UCONN-ARMY Game Analysis (Long, Very Long)

[huskysupporter]

OFFENSE
I once again was happy with the offensive scheme, it looks like Coach Verducci is aware of what he has to work with and is trying to play to the offenses strengths. Amazing that it has been years since we have had an offensive coordinator do this. I know people on the board hate the word, but it comes down to execution, and right now, the offensive line is struggling. There is only so much you can do to mask the problems. And it is not just the O Line struggling with run blocking. The tight ends and receivers blocking has been poor as well.

Quarterback
I am very happy with Bryant Shirreffs. How many times did he make positive yardage with his legs when rushers were in his face immediately? I also really like the tocuh he has on his passes. It allows our talented wide receivers/tight ends to make a play on the ball. And he does a nice job on the short passes hitting backs and receivers in stride. He does a great job of not forcing the ball. I am concerned he is going to break in half if blocking doesn't improve and he needs to slide more. But he is a smart football player, who in my opinion, is only going to get better. The # 1 issue during the offseason has been addressed.

Running Back
Yes, the run blocking has been anemic, but the running backs should not be exacerbating the issue by trying to run wide and losing extra yardage. Ron Johnson needs to get back to what has worked for him. Hit the hole hard, then make the cut. 2.2 ypc vs an undersized army defense is not going to cut it. And the coaches might want to consider giving Arkeel Newsome more carries, as in 20 a game. He only needs a small crease and once he to the second level, watch out. What great instincts he has once he is past the line. Would also like to see Marriner a a little bit more. Did a great job picking up yardage on that swing pass. And love how Max is doing anything he can to help the team. I would be starting Arkeel and giving him 18-20 carries a game, utilizing Ron Johnson as the hammer back on on the goal line and short yardage, in addition to 3-4 other carries, and give Marriner some burn as well running the ball.

Wide Receivers
Very good job by wide receivers catching the ball during the game. There is plenty of talent here. Noel Thomas and Thomas Lucas are very good, and how fast is Tyraiq Beals? Kid gets the ball and runs up field in a flash. Bright future for him. Need to get him the ball on quick throws a couple times a game. That is a solid 1-2-3, IMO. One poor area was blocking. Perimeter blocking is all about desire to block. Coaches need to emphasize how important it is. Good perimeter blocking is the difference between a 8 yard gain and a 50 yard gain.

Tight Ends
Did anyone else think Bloom and Myers looked a little hurt? At various times they both appeared to run back to huddle gingerly. Bloom had a nice catch in the second half reaching for a pass. I don't think I have seen Myers catch a ball cleanly yet, he always seems to bobble the ball. He fixes that and he will be a beast. Both offer Shirreffs big targets and their athleticism provides potential mismatches against a LB. But again, both need to improve their blocking. Like the O Line, very inconsistent.

Offensive Line
Not good, and I am concerned this years line is worse than last years line. The only thing that saved them alot was playaction which masked their struggles. Forget running up the middle, not only was the line out muscled (which is horrifying considering how small the Army defenders were), but it appeared they were making a ton of mental mistakes. I can't count how many times I saw an O lineman standing around because of a blown assignment. This is the second game in a row that confusion over assignments has almost gotten the qb split in half. I am at a loss of how to improve this. The right side appears to be really struggling. 3 step drops and quick passes should help with pass pro, but not sure there is any solution for running game. And when teams can focus on just one area of an offense on D, things can get ugly quick. Might be a good idea to rotate a couple linemen in for a series or two.

DEFENSE
The goal was simple, stop the Army running game, and for the most part they did a good job of making Army earn their rushing yards. The scheme was effective for the most part, although at times I wasn't sure who, if anyone, was responsible for pitch. Got burned a couple times there. I have no problems with the D except for one absolutely boneheaded play towards the end of the game (one which the coach somehow defended)

Defensive Line
Good job by this crew. They didn't allow army to push them back, and took up blockers. Campenni also made a huge stop on 4th down, what a player. This is definitely the strength of our D right now. They are asked to hold the point, and they do a fantastic job.

