What I Learned Today

[UConnDan97]

I told myself never to start a thread after extreme frustration, because I'm sure at least one of my statements will be ridiculous, but here's what I learned today:

1) Our Defense is For Real - They held a very talented NCState offense to 10 points, even when you factor in that we turned the ball over 4 times. The fact that we were still in the game with 2 minutes left to go is a real testament to how good these guys are. They are silly good, and they didn't even have Stephen or Jennings.

2) Our Offense is Horrid - Not just the four turnovers, which is horrible, but we have absolutely no running game now. If you took away the yards from the McCombs swing pass, we were really bad. I'm mostly concerned about the absolute lack of a run game for the second consecutive week, and for those people who were calling for Foley to be the line coach instead of DeLeone, they may have a point. This was our game to have and we gave it away.

3) Our Fans Stink - Somebody who went to the game, correct me if I am wrong, but that was a ridiculously lame crowd. You have a UConn defense doing fantastic things, and the crowd was seemingly non-existent most of the game. Shaking your keys does not generate decibels, people! Start clapping, yelling, and give us a home-field advantage!! There were multiple third down plays for NCState where I saw camera shots of UConn fans sitting on their a$$es, quiet as church mice. Finally, after we scored the touchdown to make it 10-7, they panned the stadium and it was about 1/3 empty. Are you kidding me??? WTF, UConn nation!

That's all for now. Back to the whiskey...

 

[sdhusky]

3) Our Fans Stink - Somebody who went to the game, correct me if I am wrong, but that was a ridiculously lame crowd. You have a UConn defense doing fantastic things, and the crowd was seemingly non-existent most of the game. Shaking your keys does not generate decibels, people! Start clapping, yelling, and give us a home-field advantage!! There were multiple third down plays for NCState where I saw camera shots of UConn fans sitting on their a$$es, quiet as church mice. Finally, after we scored the touchdown to make it 10-7, they panned the stadium and it was about 1/3 empty. Are you kidding me??? WTF, UConn nation!

You complaining about the fans actually at the game while you watch on TV?

 

[UConnDan97]

You complaining about the fans actually at the game while you watch on TV?

Yeah, because I'm sure that most of the fans at the game don't have a wife who's 8 months pregnant. Thanks for your concern...

 

[CTPride]

What I learned today...we are still pretty far away from being an elite team. 5 minutes into the USC Syracuse game you can see the difference in speed and tenacity.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

OL and QB play. The concerns going into the season. We hold a team like that to 10 points we should win the damn game. Emotions running high right now so I'll just add.......our OL is terrible. Utterly incompetent. That's all for now.

 

[UconnFamily]

You complaining about the fans actually at the game while you watch on TV?

He makes a point with the crowd sitting on there asses... I had a problem with this for years!

 

[UconnFamily]

DeLeone gone is what I learned today!!! thats all for now!!

 

[UConnDan97]

OL and QB play. The concerns going into the season. We hold a team like that to 10 points we should win the damn game. Emotions running high right now so I'll just add.......our OL is terrible. Utterly incompetent. That's all for now.

That's the thing, Jimmy; I'll have to take another look at this after the emotions wear off (sometime next June)....

 

[UConnDan97]

I have to admit that I've been spoiled by what seems to be a decade of being able to effectively run the ball. Still, I think we averaged something like 1.1 yds per carry. Tough. Very tough...

 

[coachRD]

Yeah, because I'm sure that most of the fans at the game don't have a wife who's 8 months pregnant. Thanks for your concern...

I was not at the game either, so I will reserve judgment on the crowd, but I agree completely with your first two points. I'm still hopeful since our D has ALREADY proven to me that they can be very good, and our offense should progress, even if it never improves to the point of being a clear positive for us. A great D and a serviceable offense (not there yet on O) will bring us back to a bowl game.

 

[bigAbruns]

I definitely agree with all three. The defense is great. They did their job with lots of three and outs. Offense is terrible....didn't do their job with lots of three and outs and TOs. It was supposed to be a blue out and once again the stadium looked like it was filled with skittles, with exception of the student section.

