USU Post Game thoughts/Analysis | The Boneyard

USU Post Game thoughts/Analysis

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Offense:

Qb: Our offense did well coming out the gate first quarter, but after TQ got hurt it seemed we went with a conservative approach with ZT. The team needs to quickly figure out how to get ZT up to speed with college football, he’s always been a winner so hopefully this Loss will motivate him play lights out the rest of the year if TQ is out for the season. Those two costly picks happened outside the pocket with ZT throwing the ball across his body, maybe he needs to just pull it and run next time or throw the ball to the side that the corner cannot make a play for it but rather the receiver can catch it. Our Qbs(ZT)are gonna have to go through their read progression a step faster. I thought TQ had a better command and remained calmed headed with the offense, hope he is back soon.

Oline: I thought the O-line did a good job pass protecting and run blocking, I do not think Lundt is ready yet, most pressure came from his side and Utah St capitalized off him because they know he is nursing an acl injury, but maybe he bounces back after this game. A positive note is the O-line did not allow a sack and not a lot of qb hits/pressures.

Rbs- Carter is gonna be a monster for us, I’m okay with running the ball down team throats and killing the clock as long as we can score and our defense can make stops. Carter single handedly with the help of the o-line kept offense in the game at times. Brewton and Houston did okay, but they do not have the vision and cutbacks/power, and explosiveness like Carter during the handoffs. Regardless, our Rbs will have plenty of opportunities to score.

Wrs- This will be a work in progress, hopefully most of our wrs can be back soon from minor injuries. Losing Keelan will be a huge blow for the team because he is such a competitor and has a killer dawg instinct. A. Turner, needs to keep his feet underneath him and do a better job at making sure he cuts precisely on his routes, the last INT ZT threw, Turner should’ve fought for the ball, but he seemed to be lazy on the route. Nevertheless, we’re gonna need receivers to step it up and Charlton to draw up plays that get them open.

TEs- hope we can utilize them more, one of them made a nice pancake block on one of Carter’s runs.

Defense:
I thought we did a good job hanging in there defensively, but we have a lot to clean up. I’m not a fan of playing soft coverage with the secondary every single down unless it’s 3rd and long. We did great on stopping Utah st on the ground most of the time though.

Dline: the lost of Travis jones blows because you can see a difference of how much of an impact he had on the line. This particular group did not impress me because we were getting caught up to high during the game and not stuffing the middle/getting pressure on the qb. We were missing the transfer from ODU I think but hopefully our dline causes havoc and not get manhandled at the line.

Linebackers: we did a really good job, but gotta wrap up in crucial moments. We got bigger and stronger, but I felt on blitz dialed up, we were A to slow getting to the qb and B missing gaps and allowing the RB get loose, but we did a good job gang tackling and running to the football.

Secondary: I’m not sure what my thoughts are on the secondary, the soft coverage is not going to work to our advantage if we allow teams to just run hitches and outs and give up 8 yards every play on passing plays. Utah st wrs and qb gave us a couple of bail outs by dropping the ball and over throwing a few of them. I think our dbs should be aggressive on the line against other Wrs, but who knows why we don’t play man press.
 
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hardcorehusky

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I thought we played man press on the short side of the field and played off on the far side with the Corner looking to cut off the inside route.

I agree with the rest of your assessments.
 
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I thought we played man press on the short side of the field and played off on the far side with the Corner looking to cut off the inside route.

I agree with the rest of your assessments.
I did see that, but I don’t like how our corners just didn’t put hands on when they played press. I’m not a fan of letting a wr get a free release off the line. I’ll watch a replay of the game again
 
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Does anyone know if Nigel Fitzgerald played today? I saw Flynn come in late who seems like he will be a real threat for us this year but Nigel is supposed to be a stand-out Grad transfer with raving reviews from spring and fall camp. Have to think he will get targeted more with Marion out ... but I don't recall seeing him play today...
 
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Does anyone know if Nigel Fitzgerald played today? I saw Flynn come in late who seems like he will be a real threat for us this year but Nigel is supposed to be a stand-out Grad transfer with raving reviews from spring and fall camp. Have to think he will get targeted more with Marion out ... but I don't recall seeing him play today...
Battling minor injuries
 

Chin Diesel

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Offense:

Qb: Our offense did well coming out the gate first quarter, but after TQ got hurt it seemed we went with a conservative approach with ZT. The team needs to quickly figure out how to get ZT up to speed with college football, he’s always been a winner so hopefully this Loss will motivate him play lights out the rest of the year if TQ is out for the season. Those two costly picks happened outside the pocket with ZT throwing the ball across his body, maybe he needs to just pull it and run next time or throw the ball to the side that the corner cannot make a play for it but rather the receiver can catch it. Our Qbs(ZT)are gonna have to go through their read progression a step faster. I thought TQ had a better command and remained calmed headed with the offense, hope he is back soon.

