The View From Section 241 | Page 3 | The Boneyard

The View From Section 241

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Not sure how being down 18 and having to score 18 points is "convoluted math".
 
ConnHuskBask said:
Not sure how being down 18 and having to score 18 points is "convoluted math".
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It is not against the rules of football to be down by 18 and score more than 18 for the rest of the game. Why fool around with 2 pt. conversions and field goals? Three touchdowns...done. My point is (and always has been) the chances of converting a 4th & 12 on a short field with Whitmer under center were next to nothing. Everyone advocating going for it seems like they just assume he was going to get it. Plus even if he does get it, that takes even more time off the clock. There is no guarantee that UConn gets two more possessions.

One of the premises behind my argument also addresses the fake field goal. That call shows Diaco's focus on development over winning far more than the field goal at 11:03 in the 4th.

It was a stupid call in terms of yardage, time of game, and mindset of the players. It was right after halftime and UConn was marching down the field. They stalled, but they picked up a huge amount of yardage and were in field goal range. If Puyol hits that field goal, the score is 28-10 with 1 2/3 quarters remaining. If everything else played out as it did, the field goal in the 4th quarter makes it 28-13, and we are not having this discussion about what going for it means on 4th & 12 with the lesser QB of the two under center. Feagles is a RSFr. so I have no problem with him getting field time, I have a big problem asking a punter to get 16 yards to keep the drive alive. I thought it was a bad snap, but I didn't see the actual play because the BYU players were blocking my view. There is no reason to call a fake field goal in that situation.
 
Yeah just score three more touchdowns, WHY DIDN'T YOU THINK OF THAT CHB?

No one is assuming they were going to get it.

Kicking a field goal and kicking away is the equivilant of calling the ref over and telling him you quit.

At this point you have to be trolling us because there is no way anyone could actually be this dense.
 
whaler11 said:
Kicking a field goal and kicking away is the equivilant of calling the ref over and telling him you quit.

At this point you have to be trolling us because there is no way anyone could actually be this dense.
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Kicking a field goal followed by an onside kick may have better chances than going for it on 4th and long. Kicking a field goal and trying to force a turnover may be better odds. If you convert 4th and long, you've only gotten a first down. You still haven't gotten to the end zone and you might end up with only 3 points.
 
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pj said:
Kicking a field goal followed by an onside kick may have better chances than going for it on 4th and long. Kicking a field goal and trying to force a turnover may be better odds. If you convert 4th and long, you've only gotten a first down. You still haven't gotten to the end zone and you might end up with only 3 points.
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You can never end up with three points because there is never a reason to kick a field goal. Unless it's to get some practice from the right hash.
 
Palatine said:
It was a nice night.

But I disagree on the talent statement. They had one incredible skill player. Past that, the squads were not that far apart talent wise. Put Hill on the Huskies and we win.

I see people make this mistake over ad over. What the Huskies lack is one or two special talents on the squad. The rest is pretty close. Give BYU Whitmer and the Huskies Hill and everyone will say BYU didn't have the horses to keep up with us. It's the special player, that one guy, or two, that we lack.

And it looked worse than it was because we played guys who didn't know what to do. On the first TD, we get good pressure up the middle but Stapeton completely loses contain and Hill trots in holding the ball over his head. Maybe in three games Stapleton learns to hold the edge. Again, not a talent issue, a redshirt freshman issue. In a couple of years we could be raving about Stapleton.

Didn't we learn anything from the P era? We put plenty of talent on the field. We need it to play to its potential and it would be nice, just once, to be the team with Dennard Robinson or Pat White.
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Wow... I saw a bigger, faster, stronger team in BYU, at almost every position. Not sure what game you saw.
 
I wasn't going to write back, but whatever...

You have your opinion and I have mine. It's Wednesday night, the NFL starts tomorrow, and we are much closer to the Stony Brook kick off than the final gun of BYU. I'm done with this topic. You're boring me and it's time to move on.