 

[weyuo]

The O-line stepping it up starts long before the season starts. The powers that be know the situation and I'm sure will address it. That being said we'll still get our share of wins and have our shot at the conference championship. Keep the faith friends. It's long from being over.

Go Huskies!!!

 

[UConnDan97]

I was not at the game either, so I will reserve judgment on the crowd, but I agree completely with your first two points. I'm still hopeful since our D has ALREADY proven to me that they can be very good, and our offense should progress, even if it never improves to the point of being a clear positive for us. A great D and a serviceable offense (not there yet on O) will bring us back to a bowl game.

Good points. This defense, especially once Stephen and Jennings are back, is a monster defense. It's worthy of national respect, to be quite honest, and I would be surprised if it isn't the best in the Big East, no doubt in my mind. If we could just get back some semblance of that running game, in order to take the heat off of Whitmer and to keep the defense fresh, we should steam-roll a lot of teams. It was clear that on a lot of the bad passes, Whitmer was trying to do too much.

I'll take some time to calm down, and then I hope we win by 40 in the Edsall Bowl next week...

 

[UConnDan97]

The O-line stepping it up starts long before the season starts. The powers that be know the situation and I'm sure will address it. That being said we'll still get our share of wins and have our shot at the conference championship. Keep the faith friends. It's long from being over.

Go Huskies!!!

In 24 hours, I'm sure I'll be back to my "We're going 12-1 this year" mojo...

Fight on, Huskies!!!

 

[sdhusky]

In 24 hours, I'm sure I'll be back to my "We're going 12-1 this year" mojo...

Fight on, Huskies!!!

Off course we are going 12-1

 

[mets1090]

Crowd was great in the first quarter. When it takes over a full quarter to generate a first down not resulting from a penalty, the enthusiasm gets sucked out of everyone. End of story. The crowd got a second wind when we had the first big pass to Williams. False start. QB falls down. Crowd is dead again. In the 4th quarter the crowd was begging for a reason to care. They finally got it and erupted. That was one of the most boring first 42 minutes of football I have seen in a long long time. The crowd came ready for this game and the team took them out of it.

Our offensive line is abysmal. We could not run as a result. Their secondary is very good. They knew we had to pass to have a chance to move the ball. Good secondary + knowing the pass is coming = Bad things for an average at best passing team. All game you just knew that to win we needed a special teams or defensive TD. Their punt team did a great job with hang time and coverage. I think Williams was only able to receive and not fair catch one punt and he got maybe 2 yards on the play.

Our defense is the best in the conference.

My final point, when your offense is struggling to generate anything and your defense is flat out dominating, how do you not go for a 4th and 1 on the 39. Worst case you don't get it and your defense shuts them down and you do it all over again. Instead we punted and they botched it so the ball comes out to the 20. Congratulations, we gained 19 yards of field position.

 

[sportsart]

The crowd was not impressive to say the least. The defense is the real deal. The OL in not very good. The QB is too big of a risk taker. Not impressed yet.

Foley with OL is missed. While the college FB world goes to the hurry up, semi spread and spread we go back to the pro style with a our offense just getting used to Moorehead.

Welcome to old coach's football, though Brown certainly doesn't fit the old mold.

 

[UConnDan97]

Crowd was great in the first quarter. When it takes over a full quarter to generate a first down not resulting from a penalty, the enthusiasm gets sucked out of everyone. End of story. The crowd got a second wind when we had the first big pass to Williams. False start. QB falls down. Crowd is dead again. In the 4th quarter the crowd was begging for a reason to care. They finally got it and erupted. That was one of the most boring first 42 minutes of football I have seen in a long long time. The crowd came ready for this game and the team took them out of it.

Our offensive line is abysmal. We could not run as a result. Their secondary is very good. They knew we had to pass to have a chance to move the ball. Good secondary + knowing the pass is coming = Bad things for an average at best passing team. All game you just knew that to win we needed a special teams or defensive TD. Their punt team did a great job with hang time and coverage. I think Williams was only able to receive and not fair catch one punt and he got maybe 2 yards on the play.

Our defense is the best in the conference.

