Fake FG when you've already......

[the Blades]

......tried two trick plays in the game ??? As Mizzou coach said post game, he was expecting something like that...Great effort by the D... great effort by Shirreffs and the O to move theirselves into position to pull this game out .... but you have give the offense a chance to get 4 yards and a new set of downs after the work they did if you didn't trust the kicker on a 42 yd'er to tie.....just like the former beat writer tweeted: John Silver ‏@JohnFSilver 2h2 hours ago
" Bad play by diaco. Day of good plays, but that was a bad play. Line up and have shirreffs throw a 4 yard slant."

Overall a plus effort and improvement by this team, not into moral victories and close games..but keep your heads up guys !

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

If you are going to run a play like that have a guy throw the ball that doesn't have an arm like a girl. Other than that I didn't have a problem with it.

 

[the Blades]

If you are going to run a play like that have a guy throw the ball that doesn't have an arm like a girl. Other than that I didn't have a problem with it.

More than that... it didn't fake out anyone.... Boyle had a DL right on top of him that the kicker tried to block( pathetically) and had to rush it to a TE who had 3 guys on top of him, because they sniffed it out so easy....
They had 53 seconds and a timeout... Shirreffs, the WR's and the spread were getting it done...either with his arm or his legs on that drive... 4yds ???....just don't get it if you don't trust Puyol from 42 ....which they don't... that's why they use a true FR( Tarbutt) for over 40yd FG's and kickoffs.




12:02 PM - 19 Sep 2015

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Blades I watched the play again and you are right......that was a jailhouse break type rush up the middle and the kicker didn't even impede the guy........might have gone down differently if a proper block had been executed. Blocking is as big a part of football as rebounding in basketball........an offensive player cannot function if the defensive man on the play is not blocked.

 

[meego1963]

To

 

[meego1963]

To many trick plays go for it on 4 down or Kick the guys playeras to hard to lose like that how many Times u think u going to catch them sleep

 

[MUTiger91]

To many trick plays go for it on 4 down or Kick the guys playeras to hard to lose like that how many Times u think u going to catch them sleep

I think the first one shook them awake. I don't blame Diaco for going for it. If you can't block the rush well enough for a PAT, a long FG is a low pct play. It might have been better to just straight-up leave the offense out there, but DL penetration messes up other plays too.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Football is just filler material until basketball season starts anyway...........

 

[the Blades]

Football is just filler material until basketball season starts anyway...........

Then get back over to the hoops board where you belong, you troll, LOL ! .....

 

[the Blades]

Diaco said: "I didn't feel great about the 42-yarder, I didn't feel great about the battery, I didn't feel great about the guts of the protection,"
So why then did Diaco, if he wasn't comfortable with the field goal unit, not let Shirreffs (17 of 26, 156 yards) and the offense run a play and try for the touchdown.
"You can go either way with it," Diaco said. "It's not like that was electric up to that point, four quarters, six points ... We need to do more. I need to do more as the head coach to raise the execution." Perhaps Diaco was looking at the element of surprise, but it may have been gone, since the Huskies tried a fake on fourth-and-8 from the Missouri 23 in the second quarter that looked like a touchdown pass from Boyle to Bloom until the ball was knocked out of Bloom's hands.

from Boyle: "Bloom just kind of went up the middle, and I faked the ball to Bobby and I threw it up," Boyle said. "It was fourth down. I didn't want to take a sack, obviously, because that would have ended the game, so I'd rather throw the ball up and see what happens.
Full read: UConn Falls Short In Upset Bid At Missouri

also quoted:
Mizzou DB Sherrils said the defense expected a fake...
"We were anticipating it," Sherrils said. "We backed up off the line to get a good look at it. The tight end released, and I knew it was a fake."

The special teams blocking was terrible this game for the 3rd time, blocked punt for a safety, missed extra point, not to mention 2 other PAT's blocked in the first 2 games, so he's gonna go with that unit on the most important play of the game with no element of surprise ?.....I agree with Silver above... put your best unit out there ....go for the first .....and the win.......but as I said above enjoyed the effort and ongoing improvement from the other 2 units.

 

[the Blades]

Another read from the Hartford Courant and Mizzou alumni Jeff Jacobs: One Trick Too Many For Coach Diaco's Huskies?

excerpts:
" there would be no argument here on Bob Diaco eschewing a potential overtime and trying to win outright. Really, what the hell is there to lose? "
"On fourth-and-4 from the Mizzou 25 with 53 seconds remaining, however, the argument here is that UConn should have put the ball in the hands of quarterback Bryant Shirreffs and let him try to go for the first down. After Mizzou coach Gary Pinkel had made the mistake of passing deep and incomplete on fourth-and-6 from the UConn 33 instead of trying to pin the Huskies in with a punt, Shirreffs moved the ball 42 yards on seven plays. "

Diaco on special teams blocking:
" What I'm interested in his how the pressure is in [Boyle's] face so fast. As soon as he came off the play-action, there was a guy right there so he never got to throw that top-shelf ball that we would have needed. "

"The bigger part is that the Huskies already had thrown everything at Mizzou except the rocks in the big M at one end of Faurot Field. They had used so much trickery that the element of surprise was essentially gone. If you watched this entire game on ESPN, be honest, were you surprised? Me, neither. And neither apparently were the Tigers. Despite the play-fake to Puyol, they were up on Boyle in a hurry. Boyle couldn't take a sack and threw it into a crowd for Bloom, and Anthony Sherrils easily picked it off. At a certain point, however, there are so many trick plays nobody also is really faked out anymore."

