Trap game. | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Trap game.

Status
Not open for further replies.
whaler11 said:
If a shot to get revenge for an embarrassing defeat doesn't motivate you - what does?

The coaching staff should never have been hired. Some might want to compound that mistake by allowing it more time. Others would prefer to cut their losses sooner rather than later.

Wirth's quote is an indictment of the coaching staff as well as the players. Is Buffalo a trap game too - they play a rival next week?
Expand ...

I agree completely. Just look at the idiot who orchestrated the hire, I just simply can't believe that the best we could do was a washed up retread.
 
Carl Spackler said:
"We didn't hold up our end of the deal," defensive tackle Ryan Wirth said. "I think in the beginning we were a little out of focus."

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-football/hc-jacobs-uconn-column-0923-20120923,0,5949807.column


F88k off all of you. these kids are personal to me. This program is personal to me, most of you don't know what the duck you are looking at or talking about.

It was clear as day that this game was going to be difficult for these kids mentally, and it took a 17-0 hole before they starting playing as a team, with the energy they needed, and they almost pulled it off.

But you frigging idiots want the coach's heads.
Expand ...

Let me get this straight. Because you played for this team a few years before they we embarrassed by a D-2 University of New Haven squad you have sufficient credibility as a former player that some of us who may have played at a similar level do not have? I call BS on that. I also call BS on your conclusion that the lack of energy for the bulk of the first half was because this was a trap game as with this logic, any situation where someone is not prepared is a trap.
 
Smart (well even semi smart) coaches figure out Uconn's offense and defensive schemes. If have opponent QB who can handle call adjustments at line of scrimmage Uconn's defense will be shreaded with short passes until give up one on one deep; if not the other team will guess on play calling and get our defense out of position 5-6 times a game for potential big plays. Just how it is, some opponent offenses get it figured out before the game (WM) and others take a few series.
When game is in balance, opponents challenge Uconn to pass more than 10 yards, cover run and short passes and play man on deep. Good % defense against Uconn based on play calling and Uconn's execution to date.
There are no trap games nor emotional let downs. WM was too physical and smacked the Uconn lines around. Agree with not being prepared if you mean haven't gotten strong enough, agile enough, technical movements learned, schemes learned enough and just aren't good enough; not if mean forgot to start the game with effort - that is just a loser's excuse. You win in the summer, Uconn hasn't shown it used that time to its advantage. Large part of this is on the coaches, players have their part too.
Uconn could be 4-0 with two plays different; could be 1-3 with one play different.
I'm thinking that all the "trap game", "SH and WM did it" is just being funny, but ... So now I should worry that Buff. is a trap game before the big rivalry game at Rutger?
 
.-.
BlueDogs said:
Business Lawyer said it wasn't a trap game, so you must be wrong.
Expand ...

The players did not come out with their best. That makes it a trap game and means I was incorrect.

See how easy that is folks? You don't need to go after people who say you made a mistake.
 
Carl Spackler said:
No.

I've watched it now, twice, and if we were playing with anywhere near the intensity we played with last week, this game is no contest.

It's not easy to do though, and it's rare to find a group of players within a team that have the internal ability to motivate like that - and you really do need to play with that kind of fire we had last week, every week, to be a top 10 team in the country.

Motivation, and finding ways to motivate players, is what makes coaches great, and what makes talented teams into champions.

I think we're a talented team. But we're 2-2 right now.
Expand ...


I don't know how talented we are, but I agree with 90% of that. The loss was not about turnovers or schemes or playcalling. They wanted it more than us.
 
I think some fans are taking this loss a little harder than they should. It sucked, but WMU is a good team, just like they were last year. So many people here are bitching that we should never lose to a MAC team, but that's now how football works. I'm sure South Carolina thought they should never lose to a Big East team. How do you think Michigan, VTech, etc, looked after losing to 1AA teams over the last few years? They both made BCS games after losing to 1AA teams. All we did was lose to a good team, maybe even a better team than us as they were ranked higher than us preseason by every mag I saw, in an unmotivated effort. It sucks, but our OOC schedule is our preseason. Nothing that was available before isn't available now, other than an undefeated season.

