This team is better than last years team. Decimated by injuries, and Giles being held out of the game played a huge factor in the second half.
Obviously only slightly better than last years team, but that was the prediction by everyone. 1 or 2 wins was what was projected for this team.
Definitely not worse than last years team. At least we can all agree on that.
Really really bummed that Huber tore his ACL. That's such a huge blow for next year if he can't make a miraculous recovery from surgery.
And I never said anyone had to be at the game to comment. I asked why 78 wasn't there since he was commenting on how few people were in the crowd. He said along with being sick he didn't care to come support the team in person because they were just going to be blown out anyways and it wasn't worth his time or money to come support the UMass Football team if they were just going to get blown out. I don't think someone who says that should be able to comment on how poor the attendance is.
GAME 9: vs #17 NIU
324 yards on offense was our third best outcome of the season, barely behind last week's game. 376 against Miami was the highest thus far. Despite NIU's defense not being all that great, that's still a positive sign. Something our 3 best offensive games have in common: Over 40 rushing attempts. And in 2 of those 3 games, we tied for our fewest number of pass attempts.
The other good sign: Levengood was 4/4 hitting field goals of 42, 46, 44 and 40 yards. Prior to today, Lucas was 3/10, with only one field goal over 40 yards. It's one of those things you simultaneously cheer and facepalm. What in the world was going on in practice that allowed Lucas to remain the starter for so long over Levengood?
That's it for the good. The bad? Well, the kick coverage was bad, but let's cut straight to it: The defense was completely unprepared to play this game. Not even close to ready. Players were generally not in position to make plays, and not coached to make correct decisions even when they could make a play. To fully appreciate just how bad a job we did on defense, consider that we only got NIU to 3rd down seven times all day, and they converted more than half of them. NIU has had several other games this season in which they racked up similar or more yardage, but none in which they had single digit 3rd downs. They had more touchdowns than third downs. That's atrocious.
Other than that, statistically this was an almost perfect mirror image to last season's NIU game defensively.
NIU '12 vs. NIU '13
Points allowed: 63 to 63
Yards allowed: 610 to 612
Rushing/Passing: 332/278 to 354/258
Jordan Lynch '12: 15-19 191 pass, 15 for 157 rush, 3TDs
Jordan Lynch '13: 10-13 160 pass, 17 for 119 rush, 4TDs
I interpret this to mean that we learned absolutely nothing from the previous NIU game. That's also two weeks in a row now that defensive coaching let this team down, after clearly being the superior unit most of the season. Very discouraging. The only positive I can come up with is that it will probably be several years until we're matched up against NIU again. Perhaps not until 2018. We'd better have turned the corner before then. Getting the offense and defense to play well at the same time would be a huge help.
The other good sign: Levengood was 4/4 hitting field goals of 42, 46, 44 and 40 yards. Prior to today, Lucas was 3/10, with only one field goal over 40 yards. It's one of those things you simultaneously cheer and facepalm. What in the world was going on in practice that allowed Lucas to remain the starter for so long over Levengood?
That's it for the good. The bad? Well, the kick coverage was bad, but let's cut straight to it: The defense was completely unprepared to play this game. Not even close to ready. Players were generally not in position to make plays, and not coached to make correct decisions even when they could make a play. To fully appreciate just how bad a job we did on defense, consider that we only got NIU to 3rd down seven times all day, and they converted more than half of them. NIU has had several other games this season in which they racked up similar or more yardage, but none in which they had single digit 3rd downs. They had more touchdowns than third downs. That's atrocious.
Other than that, statistically this was an almost perfect mirror image to last season's NIU game defensively.
NIU '12 vs. NIU '13
Points allowed: 63 to 63
Yards allowed: 610 to 612
Rushing/Passing: 332/278 to 354/258
Jordan Lynch '12: 15-19 191 pass, 15 for 157 rush, 3TDs
Jordan Lynch '13: 10-13 160 pass, 17 for 119 rush, 4TDs
I interpret this to mean that we learned absolutely nothing from the previous NIU game. That's also two weeks in a row now that defensive coaching let this team down, after clearly being the superior unit most of the season. Very discouraging. The only positive I can come up with is that it will probably be several years until we're matched up against NIU again. Perhaps not until 2018. We'd better have turned the corner before then. Getting the offense and defense to play well at the same time would be a huge help.
Last edited by Jackman on Sat Nov 02, 2013 5:16 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Go NIU..make us some money..BUMPA wrote:..we come out fired up, punch them in the mouth.. play like we played Ohio last year but pull of the upset.
Thus, NIU is no longer a BCS bowl possibility, and we cost the school $100s of thousands.
You know this really is our type of sh*t luck.
{of course it won't happen}
-
Refuse2Lose83
- Hall of Fame
- Posts: 4823
- Joined: Mon Sep 01, 2008 10:08 pm
- Location: Western Mass
Answered my question. Thanks!njumass08 wrote:Refuse, Bert asked that question to Charley and he said that earlier in the season Lorenzo still didn't know the playbook well enough, and then when he did he ended up getting hurt.
This was the first game he was 100% both physically and mentally, in terms of knowing the plays and blocking schemes.
He'll be the starter from here on out.
Hire Matt McCall!
-
InnervisionsUMASS
- Hall of Fame
- Posts: 17729
- Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2003 1:32 am
- Location: Milford, MA
- Contact:
GOD DAMN IT MOLNAR WHY DIDN'T YOU GO FOR IT ON 4TH DOWN WITH 4 MINUTES TO GO IN THE 4TH QUARTER?!?!?! YOU WERE A 28POINT UNDERDOG AT HOME! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU??? FIRE MOLNAR IMMEDIATELY!!!!!
Tough one yesterday, just got run over and then when we finally got some turnovers and forced them into mistakes, we tripped over ourselves.
Work in progress, no doubt. Keep the faith!
Tough one yesterday, just got run over and then when we finally got some turnovers and forced them into mistakes, we tripped over ourselves.
Work in progress, no doubt. Keep the faith!
Stop waiting for UMass to do something big and help UMass do something big. - Shades
Clearly the attendance figures being released relate to tickets sold, because no way there was 10K plus there yesterday. Although, I should not be commenting because I was not there and I said I would not pay money to go and see them lose by 40-50 points.DPBOS wrote:Land great school and all, the ag program must have cloned people at the gates. A few thousand of the 10,061 were there, they were just incubating in the petri dishes.DrG wrote:10,061.
Bamford has erased McCutcheon
-
Camby4Life
- Senior
- Posts: 1501
- Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 2:00 am
- Location: South Boston
The line went up to 28 before kickoff so your friends were not the only high rollers that saw easy money on this game. A bunch of us (all Umass alums) bet NIU 1st half -14 and the game, if I'm going to follow this team, I might as well make money on an obvious play. My only regret is not taking the over too since NIU covered that by themselves.Marty Peretz wrote:Told a couple high rollers I know to bet big on this game (on NIU). They both did and are very very pleased. Sadly, I didn't end up betting it myself...
Our kicking situation today represented a microcosm of Molnar's ineptitude. Starter goes 3 for 10 and isn't replaced until week NINE. Back-up promptly comes in and buries 4 FG's from 40 plus yards out. I understand sticking with your starter, but why wait until week nine to replace him? Charlie seems fundamentally change-averse. Unwilling to try new things no matter how badly the old things fail.
Great point about the kicking game. Even if Umass gets 0 yards in ot, the kicker on the bench would have been capable of making the fg. Seems like the same thing happened with Woodley this year, looks the clear cut best rb on the roster but is only now getting 1st team reps. I wonder who else will emerge from this roster.