" The other truth is UConn's special teams were bad. .... There is a thin line between genius and insanity and, until otherwise notified, that will continue to be the mantra of the Diaco Era, but believe this: The Mizzou offense does have its problems, but this was a quality showing on the road against a big-time SEC opponent....The team has an organized mission. A base is set. This game was full of fluky plays, but the 2015 Huskies aren't a fluke.....And then you see UConn clawing its way back to respectability. You see Diaco getting his players to believe and, yes, even observers starting to believe, and it may be time to start arguing UConn back into the big-time equation."

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

I think the football team is headed in the right direction, but even so Blades, they are still filler material until basketball season for me and many other fans. That isn't trolling, it's truth. It was truth when my Daddy was matriculating at UConn in the 1950s, it was truth when I was matriculating at UConn in the 1980s even though UConn wasn't very good during my 4 years, and it will be the truth in the 2020s when your Grandson little Blades is matriculating at UConn. All of that being said I pull for the football team, I like Diaco and I think he will succeed, and I hope UConn football will be in the top 25 but even then basketball is still KIng in Storrs. And the King ain't leaving the throne any time soon.

Now I am back to the basketball board where I belong,

 

[the Blades]

Jeeezus, KSTW, can't you take a joke, LOL !!!!!..without pouring out you're own recollection and view of Uconn sports history....But since you brought it up ... I remember hoops in a glorified HS gym when my uncle was living in those dorms called" the jungle" and the Fam' dragging me up there as a little kid....not exactly a palace fit for a king.....and something called the Yankee conference with the hope of an ECAC bid to the tourney. You yourself said Debrito and Carlos Carlos, etc. where the kings of the campus not hoops, FB or hockey at one point..... in the 80's I used to skate in a rink with a roof and no walls that Uconn hockey played in..... So who's to say what can't be accomplished if you have the right goals and put the infrastructure in place( probably $150 Mil + for FB and counting) to handle things first class.....
.....because things do change....and remember one other thing whether we like it or not....... FB drives the bus in this crazy world of conference realignment and financial survival ... Lew Perkins knew it was coming, he was just a little to late to gather support to get ahead of the CR curve. So I'm sure from the Gov to Herbst to Warde to everyone involved in Uconn sports they'd love to see FB leading the way to something B1G'ger !

But I'm sure we'll chat more back at your safe house( the hoops board).... if not stick around it gets boring over here sometimes...LOL!

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Blades you are right on one thing which is that in the fall of 1981 and for that year anyway, Pedro DeBrito and Elvis Comrie and Carlos Carlos and company were kings. They were major rock stars and if there was a DeBrito sighting on campus or at a party I would hear about it later. That was kind of a special team but the basketball team despite not being very good and playing in substandard facility at the time (the old field house) was still the best draw in town. There were never any empty seats at any of the games during that time. I can recall seeing Billy Donovan now coach of NBA team OK City Thunder as a pudgy freshman at Providence in the field house. At the time we were laughing at him because you looked at his body and no way did he seem like he belonged out there playing Big East basketball. But that pudgy kid lost weight, got his ass in shape, and had the last laugh on all of us. I have great memories of basketball games at that facility which I will not forget even though UConn's teams were not that great and the facility was substandard. They still created a lot of good memories.

 

[Shaggydog84]

+1 Blades....I know it seems like decades ago, but it wasn't long ago when the Rent was very very close to selling out consistently. And that's with only a few yrs of competitive FB to sell. So, start to win and see how quickly FB becomes popular in CT. How often does the XL center get sold out these days? I went to a game at GP last season and it wasn't even sold out (yeah, i get it was a tough season...)

 

[the Blades]

True about the Rent, I posted the attendance figures somewhere before but about 97% capacity and 2 BE Championships in just 8 years of full FBS was remarkable..... until the double whammy of Pasqualoni killing the program plus the destruction of the Big East and rivals we had a history with. But nothing a move to the B1G and a FB turnaround couldn't cure....This one time CT sports king says there's another reason it needs to happen :

Big Ten for UConn Key to Hartford Whalers Return
Gordon admits the NHL has at times looked at Hartford as a second class citizen, but membership in such an elite NCAA conference would change the view of the city and the state overnight. “Big crowds, big cable networks and big tv contracts, and when that is brought to the National Hockey League, it means something. Coming along with the Whalers is one thing but think of how many national championships and great coaches that have come out of here.” But I'm wondering if Gordon knew Uconn Hockey could become a new king !

 

[the Blades]

 

[oldandintheway]

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He's Learning. He was wrong and he knows it and would change it if he could. What else do we want? 3 games into Year 2 of cleaning up a huge mess. Maybe Mizzou isn't quite the #22 best team in D-1, but they are 2 time defending Sec Division Champs and they do have a legit top D and they were at home. If we can't be encouraged by what we see on the field so early in this coaching regime, well...Might well lose to a very good experienced Navy team, but again, how they play, we'll see, but they are not "a Mess" anymore.