Monday, November 24, 2008

Postgame from Ray Jay

Time is short, and most of you are probably in bed by now anyway. Here's a brief rundown of the postgame:
  • Edsall said Greg Lloyd, who is dealing with "personal issues", is "doubtful" to play against Pittsburgh on Dec. 6.
  • Lorenzen and Robbie Frey both took shots. Lorenzen got hit hard on the final play of the game, and came up woozy. "I was out of it," Lorenzen said. "Zach Hurd was trying to get me to stay down, and I was trying to regain my balance." Tyler seemed OK after the game.
  • Ellis Gaulden on his touchdown catch off the double-reverse flea-flicker, "It took forever for that ball to come down." Oh, yes. It did.
  • With the victory, USF all but assured itself a spot in the St. Petersburg Bowl. That's out of the mix. Notre Dame will likely take the Sun Bowl. The Meineke Bowl isn't going to pass up West Virginia. So UConn, Pittsburgh and Rutgers will slug it out for Toronto and Birmingham. Since Rutgers was in Toronto last year, I think they'll go to Birmingham (as long as it beats Louisville...if Rutgers loses and finishes 6-6, then it can't take Birmingham from a seven-win team). That means the winner of the UConn-Pitt game could be for Toronto, with the loser being shipped off to whatever available bowl slot there is. Still confusing. Still a crapshoot.
  • Penalties and problems in kickoff coverage certainly didn't help UConn. "We ended up making more mistakes and giving up the short field, and we couldn't gain the short field," Edsall said.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does the Big East still have the Motor City Bowl agreement? Because if Ohio State goes to the BCS, the Motor City Bowl is open and attractive since the opponent could be undefeated Ball State.

November 24, 2008 1:06 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another long two weeks of stewing over an ugly loss.

This team sure knows how to head into an off week. Those turkeys are going to taste a little sour in Storrs this week, it's a shame.

This program won't ever get the respect people keep crowing for if they can't win on the road. It's that simple.

November 24, 2008 7:23 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Similar to the Rutgers game, you can only ride 3 yard gains by Brown for so long until you need to mix it up and create some space for tight ends, receivers and scat backs on first or second down. Then again, Lorenzen can't throw accurately or with any zip past 12 yards. We want Zach, learning curve and all! The guy throws a great ball and needs to learn with reps how to care for the football during a game. Won't happen riding the pine. Tornto is a great city for a bowl game, lots of hockey in town that week!

November 24, 2008 7:29 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

to defend Lorenzen a little how many droped balls from tight ends and receivers did we see last night? I always had the mindset that TL would win us games against decent teams and below but would not be able to win games against some of the top competition because we are not able to throw the ball down the field but you know looking back into this season and even last year - so many droped balls especially in key times of games (3rd downs) that would have resulted in first downs. I dont think it matters who is back there throwing the ball until we get more experiance and talent in the WR spot I do not see much improvement in our passing game.

November 24, 2008 10:00 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Make no mistake, this was ugly. I cannot imagine tuning into this mess if you're not a fan of either team. We now know that they have to play a near perfect game (like the Cincy game) in order to beat Pitt. Because when they don't, against good teams, they are just not good enough to overcome the mistakes. Last night it was special teams, penalties, and the turnover. They can overcome 2 of those 3, but not all 3. Looking on the bright side, back to back bowl games is a long way from the Yankee Conference. If you told me they'd play 3 bowl games before 2010, I wouldn't have thought it was possible. A little more imagination on offense please. It was either Brown up the middle or a pass to Sherman in the flats. The one time they use some creativity it goes for a big score. Do we even have any WR's who can get open? This is a problem. It won't matter who the QB is next year if this isn't addressed.

BTW.....that play by Grothe where he had the 1st down and ran backwards was one of the worst football plays I've seen in my lifetime. You have to know where you are on the field. It's not like he was trying to stay inbounds or anything....he ran towards the sideline!!!!! Just awful. Could you imagine if the Huskies scored a miraculous TD?

November 24, 2008 4:01 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Chip from reading other sites I'm not sure ND can take the Sun Bowl spot if Ritgers beats Lousville. The reason was that a 6-6 team can not take an affiliated Bowl spot from any team that has 7 or more wins. If Rutgers wins they end up with 7 wins giving the Big East six 7+ win teams for six affiliated spots. The only thing is I'm not sure that rule applies to ND.

November 26, 2008 7:34 AM 
Blogger Chip Malafronte said...

That is true. I ammended my bowl projections for the print edition of the Register on Monday, but forgot to do it on the blog.

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2008/11/25/sports/doc492bd9a08bdfe043683939.txt

November 26, 2008 9:10 AM 

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