We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

[thesportsguru11]

Quote: Originally Posted by whughes

Tough loss. And 6 interceptions? Ouch.

Yeah, this is going to hurt especially because Cincy is underachieving a lot this year, and we got them in their place last year. Green was a load to bring down, that's for sure.

Schedule only gets tougher from here, Houston next week, winless Tulane after but East-leading UCF in 3 weeks.

With the 6 picks, I felt I forced a lot in the second half, a product of being down and having no chance of running the ball (Mouhon controlled the left side of the line and the linebackers clogged right all day.) Being under pressure ( the O-Line has been a little weak this year) doesn't exactly help, either.

[thesportsguru11]

NCAA Players of the Week

[thesportsguru11]

[thesportsguru11]

Trick? Or Treat?

UConn tops AAC West leading Cougs on Halloween

Latrell Martin caught a pair of TD's, but ultimately his Cougs were lying on their backs.

Halloween has a tendency for bringing us surprises. Tricks or treats, if you will.

For example, in 2004 Pittsburgh beat New England and snapped their 21 game win streak. Surprising to New England fans, sure, but it led to New England winning the Super Bowl.

Anyway, now that I've gone off my tangent, I can preface this by saying if UConn continues to play like they did against Houston on Halloween, they could be partying like the Patriots come December when they hit a bowl game.

But was UConn's performance today a trick or a surprise for what's to come? Only time will tell...

UConn, despite nearly blowing a 20-7 lead in the third quarter, thoroughly dominated Houston on both ends, through 3 quarters that is.

This showed in the first half, as Houston started the game with 2 straight punts and a missed field goal, gaining less than 50 yards in that frame.

Meanwhile, on the strength of some of the best running of the season from Max DeLorenzo, UConn jumped out to a 14-0 lead, and Maxy picked up 41 yards very quickly, and another 19 through the air.

Houston (and guard Carter Wall) knew they were in trouble when down 20-7.

With Houston's backs to the wall, they turned to their only option left offensively: The Out route.

With some great success, John O'Korn drove his troops downfield and hit Latrell Martin for a 13 yard TD.

DeLorenzo, on 4 more carries, gained 22 yards, and Bryant Shirreffs connected with Thomas Lucas for a 16 yard gain and a pair of 9 yard runs to get a field goal before the half, and another right after it.

UConn had a 20-7 lead, and were cruising. Unfortunately, the UConn defense budged and Houston trimmed the deficit to 10, as O'Korn hit Deontay Greenberry for 18, Greg Ward Jr. for 16 and John Leday for 11 before the drive stalled out inside the red zone.

But once again, UConn responded and was on their way to putting game a little further out of reach.

Arkeel Newsome returned the kick to the 45, Noel Thomas had a 30 yard grab, another 12 yard snare and left the rest to, guess who, DeLorenzo.

Maxy had the corner, had his men beat, all except one, and was being pursued by Adrian McDonald. DeLorenzo wasn't going to make it, but tried to dive and get in anyhow.

Instead, McDonald made contact with Max and jarred the ball loose. Which sent the ball flying............

.........out of the end zone. Turnover.

Oh, no. It's Tulsa all over again.

Except it wasn't.

Cole Ormsby, giving Kenton Adeyemi a breather, sacked O'Korn twice in UConn territory and forced the Cougs to punt.

Crisis averted.

After 4 drives ending in punts in a row, Houston broke through as O'Korn hit Martin to pull within 3 with 2 minutes to go.

Uh-oh.

UConn again got in the red zone, but DeLorenzo got decked by Cameron Malveaux and lost the ball again.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

The one positive out of this? The ball was recovered by Trevon Stewart, but at the 1 yard line. So Houston had a buck 30 in clock, no timeouts and 99 yards to victory.

Jordan Floyd started by tipping an O'Korn pass as he was drilled, and Cameron Stapleton finally got to O'Korn and sacked him for a safety 2 plays later.

Whew.

UConn was able to sit on it and kill the clock, but it may have been a little close in that 4th.

Though we can not ignore the fact that Maxy did his best running of the year, and UConn (now 4-4) dominated the first 3 quarters.

Trick? Or Treat?

Only the next 4 weeks will tell.

Connecticut Huskies at Houston Cougars
Oct 31, 2015	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Connecticut Huskies (4-4, 2-3)	7	10	3	2	22
Houston Cougars (5-3, 4-1)	0	7	3	7	17

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING		CONN	HOU
:29	(CONN) Marriner 3 rush (Puyol kick)	7	0
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		CONN	HOU
4:29	(CONN) DeLorenzo 1 rush (Puyol kick)	14	0
3:27	(HOU) O'Korn 13 pass Martin (Bullard kick)	14	7
:49	(CONN) Puyol 21 FG	17	7
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		CONN	HOU
4:41	(CONN) Puyol 21 FG	20	7
2:36	(HOU) Bullard 29 FG	20	10
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		CONN	HOU
2:19	(HOU) O'Korn 6 pass Martin (Bullard kick)	20	17
1:15	(HOU) Team Safety	22	17

Connecticut Huskies PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Bryant Shirreffs 19-24 263 0 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Max DeLorenzo 26 118 4.5 1 Bryant Shirreffs 10 38 3.8 0 Josh Marriner 8 17 2.1 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Thomas Lucas 5 111 22.2 0 Noel Thomas 5 66 13.2 0 Kamal Abrams 3 39 13.0 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Junior Joseph 6 0 0 0 Cameron Stapleton 3 2 0 0 Cole Ormsby 2 2 0 0

Houston Cougars PASSING C/A YDS TD INT John O'Korn 27-48 322 2 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Kenneth Farrow 3 17 5.6 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Greg Ward, Jr. 7 66 9.4 0 Latrell Martin 6 64 10.6 2 Deontay Greenberry 4 84 21.0 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Lee Hightower 10 0 0 0 Adrian McDonald 9 0 0 0 Cameron Malveaux 6 1 0 0

Despite two fumbles in the red zone, Maxy did his best running of the year on Halloween.

[whughes]

"Maxy" had a good game. Too bad he almost screwed the team with those two fumbles. Good win either way, specially against a quality opponent.

[thesportsguru11]

Quote: Originally Posted by whughes

"Maxy" had a good game. Too bad he almost screwed the team with those two fumbles. Good win either way, specially against a quality opponent.

Indeed. "Maxy" was a term coined by Po1soNNN in Week 2, so thanks are in order to him. Haha.

The name of the game today was ball control, as we knew coming in Houston has the air raid offense and throw at will at all times. Thus, the more opportunities we gave Houston, the more chances they had to do some damage on offense.

Glad the D played well and Max did his job. Even nicer as Shirreffs had 0 turnovers.

But need to stay focused, I know we have winless Tulane next week, but you never know.

[whughes]

Quote: Originally Posted by thesportsguru11

Indeed. "Maxy" was a term coined by Po1soNNN in Week 2, so thanks are in order to him. Haha.

I must've missed that post haha. Well let's hope Mr. Maxy can rush for 150+ against lowly Tulane, eh? And Sheriffs throws for say, 300 and 2 TDs? I think they can do it, I have faith

[thesportsguru11]

NCAA Players of the Week

Quote: Originally Posted by whughes

I must've missed that post haha. Well let's hope Mr. Maxy can rush for 150+ against lowly Tulane, eh? And Sheriffs throws for say, 300 and 2 TDs? I think they can do it, I have faith

That'd be very nice. They have the talent to do that, but man, Tulane scares me, as we have done really badly against lower levels of competition this year, including individual stats. I have a feeling we will get one of two.