This Might be All Wet

[cohenzone]

I’m no expert, but a few things that have probably been brought up in other threads occurred to me as I sat in my seat on the 50 yard line on a gorgeous day.
1. Why on 2nd or 3rd and short would you ever run Mensah wide?
2. I said to my friends that they should run plays that Beaudry is good at, short passes 4-5 yards downfield., and do it on first down. Well, in the second quarter they actually heard me and it worked. They moved the ball, didn’t have to use much time to pass protect. Do it until USF proved they could stop it and it might also open the running game, which it did. And in the second half they reverted to their total Edsall predictable conservatism, wound up with a bunch of 2nd and 3rd and long and that ain’t Beaudry’s or this team’s strength.
3. Use a tight end over the middle more than once a half.
4. Randy, Bend but Don’t Break doesn’t work on a team with a very average (but better than last year) offense. The AAC is a wide open league, your D can’t stop anyone often enough and your guys aren’t going to outscore anyone but really weak teams. In fact, your defensive schemes weren’t exactly fabulous in the OBE. A little aggression on D might work. And giving tge O a bit more field time might help them to improve.
5. Not the fault of the players, they are what they are,but there are no playmakers on D who make teams avoid them. A few of the young receivers have potential.
6 Punting from just inside the 40 is surrender football, especially with our D.
7. The time out call with with a bit over 2 minutes left in the half was incomprehensible under the situation at the time. It really didn’t matter because USF would’ve still hade enough time to score even without the stoppage. Of course, they almost squeezed in a second score.
8. If you’re on this board I apologize to the guy who suggested that the PA guy do the “And that’s another first down” thing, but I never liked it and over the last 8 years it’s become ludicrous when we are 3 or more scores down.

Go Huskies, my team no matter what or no matter the bad coach.

ETA. Sign that young woman who made all 3 of her FG tries in the time out contest. She definitely has a soccer background. Impressive.

 

[Chin Diesel]

1. It's amazing how fans can know this but the staff doesn't. Mensah is strictly an up the middle runner. He can't outrun an average DE to get to the corner and turn it up field.
4. Randy is a play it by the book (1975 edition) of field position. That's why he punts at the opponents 40 on fourth down. That strategy doesn't work when you can't play defense and hold a team to 3 and out.
5. Ross looks good. Drayton has hands of a LB. On the post pattern he got both hands on the ball and didn't come down with it. On the fourth down throw he got both hands on the ball and didn't come down with it. Compare that to the hands of the SMU WR who made the grab to end the game last night.
6. See #4.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

To point 6, we should literally never punt. Period. The offense needs 4 tries and the D can’t stop anyone 99 yards or 9 yards. Especially punting into the end zone from the 37. 12 net yards.

 

[Husky68]

UGA 43, LSU 42, Okl 45, Wisc 48, ND 52, Tex 42, PSU35, BSU 38, TTU 45, SMU 43ot, USF 48, MD 48, Tulane 42, Lou 41, ISU 49, CMU 42, Gast 52, VT 42, Minn 40, Mem 52, Miz 42 UNC 38, Ariz 35, UAB 35 FIU 44, Orst 48

ESPN lists 43 games played on Saturday, the above 26 are the winning team's scores who scored at least 5 touchdowns worth of points. That is over 60%!

So UConn giving up 48 is at the high end (especially given it was USF), but more indicative of got to play to score as football has turned into a high scoring game (if you want to win). There are always the Michigan or Nebraska games where defense rules, but those are the exception.

HCRE2.0 has been given the task of making UConn football competitive, his current approach is not working. Time to go back to MR. "IT" and sling it on offense, worse case go 1-11; best case his current plan is 2-10.

 

[jdb50]

I saw that catch by the SMU player. I had tuned in as they went to overtime. To win you need players to make plays and that was outstanding. That deep throw to Drayton should have been completed. Those missed plays really hurt us. Can not fault the play calling there it is on the player.
We should be able to use Rose more as a target. He has great hands.
The 3rd and seven run wide was a WTF play call. The last TD was the same thing but it worked from the 3. I was surprised by that one.
The inability to stop the run up the middle has to get solved. Way to easy to split the tackles and tie up our LB's. Recruiting LB's or getting grad transfers is right up there with a finding a good QB.
Art Thompson's kick returns were a bright spot. Getting embarrassed on the field goal fake was ultimate humiliation. Then they pour it on with a walk on QB to a wide open receiver. After scoring in the first half giving up the big kick off return really told me we were not going to win. There is always another leak in the dam.

 

[cohenzone]

We should be able to use Rose more as a target. He has great hands.

One of the reasons we should be going over the middle more. Using a TE with pass catching skills fairly often is not a bad scheme. Many a solid NFL offense is designed that way.