FBI - New Hampshire

[Big R]

As readers may recall from past years, I try to write up my notes and observations from the games I am able to attend using the acronym FBI (for Field, Press Box, and Interviews).

I always try to write up my observations before reading other GoHens posts so that, right or wrong, what you read are, hopefully, my unfiltered, unbiased observations and opinions that are not influenced by outside factors. This does, however, mean that a lot of what I write may already have been posted, discussed, and dissected. So, if you feel that there is not much here that is new material, that is the reason.

Historically, I spend Pre-game and 1st Quarter on the field, and then go to the press box for the rest of the game.

Field (Pre-game and Qtr 1)

This week, prior to the game, the group of recruits on the sideline was much smaller than last week – probably 7 – 8 including UD commit, Jason Whitaker. Again, I have passed the info on to SussexJay.

It was fun to see some of the recent UD alumni back in the Tub, including Nolan Henderson rockin’ a Zach Gwynn #12 jersey.

Down on the field, except for the wind, it was relatively comfortable at the beginning of the game. It was not raining to any appreciable degree, nor was it cold, but it WAS windy. Of course, that changed later when the rain rolled in, but I am just talking about the first quarter when I was down there.

Now for the game. As disappointed / critical as I was last week with the team’s lack of emotion, this week was the exact opposite. I don’t know if I have ever seen a UD team as vocal and supportive for each other as these guys were on the sideline. Clearly, the crowd wasn’t very large, but the noise made by the UD players just about drowned out any other cheering. Amazing!

When UD won the toss and decided to defer, I wasn’t sure of the wisdom of that move, to give UNH the ball and the wind to start the game. And, when they dominated the first quarter, I questioned the decision even more. We dodged a bullet when their receiver fumbled at the goal-line, and then, following the safety, we did well to force a field goal. We seemed to be controlling Laube relatively well. With the focus on stopping #20, I thought we were being totally destroyed by Brosner. We couldn’t get to him, but when we did get close, he did a great job escaping and then finding, and hitting, open receivers. He was literally picking us apart. Of course, he has size, talent, and 3-years starting experience. It appeared at this point in the game that he was light-years ahead of Ryan O’Connor. (More to come on this.)
My greatest hope, as the quarter came to an end and I moved up to the press box, was that he would have trouble passing into the wind.

Press Box (Qtrs 2, 3, & 4)

Well, that hope was squashed pretty quickly as Brosner hit three short passes to score another TD. However, the PAT was no good. I didn’t think much of it at the time because it appeared as though UNH was well on their way to a rout of UD, and that single point would be meaningless, but it turned out that the miss would be huge later in the game.

Now with the wind at their back, UD’s offense began to click, and O’Connor started what we might look back on later in the season as his true “breakout” performance. In the first quarter, he was 4 for 8 for 32 yards and no TD’s. But, beginning in the second quarter, and through the end of the game, he was 20-29 for 305 yards, 3 TD’s, and, critically, NO Int’s. In a tight game like this, every completion is important, but probably the two most memorable were his 32-yard TD pass to Townsend when he got the pass off in the face of a strong rush, for UD’s first TD. And the second was his 48-yard pass to Townsend on the first play of the second half down to the UNH 14-yard line, leading to his 8-yard TD pass to Chandler.

Marcus Yarns continues to impress. He ran 16 times for 105 yards, including a 30-yard TD run. His average in this game was 6.6. For the season so far, he has 45 rushes for 437 yards. So, yes, his average per run took a hit. He went from 11.4 yards per carry to 9.1 on the season. He has now exceeded an average of 10 carries per game, so we should expect to see him listed among the CAA leaders.
Of course, this doesn’t take into account his receiving stats from the game – 5 receptions for 74 yards, including a 26-yard score on a shovel pass that was more like a run than a pass.

Can’t say enough about the defense after going down 18-0, less than 2-minutes into the second quarter. With the exception of the special team gaffe on Laube’s KO return for a TD, UNH’s high-scoring offense was kept off the board for the rest of the game, and that return could not be blamed on the defense.
Manny Rojas was constantly mixing up his looks on defense. For much of the game, he was lining up in the 3-man front, but there were a number of plays with five D-lineman in the game at the same time. With 3-man fronts, he often brought a 4th or 5th rusher, and, while there was only one sack, there were a number of “hurries” especially when UNH was threatening inside the red zone.

In effect, it appeared that the plan was to stop / limit Dylan Laube, which would, by necessity, loosen things up for Brosner and the UNH passing game. Going into the game, Laube had accounted for 74% of UNH’s rushing yards, and 42% of their receiving yards, so, stopping him was key. UD’s defense limited him to 8 yards rushing on 8 carries (1.0 avg), and 24 yards on 7 catches with a long of 9 yds.

