Wait a minute -- Mack was TOLD to catch the missed FG?

[Carl Spackler]

Why the hell would you catch the ball if you're just going to take a knee???

Exactly.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Exactly.

Don't put him back there.

 

[sportsart]

Why the hell would you catch the ball if you're just going to take a knee???

Because Pasquali is our coach and he figured since we were getting the ball to start the 2nd half he might as well down it.

 

[TheRogers]

Why the hell would you catch the ball if you're just going to take a knee???

The plan was to see if be could make a play. If not take the knee. so it was meant to be an option because we needed to do something. The decision should have been similar to that of a fair catch.
Having been at the endzone at the time to see clearly how the play ensued, as a spectator I did see all the Terps and where they were. It was a no brainer to take the knee. In retrospect maybe I was a bit critical of Mack. He's a competitor, he felt the urgency to wake a play, he made the wrong decision. It's easy to think clearly when your back isn't against the wall and you don't have 4-5 well conditioned athletes coming at you with bad intentions.

 

[ruskin]

No returner, ball at 33 yard line.
Returner takes knee, ball at 20.
Returner catches ball tries to run out, bad field position.
Returner touches ball in end zone, fumbles, they recover and score.

Well, at least D didn't happen.

 

[Kgun7]

The plan was to see if be could make a play. If not take the knee. so it was meant to be an option because we needed to do something. The decision should have been similar to that of a fair catch.
Having been at the endzone at the time to see clearly how the play ensued, as a spectator I did see all the Terps and where they were. It was a no brainer to take the knee. In retrospect maybe I was a bit critical of Mack. He's a competitor, he felt the urgency to wake a play, he made the wrong decision. It's easy to think clearly when your back isn't against the wall and you don't have 4-5 well conditioned athletes coming at you with bad intentions.

If the plan was to see if Mack could make a play ... then next time tell the other 10 Huskies on the field. After the ball is kicked all the Maryland players started running downfield to cover the possibility of a return. In the attached photograph you can see Mack to the left of the goal post base and the ball about to reach him. Nine Maryland players (minus the kicker and holder) are in a full sprint ... while at least 8 Huskies are flat footed and almost surprised to see Mack back there. Once they realize he catches the ball it is too late to do anything about it.

THERE NEVER WAS A "PLAN" TO DO ANYTHING! Even after the opportunity to discuss it during the time out, it is clear that there was no communicated or coordinated effort of any kind. Absolutely egregious.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

The mistake was fielding the kick!!! We would have had the ball at the 33 yard line. It was a stupid idea before the timeout. There is no proper adjective for the decision after the timeout

 

[sportsart]

Why is there even any discussion after this statement by Mack? Our coach is senile. Sorry to insult the other senile people in the world.

"Coach told me to go back and a catch the ball, and so I was thinking there was going to be holdup [blocking] and I looked up

 

[joey3$trike$]

I would of rather had them try to "block" the long range field goal. I believe that would of been a better % play than running the ball out of the end zone. Longer kick means lower trajectory of the ball when kicked, plus the % of even making that 50 yarder isn't very high. With the time out it made even less sense to put Mack back there. Telling someone to catch a ball, and not informing the other 10 players on the field to do is even more mind boggling. It's funny how much of a difference in this one play situation or old head coach is to the new one. Hey an adjustment was made, just not by our coach. I just know when I used to play baseball(rf) I used to run possible situations in my head before the pitch was thrown, ie where I went with the baseball. Why didn't Mack do this is beyond me. Why he wasn't coached it is beyond me as well, hey it's not like they didn't have a timeout or anything to talk it over. Smh, it's painful to watch even just this one play.

 

[NEforceUConn]

Maybe P remembers some old old rule where if Mack jumped up and blocked the field goal then UConn would be rewarded with another TIME OUT, and we all know how PP values his TIME OUTS, he squirrels them away hoping to use them at the end of the season at Walmart to get a 15% discount off his Xmas shopping.

and yes I am sober right now ............ its not game day.