Oline: I thought the O-line did a good job pass protecting and run blocking, I do not think Lundt is ready yet, most pressure came from his side and Utah St capitalized off him because they know he is nursing an acl injury, but maybe he bounces back after this game. A positive note is the O-line did not allow a sack and not a lot of qb hits/pressures.

Rbs- Carter is gonna be a monster for us, I’m okay with running the ball down team throats and killing the clock as long as we can score and our defense can make stops. Carter single handedly with the help of the o-line kept offense in the game at times. Brewton and Houston did okay, but they do not have the vision and cutbacks/power, and explosiveness like Carter during the handoffs. Regardless, our Rbs will have plenty of opportunities to score.

Wrs- This will be a work in progress, hopefully most of our wrs can be back soon from minor injuries. Losing Keelan will be a huge blow for the team because he is such a competitor and has a killer dawg instinct. A. Turner, needs to keep his feet underneath him and do a better job at making sure he cuts precisely on his routes, the last INT ZT threw, Turner should’ve fought for the ball, but he seemed to be lazy on the route. Nevertheless, we’re gonna need receivers to step it up and Charlton to draw up plays that get them open.

TEs- hope we can utilize them more, one of them made a nice pancake block on one of Carter’s runs.

Defense:
I thought we did a good job hanging in there defensively, but we have a lot to clean up. I’m not a fan of playing soft coverage with the secondary every single down unless it’s 3rd and long. We did great on stopping Utah st on the ground most of the time though.

Dline: the lost of Travis jones blows because you can see a difference of how much of an impact he had on the line. This particular group did not impress me because we were getting caught up to high during the game and not stuffing the middle/getting pressure on the qb. We were missing the transfer from ODU I think but hopefully our dline causes havoc and not get manhandled at the line.

Linebackers: we did a really good job, but gotta wrap up in crucial moments. We got bigger and stronger, but I felt on blitz dialed up, we were A to slow getting to the qb and B missing gaps and allowing the RB get loose, but we did a good job gang tackling and running to the football.

Secondary: I’m not sure what my thoughts are on the secondary, the soft coverage is not going to work to our advantage if we allow teams to just run hitches and outs and give up 8 yards every play on passing plays. Utah st wrs and qb gave us a couple of bail outs by dropping the ball and over throwing a few of them. I think our dbs should be aggressive on the line against other Wrs, but who knows why we don’t play man press.

Agree on Lundt.

WR's depth was supposed to be great but with the injuries already had a kid who was a walk on up to a week ago was getting significant run today.

Same with Zion. Have to figure out a set of plays he can execute well. Use some of them against CCSU and save the rest for the orange. McDuffie played some towards the end but didn't play a bunch.

Pass rush was beyond anemic but they seemed to have a bend but don't break approach. Reality of 2022 CFB is average to good teams are going to hang 31 on you. Gotta be able to score consistently.
 

Chin Diesel

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Agree on Lundt.

WR's depth was supposed to be great but with the injuries already had a kid who was a walk on up to a week ago was getting significant run today.

Same with Zion. Have to figure out a set of plays he can execute well. Use some of them against CCSU and save the rest for the orange. McDuffie played some towards the end but didn't play a bunch.

Pass rush was beyond anemic but they seemed to have a bend but don't break approach. Reality of 2022 CFB is average to good teams are going to hang 31 on you. Gotta be able to score consistently.

And for the record, I'm wanting Lundt to succeed as much as anyone. He was thrown in to the fire last year and then got hurt. I'd much prefer is the proverbial "next man up" played well enough so Lundt could rehab and redshirt this year.
 
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And for the record, I'm wanting Lundt to succeed as much as anyone. He was thrown in to the fire last year and then got hurt. I'd much prefer is the proverbial "next man up" played well enough so Lundt could rehab and redshirt this year.
That will be Fortin. I think we may see Fortin and Lundt rotate next game.
 
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Does anyone know if Nigel Fitzgerald played today? I saw Flynn come in late who seems like he will be a real threat for us this year but Nigel is supposed to be a stand-out Grad transfer with raving reviews from spring and fall camp. Have to think he will get targeted more with Marion out ... but I don't recall seeing him play today...
Battling minor injuries
 
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Dont want to get ahead of myself or jinx us. However, Mora has proven more in one game than previous coaches have in multiple seasons. Play every game like that with improvement week in and out.. The ceiling is no longer the floor. For the first time in 6+ years.. Im more than excited for the future!
 
