Pizza Party
9/28/08
Somehow the Huskies get out of Louisville's Papa John's Cardinal Stadium on Friday night still undefeated -- gutting out an improbable 26-21 win. The analysts respect can wait for Connecticut, for now they will stick to winning games, something they are getting pretty good at -- starting the season 5-0 for the second consecutive season.
Down 21-10 in the third (courtesy of a dominant 2nd and 3rd quarters by the Cards -- all 21 of theirs going unanswered), having lost the starting QB for the year and with a turnover deep in Husky territory -- caused by the nerves of a kid who had never taken a college snap before....things were not exactly looking good.It was nearly time to go over to the debate (or more likely some DVR'd OC episodes -- nevre saw season one -- it's choice) and forget about this one -- that would have been a major mistake.
Lawrence Wilson's 45-yard interception return with 2:45 remaining sealed a late UConn rally that left Nutmeg State proud and Papa John Stadium stunned.
Workhorse Donald Brown piled up 190 yards on 33 carries and a touchdown to get the Huskies out to a 10-0 lead early and later the nation's leading rusher would help ease the transition for a startled back-up QB. Adversity would rear its ugly head towards the end of the first half -- Tyler Lorenzen went down with a broken right foot on a 12 yard carry, would somehow take 7 more snaps -- but is now out for at least 6 weeks.
After a very shaky start, Sophomore Zach Frazer threw for 90 yards and a touchdown in place of Lorenzen and made some believers along the way.
Louisville fans will be left wondering how they can out gain a team 508-279 at home and still lose. Its a valid question. Steve Kragthorpe said. "You've got to control the football when you have it and we didn't. Obviously a disappointing loss. We thought we let it slip away."
They totally did. Freshman running back Victor Anderson ran for 100 yards and had a touchdown running and receiving, and Bilal Powell added 112 yards and a touchdown, for an offense that at time was moving the ball ferociously. They an injury issue themselves, after quarterback Hunter Cantwell injured his left ankle in the third quarter, the offense was not very good. Cantwell would stay in the game, but he was working with one wheel for most of the second half. Still this is the second straight year that the Cards have thrown away a game in the 4th, makes me kind of wonder about their coaching...was there really any need to do anything but run the ball down Uconn's throat? If Edsall was the coach at Louisville they would at least compete to play in a BCS bowl game this year...they have serious talent. Fortunately Randy is in Storrs.
As for his current club, they stuck around and refused to give up. They go into North Carolina very banged up -- but unblemished.
Edsall summed up his team's effort, "It says that they have a lot of belief in each other. They'll do whatever they have to do for each other to make them successful. ... It's a great group to be around. I don't know where we're going fromhere, but I just know this: Whatever we've asked them to do they've done for us. You go on the road in the Big East and you come down into this environment and in this situation, it's just a great team victory and it's a great message about who these guys are and what they stand for."
Highlights from Chip Malafronte's (New Haven Register) call with Randy Edsall on Saturday.
Injuries: Lorenezen and Brouse have surgery tomorrow. Lunn should be fine. Polito is expected back this week. Reyes is day-to-day. Witten is fine.
Zach Frazer starts at UNC Saturday, Cody is the backup. Johnny McEntee is 3rd string.
Bedard is the starting TE. Yianni moves in at No. 2. John Delahuntis third string.
Edsall on the defense,
"I’m not pleased with all the yards that we gave up, because I think again, if we played better fundamentally and executed better technique, we would have been better off. But you know, the bottom line is keeping people out of the end zone. We gave up 21 points, but there was other times when they went down. Jazz (Jasper Howard) strips the ball on that first series and made a tremendous strip getting that ball out, and the two interceptions, the fourth-down plays and all that – when we had to make a play, we did, but we have to get better fundamentally and better technique-wise, and if we do that and guys take care of their assignments, we won’t give up so much yardage when we give up the big plays.
Final Ramblings
Congrats to those Phabulous Phitin' Phils on winning the NL East back to back!Now lets wins some playoff games baby!!!...John Silver at the Manchester JI reported on his blog today that the tilt in Chapel Hill will be on ESPN2 at 7 pm. Uconn and Carolina's (over Miami) big wins likely saved this puppy from ESPNU -- and thats huge. The third straight Husky game on legit national TV...not too shabby in the exposure department....Uconn should enter the top 25 polls today -- second year in a row they will have been ranked in a top 25, not bad for a basketball school...speaking of basketball, tough start to Nate Miles' college career, violating a restraining order, what? kind of over the basketball players getting arrested seemingly all the time, WTF...big day today in the world of sports -- Tour Championship and the last day of the season in baseball, do or dies for the Mets and Brewers and the Moose goes for win number 20 for the first time...Rankings just released Uconn is 23 in AP and 24 in the USA Today, click...check out "I'm Bo Yo" here, its fantastic...Bye weeks are leaving my fantasy team very exposed today...RIP Paul Newman...Kris and Marleigh, I miss you guys - have a stein for me
Down 21-10 in the third (courtesy of a dominant 2nd and 3rd quarters by the Cards -- all 21 of theirs going unanswered), having lost the starting QB for the year and with a turnover deep in Husky territory -- caused by the nerves of a kid who had never taken a college snap before....things were not exactly looking good.It was nearly time to go over to the debate (or more likely some DVR'd OC episodes -- nevre saw season one -- it's choice) and forget about this one -- that would have been a major mistake.
