- Joined
- Aug 24, 2011
- Messages
- 22,661
- Reaction Score
- 8,668
What a treat to need to write a 241 the night of the game, while I’m feeling emotions. Day started with disappointment. Cancelled my tailgate at 8:00 a.m. because it was people from work and I couldn’t see making them worry if they had to come join me on a lousy day. But as the forecast improved, figured I’d go by myself. When I said by myself, I meant not sitting with anyone I knew. I didn’t mean being virtually the only person in the blue lot or Section 241. But whatever. I pulled into the blue lot at 3:00, had a small brewery Vermont beer and a bag of chips, and wandered into an empty stadium at 3:20. While I was sitting by my car having a beer, someone else by themself wandered up and asked if I thought we had a chance. I said no. He asked if we could make it competitive. I said I hope so. Let me tell you, I’ve never been so happy wiping egg off my face. It has been almost five years — since November of 2017 — that we have a single FBS win against anyone other than UMass. I hoped it would come this year but I wasn’t expecting it today, as 23 point dogs.
The single thing that jumped out at me was how into the game, supportive and enthusiastic the UConn bench was. From the opening kickoff until Robert Burns 4th and 2 fourth down conversion. How a team that had been so thoroughly destroyed for three straight weeks could come out with that attitude was beyond my comprehension. But they did. I haven’t been bashing Mora and staff during the losing streak, and I’m not going to turn my head around and throw praise on them after this. Still a lot that they, along with the players, have to work on. But players and coaches believed in their hearts, and weren’t listening to their heads. And like the road win at Temple in 2013, at 0-9 on a lousy weather day with no reason to believe, they made it happen. My heartfelt congratulations to all of them, and I was happy to share a piece of their joy.
Offense, defense and specials. Let’s start with specials. Yuch. The missed tackles on their punt return TD was a joke, and while I’ll forgive our kickoffs into the wind, we twice ran into their punter and somehow escaped flags. And Victor Rosa has to be able to get to punts and make fair catches. But it didn’t cost us the game.
The defense was just great. It’s hard to imagine where that game came from. The corners — Bell and Wortham — were terrific. Where did that tackling come from on the short, wide passes? And I thought we didn’t have enough DL to make the switch to the 4-3, but we kept bringing in folks that I had never noticed before and whomever was playing put pressure on their QB without letting him run free to their outside. While thoroughly stuffing the run. And getting three takeaways. The best defensive game we’ve played, off the top of my head, probably since the 6-6 bowl year in 2015. There was no dramatic 95 yard drive to win the game without their 60 minute masterpiece.
The offense was not great. We were barely over 200 yards until the game winning drive. But it overcame Zion coughing it up in FG range to take the lead for the half (where, yet again, he didn’t see a free defender coming at him from 25 yards away), and then Houston coughing it up when we were in FG range to get back into the game early in the 2d half, and then the penalty cancelling out what could have been a game winning long scramble from Zion Turner in the 4th. And did enough to get it done. But on the offensive end, with a lot of work to do (for God sakes, if teams are overplaying the run can run we some play action to short passes where Zion knows where he’s throwing no matter what before the play starts and makes a quick throw), and too many injuries to overcome, it was individual performances that stood out to me. Notwithstanding the fumble, Houston was great. Look, he’s playing out of position as a starting TB. He should be a slot back getting a limited number of touches a game. But there he was, with his first 100 yard game, notwithstanding being keyed on. And coming back from his fumble for the game winning TD on a play where it looked like not much was there. Robert Burns, who didn’t come here to be a bit player, but became that (notwithstanding that everyone seems to agree that he is a superior human being). But here he was, with a chance for our biggest win in five years requiring him to make plays, coming up with 29 huge yards, mostly into packed defenses.. Justin Jolley, the true frosh from New Rochelle, who not only became a weapon in the passing game, but made one huge play catching a ball short of a first down, and knowing where the sticks were and wrestling his way to them. Chase Lundt, at RT, who I didn’t notice in the passing game once. meaning that he stopped being overrun on passing downs. And most of all maybe, Kevin Clercius, who must have been wondering with all the WR injuries why in the world no one ever looked to throw to him this year. Who not only didn’t choke on the first QB lined up in the slot reverse pass, but, not open, did his best Geremy Davis imitation with the game on the line and caught the 40 yard ball (well thrown to be sure) despite being covered, turning the game from one where we were chasing to one where we were in the drivers seat. Congratulations to all.