I probably won't even know it, but see you on Saturday.
 
whaler11 said:
You can never end up with three points because there is never a reason to kick a field goal. Unless it's to get some practice from the right hash.
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Sometimes at work, I have to bite down on my upper lip when I read your(and others') responses or else I would have coworkers peering over my way wondering wtf is going on. Its a compliment.
 
businesslawyer said:
What a beautiful night for football. Perfect fall weather (like we've had all summer). A good crowd (the 35k announced looked low to me compared to what I saw) given the harm that has been done to our program. Not much enthusiasm, but we were down so quickly that's to be expected. Did it resemble the crowd for WVU and Pitt in '11 or LV or USF in '07? Of course not. But frankly I was surprised to see as many have stuck with the program as have given the disaster that was P, the disaster that is conference realignment and the fact that attendance at sporting events is down generally. Yes, traffic in CT is just god awful. Yes, I wish they could get us into the stadium easier. But it was a good night for football.

We didn't lose because of HCBD (although I'll get to that later). We lost because they were more talented up and down the rosters. We lost the game because we were clearly wearing cleats that weren't right for the turf, and we watched WR after WR slip and fall trying to cut (while BYU didn't have that problem). We lost because they had more experience and a staff that has been there winning more than losing for a while. And, most importantly, because our team is just not built for stopping a QB of that style that good. Our DEs, to a man, are to slow to even contain someone like that, much less pressure him, and once he's out of the pocket whether he runs or throws we're in trouble. If we play more QBs like him we'll lose more games. Until we get back to DEs who max out at 250 and can run. That's why we lost the game. Yes, whenever you play you can win if absolutely everything goes right. But we never had a material chance of winning that game, and it wouldn't matter if Vince Lombardi was coaching us.

I must say, the unbelievable number of substitutions and players used makes it incredibly difficult to talk about what I saw. But let's give it a try. On O, I thought the OL played competently. Yes, that's not huge praise, but it's lightyears ahead of where we were just a year ago, notwithstanding our losses to graduation. Thank you Mike Foley. I liked the way Ron Johnson ran through an arm tackle, I liked Mariner's burst and I liked Newsome's quickness and elusiveness. But they all need to learn stuff. Mariner did not score running to the corner when he couldn't execute a stiffarm. A Bellamy or a Brockington, neither with his legs, scores easily on that play. I liked the start of the TEs, especially Bloom. Other than Davis, the WRs were not good enough (and by the way -- Geremy Davis should not be off the field more than 10% of our offensive snaps, if at all). Obviously, not a fan of playing two QBs -- and even when I was ready for that the thought that we'd be changing during a drive is Pasquolini level stupidity. As to how they played, Whitmer made the nice escape and through to Bloom, and didn't turn it over, but wasn't accurate enough. Cochran was o.k. Neither got much help from their wideouts, not just with drops but with the inability to cut.

Specials was not, but it wasn't horrific either. Puyol made his kick, and got one KO into the endzone (although he kicked OB also). Wain needs to be better -- he looked like he was too focused on where the ball was going to land instead of just kicking it. Coverages weren't horrific, and if Newsome learns to take a KO and move at full speed even ahead of a hole being there he'll make a play or two this year.

Defense is harder to talk about, because there is not enough speed in the front 7 to stop offenses like BYU's. I can't blame 285 pound DEs for not being Cody Brown or Trevardo. There's no point. Stewart has athleticism but seems to struggle with coverages and reads. The frosh LB from PA -- is it Junior or Joseph -- looked much better to me than Ashiru playing in the middle. I thought Vann was solid. Williams needs to find the ball from the corner. I've never seen in Obi what others do. But I don't want to be too harsh after one game. The buttom line is the D could have quit at halftime and they didn't -- they played their butts off and, with the help of BYU mistakes, gave our O plenty of time to get back in the game. Ultimately, our O didn't finish drives at the level they were going to have to in order for us to have a chance to win.