Lawrence Wilson's 45-yard interception return with 2:45 remaining sealed a late UConn rally that left Nutmeg State proud and Papa John Stadium stunned.
Workhorse Donald Brown piled up 190 yards on 33 carries and a touchdown to get the Huskies out to a 10-0 lead early and later the nation's leading rusher would help ease the transition for a startled back-up QB. Adversity would rear its ugly head towards the end of the first half -- Tyler Lorenzen went down with a broken right foot on a 12 yard carry, would somehow take 7 more snaps -- but is now out for at least 6 weeks.
After a very shaky start, Sophomore Zach Frazer threw for 90 yards and a touchdown in place of Lorenzen and made some believers along the way.
Louisville fans will be left wondering how they can out gain a team 508-279 at home and still lose. Its a valid question. Steve Kragthorpe said. "You've got to control the football when you have it and we didn't. Obviously a disappointing loss. We thought we let it slip away."
They totally did. Freshman running back Victor Anderson ran for 100 yards and had a touchdown running and receiving, and Bilal Powell added 112 yards and a touchdown, for an offense that at time was moving the ball ferociously. They an injury issue themselves, after quarterback Hunter Cantwell injured his left ankle in the third quarter, the offense was not very good. Cantwell would stay in the game, but he was working with one wheel for most of the second half. Still this is the second straight year that the Cards have thrown away a game in the 4th, makes me kind of wonder about their coaching...was there really any need to do anything but run the ball down Uconn's throat? If Edsall was the coach at Louisville they would at least compete to play in a BCS bowl game this year...they have serious talent. Fortunately Randy is in Storrs.
As for his current club, they stuck around and refused to give up. They go into North Carolina very banged up -- but unblemished.
Edsall summed up his team's effort, "It says that they have a lot of belief in each other. They'll do whatever they have to do for each other to make them successful. ... It's a great group to be around. I don't know where we're going fromhere, but I just know this: Whatever we've asked them to do they've done for us. You go on the road in the Big East and you come down into this environment and in this situation, it's just a great team victory and it's a great message about who these guys are and what they stand for."
Highlights from Chip Malafronte's (New Haven Register) call with Randy Edsall on Saturday.
Injuries: Lorenezen and Brouse have surgery tomorrow. Lunn should be fine. Polito is expected back this week. Reyes is day-to-day. Witten is fine.
Zach Frazer starts at UNC Saturday, Cody is the backup. Johnny McEntee is 3rd string.
Bedard is the starting TE. Yianni moves in at No. 2. John Delahuntis third string.
Edsall on the defense,
"I’m not pleased with all the yards that we gave up, because I think again, if we played better fundamentally and executed better technique, we would have been better off. But you know, the bottom line is keeping people out of the end zone. We gave up 21 points, but there was other times when they went down. Jazz (Jasper Howard) strips the ball on that first series and made a tremendous strip getting that ball out, and the two interceptions, the fourth-down plays and all that – when we had to make a play, we did, but we have to get better fundamentally and better technique-wise, and if we do that and guys take care of their assignments, we won’t give up so much yardage when we give up the big plays.
Final Ramblings
Congrats to those Phabulous Phitin' Phils on winning the NL East back to back!Now lets wins some playoff games baby!!!...John Silver at the Manchester JI reported on his blog today that the tilt in Chapel Hill will be on ESPN2 at 7 pm. Uconn and Carolina's (over Miami) big wins likely saved this puppy from ESPNU -- and thats huge. The third straight Husky game on legit national TV...not too shabby in the exposure department....Uconn should enter the top 25 polls today -- second year in a row they will have been ranked in a top 25, not bad for a basketball school...speaking of basketball, tough start to Nate Miles' college career, violating a restraining order, what? kind of over the basketball players getting arrested seemingly all the time, WTF...big day today in the world of sports -- Tour Championship and the last day of the season in baseball, do or dies for the Mets and Brewers and the Moose goes for win number 20 for the first time...Rankings just released Uconn is 23 in AP and 24 in the USA Today, click...check out "I'm Bo Yo" here, its fantastic...Bye weeks are leaving my fantasy team very exposed today...RIP Paul Newman...Kris and Marleigh, I miss you guys - have a stein for me
1 comments:
Brian
said...
September 29, 2008 at 4:07 PM
great win on friday for the huskies..what a game!