Game thread

[VIKING '87]

For me, the jury is still out. If SF didn't commit so many penalties at critical times (11 for 104 yards and 3 1st downs), would the outcome be different? QB play is still suspect. Was all the pressure in the first half due to our receivers inability to get open or decision making by O'C? Heck, SF sacked us as many times Penn State did I believe.

Yarns is outstanding. Want to see him get 25 carries a game. I'm also excited to see just how good Seay can be - it certainly looks promising. Defensive pressure on the QBs look better than I recall at SB.

[Udforever1]

Carty post game on radio. Paraphrasing

Offense- St Francis threw some things at them early on that hadn’t been on tape.

Defense- Actually threw a little shot at them. Said it’s nice they didn’t give up many points but they need to get off the field.

Wasn’t happy with officiating. Said to him it was pretty one sided, particularly in that little scrum after the Yarns TD.

[Hens79]

For me, the jury is still out. If SF didn't commit so many penalties at critical times (11 for 104 yards and 3 1st downs), would the outcome be different? QB play is still suspect. Was all the pressure in the first half due to our receivers inability to get open or decision making by O'C? Heck, SF sacked us as many times Penn State did I believe.

Yarns is outstanding. Want to see him get 25 carries a game. I'm also excited to see just how good Seay can be - it certainly looks promising. Defensive pressure on the QBs look better than I recall at SB.

No. The outcome wouldn’t have been different. The Hens have outscored lowly SFU 98-31 in the last two meetings winning by 39 and 28. No matter the many warts on these Hens teams, they are way, way, way, way better than SFU.

[jd of de]

Our interior defense has looked good over 3 games. Last night especially, we struggle to protect the edge.

I know we live in the time of Patrick Maholmes, but I’d like to see O’Connor set his feet while he’s in the pocket. Great arm on the kid but he’s struggling with accuracy.

More Yarns and less running Cumby inside. Youngblood will have a return TD this season; he’s got moves you just don’t see that often.

2-1, which is what we needed to do, but the jury is still out on what we’ve got. UNH will show us. Go Hens.

[Caribbean Hen]

I know Carty reads the board, especially Carib’s posts about the best WR room ever.

But run the damn ball more man.

The passing game in the first half minus the great YAC by Wimberly was a chaotic fire drill. Not good pass blocking, QB is a deer in the headlights too often and it would just be much better if they ran more.

That is all.

Haha Stop teasing William

Watching game early was alarmingly bad, the WRs were not getting open and O’Conner understandably was having a hard time pulling the trigger. Yarns saved us on a great run that he made happen himself

With game tied 7-7, UDF commented ok quick turnover now and score again so we can put away any thoughts they had of winning this game and boom it happened

Up only 14-7 nearing half time, I finally saw the WR talent I’ve been waiting for what seems like forever

DEL - Wimberly, Jr.,Kym 48 yd pass from O'Connor,Ryan

It was nothing short of spectacular and Thank you Mr Wimberly, it’s been q quarter century since Hen fans have seen YAC like that

As for everyone wanting more Yarns, I certainly understand that thinking but a part of me asks why? You risk messing up a coming out party that has put Yarns on the FCS map. He’s going to get his touches especially if Carty offense continues to have issues getting the WRs open. So far it’s been more about individual players making great plays than scheme, but hey it’s why good coaches know they need to bring in big talent… to save their average plays

[Cluck U]

Always fun looking back on a game thread.

We beat a bad team yesterday. 2-1…as it was always going to be.

O’Conner needs to keep learning and making better decisions. Happy Carty gave some reps to Lupovski. Team had only 14 completions…but to 7 different receivers. We have some studs out there. YACkitty-YACk, don’t talk back.

On to the season’s first real challenge. The Wildkitties are beatable. Ugly game for them yesterday. Have to throw a wrench into Jiffy Laube’s game and we have to avoid turnovers. Glad we have them at home.

[bluehenbillk]

You saw in the second half Carty run the ball more and it slowed the pass rush and opened guys up.

In the first half it was too one dimensional through the air and you could see the whole unit struggling. Hopefully Coach and the staff learn from that.

[Henzone]

We're exactly where everyone of here thought we'd be. Most of us suggested O'Connor would be the starting QB and Yarns would be rocking & rolling if he got a few blocks. The OL is often struggling but improving. The D has been sporadic and they obviously missed #55 last night. Moving on to UNH , I think it's time for our OC to forget what he wants to do and just do what's working. You can't throw 30 yard passes if you only have time to throw 15 yards. The speed team needs to catch and run not chase down balloons thrown on the scramble. Run to open the pass is obvious.

UNH will tell us everything about where the Hens & Ryan Carty are in the first crucial game of the season. We may have to just outscore them to win.

[Maddog@76]

We're exactly where everyone of here thought we'd be. Most of us suggested O'Connor would be the starting QB and Yarns would be rocking & rolling if he got a few blocks. The OL is often struggling but improving. The D has been sporadic and they obviously missed #55 last night. Moving on to UNH , I think it's time for our OC to forget what he wants to do and just do what's working. You can't throw 30 yard passes if you only have time to throw 15 yards. The speed team needs to catch and run not chase down balloons thrown on the scramble. Run to open the pass is obvious.