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All the analysis here is better than I could offer. I've always enjoyed going to the games, even when they weren't playing well, but this was the first time in a long time I was excited to watch the actual play.

Want to know: Was there any contact at all on the pass interference call that looked so bad? I was watching in a bar with the sound off and that was the moment a party of 11 walked in. Barely made out what happened and couldn't hear the commentary, but it looked like a big nothing burger to me, aside from their guy waving desperately for the call after falling. Pretty upsetting if it was as bad as it looked.
 
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Dont want to get ahead of myself or jinx us. However, Mora has proven more in one game than previous coaches have in multiple seasons. Play every game like that with improvement week in and out.. The ceiling is no longer the floor. For the first time in 6+ years.. Im more than excited for the future!
Hell yeah! I'm happy with what we've got so far
 
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I just scrolled through the roster and noticed Ethon Williams. I haven't noticed him much through camp or anything. Thought he might play some sort of a role today with 3 receivers out. Is he just not good enough or is there an injury I don't know of? We've talked about this super deep WR room all summer
 

ShakyTheMohel

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All the analysis here is better than I could offer. I've always enjoyed going to the games, even when they weren't playing well, but this was the first time in a long time I was excited to watch the actual play.

Want to know: Was there any contact at all on the pass interference call that looked so bad? I was watching in a bar with the sound off and that was the moment a party of 11 walked in. Barely made out what happened and couldn't hear the commentary, but it looked like a big nothing burger to me, aside from their guy waving desperately for the call after falling. Pretty upsetting if it was as bad as it looked.
No...there wasn't contact. It was a crap call...and the announcers called it out also.
 
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That will be Fortin. I think we may see Fortin and Lundt rotate next game.
Watched the game a 2nd time and need better play at RT. Lundt got beat too much and Fortin played well at C and OG but also got beat at RT.
 
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Offense:

Qb: Our offense did well coming out the gate first quarter, but after TQ got hurt it seemed we went with a conservative approach with ZT. The team needs to quickly figure out how to get ZT up to speed with college football, he’s always been a winner so hopefully this Loss will motivate him play lights out the rest of the year if TQ is out for the season. Those two costly picks happened outside the pocket with ZT throwing the ball across his body, maybe he needs to just pull it and run next time or throw the ball to the side that the corner cannot make a play for it but rather the receiver can catch it. Our Qbs(ZT)are gonna have to go through their read progression a step faster. I thought TQ had a better command and remained calmed headed with the offense, hope he is back soon.

Oline: I thought the O-line did a good job pass protecting and run blocking, I do not think Lundt is ready yet, most pressure came from his side and Utah St capitalized off him because they know he is nursing an acl injury, but maybe he bounces back after this game. A positive note is the O-line did not allow a sack and not a lot of qb hits/pressures.

Rbs- Carter is gonna be a monster for us, I’m okay with running the ball down team throats and killing the clock as long as we can score and our defense can make stops. Carter single handedly with the help of the o-line kept offense in the game at times. Brewton and Houston did okay, but they do not have the vision and cutbacks/power, and explosiveness like Carter during the handoffs. Regardless, our Rbs will have plenty of opportunities to score.

Wrs- This will be a work in progress, hopefully most of our wrs can be back soon from minor injuries. Losing Keelan will be a huge blow for the team because he is such a competitor and has a killer dawg instinct. A. Turner, needs to keep his feet underneath him and do a better job at making sure he cuts precisely on his routes, the last INT ZT threw, Turner should’ve fought for the ball, but he seemed to be lazy on the route. Nevertheless, we’re gonna need receivers to step it up and Charlton to draw up plays that get them open.

TEs- hope we can utilize them more, one of them made a nice pancake block on one of Carter’s runs.

Defense:
I thought we did a good job hanging in there defensively, but we have a lot to clean up. I’m not a fan of playing soft coverage with the secondary every single down unless it’s 3rd and long. We did great on stopping Utah st on the ground most of the time though.

Dline: the lost of Travis jones blows because you can see a difference of how much of an impact he had on the line. This particular group did not impress me because we were getting caught up to high during the game and not stuffing the middle/getting pressure on the qb. We were missing the transfer from ODU I think but hopefully our dline causes havoc and not get manhandled at the line.