Linebackers
I consider Luke Carrezola a LB for scheme purposes so I will mention him here. This kid is going to play on Sundays, I have zero doubt. Just a ball of energy. Loved the smart game Matt Walsh played. I think he needs to remain the starter. Did a great job keeping his responsibility and feathering out the option. He had the best game of the LB corps. Why was he wasted at FB the last two years??? Graham Stewart was again extremely inconsistent. And again made a couple solid plays. Junior Joseph can really bring the hammer down in the run game. He was active in the middle. The linebackers as a group played a nice game here. A couple mental mistakes, but no complaints here.

Secondary
Can't really speak to corners as they were really involved due to passing game being non existent. They did struggle to get off their blocks on the perimeter. The safeties each made one big play - Obi had an awesome open field tackle during a critical moment in the game, and Andrew Adams had a big interception. Other than that? Oof. We get safety play like this against Navy and they will rush for 400 yards. Adams missed the qb on the long touchdown run, and Obi made an inexcusable play for an INT on the td. Yes, despite coach D defending the play, it was absolutely, without a doubt, inexcusable. 4 minutes to go, and instead of keeping play in front of you, you go for INT???? And the coach defends it????? And yet another personal foul call on him. Obi has a ridiculous amount of physical skills, but you would be hard pressed to find a more undisciplined player from the past couple of years. I still say move him to OLB.

Special Teams
After a poor game v. Nova, Justin Wain had a fantastic game v. Army. Pinned them deep on short punts and also boomed a couple. Great job from him. And I have to mention Jordan Floyd on the kickoff team. Guy did an awesome job delivering some big time hits. As for kickoff and punt return? What is going on here? Absolute disaster for 2nd week in a row. The punt return is a joke, the 3 rushers make zero attempt to block, and it appears no one else does either. Kickoff return team looks completely disorganized. Front line runs about 10 yards down the field. We don't have a pinball offense, we can't ignore specials. We have a ton of fast skill position players, lets try to get some semblance of a return game.

Some other general thoughts:

• Attendance appeared better at NOVA game. Don't understand why the Rent wasn't at full capacity? Beautiful day.
• Um, when did the parking lot become a maze of cones and mass confusion? Would be nice if attendants would be a little more helpful.
• I didn't see the table leg! Where was it?
• We had a DJ sighting again, this is not good. This is not good at all.

 

[Dooley]

Yeah, that DJ thing should be long gone. Still frustrated that our stadium prefers muzak and pop hits over our UCMB. We have one of the top bands in the country and they are completely under-utilized every single game.

Carrezola is our leader on D. No question about that. It won't be long before our stadium starts in with the "Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuke" calls whenever he makes a big play (which seems to be quite a bit).

Beals is going to be an absolute stud. Someone said in another thread that he catches balls very cleanly and I agree. Kid has very strong hands and there is no movement of the football when he goes up and gets it. If he is our "third option" in 2015, we are in very good shape for this year's passing game. Thomas and Lucas are both major talents as well...I thought Lucas had an excellent game yesterday. Three weapons not including our TEs/RBs is very exciting!

ST is concerning. We need to get XPs...can't leave a point off the board because of lazy blocking or low kicks. We're lucky that missing the two XPs hasn't come back to haunt us...yet. Being 50% on the year is unacceptable and needs to be addressed. Our PR/KR teams are probably the weakest aspect of our team right now. On PR, I would still rather have fair catches than letting balls hit the ground and roll 20 yards. It seems like fair catches are all we can successfully do on PR because Lamelle (or whoever is back there) has 3-5 defenders within 2-3 yards of him when he makes the catch. Very poor blocking. If we're not going to rush the punt, then I would expect to see a nice 10 yard cushion for our PR to get the ball and find a seam.

It feels so good to have a D-1 competent QB again. Decision making is lightyears ahead of the past few seasons. The spin move to escape a sure sack AND pick up 10 yards to get the first down might have been my favorite QB play from the past 5 seasons.

 

[Pudge]

I simply don't agree on the Ron Johnson Arkeel Newsome opinion. And, maybe, we would have a split and go the other way after that first game.

It would be nice to see BOTH of these kids have a solid Rush game in the same game. Arkeel played much better. He showed patience for a hole/any hole to develop ... and he used powerful legs to advance and could go much farther with just a cut. Ron Johnson did not have a good game (excepting a TD); but, he looked darn good against Nova.

