What a strange, awful, exhilarating, boring, exciting, horribly played, war of a wild football game. The post-game thread shows the wild ride of emotions that Husky nation — at least that part of it that cares about football — went through yesterday. I didn’t expect to totally overwhelm another team, but I’ll be honest — I didn’t expect to need a miracle finish to pull it out either. Bottom line to me — that was an even game, and one where our defense and our offense did just enough to win. As for it being even, I get those who say we didn’t deserve to win, but if they had run it in in the last play you could just as easily say that they didn’t deserve to win. It was a back and forth game where no team ever led by more than 4 points and there were six lead changes. Did we play well? For 3 quarters our defense was terrific — we gave up 120 yards and 3 points on a 60 yard FG (unless you hold the defense responsible for the blocked punt TD or the turnover in our end where the defense gave up nothing and Temple cashed in for 3). And then, in the 4th Quarter, suddenly they followed the Tj Sheffield TD with a long TD drive, and followed the Robinson TD run with another long drive that got them to the 1. And then the D miraculously held. Great surge and discipline on the third down run. I still haven’t seen a replay of the 4th down play where I really saw what happened, but I know the ball never got into the end zone so I’ll take that. As for the offense, yeah, we couldn’t run the ball, and our passing was too inconsistent, but the blame from some on the Boneyare is absurd. Changing QBs again, and without our best offensive weapon, and tlhen our best RB, we put up almost 400 yards of total offense and 23 points. And, with the game on the line, had two long offensive TD drives where folks, including Fagano (more on him later), made plays. So we didn’t play well, and the other team played like they wanted it more, but we won a 50/50 game instead of losing it. And got to 4-2 for the first time since we beat Louisville in ‘09 the day before the tragic loss of Jasper Howard. So take it, use the off week to get healthy and then start the second half of the season, where we’ll have four games against teams ranked worse than 120 in the Sagarin (more on that later) and two chances to show if we’re any good, rather than just good enough to consistently beat crap.
O.K., offense, defense and specials. Let’s start with specials. Very good solid game from both kickers, and good to see Freeman not just keep his streak but get one from over 40. Coverage was good when needed. Their punter did a great job not letting TJ return punts. So all was fine but for the punt block which could have cost us the game. Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? From where I sat, someone — coach or player — made a mental error, as the guy who blocked it didnt’ have to make a spectacular play — he just walked in with no one making any attempt at delaying him.
The defense for three quarters played just as dominating football as it had against FAU and Buffalo, despite being put in a hole by the offense with the constant second half turnovers, and then either lost focus or just wore out. We do rotate the up front six players a little, but game after game if we put in our backup DL all at once the other team clearly moves the ball better. It may be that we have covered up the lack of depth by running the ball so well that the defensive snaps we have are limited and we don’t need to use a lot of rotation. When it isn’t, against better teams, we may have an issue. But then it did what it had to at the end, probably helped by the failed center/QB exchange on the last play. Tui Brown in particular I thought was great. And again, I think Malcolm Bell playing for Chadwick did at least as well as Chadwick had been doing,
The inability to run the ball even a lick caught me absolutely by surprise. Was it Temple overloading the box? A great defensive scouting report and game plan? Temple’s front defense just playing with more intensity than our OL? I don’t know. I’ll have to leave that to people more expert than me. But it was shocking to see how little success we had. Passing was, for lack of a better word, meh. Fagnano missed too many throws — Bell on the deep crossing pattern being wide open comes to mind — but also made some big plays and threw for like 270. The fact that we’re complaining about that …. Yes, his three turnovers werer too many, although the first interception wasn’t his fault and the fumble maybe should have been blown dead. If people thought he was the second coming, they are wrong. But he’s not terrible either, and without the blocked punt TD and the injuries maybe this would have been a different game. Game ball to Sheffield for his huge day stepping in to replace Bell, and to Buchman for staying ready although barely being used up until now, and then coming through with a huge second half both receiving and blocking (as it was his block that sprung Sheffield on the WR screen TD).
So where are we? How great is our improvement? What does the 4-2 mean? If you focus on performance — not just wins and losses but how you get there — this is clearly the best team we’ve had since the Big East disintegrated. On the other hand, if you just measure it by results — who you beat, who you lose to and where — while beating crap consistently is obviously better than where we’ve been, we haven’t yet accomplished what Mora’s team did two years ago. That team beat good Fresno State and Liberty teams, and a not good but decent ACC team in BC. And won on the road. Using the Sagarin ratings, which include FCS teams with FBS teams, we lost on the road to 49 and 71, and won at home against 120, 139, 146 and 225. Folks, that’s a lot of suck. I’m happy to be beating suck consistently, instead of being the suck beaten consistently, but that’s nothing to be bragging about either. We have more suck on the schedule as well — games at home against 122 and 126 and on the road against 135 and 187. That leaves Wake, ranked 86, at home and at Syracuse, ranked 55. We’re 92 for what it’s worth. My point being, winning all four suck games will get us to 8-4, and while I would have taken that in a heartbeat coming into the season (or especially as I left College Park totally embarrassed on opening day), given how poorly our opponents have played it will show improvement but not that we’re any good at all. I’d love to beat Syracuse on the road, but that’s going to be a tall task. And if we play them tough, not like we did at Maryland, it will show something. That, obviously, leaves the game against Wake, that I expect will have a line within a FG either way. At home. While you can always change your destiny by losing to suck or beating Syracuse, the Wake game will set the cieling on our season. A loss and you’re trying to get to 8-4, but without having anywhere near the quality of wins we had in ‘22, or have a real shot at 9-3 with a P-4 win. The difference between those two seasons, to me, is immense. So the team should rest, get healthy, and then use the extra day of preparation. The crowd yesterday was a few thousand better than the last two games — noticeably more full, but you had to look and think about it. Hopefully the fan base uses the week off to recharge, and is there loud and proud to provide extra energy for Wake. And hopefully the student body views this as a real opponent worth showing up for. Because the 19th will be the defining moment of our season.