Linebackers: we did a really good job, but gotta wrap up in crucial moments. We got bigger and stronger, but I felt on blitz dialed up, we were A to slow getting to the qb and B missing gaps and allowing the RB get loose, but we did a good job gang tackling and running to the football.

Secondary: I’m not sure what my thoughts are on the secondary, the soft coverage is not going to work to our advantage if we allow teams to just run hitches and outs and give up 8 yards every play on passing plays. Utah st wrs and qb gave us a couple of bail outs by dropping the ball and over throwing a few of them. I think our dbs should be aggressive on the line against other Wrs, but who knows why we don’t play man press.
I don’t usual comment on football but I watched the game today
The running game and control of the LOS were great until the Carter fumble . They cost us some swagger . Keeping them off the field was integral. The freshman QB never got completely comfortable.
My biggest concern and the reason we lost was pass Coverage was too loose when combined with the fact that our pass rush was non existent . ( They did return most of the OL from their MW conference championship team )
Their QB and WO ‘s were playing catch except their wide outs were also decent runners. CB have to be more aggressive
We hung in their after that second Qtr which means the staff made some second half adjustments a good omen.
My theory of football is every game you can establish the run in become’svery winnable.
Hopefully the their effort today results in a good turn ou5 and hopefully a W next week
Even with my critique I enjoyed watching a UConn football game for the first time in years .
 
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Spot on analysis. Would had Chatelton’s play calling was weak. That last pick was 50% bad play calling. They were fully aware we would throw horizontally and it was just a matter of time. The screen plays are a disaster and need to be used judiciously. Once Utah understood we were running counter flows, they adjusted. Nick didn’t. Zion is no where near CFB ready. Happy feet, poor decisions, poor mechanics with low release. balls batted down. He looked like an undisciplined HS QB trying to use his athleticism to beat his opponent, but it ain’t high school and it doesn’t fly. All that said, the team looks like a credible football team. Expect teams to load the box until we can show we can develop a passing game.
 
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The way I look at it, there’s no one on this board who would’ve thought before the game we’d be down just 4 pts in the 4th - especially knowing both Roberson and Marion would be injured in the 1st quarter. This shows the resiliency and dog culture Mora has instilled into this program.

…and if it weren’t for that awful PI call we could’ve had a chance for the W.

Certainly encouraged, and although the injuries suck, this is a new beginning for UConn football and I’m very excited for the future!
 
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The way I look at it, there’s no one on this board who would’ve thought before the game we’d be down just 4 pts in the 4th - especially knowing both Roberson and Marion would be injured in the 1st quarter. This shows the resiliency and dog culture Mora has instilled into this program.

…and if it weren’t for that awful PI call we could’ve had a chance for the W.

Certainly encouraged, and although the injuries suck, this is a new beginning for UConn football and I’m very excited for the future!
I agree with all that. Although I would temper it with the fact that expectations for this season need to be modified for all the offensive injuries. We could be on the right track and still have another very poor season.
 
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Spot on analysis. Would had Chatelton’s play calling was weak. That last pick was 50% bad play calling. They were fully aware we would throw horizontally and it was just a matter of time. The screen plays are a disaster and need to be used judiciously. Once Utah understood we were running counter flows, they adjusted. Nick didn’t. Zion is no where near CFB ready. Happy feet, poor decisions, poor mechanics with low release. balls batted down. He looked like an undisciplined HS QB trying to use his athleticism to beat his opponent, but it ain’t high school and it doesn’t fly. All that said, the team looks like a credible football team. Expect teams to load the box until we can show we can develop a passing game.
I think Charlton’s play calling was tempered by having a true freshman quarterback who was not really ready. Tried to keep it simple, but might have overdone it.
 
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Look, given the better way UConn played Saturday over last year (the last 10 years) UConn could still come up with six wins in regular season. Central, Syracuse, FIU, Ball State, UMass and Liberty are all winnable. Six wins means a bowl game. Let's go Huskies!
 

RedStickHusky

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I think Charlton’s play calling was tempered by having a true freshman quarterback who was not really ready. Tried to keep it simple, but might have overdone it.
I think that and the tackle play really limited the playbook. Props to Charlton for trying to mix it up when, really, only one thing was working. Hard to grade ZT when every first step was an evade move. I do think the game was a little sped up for ZT, he missed on a few throws late that were open if he'd been quicker. On defense, I'm on board with forcing a team to work downfield on five or six completions rather than getting beat over the top. All in all though, team played with discipline and resilience against a quality opponent. Fun to watch (finally), and a good first step.
 

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