The View From Section 241 -- Navy

[06029]

The running play call was a no brainer for Diaco. He runs when near to the goal line. There was no debating the play to run and it was never going to be a pass attempt. Here are all scoring plays from inside the 10 since last year (2 pass; 14 runs; neither of the passes were in the fourth quarter; close to 90% run).
Nova:
Ron Johnson rushed to the left for 1 yard gain;
John Robertson rushed to the left for 3 yard gain
Army:
Ron Johnson rushed to the right for 2 yard gain
Missouri:
Ron Johnson rushed to the left for 6 yard gain
Navy:
Bryant Shirreffs passed to Tommy Myers to the left for 6 yard gain
BYU:
None
UCF:
Arkeel Newsome rushed to the left for 5 yard gain
Bryant Shirreffs rushed to the left for 1 yard gain
Arkeel Newsome rushed to the left for 8 yard gain
USF:
None
Cinci:
Arkeel Newsome rushed to the left for 4 yard gain
ECU:
Arkeel Newsome rushed up the middle for 2 yard gain
Bryant Shirreffs rushed to the right for 3 yard gain
Tulane:
None
Houston:
Bryant Shirreffs passed to Noel Thomas to the right for 4 yard gain
Temple:
None
Marshall:
Ron Johnson rushed to the left for 8 yard gain
Maine:
Ron Johnson rushed to the right for 1 yard touchdown
Arkeel Newsome rushed to the left for 2 yard touchdown
Navy:
Ron Johnson rushed to the right for 3 yard touchdown

Diaco told you exactly why he would not pass: "Throw the ball there. Now you're at the half yard line. YOU'RE AT THE HALF YARD LINE. Throw the ball, what if it's picked? Throw the ball, what if it's batted? Throw the ball, what if it's batted and picked? Why'd you throw it?!? What are you doing, you idiots?!? Theoretically, in a petri dish and I don't mean this in any condescending way, I really don't and I'm too animated right now, I apologize, it was a very, very crushing game. In a petri dish, you can look at it and video game it, throw a pass, run QB sneak and get two plays, but we were at the half yard line."

Diaco is afraid of the turnover on a pass play near the goal line. Almost paralyzed by the fear and his play calling becomes ridiculously predictable. So why would Nave be surprised when they call a running play and not have it defended exceptionally well? Much like Maine game, without Navy having a turnover returned for a TD by Uconn, this game would not have come down to a last play for them.

 

[Marty Jackson]

I think one has to start with the elephant in the room. Let's forget the use of times out and just look at the last call. We have second and goal from the half yard line, 17 seconds left, no time outs. The job of a coach is to maximize the odds of his team performing and winning. Not to win or lose mind you -- our OL should have won the line of scrimmage on the last play, and we'll never know if we would have won if we gave ourselves three shots at it either -- but to maximize the chances that the players could win or lose games. The right, odds maximization call was simple. You throw the ball twice -- quick hitters that are either going to be TDs or incompletions -- and then, if you don't score on 2d or 3d down, you run what you think your best play is. Running on 2d down had the risk of exactly what happened happening -- you get one shot at it and one shot only. Doesn't matter if you were very confident in the play, even if for good reason. You maximize your chances. Our coach failed miserably at that. Then watch the post game video that someone posted -- it's not even clear he had any real view of what the situation was when he made the call or what happened and why. He is not going to be fired because he blew this game -- nor should he be -- but he has a long, uphill climb ahead of him if he's ever going to get me to believe that he is capable of managing the end of games.

But it wasn't just the last call. It was two other things that we've been watching for 2 years and 2 games all coming together to haunt us at once. First, the inability to get plays in on a timely basis. Because as we saw on someone's excellent thread, there was no real reason to burn the last timeout. And the unbelievable decision to give up on returning punts, and even finding a way to at least fair catch anything that goes over 25 yards. Both burned us big time. Add up the litany of other things that went wrong -- a horrific call by the officials on the BS "fumble" leading to their third score, Jhavon getting best one on one in the first series (which I believe set back our confidence on defense and led to the god awful first half we played on that side of the ball) and our failure to get started on offense anywhere near the start of the game -- and you have a recipe for losing a game that we had won and, frankly, should have won. Credit to Navy for doing what it had to do, but we were better than them, and they are not going to have the year hatching all at once in spectacular fashion. That was very painful the whole way through.