My final point, when your offense is struggling to generate anything and your defense is flat out dominating, how do you not go for a 4th and 1 on the 39. Worst case you don't get it and your defense shuts them down and you do it all over again. Instead we punted and they botched it so the ball comes out to the 20. Congratulations, we gained 19 yards of field position.

Good points. I'm still not sure how I feel about the punt call. Blidi put himself 3 yards into the endzone to stop the one-hop, instead of parking himself at the 1. Mental mistake, for sure. If he doesn't make that mental mistake, and if we pin them inside the 2 yard line....with our defense....it changes how I feel about the play call, I think.

 

[bigAbruns]

I love the defense, it just sucks when they are out there so much because the offense is terrible. Its like watching the Jets play.

 

[J187Money]

I'll say this about the crowd. My son had a baseball game at 9am, I dropped him at a picnic at noon, got to the rent at about 12:25, and walked by well over 100 people that were still in the lot tailgating without a care in the world. Then I got in there, and at least half of the people weren't wearing blue. I stayed until 2:30 until I had to go pick my son up, and there were lots of people firing up the grill already. There are just a lot of people that are there for the "event" that don't care at all about the game. And it will be this way for a LONG time...so we should stop complaining about it, do the best we can for ourselves and the people around us, and hope the team wins and we make more fans. I'm done "wishing" that the crowd would behave differently, care more, etc. Generally - they are loud enough when we need it. Today, the offense was so disgusting I can't blame anyone for being lethargic.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

I had a new guy in my section start an argument with a Wolf Pack fan because the visitor had the nerve to stand on 3rd down...and for two downs after. His reasoning, i am a season ticket holder and my kids can't see the screen! The nerve of the NC State fan to stand during a sporting event!! Mind you, the gentleman who complained was sitting one row behind and about five seats over.....this is our fan base.

This happened during the first series of the game.

 

[uchusky32]

Our problem is two fold. One our offensive line is not to the standard that past lines have established. This can and should be addressed quickly. The other problem is more complicated. We need play makers at all the skill positions on offensive. Receivers who can separate from the defender a bigger all purpose back and most importantly a quality QB. Major BCS play makers are not a dime a dozen say like quality linemen.

Yes we had Dan O and yes we had Donald B and some quality wrs. The problem is we didn't have them at the same time. And that will take a big time coach who can recruit with the 2nd tier teams.

 

[TheRogers]

What I learned...

Take what you can in points. I will not fault HCPP for going for it on 4th and 2 in the 1st half. But now he should know better. I don't think we can rely on offense for points. So if it's there, take it.

 

[UConnDan97]

Our problem is two fold. One our offensive line is not to the standard that past lines have established. This can and should be addressed quickly. The other problem is more complicated. We need play makers at all the skill positions on offensive. Receivers who can separate from the defender a bigger all purpose back and most importantly a quality QB. Major BCS play makers are not a dime a dozen say like quality linemen.

Yes we had Dan O and yes we had Donald B and some quality wrs. The problem is we didn't have them at the same time. And that will take a big time coach who can recruit with the 2nd tier teams.

I don't know about not having the playmakers. Geremy Davis looks every bit the playmaker out there, and he has really good hands. We know that Nick Williams is a playmaker, and Lyle McCombs is certainly a playmaker. Griffin? I don't know; I'm always waiting for him to have that big breakout game. But in general, we should have enough playmakers to make the difference.

That brings us back to the O-Line. I don't know if it is the positional rotation, the philosophy, the scheme, or what. I know that Ryan and Petrus were good, but we have Bennett in there now, and is everyone telling me that losing those two guys = going from about 4-5 yards per carry down to 1-2 yards per carry, even with Bennett?? Something is up, and I'm just not sure it is talent level...

 

[UConnDan97]

What I learned...

Take what you can in points. I will not fault HCPP for going for it on 4th and 2 in the 1st half. But now he should know better. I don't think we can rely on offense for points. So if it's there, take it.

Yeah, but that would have been a 47 yarder into the wind. I'm not going to fault him on that, especially since he has already stated that his comfort zone with Christen is around 45 yards or shorter. I thought it was the right call, to be honest.