Post-Game Wrap Up: Cincy

- Two numbers in particular stand out, and I will wager that we'll hear much made of them throughout the week.  0-14, as in Cincy's third-down conversions, and 3-18, as in UConn's third-down conversions.

     Holding Cincy to an O-fer on third down is as impressive a stat as one could quell from this game, but UConn's third down offense was as terrible as the defense was fantastic.  

     By holding Cincinnati to 1.9 yards per carry, effectively eliminating all hopes they had of running the ball, we forced the Bearcats to try and convert on a number of 3rd and 6 and 3rd and longs.  Cody Brown didn't want that to happen, though, so he took it upon himself to play the wrecking-ball game.  Pike, and later Chazz Anderson, could barely drop back without Brown or Lindsey Witten or Julius Williams breathing down his neck.  Pressure like that is a vital necessity when you blitz as infrequently as we do (although, I can, off the top of my head, think of 5-ish blitzes we ran, an unusually high number for a UConn defense).

     After Cincy's only TD drive, which was punctuated by one of the best damn bubble screens that I've ever seen, Pike went 5-14 with a pick and was replaced by Anderson after the half.  

     A big hat-tip goes to the fellow running the jumbotron for replaying Pike's interception during the middle of the third quarter.  I'm sure that reliving that throw boosted Pike's spirits, he and his buddy's probably had a good, hearty, deprecating laugh at his expense.  

-Cody Brown is about to make some serious, serious NFL cash.  7 sacks, a blocked punt, and countless hurries will get you noticed.  If he continues at this rate, finishes with 10-12 sacks, we may see him join Darius Butler as a first day NFL draft pick. 

     As good as Brown and Butler have been, as many plays they've made for UConn over the years, their swan song may come in the NFL draft.  Not only would a pair of first day picks provide some much needed national exposure, but it would validate our burgeoning identity as a "football school."  While I doubt that we'll ever be a football school in the sense of a Penn State or Michigan, those schools whose names are intrinsically synonymous to college football, but we can realistically rise to the level of an Arizona State or Oklahoma State.  

-42 passes.  42 passes.  42 passes?  Randy, honey, come on.  Honestly.  I said after the UNC game that you don't want to pass when you have the nation's leading rusher and a quarterback making his first start.  Cody flashed a ridiculously strong arm, but he seems to have two settings: "off" and "Death Star laser beam."  He consistently overthrew his receivers by a solid foot or two; Edsall, during his postgame, chalked the overthrows up to Endress attempting to compensate for the win, but I'll wager nerves and inexperience were as much factors as the wind.  

-The direct snap/attempted Wildcat to Donnie Brown was suh-weet!  I've been waiting all season for something like that.  Our offense, at the risk of oversimplifying things, is so "conventional" (albeit effective) and I just love seeing new-fangled wrinkles like the Wildcat being thrown in there.  Dear UConn Coaching Staff-  More Wildcat, puhweez.  Love-Everyone.

-David Teggert is the man.  I've said enough.  

-At least WVU reverts to form right before coming to the Rent.  Next week's game will not be 66-21, not with Coach Gomer roaming the sidelines

Mumme Poll, Week 8

I begin this post like I tend to end sex...with a sincere apology and attempt at contrition (although I've never had to pay Blogspot).  Posting was weak last week.  It was exam week and we all know how that goes.  

This week, however, wants not for content as we have the first edition of the BCS poll (meaning the pro-/anti-playoff mobs sharpen their pitchforks), three legitimate undefeated teams, a realization that UConn might be mediocre (at best), and status quo in the ACC.  Of course, by writing about all of these potential/impending posts I pretty much accept that they will never be written and I'll begin the next post with the usual excuses (studying, Gossip Girls, invasive fungi).

But enough about me, let's talk about you.  Onto the Mumme Poll!  