UNH will tell us everything about where the Hens & Ryan Carty are in the first crucial game of the season. We may have to just outscore them to win.

+1 - 3 games in the rear view mirror. Turn on the high beams and full speed ahead. This Saturday is a must game- will show early if Hens deserve to be a Playoff team. One game at a time. Go Blue Hens! Wayne

[Cluck U]

You saw in the second half Carty run the ball more and it slowed the pass rush and opened guys up.

In the first half it was too one dimensional through the air and you could see the whole unit struggling. Hopefully Coach and the staff learn from that.

One can always hope.

But, if UNH lines up in a run heavy D, then keeps fading into coverage at the snap…we might need to medivac Carty to Bellevue.

[Bluewyn Gold]

We're exactly where everyone of here thought we'd be...

UNH will tell us everything about where the Hens & Ryan Carty are in the first crucial game of the season. We may have to just outscore them to win.

Absolutely agree with these comments. Nobody expected us to be 3-0 going into this week. Most hope to be 3-1 by next Sunday or the post-season will likely not be in the cards. This week is indeed a barometer game for the team and coaching staff.

[Caribbean Hen]

You saw in the second half Carty run the ball more and it slowed the pass rush and opened guys up.

In the first half it was too one dimensional through the air and you could see the whole unit struggling. Hopefully Coach and the staff learn from that.

One can always hope.

But, if UNH lines up in a run heavy D, then keeps fading into coverage at the snap…we might need to medivac Carty to Bellevue.

Haha
Medevac Cluck

btw I saw your throw a wrench into Jiffy Laube Post…. To funny, that guy is a beast that will somehow need to be controlled, you might bottle him up for 3 Qtrs and suddenly he breaks a Punt return for 6. A RB that had close to 300 receiving yards at C Michigan

One thing the long passing game does is draw pass interference calls and it helps just by having having better WRs, they always don’t need to be caught to be a positive. How many PI calls did we get last night?

UNH looks stronger on run D and Central Michigan beat them through the air from what I saw

[HENJOHN]

We're exactly where everyone of here thought we'd be. Most of us suggested O'Connor would be the starting QB and Yarns would be rocking & rolling if he got a few blocks. The OL is often struggling but improving. The D has been sporadic and they obviously missed #55 last night. Moving on to UNH , I think it's time for our OC to forget what he wants to do and just do what's working. You can't throw 30 yard passes if you only have time to throw 15 yards. The speed team needs to catch and run not chase down balloons thrown on the scramble. Run to open the pass is obvious.

UNH will tell us everything about where the Hens & Ryan Carty are in the first crucial game of the season. We may have to just outscore them to win.

+1 - 3 games in the rear view mirror. Turn on the high beams and full speed ahead. This Saturday is a must game- will show early if Hens deserve to be a Playoff team. One game at a time. Go Blue Hens! Wayne

Agree with the comments on these. This coming week will be the key to our season and I'm really looking forward to it. Should be a great crowd

[mainejeff]

Laube is a beast...good luck.

[Gannonfan]

Yeah, won't know for certain what we have until we play UNH. And then after that we might not know again until later in the year. Just aren't that many measuring stick games on the schedule so you have to win them when you get them. We'll know a ton after next Saturday. What we know now:

- Yarns is a beast. We have one superstar RB and then a bunch of RB's I need to look over the roster to see who they are. Every time we have an important running down then Yarns needs to be that guy. And he needs to be getting 15-20 carries every game, and some pass receptions as well. He's that good.

- QB is a work in progress. Likes to throw the deep ball, but doesn't always through a good deep ball. In his defense, I don't think this is something Henderson ever really perfected so no shame in that.

- WR's can be real good, but we need to play call better to get them more balls. Too many deep balls with small percentages, and very little over the middle. I don't think we attacked there at all. We have good WR's, don't be afraid to be creative to get them the ball.

- Defense actually didn't play that bad, and I thought they did a better job of adjusting to a good running QB yesterday. That kid could move and was shifty, and I think we got better at adapting to that as the game went on. Tackling was pretty good throughout - d-line and the LB'ers did a good job of limiting yards after contact.

- Non-football thoughts - band sounded great, and thought they marched great as well. But again, song selection for halftime shows is a headscratcher. I'm fine with the theme from the Magnificent 7, although even with our old crowd we're starting to have fewer and fewer people that not only know that show but even saw that show. But then "Hallelujah" followed by a Leonard Cohen song? The first one is great song, but real slow and not really a crowd pleaser, and I never even heard of the last song. It's a shame, technique and sound-wise the band is great, just pick something to play that people have heard of or sounds great.

- Song choices over the PA were a little weird at times. On a big defensive series, they kept trying to play Jimmy Buffet "Margaritaville" - I get it that he just passed and it's timely, but that song doesn't really inspire hard-nosed football either.

- Anyone catch the inflatable helmet deflated the moment they opened the facemask to let the team run through? I think they've had that helmet for a good two decades now at least, never saw that happen before.

- Man, did Gannon's hair get gray quick - had he been coloring it all this time? Great to see him back, though, they should do that with all the all-time greats.