’re running that play, and then Joe stops and throws back across his body to a wide open TE. Just brilliant and caught Duke totally unprepared. And one more shout out on offense. On the game winning drive, we’ll get to the fake punt run by Honig in a moment but we converted a second 4th down on that drive. And when Juice caught that ball, he was already clearly injured. But he didn’t give a damn. He got himself on the field for that play and made it. These guys badly wanted to win, and they were going to leave everything on the field to get there.
The defense looked like they were going to be overwhelmed by Duke’s to be fair very good offense on the first drive, and then shut it down for the rest of the half, using blitzes to hurry Mensah and force him to throw on the run, and proved to the world that as good as Mensah is he was clearly the second best QB on the field yesterday. Our two true LBs, Parham and Diomonde, were everywhere. Even having lost Molette to injury, the other Safeties held up. And the first half was maybe as good a defensive effort as we’ve seen since Syracuse. The second half, not so much. Duke had three second half possessions, TD drives of 75, 75 and 80 yards, with very few times we came close to stopping them along the way. And then a last two minute drive that worked its way to our 30. And then the coaches, who for whatever reason had no been all out blitzing the 2d half as we ere being shredded, sends the blitz that gets there, with our best tackler to boot being the one who has to not miss the tackle, and the fumble was just the icing on the cake.
Special teams, for 55 minutes, we were outplayed. Freeman actually missed a kick without slipping. Shocking. The too high snap from the first two games almost bit us again, but Stutz saved the day with a great hold. They won the battle of returns and coverages and they killed a punt at our one as opposed to Stutz’s attempt that our gunners didn’t get to (in fairness, that was over a 50 yard punt). But then, the glorious call to let Honig make a play on 4th and long that, in a game of huge plays, was the biggest. Look, we hadn’t come near stopping them in the second half, and if we gave them the ball back we risked not getting it back or only getting it back down two scores. And for years, we’ve heard of Honig’s otherworldly athleticism that hasn’t translated to him being anything more than a rotation piece, much less a star. And, to be fair, the success of that play had more to do with the call than Honig’s execution. But he makes the read, he handles the ball and once he was running in the open field it might have well have been a WR racing downfield.
So make no mistake about it. We have played 3 ACC teams this year, and the staff has had us more than prepared each time. Both from an emotional and a scheme standpoint. (And the staff can’t be appreciated enough for their job yesterday, where dealing with Duke’s athleticism required a higher percentage of well designed plays on O and blitzes on D than we ere used to). But, in each of the games the following week, we came out with nowhere near that level of strategic or emotional preparedness and laid eggs against inferior teams. So let’s be clear — Saturday is a test for both the staff and senior leadership. We are a much better team than Air Force, and they have to fly 2000 miles and 2 times zones for a noon eastern kick off. Yes, unlike Delaware and Rice we will be at home, and on senior day, but the staff and player leadership has to have the roster ready for this as well. There can’t be a letdown again, either of the next two weeks. Because giving away the extra win we earned yesterday would be a shame. I beg UConn nation to be there and be loud. I will unfortunately be at a work excursion and will miss it. If you want to watch with me, I’ll be the one person in the front row of the Bellagio sports book watching CBS Sportsnetwork instead of the Big Ten or SEC games and going crazy despite not having money on the game.
PS. After posting, from reading articles about the game, it appears I screwed up and the fake punt was on our penultimate drive and not our final one. I’m not going to change the post. I will leave it as a badge of honor as to how mentally and physically exhausted I am from yesterday’s game as I sit here this morning. I don’t think I’m the only one.