Top Five:

Bama- Yeah I know: a win is a win is a win is a win.  They're in the top five because they won, however their boa constrictor grip is a little looser than it was last week.  The injury to the gargantuan NT Terrance Cody is the worst thing that could have happened to the Tide; Matt Hinton points out that it was not until Cody left the game that Mississippi found an offense.   The evidence is damning, Bama needs Cody in a big, big way.  With Cody, the Tide held the (formerly) vaunted Clemson rushing attack to 0 yards (that happened months ago and its STILL impressive) and the vaulting Knoshown Moreno to 34, and, until Ole Miss, the Tide gave up 0, 2.69, 1.91, 2.97, 3.13, and 1.75 yards per carry.  The Rebs mustered only 6 carries for positive yardage (for a whopping, 1, 1, 3, 3, 4, and 6 yards) and a total of 99 yards on 6 possessions, 5 of which went for three or fewer plays, while Cody was in the game.  But the Rebs went for 218 on 7 possessions after Cody went down.  The importance of Terrance Cody cannot be overstated.  Although...the Tide play Tennessee next week and a defensive line consisting of an third grader, my sister, and a half a box of Krispy Kremes could hold Tennessee to under 50 yards rushing.  

Texas- Wow...just wow.  Colt McCoy was perfect, enough has been said of that.  The offense scored touchdowns on 8 of 11 possessions (the 11th possession went 65 yards and ended the game, could easily have been a 9th TD) and had 3 drives of more than 80 yards...enough has been said of that.  Perhaps the most impressive bit from the Horns demolition derby, and there was a LOT of impressiving done by the Horns, is this: Mizzou had -6 yards through the first four possessions, three of which went 3 and out.  While the pass defense has been unsurprisingly torched, the run Texas run defense has only once surrendered 2 or more yards per carry, and they've held Oklahoma and Mizzou to 1.85 and 1.58 ypc respectively.  A cliche dictates that you win by running and stopping the run (see Bama, above), and Texas is certainly stopping the run.  Their porous pass defense makes me think that they'll trip up in a shoot out somewhere, probably Texas Tech or Okie State, but for the time being this is easily, easily the nation's best team. 

Penn State- The Lions were in trouble the first half.  The Lions were in business the second half.  So what changed from one half to the next?  Blogger Black Shoe Diaries attributes the successful second half to certain changes in the linebacking corps, not to take away from the follies of Nick Sheridan, who has absolutely no business playing quarterback at an FBS level, let alone at a program of Michigan's prestige.  Royster was his usual beast-tastic self and Clark went for his customary 200-250 total yards and a few touchdowns in a game that can be summed up as "easy-peezy-lemon-squeezy."  If the team gets by Ohio State this weekend then all that stands between PSU and an undefeated season, in what is undoubtedly JoePa's swan song, is a sneaky tough trip to Iowa City, the Hoosiers, and Sparty.  

Florida- I was tempted to put Georgia here, as Florida was off and Georgia's record is very comparable, if not slightly better.  Florida's dominating win over a s0-s0 LSU team is as good as the sum total of the Georgia's win over ASU and Vandy.  Both teams' have hung a half-dozen-ish mediocre pelts on their belts but get chances to really proves themselves during the coming weeks, with Georgia playing the same so-so LSU and the WLOCP.  

     But for whatever reason I consider Florida's loss to Ole Miss more reasonable than Georgia's prison raping by Bama.   The fact that I'm still high on Florida (sort of like Marcus Thomas!) and the emergence of the sprinting sprites Jeff Demps and Brandon James give the Gators the nod here.  If the LSU game was any indication, this team is only beginning to fulfill the expectations I laid down during the off-season.  

USC- There's nothing funny about a team who surrenders all of ten points in a three week stretch, and those ten coming all at once against Oregon.  That being said, you just know this team is going to slip up somewhere-you just know it.  The question with USC is always when?  They look unbeatable but, if you're aware of their trend of head-scratching losses, its a given that they'll drop a few that they shouldn't.  Will it be Arizona this weekend, Cal next, Stanford again? Who knows?  

     I'm hoping that loss comes soon because I really don't want to hear the talking heads of ESPN deem USC as "playing the best football of anyone right now."  What the hell does that even mean?

