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- Aug 24, 2011
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That was a tough loss. Really empty stadium, notwithstanding the announced attendance. We saw three bus loads of students heading back to campus before kickoff. (Yes, I know you are young and might have taken the bus out without noticing it was cold and raining but come on guys.). A tailgate that got very, very wet, even under the old canopy that I bought at Sports Authority before the Syracuse game in '05 and is so hard to assemble that I simply wait for my brother and law to show up. (Yes, there is a reason why Jewish lawyers should marry goyim and it's useful brothers in laws). And then a really, really tough loss because it was a game we needed and a game that, coming into the season, looked like a sure win. But, having said all that, I seem to have a different view of it to a large extent than others. I thought we played well overall (red zone finishing being the exception that cost us the game), and it just wasn't our day. Let me explain.
Today's game came down to 4 plays in my view -- 3 calls and 1 gust of wind. All four went against us, and that was the difference between winning and losing. Let's take them in order. Up 3-0 early, we have a 3rd and long from the red zone. Ron Jon takes a handoff, moving left laterally, and all of us curse because the play is going nowhere. Then he stops and throws lefty (who knew) to an open Brian Lemelle in the endzone. The defender, who never found the ball, came in low and early and took Lemelle out before he could make a play on the ball. It seemed like one of the more obvious pass interference calls of the season. For reasons I couldn't fathom, no flag. Instead of, presumably, going to 10-0, we settle for 6-0. And I haven't seen anyone give credit for the play call, as if the coaches should know they wouldn't draw a flag. Second play, up 16-7 late in the 1st half, we stop them on a (I forget) 3rd or 4th and long, giving us a 9 point lead into the locker room, different game. But Diggs gets called for roughing a passer who was way out of the pocket, and John Robinson IV is then burned deep. I have no clue if it was or wasn't deserving of a penalty as I still haven't seen the hit (someone who wasn't there feel free to weigh in). Seven point swing. Third play was on their TD drive to start the 3rd Q and give them the lead they never relinquished. Third and long, we chase the QB out of the pocket and he looks to chuck one 10 yards out of bounds on the left sideline. Joseph, covering the receiver, gives up on the play. The wind knocks the ball down, it floats to the receiver on the sideline, and with Joseph having stopped running he gets the 1st down. 7 point swing. Finally, our penultimate drive. 4th and 4 in the red zone. BS runs right, lunges, looks like he got inches short of the 15 yard line, which would have been a first down. Instead, he's marked about a foot and a half back, just short. We see a replay. Again, it seems to confirm he had the first down. No reversal. We lose. So to me, we played good D for about 40 minutes on each end of their three consecutive TD drives, we played good offense throughout, just not finishing, everything goes against us and we lose. Sometimes, life just sucks. But I think we played more than well enough to win. Also, sometimes you have to give your opponent credit. Running a high risk offense with a freshman QB from Hawaii and a roster of Floridians on a wet, cold, blustery New England day, they didn't turn it over once. Credit to them.
Specials won the return game, but Bobby P missed a FG that cost us dearly (althought to be fair he was going to miss a makeable attempt eventually), Wain had his worst game and we failed to move quickly enough on the fake FG in the first half that would have worked if we were a little quicker and had avoided the penalty.
Fairfield County Fan discussed this earlier today, but on D we needed more speed. During the stretch when they scored on 3 straight drives, we could chase their QB out of the pocket but we couldn't contain him in the pocket and keep him from having forever to throw. As I've been saying during the offseason, we are too slow. Ormsby was playing hard, but just couldn't contain or keep up. I would have moved him into the DT rotation, played Stapleton and Luke at the ends, played only my two fastest LBs (Diggs and Levenberry) and played a 5th DB. Take them out of their game and make them run up the gut. Meyers is a friggin wall, but it doesn't matter in a game when you have to get the ball out of the hands of a fast, scrambling QB. Other than that, there were times when I thought what would happen if you took away the cushions, but we also got beat long too often so who knows. In fairness to the staff, you would have thought that a tipped ball, a wind blown ball, a receiver trying to make a move with a wet ball, would cause turnovers yesterday. They didn't. Oh -- and while Obi has been great the last few games, and was good yesterday, there was old Obi agains, whiffing on an interception attempt and turning a 15 yard pass over the middle into a long gain.
On offense, I think folks are so disappointed by the loss that they are missing the obvious, which is that is probably the best game our OL played in years. With both pass protection and run blocking. We moved up and down the field very smartly the vast bulk of the game. But we couldn't finish. Newsome and Thomas were both great, and I thought BS played well. With better protection, you could see him make more reads. But other than Thomas, I don't see our receivers running free all over the field. We miss Mayala more than I thought we would, and I don't think Bloom was himself after he took a shot.