For my view, I think you need to keep both of them active and rotating. Verducci seems to have a good handle on this; I'd let him continue. Johnson should not be a short yardage battering ram. We need him to be a regular playmaking cog.

 

[Dooley]

I still think RonJon is our #1 back. He just had a tentative/bad game yesterday. It happens. It's good to know that if/when that does happen, we have a more than capable backup(s) that can come in and give us positive plays.

 

[uconnphil2016]

I still think RonJon is our #1 back. He just had a tentative/bad game yesterday. It happens. It's good to know that if/when that does happen, we have a more than capable backup(s) that can come in and give us positive plays.

Our o-line didn't give him much to work with. Can't blame him.

 

[whaler11]

The best part of the DJ is how hard he is trying to look cool while spinning Taylor Swift.

 

[huskysupporter]

I simply don't agree on the Ron Johnson Arkeel Newsome opinion. And, maybe, we would have a split and go the other way after that first game.

Johnson averaged 3.0 yards per carry v. Villanova and 2.2 yards a carry v. Army. Not much you can do when you are met with defenders in your face as soon as you take the carry, especially with Johnson's running style, I know. But Newsome appears to get better with the more carries he gets as he gets into a flow. We need to get him more carries. And I believe he should be the top dog in the time share. Ron Johnson can still get 10-12 carries if Newsome gets 18-20.

 

[huskysupporter]

The best part of the DJ is how hard he is trying to look cool while spinning Taylor Swift.

I think the crowd stopped dancing and the mood got darker when they flashed the DJ. Even the DJ looked miserable.

 

[Nostical]

Two comments. At first I thought you meant DJ Hernandez was at the game--lol.
As for our RB's, I posed this question to two of our players post-game: Why is Johnson running on those wide plays? Aren't they more suited to Newsome? Both players (separately) said the same thing. "Those plays were 'reads' by Johnson, not called plays to go wide".

 

[huskysupporter]

Two comments. At first I thought you meant DJ Hernandez was at the game--lol.
As for our RB's, I posed this question to two of our players post-game: Why is Johnson running on those wide plays? Aren't they more suited to Newsome? Both players (separately) said the same thing. "Those plays were 'reads' by Johnson, not called plays to go wide".

What do you mean by "read": Ron Johnson decided on his own to go outside? Or it was a zone blocking scheme, Johnson had to read play?

 

[Chin Diesel]

What do you mean by "read": Ron Johnson decided on his own to go outside? Or it was a zone blocking scheme, Johnson had to read play?

The announcers referenced them as zone reads by the RB.

I don't think that fits RJ's running style. He needs to hit a hole fast, make one decision while in the junk and power through the run.

Arkeel is a more refined RB right now. He understands when to hit the jets, when to pause. And he can accelerate real quick. He gets to top gear pronto.

They both have purpose in the offensive scheme. And here's something I haven't said in a while. I actually have confidence in the coaching staff to figure it out and optimize the offense to both of their styles.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

I was surprised by the new Army logo. It looked very much like a helmet from ancient Greece, from Sparta ala Michigan State eschewing the helmet from medieval Europe. Thought our PR or Marketing Dept. screwed up but its on Army's site. Don't remember them being referred to as Knights back then just cavalry . I really need to see some replay tape tomorrow.

 

[mcs333]

Special team. 3 for 3 on FG. Excellent, punting excellent. Punt returns. VG. Except for the first punt which The returner let roll 10-15 yards, he called a fair catch on all the others which was the right call with the defenders bearing down on him. Our kickoff were all returned with the exception of the last one. Not great but not bad.

 

[huskysupporter]

Special team. 3 for 3 on FG. Excellent, punting excellent. Punt returns. VG. Except for the first punt which The returner let roll 10-15 yards, he called a fair catch on all the others which was the right call with the defenders bearing down on him. Our kickoff were all returned with the exception of the last one. Not great but not bad.

Forgot to add Puyol looked very good on FG's. Our return units were terrible, not sure where you are getting the very good from.