Kudos also to UD’s O-line. The running game finished with 29 carries for 165 yards (net) – a 5.7 yard avg. And provided enough time for O’Connor to finish 24-37 for 336 yards and the aforementioned 3 TD’s. They aren’t perfect, but they sure are a breath of fresh air after what we’ve seen for quite some time. Credit to the players and coach Rogers.

Oh, and I mentioned earlier the missed extra point by UNH that I thought at the time was insignificant. When you win by 4 points, and the opposition has several drives that end inside the 20, that missed extra point prevented them for trying a tying field goal tht could have sent the game into OT. You just never know …

Post Game Interviews

GH asked two questions. The first had to do with the decision to defer to the second half after winning the coin toss, considering the weather, and the second had to do with the emotion the team had on the sideline. I have included a link to the YouTube video of the post-game press conference below, however, I do want to include a portion of RC’s answer to my second question here.

GH: “This is for any or all of you. There wasn’t a big crowd today, but I swear that I heard MORE coming from your sideline to rival what I heard from the stands today - can you just address that – what that was like …?”
RC: “I’ll take this one. I appreciate that question. Again, I keep using the word “proud”. The energy that we had on the sideline today was special. And, it was in the locker room prior to the game; it was in the locker room at half time; it was in the hotel room during pre-game meal; there was not a time that our team was not ready to go have ‘juice’ today. And, we have a saying: “The juiceless are useless.” So, everyone on that sideline today was useful. …”
And he added more to that, but that was the core of his message.

The entire press conference can be seen on YouTube. https://youtu.be/P7GYccQ-zbY?feature=shared

Summary
Did the weather play a role?
Consider this. All points were scored going from North to South with the wind behind the scoring team except for UNH’s second quarter TD on a drive which had begun at the UNH 25 in the first quarter, but only had to cover 19 yards into the wind at the beginning of the 2nd. Dylan Laube’s 100-yard kick return for a TD also took place against the wind, but that was obviously not affected by the weather since there was no drive involved. ALL of UD’s points were scored with the wind behind their backs. So - you be the judge.

It was a shame to see Kym Wimberly injure his knee. It looked serious. Hopefully, it’s not as bad as it looked.

It appeared to me that there were several instances of UD’s rushers being held, with no flag being thrown.

“Chunk plays” were a huge factor in getting UD back in the game and, eventually, helping us win it. Coach Carty has made it clear that these kinds of plays are a key component of his offensive philosophy, and it seems to be working so far.

This was a huge win for UD and the kind of game that it seems we had been losing for a number of seasons. Perhaps the program has turned the corner. It certainly seems to reflect RC’s approach to the game, and the culture he is trying to foster and instill.

If this team can keep up the kind of energy I witnessed on the field on Saturday, and if Ryan O’Connor continues to develop, I think they have a chance to be special.

[UD '01 grad]

Thanks Big R.

The line between "special" and "panic mode" can be razor-blade thin sometimes.

Keep building, get healthy, keep working, keep moving forward.

[HENJOHN]

Scenes and stories provided to us by a Seasoned Pro. Thanks Rich. (Sallies is 3-0 under Gene D and Worrilows Defense).

[Udforever1]

As always, great job Big R.

[Big R]

Scenes and stories provided to us by a Seasoned Pro. Thanks Rich. (Sallies is 3-0 under Gene D and Worrilows Defense).

Yeah, got to watch a replay on YouTube. That’s another team that seems to be making strides, although the young Smyrna team is clearly not the beast they’ve historically been during Coach Judy’s tenure.

[Info Hound]

Rich, I really appreciate your observations and writing. Thank you!

It is always good to be a Blue Hen, and especially so after that game.

[Caribbean Hen]

Great report Big R

It hurt to see Wimberly go down like that and as you said it looked serious, hoping for good news but not expecting any

You made a comment about this team potentially being special … I like it and totally agree

[finpxz1]

When UD won the toss and decided to defer, I wasn’t sure of the wisdom of that move, to give UNH the ball and the wind to start the game. And, when they dominated the first quarter, I questioned the decision even more. We dodged a bullet when their receiver fumbled at the goal-line, and then, following the safety, we did well to force a field goal. We seemed to be controlling Laube relatively well. With the focus on stopping #20, I thought we were being totally destroyed by Brosner. We couldn’t get to him, but when we did get close, he did a great job escaping and then finding, and hitting, open receivers. He was literally picking us apart. Of course, he has size, talent, and 3-years starting experience. It appeared at this point in the game that he was light-years ahead of Ryan O’Connor. (More to come on this.)
My greatest hope, as the quarter came to an end and I moved up to the press box, was that he would have trouble passing into the wind.