Rest of the Top Twelve:

Okie State

Tulsa 

Utah

Boise State

Georgia

Ohio State

Oklahoma

Notes and Musings

- Tulsa is in here only as long as they are undefeated.  I give them the nod based upon their record and the silly numbers they put up.  

-I'm glad Okie State beat Baylor as badly as they did as the win gave me an excuse to drop Texas Tech.  

-God have mercy if I have to rank Georgia Tech or Boston College anytime soon.

-Pitt/USF is bound to break the Big East shutout...aren't they.

Mumme Poll, Week 7

The Mumme Poll was devised by Senator Blutarsky over at Get the Picture, a Georgia and SEC -centric blog.  The Poll was inspired by New Mexico State (and former Kentucky) head coach Hal Mumme's wacky ass number one vote for Hawaii last season.  

What makes this poll worth mentioning, as opposed to your run of the mill resume ranking or arbitrary power ranking, is that it is based upon an "approval rating."  Basically Sen. Blutarsky has the 59 Mumme Poll voters submit a ballot of 12 teams, no rankings, with only the top 5 designated as such (again, the top five are unranked; they are simply labeled "top 5").  Teams will then be rated by how often they appear in each voter's ballots, with the top five designations being used as tie breakers.  Follow?  No?  Well then fuck you.  

So without further ado, I give to you my Ballot for the week

Top Five: 

Texas- This team has been more and more impressive each week.   The importance of their win over Oklahoma cannot be overstated; put simply, Texas has the inside track to the B12 championship game (brought to you by Dr. Pepper) and, by reason of the "B12-SEC rulzzz!!!" meme, the national championship.  Texas is certainly not without flaws, however, and their 98th ranked pass defense (244 ypg, yikes!) and that Colt McCoy is their only consistent rushing threat makes their stay near the top a precarious one, at best, especially given the quality of quarterbacks in their conference.   Games against Mizzou, Okie State, Texas Tech, and Kansas will all test their defensive mettle. 

Alabama- They have yet to trail this entire season.  That is all. 

Florida- If you all will recall, I was bullish on Florida throughout the preseason.  And although meh-tastic games against Miami and Ole Miss put a damper on my enthusiasm for the Gators, any team that can drop 51 on LSU is deserving of, at the very least, a "top 5" designation.  The offense has finally loosened up and, against LSU of all teams, resembled my expectations.  Jeff Demps has emerged as the running threat beyond the two headed monster of Tebow/Harvin and has rushed for over 100 in consecutive weeks, both times posting sick nasty ypc's of over 12.  

Penn State- It kills me that all signs point to Penn State being left out of the national championship.  Their curb-stomping of Wisconsin, in Camp Randall, cements their place as one of the nation's elite.  This team, unlike B10 teams of years past, is actually a lot of fun to watch; the continued emergence of Derrick Williams, Evan Royster, and Staphon Green and the consistent excellence of Daryl Clark makes this offense Penn State's best in a long time, perhaps even surpassing the Mike Robinson led 2005 squad in fantastic-acity.  I do not see anyone challenging this team the rest of the way, Ohio State will be hard pressed to score double digits and Michigan...well...no need to pour water on a drowning man.

USC- I really hate to give them a "Top 5" designation, I really do.  They won ugly against Arizona State, turning the ball over 5 times.  In fact, I don't even know why I'm putting them in my top 5-I've railed against the Trojans all season long, why begrudgingly bestow upon them respect now?  Ughhh, they wouldn't be here if I hadn't already submitted my ballot.  Damn you, Pete Carroll.  If only we weren't friends on FaceBook.  

     This team is painfully overrated and gets by more upon reputation than by actual on-field dominance.  Hell, look at me!  In spite of my notorious cynicism, even I am unable to resist!  I'd not be shocked if USC lost another clunker somewhere down the line.