So what about HCBD? Let's go back a bit, because I was quiet at the end of last season with both disillusionment and a lot of stuff going on in my life. I thought Warde ran a good process and made a good choice. Personally, I leaned to the Narduzzi because of his CT ties, and the thought that maybe he'd stay if successful, but HCBD was a good hire. We had better options than when we hired Edsall, because of where the program is, but frankly we didn't have the options we had when we hired P because of the realignment issues. But it was a good hire. But you never know with assistants if they'll be a good coach until they have their shot. So what happened Friday night? I think a lot of the criticism is silly. I thought the bodies coming in and off, given their number, did incredibly well (I only remember one defensive 4th down where there was real confusion) and certainly better than P's first year. Fifty players playing from scrimmage? No, I don't think you will ultimately win this way, and Friday night wasn't "ultimately." Did he need the evaluation? Does he consider the first three games preparation for the conference season? Did he feel he needed to play that many kids to get "buy in" up and down the roster? Who knows. But he deserves patience, and he deserves not to be criticized WHERE WE REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT HE IS THINKING. On the other hand, was there crazy stuff happening? LIke not just the two QBs but switching in the middle of a successful drive? Like Geremy Davis being on the bench so much? Like a naked run on a fake FG when we needed 16 yards, not 6? I don't think he coached a good game, or even close to it. But it was his first one and not a game we were likely to win in any event. Talk to me after five games, when we've played at USF and Temple and home and I've seen how we've done.

So that's it. I think many on here, with the joy of a new coaching regime, where far more optimistic than either HCBD's experience or our talent levels justify. 6-6 and a minor bowl bid would be a very, very successful season as far as I'm concerned. And I'm not at all confident we have 6 wins in us. The sooner I see Whitmer not playing the happier I'll be, but if he gets us to 6 wins with Cody, or with a two platoon, so be it. He gets a chance to do it his way. And the chance is going to take more time than it took to judge P unless the guy starts costing us games. Which he did not do Friday night.
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Thanks for the reasoned analysis. Quite astute and fair and so much preferable to the emotional drivel that comes from some posters who "slept at a Holiday Inn last night" but who are so disappointed by the lack of a win or a closer game that they can't see the forest for the trees or won't even consider a longer term perspective. I want to see the entire program change not just a game to game adjustment. I believe the latest recruit is a tell for the future: we are on a new road.

If the season is a mess at the end of the year, I will reconsider my position. Until then I'll withhold criticism.
 
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uconnfan68 said:
Wow... I saw a bigger, faster, stronger team in BYU, at almost every position. Not sure what game you saw.
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Palatine has two rules for viewing what he sees in life:

1. It's Obama's fault.

2. If for some reason #1 can't be made applicable, it's the fault of the UConn football coach.

Since he can't find a way to blame Obama for UConn being pushed around on Friday night (at least not yet), we fall back on rule @2.

One day he will write something that can't be explained by one of those two rules, but I'm not holding my breath!
 
businesslawyer said:
Palatine has two rules for viewing what he sees in life:

1. It's Obama's fault.

2. If for some reason #1 can't be made applicable, it's the fault of the UConn football coach.

Since he can't find a way to blame Obama for UConn being pushed around on Friday night (at least not yet), we fall back on rule @2.

One day he will write something that can't be explained by one of those two rules, but I'm not holding my breath!
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I'm pretty sure the first drive and Max's fumble were Obama's fault.
 
businesslawyer said:
Palatine has two rules for viewing what he sees in life:

1. It's Obama's fault.

2. If for some reason #1 can't be made applicable, it's the fault of the UConn football coach.

Since he can't find a way to blame Obama for UConn being pushed around on Friday night (at least not yet), we fall back on rule @2.

One day he will write something that can't be explained by one of those two rules, but I'm not holding my breath!
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What did Obama ever done to Palatine? I thought that Palatine occasionally posted pretty good analysis. Here is hoping 2nd week is a better showing for HCBD.
 
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SeoulHuskyFan said:
reciprocal int rates?
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C'mon. You telling me you didn't know of the inverse relationship between the cost of money and the RPMs on Casey's throws? Too much time in the Eastern Asia, I suppose. ;)
 
UConn did win an award for the FG on EDSBS.... if Sad Field Goal of the week is an award.
 
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