Not as good observations on offense, defense and specials as I try for because I watched the first half during a meeting, but I'll give what I have. Special teams -- in addition to our punt returning just being forfeited, our kickoff returns were horrid (I doubt it was Beals as much as the blocking, but he can't fumble a return down 21) and I would love to see what happened on their punt return setting up the game winning TD. It didn't look like we even sent more than one man down field to cover it. I seriously don't know what we did (and am not about to watch the tape). Kicking was good again but wasn't enough.

On offense, the inability to generate a conventional running attack against these two teams is very, very disconcerting. I don't know that there is a reason to think it is going to get better. The inability to get anything out of Newsome, especially, is just disheartening. The passing game was just terrific however, even including much better protection. I can't believe we have idiots saying BS under threw a ball. This is college football. College quarterbacks aren't supposed to make 29 good throws in 29 attempts. Great to see Mayala and Bloom involved and Thomas is making a statement.

On D, my guess is the two big pass plays on the first two possessions really set us back mentally (that's not an excuse -- just an explanation), and Jhavon especially, having caught up to the underground ball, can't let the receiver cut him off from it. He makes that play, the entire game may have played out differently. Having said that, however, the unit recovered brilliantly over the last 35 minutes or so. Certainly the best football we've ever seen out of Luke. Stapleton, Walsh and others were almost as good.

So we gave a game away and are 1-1. I said I'd take 2 out of 3 from Navy, UVA and Syracuse and we've lost the one on the road. Is Navy not as good as Syracuse and UVA? Too early to tell. Despite this board's incredible willingness to turn on a coach when he screws up, I don't think the players will. I think they will be ready to dig in harder and get it done at home. Will they have enough to win next week? I'm not sure. We'll see. But I want to be clear -- the fact that I don't expect the players to quit on HCBD doesn't mean that I think he is going to be better at managing games any time soon. That I will have to see to believe. Hopefully, we play well for 60 minutes, we don't have one terrible call lead to giving up a key TD and we don't need to pull the game out in the last two minutes.

Have a good week everyone. If you can. I'm not sure I will. This loss hurt.

very fair summary... I do think the coaches made some clear adjustments on offense (not sure if was late first half or in the second half), down a couple touchdowns, as the offense changed significantly. BS looked for the quick passes underneath and they were moving the ball almost at will. Why haven't we seen that approach previously. why does it take the team to be down 21 points in order to open up the offense?

Granted, the end of the game is getting the attention, but Diaco did throw in a fake punt that was successful.

Outside of the final 5 minutes I thought Diaco and staff did a good job of keeping the team in the game and not giving up. I also think they made some adjustments that navy couldn't counter. Had the final play resulted in a score for Uconn, these are the things people would be pointing out.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Of course, that is what Leavitt told Matt Grothe before he bootlegged to a 9 yard loss and gave us our first ranked victory against a ranked team ever.

HCBD did exactly the wrong thing, but it's only as a chance of decreasing the odds. Nothing was guaranteed even if he did it right.

Well to be clear, I made my original statement with the benefit of hindsight. Watching that play on tape, all 11 defenders crashed into the interior of the line. BS would've walked in the end zone.

If I were watching that live, my preferences would've been:

Bootleg with an option to throw

Fade route to Thomas

THEN Run

Of course our HC thought it was 3rd down, AND thought we only had 2 cracks at it, so there's that

 

[businesslawyer]

Well to be clear, I made my original statement with the benefit of hindsight. Watching that play on tape, all 11 defenders crashed into the interior of the line. BS would've walked in the end zone.