Rest of the Ballot:

BYU

Tulsa

Georgia

Ohio State

Oklahoma

Texas Tech (another team I don't want to rank)

Boise State

Notes:

-Conspicuously Absent: LSU, Missouri

     With Auburn's slow demise (seriously?  Arkansas?  Dude, what the fuck?), LSU is without a stellar, or even solid, victory on which to hang their hat.  And they certainly didn't look like a "good" team against the Gators.  Missouri, while their offense is WHOOSH-BAM!, suffers from a terrifically mediocre defense and will likely drop another game before the season is done (probably to Texas next week).  Even their vaunted offense was stymied by the Cowboys (enter obligatory "I'm a man, I'm 40" reference here).

-Bullish on Mid-Majors

    No one has come even close to hanging with the Broncos; it took a furious 19-point fourth quarter rally for Oregon to bring the game within 5...and this was in Autzen!  Boise State will go undefeated without breaking much of a sweat, but unfortunately, their belt will probably lack a truly shiny pelt, as Oregon doesn't look like anything special this year.  They could still make it to a BCS poll depending upon movement above them, popular sentiment, and BYU.

    Tulsa has been dropping bombs all season long, tallying point totals of 45, 56, 56, 62, 63, and 37.  When your worst point total is 37 points, you're doing something very right.  And while their defense may be a bit suspect (see 342 yards to Central Arkansas) this team is still deserving of a vote based upon their flaming fireworks wagon of an offense and 6-0 record.  

Louisvile...

Is not a very good team.  They looked great against UConn (and what does that say about the Huskies?) but, beyond that game, they've been thoroughly unimpressive.

Take a look at their game tonight against Memphis (before Doc Saturday does in his excellent weekly segment, "Life in the Margins):  not only were the Cards out-gained by 182 yards but they benefitted from 2 fourth down conversions and 3 Memphis turnovers.  Louisville was, on a play-by-play basis,  absolutely dominated.  In fact, the Cardinals would not have even been in this game had it not been for several marvelous Memphis miscues (see what I did there?  Pretty cool, huh?).

Louisville totaled a respectable 35 points, 7 from a fumble return, 7 from a kickoff return, and 7 more from a missed field return.  Were that not enough, they even managed to be unimpressive during their two legitimate scoring drives: one drive went all of 38 yards, leaving the Cardinals with but a single actual drive.  

Ughhh.  So much for UConn's one decent win.

Random Stat of the Week

Infrequent posting as of late, sorry.  Life has intervened and taken precedent over the blog.   

I did, however, notice this stat and thought it so amazing that it was worth noting on the blog.

Texas Tech has surrendered 1 sack in 262 attempts.   That means that TTech is sacked on only 0.38% of their pass attempts.  On the other hand we have Texas A&M (Mike Sherman...giggle giggle) who has been sacked 13 times in 145 pass attempts, thats a sack on 8.96% of their pass attempts.  

UNC- Halftime Thoughts

- You have the nation's number 1 rusher and  a red shirt sophomore quarterback starting his first game, on the road, in front of a sold out crowd, so on 3rd and 2 you...pass?  Huh?

-You have fourth and two around midfield, you've had two punts blocked, and should have had another blocked, and you still have the nation's leading rusher, so you...punt?  Huh?

-Frazer looked great on the first and last drive of the half.  That second pick was totally on Kashif Moore.  

-Frazer needs to quit forcing the ball into double coverage.  

-How is this only a two score game?  

-Penalties.  I know how Matt Hinton, over at Doc Saturday, rails against the perceived value of a penalty, but honestly...what the hell?  Its like we've just shot our selves in the foot and then decided to shoot ourselves in the other foot-you know, just to even things up, brah.

-Having looked at the drive chart, our defense is playing a damn fine game.  UNC has really only had one good drive, and even that ended in a field goal.  Field position is killing us, right now.

-That option to Todman in the first quarter was awesome.  I've been looking for something like that all season.  

-If we want to win this game we need to give Donnie 20 carries, Todman 10-12, and Dixon/Frey/Butler another 10-12.  Frazer, though, for the most part, I've liked what I've seen, cannot carry this team.  21 passes to 15 Donnie Brown carries will not cut it.