My biggest concern is that this is the first time we've seen our defense look vulnerable and that was a pretty lousy thing to see. I think intensity is the difference between us getting in Carder's face and not, and we didn't. Hopefully we'll fix that, I think we will. I was happy to see Whitmer get some confidence. He looked like he wanted to hit something after throwing that first TD, so hopefully he'll get in the habit of making TD throws. I think a lot of times with a passing game it comes down the the team getting in the habit of making the play, and if we continue to get some rhythm we might see the offense we wanted to see by the end of the season.

Buffalo should be a good game. We should beat them (of course I heard/said that before) and hopefully we'll open up our playbook before spotting them 17 points.
 
businesslawyer said:
I don't know how talented we are, but I agree with 90% of that. The loss was not about turnovers or schemes or playcalling. They wanted it more than us.
Expand ...

I watched the game last night for the first time. WMU is just better than us. It's that simple really.

I paid close attention to the OL and all I will say without calling anyone out directly.......some changes need to be made. Way too many times I saw guys not touching a defender. And that, I think, is a byproduct of DeLeone's scheme. I'm going to wait before the year is over to judge the staff, but miracles will need to happen if I'm going to be ok with DeLeone returning in 2013.
 
I was worried about an emotional let down after last week's big game they all tried to downplay.

But WMU came in our house and took a win away in the 4th quarter. There's no excuse not to come ready to play.

I think Saturday will tell us a lot. If we go into halftime up 3-4 touchdowns then maybe this team has some fire and some heart and is ready to turn it around.

If we struggle through this game, this season may be lost. And please don't blame it on the crowd. All of these guys played in high school. Did they need 40,000 screaming fans to show up to play hard every week? Or were 400 enough? They don't need a blue out. Just a little pride and desire.
 
.-.
It's not scheme on the OL, they weren't missing assignments like they were against NC State, these offensive linemen get run over and run around. These guys just aren't playing mean enough on the OL. I don't know what it is, somebody needs to stick a cattle prod up their asses, or beat them with a stick. The play calling, complexity of scheme isn't the issue anymore I think. It's simple now.

Soft.

THere's nothing that pisses me off more than soft offensive linemen.

8 games left to prove what they're made of.

As for the defense, we went up against a QB that I think will be in the NFL next year, probably not a starter, but he'll make a game day 53 man roster somewhere, and our LB"s and Safeties are still learning to play at an elite level in pass D.

Western Michigan, at 1-2 prior to the game, was a much better team than anyone gave them credit for, and we most certainly, after the Maryland game, as a team were guilty of eating the cheese - our former coach used to say "drinking the poison".

It's never as good as it seems, it's never as bad as it seems. THere is always a winner and a loser, and the winner is usually the team, that brings the most energy from the get go.

For those fans that don't understand what the mousetraps really mean...where the entire concept of a "trap" game comes from......read this littel news clip from 2005.

THis happened in Dallas, when the Cowboys were 6-3, and on top of the NFC East, into the second half of the season, and having to play a 4-5 Detroit Lions team, after a HUGE win on the road against Philly. That was a team that was learning how to win, and win regulary after winning only 5 games a year for 3 consecutive years.

Parcells classic line, somethin like - "I didn't want mice running under the secretaries and scaring them - we had a mouse problem"

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...G1PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XAQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3770,1384045


THat's all I"ve got to say on this.

I've got all kinds of family and other stuff going on this weekend, but I'm going to find a way to be in my seats, and cheer as loud as I can, and the stuff I read about "boycott"?

Those people aren't UCOnn fans, and fans calling for a coach to be fired at this point? Don't really know that they're looking at, and probably play a lot of video game football.

When you play the game soft, you're either soft, or dumb.

I want to see these guys start proving themselves, and no Buffalo is not a trap game. None of these players are eating any cheese about how good they are right now.
 
