5 Plays...

[IncrediBULL]

On saturday, with the loss to UCONN we ended up 6th place in the BE and are shipped off to Toronto for the bowl game up there.

However, had we of won, we woud have been 3rd/4th place in BE and playing Spurrier/South Carolina in Birmingham.

The difference is really 5 plays.  If we had done what we were supposed to in ANY ONE of those plays, we would have had a different outcome which was much more positive. 

1 - we missed the two point conversion, even though we had moved the ball down the field nicely on the last drive.  That would have made us up by 3 pts, not 1.

2 - the kicker was to kick a squibb kick.  He didn't he kicked it up, but not very deep, to their speedy runner, who put them out around the 40 or so.  Had he squibbed it properly, most likely it would have been held to the 20 or 30. 

3/4 - We allowed them to get "easy" positive yardage on short passes on at least two plays, to move into field goal territory.  Had our D held on one of those two plays, that would have put them out of field goal range. 

5 - in a blizzard, we could not cause their kicker (who missed a PAT earlier) to miss a long 45 yard FG. 

So, the outcome of our season relegates us closer to the bottom of the BE.  All I am saying is that for some reason, we could not do what we needed to do and really went 0 - 5 in execution at the last 5 plays of the game. 

[cmhatter]

the UCONN game was the sole factor in deciding our fate

[Omniscientbull]

Actually.....we dropped an easy interception prior to the half that UConn ended up scoring 7 pts a few plays later.

[IncrediBULL]

Actually.....we dropped an easy interception prior to the half that UConn ended up scoring 7 pts a few plays later.

Agreed.  I am not saying that there were not other plays which could have changed the outcome of the game/season, only this was a fundamental failure on 5 consecutive plays.  Any of which if we had done the ordinary (not extraordinary) we would be talking about a much different outcome for the season.  It was about a minute worth of plays on the play clock. 

I just find it an interesting observation that 1 minute of our season would have such a detrimental outcome. 

[Ruger7mmmag]

I beg to differ.  ONE PLAY changed the course of our season.  Which one?  That long TD run by the backup QB from Cincy.  USF had the momentum in all phases at that point and that play sucked every bit of life out of the team.  Once we lost that game, the season was pretty much shot as everyone had been geared for a Big East title or bust.

[psteazy]

what about being unable to hold them off before the half, and instead allowing them to score a TD. that one wasn't pretty either

[Ruger7mmmag]

Actually, the Grothe hit was the one play that really changed the season.  BJ has done well, but no doubt an experienced Grothe in his senior season with the confidence the team had with him would've been invaluable in the games we lost.  But hey, it's water under the bridge.  A "W" here and we'd have the momentum all Summer to get ready for UF.  Nothing sucks worse than losing a bowl game other than not going to one.  I won't be attending, but I'll be watching and hoping for the best. 

We need to be prepared, NIU historically can run the ball really well which is our achilles heal.  This could be one embarrassing loss so I hope folks are taking them seriously...

[TrujilloBull2013]

staying on the UConn game, BJ spiking the ball on 1st & Goal with :55 left was the deciding factor for me.

in that situation we needed better clock management.  we needed to score and not leave the opposing team enough time to drive the ball back down the field and win.

[SRQ]

clock management

i have had season tix on about the 45 around 10 rows up since day 1 and this has been consistently my biggest peeve.  i do have hope that we may still get better here because it only took us about 10 years to insist that the quarterback use almost all of the allotted time before snapping the ball when we have a solid 4th qtr lead.

[usfgrad84]

When was the offsides on the kickoff?  Was it the TD before or was it after the BJ TD at the end of the game?  I don't remember.  If it was on the last kickoff it cost us about 15 to 20 yards. 

Along with clock management, which has always been a pet peeve of mine, our inability for our kickoffs to get past the 15 yardline this year was driving me crazy.  Schwartz only put 2 balls into the end zone all year.  Almost all of his kicks landed between the 17 and 20. 

To me, little things like penalties and especially clock management is a sign of poor coaching.  No attention to detail.