 

[bmayuc]

on the RonJohn vs Arkeel thing:

The coaches are doing RJ a disservice by continuing to feature him on stretch/sweep plays. He is best when he is making a single cut, straight-ahead power game. He can break tackles better in small spaces than at full speed, clearly. Also, RJ is not going to make yards where none exist. Rather he is going to maximize small creases. Iso, Leads, Power.

Arkeel has more play-type versatility. He can catch, use his vision and elusiveness to run inside, and use his speed and cutting ability at the edge. Counters, Stretch, Draws, etc.

Neither or them pass block very well.

What does this mean? It means that if our OLine is struggling, Arkeel will tend to be the better options. He gives us more ability to use short passes/screens, space plays, while still maintaining yardage up the middle. If our OLine is doing well, RJ will have a better shot at being effective.

Point from me is that I don't really care if RJ is the "starter" or whatever, and its not a zero sum game, but there should not be a game this year when we don't let Arkeel touch the ball 20+ times. Kid is too slippery/Explosive.

 

[Pudge]

Let's not forget Ron Johnson's two memorable plays versus Villanova: (1.) he had a 24 yard run ... Which was called back for a Levy hold; (2.) solid 14 yard run which was pulled back by that call for the eating motion. (Looked Uber bogus on review later).

That means he was better than a 3.0 guy.

I think he's important. That's my opinion. I'd not use him as merely your short yardage ram.

 

[gioff23]

A few observations:

1. RJ did not play well Sat., period. He looked tentative and seemed to want to draw out runs, which is not a good idea when playing smaller, quicker D linemen. He'll be fine, but Arkeel showed the O line was creating creases by hitting them and then looking for space in 2d level.
2. Speaking of OL, I see them performing better. The passing game is head and shoulders above the 14 matador version. I think we will be average, at best, there this year, but that is sooo much better than 14. And we lose 1 guy. I don't want to see us burning red shirts on the OL.
3. Diaco left the D on the field for most 4th downs, so there was no punt return set up. He was trading a 40 yard punt and no return all day long.
4. it'll be interesting to watch our corners this weekend, as they have rarely been tested in the air this year and Maty Mauk loves to throw.

 

[businesslawyer]

On the O Line, note that while we lose one guy, we also get Crozier back. While Pearl is on the 2 deep, he's not playing. Gifford is. I think you can rest assured that Pearl is being redshirted barring an injury early enough in the season where they would consider taking the redshirt off. Hopefully, that never happens.

 

[kris1]

Although I think the offense will continue to utilize all 4 RBs, at some point Newsome will be the feature back. Lock it up!!!

 

[mcs333]

Forgot to add Puyol looked very good on FG's. Our return units were terrible, not sure where you are getting the very good from.

I meant our kick offs to them. When we needed a touch back , we got it on our last kickoff. Overall our kickoff team to Army was OK.

 

[uconnbill]

The line did okay against eight in the box a lot of the game. That is where Arkeel comes in handy as he doesn't need much space to make things happen.
The play calling was very good and that is the first time in a couple of years I can say that.

Go Huskies beat Missouri

 

[jbdphi]

Punt returns - it seems pretty clear that they are playing a regular defensive unit (presumably to watch for a fake). They aren't trying to block the kick, aren't blocking for a return, just keeping their eyes on the ball until it is kicked.

Not sure when / if that changes in the future as I would imagine its a pretty safe bet to play for a punt return on 4th & long when the opponent is deep in their territory.

 

[gioff23]

Another observation

seems like Parker, the true frosh, has overtaken Clax at FB. My only guesses are that Clax is hurt or otherwise in the dog house or that Parker presents some receiving threat that the staff will unfurl at some point.

I have not seen Rutherford play, although I do not stare at the big uglies and am still routinely grabbing the program to identify players running in - perhaps a chance to reclaim his RS?

 

[Tdaley]

Not only is Clax not playing much but most of the sets that they are running do not include a fullback. They are using Marriner or DeLorenzo in that hback/slot position instead of a fullback. Marriner as actually thrown a few good blocks on the run plays.

 

[Stainmaster]

Clax did lay a nice block during RonJon's TD run against Villanova, but I haven't seen hide nor hair of him since.