On an unrelated aside: if you don't already know, I've followed the University of Tennessee for my entire life and to see the Vols in such a state of terrific disarray kills me.  

Wrap Up: UVA Edition.

Graphic Synopsis of the UVA game...here. 

Yeah.  It was that damn bad.

UConn could do nothing wrong.  Absolutely nothing.  Donnie Brown actually saved a kitten from a tree and help a blind elderly woman cross the street between gashing the Cavalier defense and Tyler Lorenzon was seen composing sonnets in the backfield.  The performance was so impressive that it forces us to raise the "Syracuse Conundrum".  Are we that good?  Or are they that bad?  

The truth, of course, is somewhere in between.

Onto the review.

The Good

Donnie Brown- 206 yds and 3 TDs on 20 carries.  Mmmhhhmmm, thats over 10 per carry.  Just think about that.  Impressive, no?

Jordan Todman- The true freshman from MA made his much awaited (by me, at any rate) debut against the Cavs.  And what a debut he had.  The 48 yard run he had to end the 3rd quarter showed that he can fill the Slash-type roll this team desperately needs.

Rob Ambrose- I knew that this game had promise from the very first play.  Brown lined up in the slot with Lorenzon directly under center, Brown went into motion and the ball was snapped as Brown fell in behind the near tackle, from there it was that familiar stretch-zone play...but with that funky motion wrinkle.  Ambrose ran that play again and again with both Todman and Brown to great success.  This was also the first time I've seen us use Steve Brouse effectively.   He lined up in the slot, he split out wide, he lined up at fullback, he lined up at H-back.  Ambrose had the creativity to move Brouse all around the field and, while the box score shows but a single 18 yd catch, he was able to exploit whatever mismatched linebacker he found covering himself.  

It pleased me to no end to see our offense line up in formations other than double-tight.  The four wide set looks to have potential.  

And we're damn certain to see more Darius Butler and Jordan Todman.

The Defense- While Mike Verica was able to go 22 for 30, the secondary kept the deep ball under lock and key (hence Verica's very pedestrian 5.3 yds per att).  While we were treated to a few blitzes (I'm used to a John Chavis defense, I'm sorry but I demand a hyper-aggressive hornet's nest of a defense), the d-line was able to generate enough pressure on its own to keep Verica off balance all night.

Jasper Howard seems to be coming into his own opposite Darius Butler; he batted down a number of balls, including one inside UConn's 10.  

T-Lo- His much heralded decision making, so sorely, and obviously, lacking against Temple and Hofstra, returned.  While, as was his wont, he was unspectacular, he turned in a rock solid 13/15 game with one touchdown and no picks.  His 29 yard bomb (yes, a 29 yard pass is a bomb by UConn's tight buttoned standards.  Tresselball what?)  

But most impressive were his 10 carries.  Lorenzon never panicked when a play broke down or he couldn't find an open man, rather he calmly scanned the field and tuck the ball and ran off like he stole something.  He has some wheels for a 6'4"-ish white boy from Iowa.  

The Bad

This is all nit-picking.  Its difficult, if not impossible, to complain a game in which your recently beleaguered quarterback goes 13/15, you run for 382 (what the fuck?  382!) yards, and your defense surrenders a mere 31 yards.  Once again, this is ALL nit-picking.

T-Lo- He lacked any touch on the short passes and both Sherman and Brown had to make some pretty fantastic leaps to catch a few of his passes to the flats.  

Down-field tackling- Too much arm tackling by the secondary, UVA had far too many yards after the catch.  Again, nitpicking.

Kick Coverage- Now this isn't nitpicking and is close to becoming a point of legitimate concern.  Tony C should not be making the tackle on kick offs, ever.  Our kick off squad kept their lanes and played disciplined on special teams, they just failed to get off their blocks.  This could be a huge, huge, huge problem against UNC.

Grade: A+.

Truly impressive showing.  Let's shut down Robert Griffith (easier said than done, ask Wazzu) and get ready for a tough road stretch.