Carl Spackler said:
It's not scheme on the OL, they weren't missing assignments like they were against NC State, these offensive linemen get run over and run around. These guys just aren't playing mean enough on the OL. I don't know what it is, somebody needs to stick a cattle prod up their asses, or beat them with a stick.
Expand ...

When I posted this media day photo I was admittedly worried. Each one of those guys could beat the snot out of me. But when you're 8 inches taller and a 150+ pounds heavier, that's a given. But that doesn't make them tough. Maybe it's me, but tough guys just don't do this stuff. This is what soft looks like to me. I'd expect to see 2 punters and a place kicker doing this. Not three O lineman.

600
 
businesslawyer said:
You sure you want to hear the explanation?
Expand ...

Yes, out of hope that there was a logical explanation or something. Our players shouldn't accept candy from strangers, or something like that.
 
.-.
Let's be clear. The WMU game was NOT a Trap Game, let alone an energy trap game, whatever that is.

1) The first criteria of a trap game is that one team should be markedly better than the opponent "setting" the trap. 2) the game is played before or after a tough or rival opponent. 3) The team 3a) looks past an opponent preparing for the following week's game, or 3b) has a letdown after beating a tough or rival opponent.

Think back to Philosophy 102 (which was Logic back in 1997). These are not either/or criteria. If one premise fails the conclusion is not valid.

To Me, UConn does not meet the first criteria. However, if one insists on wearing National Flag Blue colored glasses, then I posit that neither Maryland, nor Buffalo, are neither a rivals, nor a tough opponents and do you really think the team was looking forward to Buffalo? Why? WMU is also not a rival opponent (merely 2 games, with no more on the horizon, between teams 800 miles apart does not a rivalry make). They lost to 2 mid-tier (at best) B1G teams, one soundly and one narrowly, which is evidence against toughness. And finally, UConn's Defense gave up 23 points while the offense in general had its best game of the season. Where is the letdown?
 
Carl Spackler said:
It's not scheme on the OL, they weren't missing assignments like they were against NC State, these offensive linemen get run over and run around. These guys just aren't playing mean enough on the OL. I don't know what it is, somebody needs to stick a cattle prod up their asses, or beat them with a stick. The play calling, complexity of scheme isn't the issue anymore I think. It's simple now.
Expand ...

I also saw guys getting blown up, but there were plenty of times where guys missed their assignments. Look at the first sack of Whitmer. Friend lets the guy go right by him while double teaming the DT that Masters had blocked. I can't count the number of times guys didn't put a hand on a defender. That's not soft.

We have major problems on the line right now and if they're not dramatically improved it will be another 5 win season if that.
 
Husky25 said:
Let's be clear. The WMU game was NOT a Trap Game, let alone an energy trap game, whatever that is.

1) The first criteria of a trap game is that one team should be markedly better than the opponent "setting" the trap. 2) the game is played before or after a tough or rival opponent. 3) The team 3a) looks past an opponent preparing for the following week's game, or 3b) has a letdown after beating a tough or rival opponent.

Think back to Philosophy 102 (which was Logic back in 1997). These are not either/or criteria. If one premise fails the conclusion is not valid.

To Me, UConn does not meet the first criteria. However, if one insists on wearing National Flag Blue colored glasses, then I posit that neither Maryland, nor Buffalo, are neither a rivals, nor a tough opponents and do you really think the team was looking forward to Buffalo? Why? WMU is also not a rival opponent (merely 2 games, with no more on the horizon, between teams 800 miles apart does not a rivalry make). They lost to 2 mid-tier (at best) B1G teams, one soundly and one narrowly, which is evidence against toughness. And finally, UConn's Defense gave up 23 points while the offense in general had its best game of the season. Where is the letdown?
Expand ...

This whole trap game nonsense is just noise.

WMU is a better football team than UConn. Period. If that upsets people, so be it.
 
Trap game is an away game, where you underestimate the opponent and usually the opponent has some sort of crazy home field advantage like a boisterous home crowd and a blue field.