If I were watching that live, my preferences would've been:

Bootleg with an option to throw

Fade route to Thomas

THEN Run

Of course our HC thought it was 3rd down, AND thought we only had 2 cracks at it, so there's that

Again, I said HCBD failed miserably. He did. But a bootleg with an option to throw (or any other naked reverse) runs the risk of a major loss (like Greg Robinson's tackle of Grothe), as well as the clock management risk. I still think the safe play was to make quick throws on 2d and 3rd down where it's caught or incomplete, and then run whatever you want on 4th. No problem with a bootleg there.

 

[Palatine]

A bootleg wins the game for us.

A good offensive coordinator or a good game day head coach wins the game for us.

 

[Husky Pete]

Don't underestimate the effect of the Army game at Yankee Stadium in 2014 on HCBD's thinking. With a chance to tie in the last minute at Army's six yard line, UConn's Chandler Whitmer threw a pick six.

Things like that stick with a coach. And you can be sure he will never run the ball on second and goal with no time outs and 17 seconds left again. Third and goal...maybe.

 

[kemba]

Again, I said HCBD failed miserably. He did. But a bootleg with an option to throw (or any other naked reverse) runs the risk of a major loss (like Greg Robinson's tackle of Grothe), as well as the clock management risk. I still think the safe play was to make quick throws on 2d and 3rd down where it's caught or incomplete, and then run whatever you want on 4th. No problem with a bootleg there.

Plus, I believe we ran one bootleg earlier in the game and they snuffed it out perfectly, BS had no option but to take a sack.

It's all nitpicking though, we all agree they blew it by burning the timeout, and that running up the middle after burning the timeout was a terrible decision.

 

[Palatine]

Plus, I believe we ran one bootleg earlier in the game and they snuffed it out perfectly, BS had no option but to take a sack.

It's all nitpicking though, we all agree they blew it by burning the timeout, and that running up the middle after burning the timeout was a terrible decision.

He could have thrown the ball away.

 

[Irishfan]

This situation is very close to the end of the 2015 Super Bowl. Diaco decides to run the ball and he is an idiot. Pete Carroll decides to pass, and he is an idiot. In both instances they went against the "smart" play. If either one had worked we'd be talking about how they outsmarted the defense. Unfortunately, in both cases, the defense came up with the stop. Had Uconn thrown a pass and it had been intercepted, people would complain that his O-line outweighed the Navy defenders and he showed no confidence in them.

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

This situation is very close to the end of the 2015 Super Bowl. Diaco decides to run the ball and he is an idiot. Pete Carroll decides to pass, and he is an idiot. In both instances they went against the "smart" play. If either one had worked we'd be talking about how they outsmarted the defense. Unfortunately, in both cases, the defense came up with the stop. Had Uconn thrown a pass and it had been intercepted, people would complain that his O-line outweighed the Navy defenders and he showed no confidence in them.

I disagree...I doubt there was a UConn fan out there who wasn't thinking passing was the right way to go (or a BS run/pass option). I honestly think if BS tried two passes or a run/pass and failed...people would be disappointed...but wouldn't be as incensed as they are now. I also think if the pass was picked...people would be disappointed but not nearly as angry. Actually...if they threw a pick, people would be more cranky about the choice to run on 3rd and 7 and that awful punt/punt protection.

Truthfully...there was a lot to get frustrated about in that game...but if that game ended in an interception....that wouldn't be where my disappointment would lie.

 

[Excalibur]

This situation is very close to the end of the 2015 Super Bowl. Diaco decides to run the ball and he is an idiot. Pete Carroll decides to pass, and he is an idiot. In both instances they went against the "smart" play. If either one had worked we'd be talking about how they outsmarted the defense. Unfortunately, in both cases, the defense came up with the stop. Had Uconn thrown a pass and it had been intercepted, people would complain that his O-line outweighed the Navy defenders and he showed no confidence in them.

Do we really need to list all the ways that our situation was different than Seattle's?