So that's where I am. An awful loss, that will be hard to overcome, but I view it more as one of those things than something that tells me terrible stuff about HCBD, BS or our program. I saw as much good as bad, and just saw us as unable to overcome a number of bad breaks. So barring a collapse or a major improvement, I'm not wasting time talking about the program over the long term the next few weeks. I will root for this team every week, and see if we can't still at least match last year's record. And beat BC.
You will now return to your regularly scheduled program (during which you can continue to take your frustration out on everyone involved).
Today's game came down to 4 plays in my view -- 3 calls and 1 gust of wind. All four went against us, and that was the difference between winning and losing. Let's take them in order. Up 3-0 early, we have a 3rd and long from the red zone. Ron Jon takes a handoff, moving left laterally, and all of us curse because the play is going nowhere. Then he stops and throws lefty (who knew) to an open Brian Lemelle in the endzone. The defender, who never found the ball, came in low and early and took Lemelle out before he could make a play on the ball. It seemed like one of the more obvious pass interference calls of the season. For reasons I couldn't fathom, no flag. Instead of, presumably, going to 10-0, we settle for 6-0. And I haven't seen anyone give credit for the play call, as if the coaches should know they wouldn't draw a flag. Second play, up 16-7 late in the 1st half, we stop them on a (I forget) 3rd or 4th and long, giving us a 9 point lead into the locker room, different game. But Diggs gets called for roughing a passer who was way out of the pocket, and John Robinson IV is then burned deep. I have no clue if it was or wasn't deserving of a penalty as I still haven't seen the hit (someone who wasn't there feel free to weigh in). Seven point swing. Third play was on their TD drive to start the 3rd Q and give them the lead they never relinquished. Third and long, we chase the QB out of the pocket and he looks to chuck one 10 yards out of bounds on the left sideline. Joseph, covering the receiver, gives up on the play. The wind knocks the ball down, it floats to the receiver on the sideline, and with Joseph having stopped running he gets the 1st down. 7 point swing. Finally, our penultimate drive. 4th and 4 in the red zone. BS runs right, lunges, looks like he got inches short of the 15 yard line, which would have been a first down. Instead, he's marked about a foot and a half back, just short. We see a replay. Again, it seems to confirm he had the first down. No reversal. We lose. So to me, we played good D for about 40 minutes on each end of their three consecutive TD drives, we played good offense throughout, just not finishing, everything goes against us and we lose. Sometimes, life just sucks. But I think we played more than well enough to win. Also, sometimes you have to give your opponent credit. Running a high risk offense with a freshman QB from Hawaii and a roster of Floridians on a wet, cold, blustery New England day, they didn't turn it over once. Credit to them.
Specials won the return game, but Bobby P missed a FG that cost us dearly (althought to be fair he was going to miss a makeable attempt eventually), Wain had his worst game and we failed to move quickly enough on the fake FG in the first half that would have worked if we were a little quicker and had avoided the penalty.
Fairfield County Fan discussed this earlier today, but on D we needed more speed. During the stretch when they scored on 3 straight drives, we could chase their QB out of the pocket but we couldn't contain him in the pocket and keep him from having forever to throw. As I've been saying during the offseason, we are too slow. Ormsby was playing hard, but just couldn't contain or keep up. I would have moved him into the DT rotation, played Stapleton and Luke at the ends, played only my two fastest LBs (Diggs and Levenberry) and played a 5th DB. Take them out of their game and make them run up the gut. Meyers is a friggin wall, but it doesn't matter in a game when you have to get the ball out of the hands of a fast, scrambling QB. Other than that, there were times when I thought what would happen if you took away the cushions, but we also got beat long too often so who knows. In fairness to the staff, you would have thought that a tipped ball, a wind blown ball, a receiver trying to make a move with a wet ball, would cause turnovers yesterday. They didn't. Oh -- and while Obi has been great the last few games, and was good yesterday, there was old Obi agains, whiffing on an interception attempt and turning a 15 yard pass over the middle into a long gain.
On offense, I think folks are so disappointed by the loss that they are missing the obvious, which is that is probably the best game our OL played in years. With both pass protection and run blocking. We moved up and down the field very smartly the vast bulk of the game. But we couldn't finish. Newsome and Thomas were both great, and I thought BS played well. With better protection, you could see him make more reads. But other than Thomas, I don't see our receivers running free all over the field. We miss Mayala more than I thought we would, and I don't think Bloom was himself after he took a shot.
So that's where I am. An awful loss, that will be hard to overcome, but I view it more as one of those things than something that tells me terrible stuff about HCBD, BS or our program. I saw as much good as bad, and just saw us as unable to overcome a number of bad breaks. So barring a collapse or a major improvement, I'm not wasting time talking about the program over the long term the next few weeks. I will root for this team every week, and see if we can't still at least match last year's record. And beat BC.
You will now return to your regularly scheduled program (during which you can continue to take your frustration out on everyone involved).