If we underestimated WMU when their same QB passed for like 4 Trillion yards against us last season, then this wasn't a trap game. It was a cock up of the highest order.

Chronic problems with the Oline aside, anyone who has played any kind of organized team sports should know that it's next to impossible to be 100% up for every game. Even great teams that go undefeated have at least one game where they come out of the gate stale.

We came out flat and went down 17-0
 
The Maryland game was circled on the calendar for a lot of those guys 2 years ago. There is no way that Maryland game wasn't emotionally taxing. Teams play flat from time to time. It makes sense that they would play flat on the road after a tough win that came down to the wire in a game they probably wanted to win more than any other game on the schedule.

I would guess they were flat all week in practice based on the way they came out Saturday and the coaches should have better prepared them mentally. They should have had last year's score plastered all over the meeting rooms, the locker rooms, everywhere. Maybe they did and it didn't matter.

Trap game, flat game, who gives a how we define it. WMU outplayed us and we lost yet another game that was very winnable. That's the reason why we didn't go bowling last year, and if it continues, it will be the reason we don't go bowling this year.
 
Jimmy Serrano said:
This whole trap game nonsense is just noise.

WMU is a better football team than UConn. Period. If that upsets people, so be it.
Expand ...


Not true Jimmy, UConn and WMU are both 2-2. I hope somebody locks this discussion. I posted the source of the entire concept of the term "trap" game.

The interpretation of that term has become quite distorted over the past 10 years, since Parcells first used mousetraps as a motivational tool.

We had national media fawning all over our defense last week, how great they were. on a different thread, I, and a few others, talked about how our backside of our defense needs some improvement in certain areas of the game, and we got pooped on by the know it alls around here. What happened, we went on the road, our defense ate the cheese, and we fell into a 17-0 trap, and couldn't get out.

Period.

I hope this discussion drops off soon. The game is over, and I guarantee the lessons have been learned by the 18-20 year olds.
 
.-.
Carl Spackler said:
I hope this discussion drops off soon. The game is over, and I guarantee the lessons have been learned by the 18-20 year olds.
Expand ...


Every year, after every loss, you predict the mistakes won't be repeated. Then they are. Your optimism seems endless. I kind of envy you for that.
 
WingU-Conn said:
Every year, after every loss, you predict the mistakes won't be repeated. Then they are. Your optimism seems endless. I kind of envy you for that.
Expand ...

That's football my friend. There's a new game every week, there's a new season every year, to correct every mistake you ever make.
 
New Mexico, Washington State, Michigan, Troy, BYU and Utah are all 2-2. I guess none of them are better than each other too.
 
Carl Spackler said:
I hope this discussion drops off soon. The game is over, and I guarantee the lessons have been learned by the 18-20 year olds.
Expand ...

Not for nothing, Carl, and with all due respect, but you originally brought this topic up.
 
why is it so hard for people to be fair and objective? we aren't that good, we played a team that probably isn't that good but they played better that day.

stop all this nonsense and cliche BS. if we somehow pulled out the win at the end these topics are completely different and we're talking about other cliches like 'we have guts' 'we're clutch' 'we did what we needed to win' etc etc. its all nonsense.

they were better than us and they won, move on to the next one. but please for the sake of humanity, stop with the cliches.
 
21Huskies said:
why is it so hard for people to be fair and objective? we aren't that good, we played a team that probably isn't that good but they played better that day.

stop all this nonsense and cliche BS. if we somehow pulled out the win at the end these topics are completely different and we're talking about other cliches like 'we have guts' 'we're clutch' 'we did what we needed to win' etc etc. its all nonsense.

they were better than us and they won, move on to the next one. but please for the sake of humanity, stop with the cliches.
Expand ...

At the end of the day, you win some you lose some. It is what it is.

(sorry)
 
.-.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Forum statistics

Threads
168,326
Messages
4,564,085
Members
10,458
Latest member
Liam Rainst


Top Bottom