Time on clock
Timeouts
Actual success running the ball

It's such a god-awful comparison . . .

 

[businesslawyer]

This situation is very close to the end of the 2015 Super Bowl. Diaco decides to run the ball and he is an idiot. Pete Carroll decides to pass, and he is an idiot. In both instances they went against the "smart" play. If either one had worked we'd be talking about how they outsmarted the defense. Unfortunately, in both cases, the defense came up with the stop. Had Uconn thrown a pass and it had been intercepted, people would complain that his O-line outweighed the Navy defenders and he showed no confidence in them.

Again, that's just stupid. Intelligent people are able to evaluate whether the play made sense when it was called because it maximized your chances of winning. Only the not so bright are actually influenced the the result. You are not smart because you bet 3 on a roulette wheel with 30 to 1 odds and you win. That just makes you lucky.

 

[BlueMAB]

Do we really need to list all the ways that our situation was different than Seattle's?

Time on clock
Timeouts
Actual success running the ball

It's such a god-awful comparison . . .

Terrible comparison to try and prove a point about Diaco's decision. The biggest thing they share in common is that the coach who went against the smart play lost the game, and somehow people still try and use it to defend the call.

 

[SonsOfNutmeg]

True for those who post for the sake of posting. But Johnson scoring would not change the fact that he went the low percentage route. You can bet on roulette all you want, and you will win plenty, but ultimately you win more if you play the percentages and at the end he failed.

He should of ran to the left of the blockers...

 

[huskymedic]

Ron Jon was facemasked on that drive late that started deep after punt !!

Nah... Looked like it @ regular speed but it was jersey @ shoulder pad.

 

[J187Money]

The running play call was a no brainer for Diaco. He runs when near to the goal line. There was no debating the play to run and it was never going to be a pass attempt. Here are all scoring plays from inside the 10 since last year (2 pass; 14 runs; neither of the passes were in the fourth quarter; close to 90% run).
Nova:
Ron Johnson rushed to the left for 1 yard gain;
John Robertson rushed to the left for 3 yard gain
Army:
Ron Johnson rushed to the right for 2 yard gain
Missouri:
Ron Johnson rushed to the left for 6 yard gain
Navy:
Bryant Shirreffs passed to Tommy Myers to the left for 6 yard gain
BYU:
None
UCF:
Arkeel Newsome rushed to the left for 5 yard gain
Bryant Shirreffs rushed to the left for 1 yard gain
Arkeel Newsome rushed to the left for 8 yard gain
USF:
None
Cinci:
Arkeel Newsome rushed to the left for 4 yard gain
ECU:
Arkeel Newsome rushed up the middle for 2 yard gain
Bryant Shirreffs rushed to the right for 3 yard gain
Tulane:
None
Houston:
Bryant Shirreffs passed to Noel Thomas to the right for 4 yard gain
Temple:
None
Marshall:
Ron Johnson rushed to the left for 8 yard gain
Maine:
Ron Johnson rushed to the right for 1 yard touchdown
Arkeel Newsome rushed to the left for 2 yard touchdown
Navy:
Ron Johnson rushed to the right for 3 yard touchdown

Diaco told you exactly why he would not pass: "Throw the ball there. Now you're at the half yard line. YOU'RE AT THE HALF YARD LINE. Throw the ball, what if it's picked? Throw the ball, what if it's batted? Throw the ball, what if it's batted and picked? Why'd you throw it?!? What are you doing, you idiots?!? Theoretically, in a petri dish and I don't mean this in any condescending way, I really don't and I'm too animated right now, I apologize, it was a very, very crushing game. In a petri dish, you can look at it and video game it, throw a pass, run QB sneak and get two plays, but we were at the half yard line."

Diaco is afraid of the turnover on a pass play near the goal line. Almost paralyzed by the fear and his play calling becomes ridiculously predictable. So why would Nave be surprised when they call a running play and not have it defended exceptionally well? Much like Maine game, without Navy having a turnover returned for a TD by Uconn, this game would not have come down to a last play for them.

