Well, that was harsh. That was a must win game played in a sauna in front of friends and family where we dug a deep and early hole, spent the entire game trying to climb out of it, and did -- but only to see a tieing chip shot field goal attempt go badly awry. I am fairly certain that is the first time in the history of the Rent that we've walked out losers because we missed a FG attempt. We've walked away winners under those circumstances -- Duke and UVA come to mind. We've lost on missed FGs on the road. Rutgers in '08 and maybe you put Mizzou on that list, even though we never kicked the ball. But at home, the closest we came was Akron in '04 where Nuzzi missed, giving the ball back to Charley Frye, and miraculously Akron threw a bunch of incomplete passes, gave us the ball back with clock and timeouts, Dan O drove us back into FG range and this time Nuzzi came through. It is an awfully deflating way to lose a home game. The lack of a crowd -- not at the end of the year but for a game where we were 1-1 -- was astounding, but I won't read much into it given that it was on a Sunday with little warning. Hopefully not a portent of things to come. Having said that, however, the next time a student asks for more basketball games in Storrs, or criticizes how grown ups watch a game, he can screw himself. The UConn student body should be embarrassed -- no, ashamed -- for their showing on Sunday. And while it was too hot to be playing or even watching football, unlike the Stony Brook game what we saw on Sunday was at least a competitive, and if you like offense, entertaining football game. I felt like I was trapped in a Touchdown Husky movie. I am supposed to be happy that we can now generate over 500 yards of total offense every game, but we couldn't stop a pickup Pop Warner team. You know the old gypsy curse -- may you one day get exactly what you wish for? Congratulations TDH. I hope you are happy, because that would make one of us.
Turning to the offense, Lashlee should be canonized NOW, and the offensive positional coaches should be on the list to be considered in the future. Our QB is who he is -- a solid player, but without either breakaway speed or the ability to throw deep with accuracy -- but damn, we can move the ball. I can't explain why Arkeel can't get holes he can find in the running game, but we have 3 3/4 more years of Mensah and Hopkins? Wow. Mensah especially looks like he's going to be a great weapon, along the lines of that short but not small Pitt back from back in '09 from Blair Academy whose name escapes me. Newsome, even if he's now our 3rd string TB, was just immense making plays in space. The long TD catch and run -- escaping traffic in that crowd on the sideline -- was just an unbelievable play. We unexpectedly lose our top WR at the start of the game and everyone else on offense -- the OL, the WRs (including a walk on getting his first real action), BS and Arkeel all step up. The OL and Grimes have not gotten enough credit here. Yes, the ECU defense is horrible, but we are getting better pass protection, we are running effectively whomever is in at TB and we are doing this while we are rebuilding the OL with youngsters on the fly. Von Demark's effort on the Newsome long TD catch was an effort we haven't seen from a UConn OT since Ryan Krug in the opener at the Rent against Indiana. So whatever happens this year, you have to love what we're seeing on offense with youngsters playing everywhere but QB.
The defense, however, is another story. As I have said in another thread, this is mostly about talent, but I don't think it's all about talent. Why are Foley and Joseph and the rest of our interior D solid against straight ahead running plays but much less effective against misdirection? Why did we keep allowing them to have a 3 on 2 advantage on swing passes to the strong side without figuring out how we maintained parity on that side of the field? How can you constantly leave the intermediate middle open on third downs? I don't blame Crocker for the fact that we are as bad a defense as I think I've ever seen -- he doesn't get beaten by every move of a WR or miss tackles constantly or not have the speed to effectively rush the passer -- but I'm watching to see if this is really the guy to get us back to where we want to be. On the other hand, while ECU not scoring for the last 25 minutes of the game may have had more to do with them slowing down and focusing on clock than our play, I will note that a lot of changes were made throughout the game defensively that at least showed you that someone was trying. We started seeing a lot more of Connor Freeborn at DE. Bell got benched for Herring-Wilson, and Coyle got benched for Fortt. And, on passing downs, we did what we should have been doing from day one, which is moving Ormsby to DT and flanking him with Luke and Stapleton, and that did generate somewhat more pressure. Do all these changes stick? Do they make us less pitiful? I don't know. We will see. But at least the coaches were trying, even if at times it didn't look like the players were. (As an aside, did TDH when we started the second half with the two teams combining for four TD drives of 75 yards in 6 minutes?)
Which takes us to special teams. It is great seeing us gain more yards on returns than we give up again, like the old days. Unfortunately, our Punter at this stage in his career isn't showing anything, and Tarbutt, while he has been awesome on kickoffs all year, choked in the clutch. And that was a choke, not a miss. He didn't take a full swing at the ball -- you could tell the moment the ball left his foot that he had babied the kick and just tried to steer it. I couldn't see direction from my seat, but you could tell that he did what I do when I block the golf ball with my driver, and you knew there was trouble. Hopefully, the young man shakes it off. He has a powerful leg. Does he have the mental state? Time will tell. Finally, when Jordan Swann, who had been a weapon, tried taking a KR five yards deep in the end zone out, we didn't see him again. Unless someone heard of an injury, I will assume this is Edsall being Edsall -- if you ignore the coaches instructions, he will find someone who won't. And we're lucky that Skanes is our second option, because he looked fine back there.
Coaching? We did return enough competent players that the defense should not be worst in the country bad. It just shouldn't. It's hard to believe that there isn't some formation and scheme to get more out of these guys, and I am surprised that, with a defensive roster loaded with seniors, more effort didn't go into building a scheme around the players -- at least for this one year -- than forcing the players into a scheme. Hopefully our scheme works and the players figure out their responsibilities better, but we're 3 games and 4 weeks into the season and my hopes are dimming. The offense, however, is light years better than any rational person could have hoped for given how we finished last year, and it's better while we're pushing young players forward in front of more experienced ones. I know that whomever coaches our defense there is not nearly enough team speed, and I know that given time Edsall can bring a defense to UConn, because he consistently did that before. Can he do it with this defensive staff? Time will tell. Can he keep Lashlee long enough to do it? That would be the more rational fear, because the resume that Lashlee will now have after accomplishing what he is accomplishing here will cause him to be offered higher profile and higher money coordinator positions this off season.
So that's it. The thought of getting to 6 wins is largely out of my head by now -- I just don't see the defense to do that. But hopefully we have a year where we see improvement, we start identifying the defensive replacements for the 7 seniors who started on the defensive side of the ball on Sunday and we score enough points to win a few more games and play some competitive games. I know HCRE can rebuild this defense given time. But the questions are can he do it with this defensive coordinator, and can he keep Lashlee long enough to be here when it happens?