I’m with you on the decision to kick into the wind to start the game, Rich. I was okay with deferring, but we made the decision to kick into that wind after deciding to defer. It really made no sense, and that single decision nearly cost us the game. And also gave New Hampshire the wind to their back in the 4th quarter, so it was a double whammy.

[Caldwell Chicken]

As we sat in the stands watching the wind blow, we too wondered why we would go into the wind in the 4th quarter. Everything worked out in the end but curious as to why that decision was made.

[Section J]

As we sat in the stands watching the wind blow, we too wondered why we would go into the wind in the 4th quarter. Everything worked out in the end but curious as to why that decision was made.

In the post-game presser RC said that the decision was made based on the weather. I'm guessing they thought any advantage of having the wind at their back would be offset by the rain which didn't show up until the 4th but again, that's speculation.

[Caribbean Hen]

When UD won the toss and decided to defer, I wasn’t sure of the wisdom of that move, to give UNH the ball and the wind to start the game. And, when they dominated the first quarter, I questioned the decision even more. We dodged a bullet when their receiver fumbled at the goal-line, and then, following the safety, we did well to force a field goal. We seemed to be controlling Laube relatively well. With the focus on stopping #20, I thought we were being totally destroyed by Brosner. We couldn’t get to him, but when we did get close, he did a great job escaping and then finding, and hitting, open receivers. He was literally picking us apart. Of course, he has size, talent, and 3-years starting experience. It appeared at this point in the game that he was light-years ahead of Ryan O’Connor. (More to come on this.)
My greatest hope, as the quarter came to an end and I moved up to the press box, was that he would have trouble passing into the wind.

I’m with you on the decision to kick into the wind to start the game, Rich. I was okay with deferring, but we made the decision to kick into that wind after deciding to defer. It really made no sense, and that single decision nearly cost us the game. And also gave New Hampshire the wind to their back in the 4th quarter, so it was a double whammy.

I was thinking about this before the game meaning they have to get it right, but I didn’t know the rule. I thought it alternated every quarter meaning by deferring they would have wind at back in 4th quarter… the rule book is not my strong point and I was totally lost on that Youngblood TD run that suddenly wasn’t a TD… no sound, iPhone and Flo makes for a lot of guess work

[Big R]

Well, as I said, I questioned it initially, but it did give us two consecutive quarters with the wind, and those two quarters were decisive in securing the win. So, in the end that worked out. When I asked the question at the press conference, RC made the comment that he wanted to see how the weather was going to affect the game early on.

[77HEN]

Nice write up Big R. O’Conner smartly and adeptly changed his delivery to side arm on one of the completions to Townsend (TD one?). Both of these players are stepping up in leadership roles nicely. Hell, as you say, all the team seems to be stepping up right now. (Seemed like all were taking turns having breakdowns in the years leading up to RC tenure).

[mpwerrell]

Thanks, as always Rich, for your detailed observations and analysis!

[Sally in RI]

When UD won the toss and decided to defer, I wasn’t sure of the wisdom of that move, to give UNH the ball and the wind to start the game. And, when they dominated the first quarter, I questioned the decision even more. We dodged a bullet when their receiver fumbled at the goal-line, and then, following the safety, we did well to force a field goal. We seemed to be controlling Laube relatively well. With the focus on stopping #20, I thought we were being totally destroyed by Brosner. We couldn’t get to him, but when we did get close, he did a great job escaping and then finding, and hitting, open receivers. He was literally picking us apart. Of course, he has size, talent, and 3-years starting experience. It appeared at this point in the game that he was light-years ahead of Ryan O’Connor. (More to come on this.)
My greatest hope, as the quarter came to an end and I moved up to the press box, was that he would have trouble passing into the wind.

I’m with you on the decision to kick into the wind to start the game, Rich. I was okay with deferring, but we made the decision to kick into that wind after deciding to defer. It really made no sense, and that single decision nearly cost us the game. And also gave New Hampshire the wind to their back in the 4th quarter, so it was a double whammy.

I was thinking about this before the game meaning they have to get it right, but I didn’t know the rule. I thought it alternated every quarter meaning by deferring they would have wind at back in 4th quarter… the rule book is not my strong point and I was totally lost on that Youngblood TD run that suddenly wasn’t a TD… no sound, iPhone and Flo makes for a lot of guess work

I thought it alternated also. By receiving in the third quarter, did that give UNH the field direction choice?
Sally in RI