The way this board erupted during the Army game with the pick six...he is kind of in a no-win situation.

 

[businesslawyer]

The way this board erupted during the Army game with the pick six...he is kind of in a no-win situation.

Well, every coach is in a kind of no-win situation if they care what every idiot who is going to complain about the outcome no matter the intelligence of the decision says. That is correct.

But it's also irrelevant to this situation, where he elected to maybe only have one shot at the end zone when he could have had three. Whitmer's pick six at Yankee Stadium was frustrating, but it wasn't stupid for him to decide to pass there. It just didn't work.

Said another way, every time we lose a game we will have someone say it was totally our coach and want to count days until he is gone. But I don't say that a coach "failed miserably" at the end of a game often or lightly.

 

[Uconnalliance]

I thought he got him around the inside of the shoulder pad.

My bad i was down the other end of the field..lol

 

[joey3$trike$]

If you can't gain a yard, you don't deserve to win the game. How our captain and leader doesn't have the guys lined up ready to go is mind numbing.

 

[31GuardTrap]

My bad i was down the other end of the field..lol

Hey, at the game I was yelling face mask myself. Then they showed the replay and I cowered back into my seat.

 

[noeynox]

Well, every coach is in a kind of no-win situation if they care what every idiot who is going to complain about the outcome no matter the intelligence of the decision says. That is correct.

But it's also irrelevant to this situation, where he elected to maybe only have one shot at the end zone when he could have had three. Whitmer's pick six at Yankee Stadium was frustrating, but it wasn't stupid for him to decide to pass there. It just didn't work.

Said another way, every time we lose a game we will have someone say it was totally our coach and want to count days until he is gone. But I don't say that a coach "failed miserably" at the end of a game often or lightly.

I remembered the outrage being at the horrible pass Whitmer made anyway. Kid was tough but he was very turnover prone. Especially when contrasted with a guy like BS.

This really comes down do you prefer one chance to win the game, or multiple chances. Most would pick multiple, Diaco went with one and lost the gamble.

On to UVA.

 

[Srqhusky]

Why is nobody crying about the BS strip. Anyone think the whistle should have been blown from forward progress?

 

[Husky68]

This situation is very close to the end of the 2015 Super Bowl. Diaco decides to run the ball and he is an idiot. Pete Carroll decides to pass, and he is an idiot. In both instances they went against the "smart" play. If either one had worked we'd be talking about how they outsmarted the defense. Unfortunately, in both cases, the defense came up with the stop. Had Uconn thrown a pass and it had been intercepted, people would complain that his O-line outweighed the Navy defenders and he showed no confidence in them.

Didn't Seattle still have time out left or more time on clock? Don't remember thinking well if they ran and didn't make it time would run out. If so makes big difference as only way for UConn to get 3 chances at score is Pass, Pass and then best play.

 

[businesslawyer]

Why is nobody crying about the BS strip. Anyone think the whistle should have been blown from forward progress?

Because it was early in the game and we overcame it. But I said it was a terrible call and it was.

 

[uconndogs]

BL, terrific job as usual. Nice to read a post that wasn't personally insulting of Diaco.

• Team showed great heart in coming back and the staff made some nice adjustments on both sides of the ball.
• Special teams need work. Through many years of Edsall's tenure his teams struggled on specials and eventually built them to be a strength. Let's hope Diaco progresses as well.
• I've said this repeatedly, Diaco needs to have an assistant mirror him during the games to protect him from himself. I think he's still too emotional and inexperienced to make these calls late in games.
• I think for teams not named OSU or Alabama, a run first offense to establish the passing games may be coming out of college football. Our struggles running are not unique to UCONN. I see it everywhere. I'm wondering is defensive fronts are just too good and strong if you don't demonstrate the ability to go over the top of the LBs.
• BS may be in a groove with the receivers. 23-26 is some serious efficiency. That could be very interesting.
• I want these next two really bad.