I am not going to get ahead of myself and talk about what we are all thinking (which is if we play like this can we get to 4-4, or what it says about the staff). I am just going to enjoy our first real win in 5 years. And count the hours to a winnable game in Miami in 7 days, where if we play as well as we did today we should walk away 3-4. But it was good to remember for a moment what hope, and winning, and overcoming adversity, felt like. Thank you to all involved.
The single thing that jumped out at me was how into the game, supportive and enthusiastic the UConn bench was. From the opening kickoff until Robert Burns 4th and 2 fourth down conversion. How a team that had been so thoroughly destroyed for three straight weeks could come out with that attitude was beyond my comprehension. But they did. I haven’t been bashing Mora and staff during the losing streak, and I’m not going to turn my head around and throw praise on them after this. Still a lot that they, along with the players, have to work on. But players and coaches believed in their hearts, and weren’t listening to their heads. And like the road win at Temple in 2013, at 0-9 on a lousy weather day with no reason to believe, they made it happen. My heartfelt congratulations to all of them, and I was happy to share a piece of their joy.
Offense, defense and specials. Let’s start with specials. Yuch. The missed tackles on their punt return TD was a joke, and while I’ll forgive our kickoffs into the wind, we twice ran into their punter and somehow escaped flags. And Victor Rosa has to be able to get to punts and make fair catches. But it didn’t cost us the game.
The defense was just great. It’s hard to imagine where that game came from. The corners — Bell and Wortham — were terrific. Where did that tackling come from on the short, wide passes? And I thought we didn’t have enough DL to make the switch to the 4-3, but we kept bringing in folks that I had never noticed before and whomever was playing put pressure on their QB without letting him run free to their outside. While thoroughly stuffing the run. And getting three takeaways. The best defensive game we’ve played, off the top of my head, probably since the 6-6 bowl year in 2015. There was no dramatic 95 yard drive to win the game without their 60 minute masterpiece.
The offense was not great. We were barely over 200 yards until the game winning drive. But it overcame Zion coughing it up in FG range to take the lead for the half (where, yet again, he didn’t see a free defender coming at him from 25 yards away), and then Houston coughing it up when we were in FG range to get back into the game early in the 2d half, and then the penalty cancelling out what could have been a game winning long scramble from Zion Turner in the 4th. And did enough to get it done. But on the offensive end, with a lot of work to do (for God sakes, if teams are overplaying the run can run we some play action to short passes where Zion knows where he’s throwing no matter what before the play starts and makes a quick throw), and too many injuries to overcome, it was individual performances that stood out to me. Notwithstanding the fumble, Houston was great. Look, he’s playing out of position as a starting TB. He should be a slot back getting a limited number of touches a game. But there he was, with his first 100 yard game, notwithstanding being keyed on. And coming back from his fumble for the game winning TD on a play where it looked like not much was there. Robert Burns, who didn’t come here to be a bit player, but became that (notwithstanding that everyone seems to agree that he is a superior human being). But here he was, with a chance for our biggest win in five years requiring him to make plays, coming up with 29 huge yards, mostly into packed defenses.. Justin Jolley, the true frosh from New Rochelle, who not only became a weapon in the passing game, but made one huge play catching a ball short of a first down, and knowing where the sticks were and wrestling his way to them. Chase Lundt, at RT, who I didn’t notice in the passing game once. meaning that he stopped being overrun on passing downs. And most of all maybe, Kevin Clercius, who must have been wondering with all the WR injuries why in the world no one ever looked to throw to him this year. Who not only didn’t choke on the first QB lined up in the slot reverse pass, but, not open, did his best Geremy Davis imitation with the game on the line and caught the 40 yard ball (well thrown to be sure) despite being covered, turning the game from one where we were chasing to one where we were in the drivers seat. Congratulations to all.
I am not going to get ahead of myself and talk about what we are all thinking (which is if we play like this can we get to 4-4, or what it says about the staff). I am just going to enjoy our first real win in 5 years. And count the hours to a winnable game in Miami in 7 days, where if we play as well as we did today we should walk away 3-4. But it was good to remember for a moment what hope, and winning, and overcoming adversity, felt like. Thank you to all involved.
Last edited:
