[thesportsguru11]

Hungover

UConn blown out by unsuspecting 1-5 Kansas; Rivero tweaks ankle on opening play, misses first half; I-Jax horrendous in first action after miracle finish last week

Turnovers were the name of the game for UConn; eight in all.

After an emotional high and a 14 point swing in 23 seconds last week, the 16th ranked UConn Huskies went into Lawrence, Kansas hoping to work out the kinks against a 1-5 Jayhawk squad that is undergoing another tough season and keep their playoff hopes alive. Only problem? Kansas was coming off a bye and UConn forgot to show up, getting absolutely destroyed, 46-24.

A complete lack of offense and a grand total of eight turnovers forced by the Jayhawks were the key cogs for the UConn loss in this one. Jarrett Rivero was slated to start for UConn after a good outing last week, but mysteriously exited after UConn’s first play of the game, sending in Isaac Jackson for the first three quarters. While nothing was finalized, it is believed that Rivero tripped over Luke Williamson on a handoff and tweaked his ankle after complaining of pain thereafter. Rivero would get iced and wrapped (tape was noticed near his foot upon return), his mobility was tested on the sidelines and he returned to the game in the third quarter.

Unfortunately for Rivero, the damage had been long done with Jackson in the game. Last week’s hero looked merely mortal in this outing, his day plagued with poor throws and multiple turnovers. Luckily for him, he wasn’t the only factor in the loss.

Despite being stopped twice at the start of the game on offense, Kansas found alternative methods to score early. Following a fumble from Jayhawk tailback Shentran Quinn with Kansas closing on the end zone, stud linebacker McCoy Bridges returned the favor, as he drilled Williamson and popped the ball free. Kino Salantines recovered, and after another strong Husky defensive stand, Sam Shelten kicked a field goal for a 3-0 lead.

Things started to snowball after that. Following a sack, I-Jax made a horrible, wobbly throw to Ryne Thomas in the flats. As a result, Anthony Roblenstain jumped in front and returned it all the way for a 9-0 Kansas lead. (EDIT: Shelten missed the PAT. Should've been 9-0.)

Anthony Roblenstain's pick-six made the lead 9-0 and kicked the rout into gear.

Kansas would eventually jump out to a 23-0 lead as the mistakes and missed opportunities continued to pile up for UConn. Jackson’s errant passes ruined multiple drives, Carlton Parker muffed a punt (luckily he recovered), Williamson couldn’t get anything going on the ground. At the same time, Kansas cashed in on the fantastic play of junior QB Alston Trent all day long. He threw two TD passes in the first half, one to Kay’Sena Holt and the other to Patrick Gutierrez, to give the Jayhawks the 23-3 advantage at the half.

In desperate need of a turnaround, UConn got the ball after the half and went right back to their first half habits. A fumble recovered by Kansas at the UConn 18 led to another Kansas TD, a pass from Trent to Gutierrez to extend the lead to 30-3.

Rivero returned to action midway through the third inheriting a 33-3 deficit. The game was well out of reach and it was clear he was forcing some throws, however, his dynamic play on the ground helped UConn at least look more respectable. Rivero was responsible for engineering a trio of touchdown drives, throwing for one and handing off for the other two, and that made the final a little more respectable at 46-24. However, that doesn’t take away the poor play all around for the second consecutive week.

UConn as a team committed 8 turnovers, and the defensive secondary was torched once again by arguably the worst quarterback we’ve seen all season in Trent.

The sudden defensive struggles are really concerning and disappointing to Coach Diaco, someone who prides himself on his defensive prowess. A surprisingly calm Diaco addressed the media after the game.

“It sucks. We had a good chance three weeks ago to make a run at the Playoff, but we are obviously well out of the picture now. Our offense was great with Jarrett in, but I don’t know what happened with Isaac. He looked completely rattled. It’s just a matter of keeping Jarrett healthy now, which seems impossible to do.”

“I don’t know what’s happened defensively”, Diaco continued. “It’s like someone flipped a switch and we can’t defend receivers anymore. I get that that kid [Kansas WR Marcellos] Horn is really fast, but that’s why I leave a safety back there to help in our 3-4 man packages. It’s on me to find a fix though. That could mean playing with lineups, or trying a new package. I want to keep running a 3-4, but it almost feels like we need to do something completely different.”

With the loss, the 16th ranked Huskies will almost certainly fall out the Top 25 and watch their Playoff dreams fade away for good. Kansas assumes command of the Big 12 East by virtue of tiebreaker, as West Virginia and UConn are all tied at 2-2 in conference play.

UConn will return to The Property next week to face Kansas State (3-4, 0-3). The Wildcats lost 45-38 to Oklahoma this week.

Jake Crowder's nice INT was one of the very few bright spots for UConn.

Connecticut Huskies at Kansas Jayhawks
Oct 19, 2019	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
#16 Connecticut Huskies (4-3, 2-2)	0	3	7	14	24
Kansas Jayhawks (2-5, 2-2)	9	14	10	13	46

Team Stats Comparison
	CONN	KU
Total Offense	384	282
Rushing Yards	107	26
Passing Yards	277	256
First Downs	22	11
Punt Return Yards	11	47
Kick Return Yards	119	17
Total Yards	514	346
Turnovers	8	3
3rd Down Converstion	2-12 (16%)	4-12 (33%)
4th Down Conversion	1-2 (50%)	0-0
2-Point Conversion	0-0	0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	2-1 (100%)	3-3 (66%)
Penalties	5-67	0-0
Posession Time	18:49	13:11

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING		CONN	KU
2:47	(KU) Shelten 37 FG	0	3
2:15	(KU) Roblenstain returned INT 18 yds (missed kick)	0	9
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		CONN	KU
7:00	(KU) Trent 63 pass Holt (Shelten kick)	0	16
1:18	(KU) Trent 10 pass Gutierrez (Shelten kick)	0	23
:05	(CONN) Miller 23 FG	3	23
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		CONN	KU
4:59	(KU) Trent 11 pass Gutierrez (Shelten kick)	3	30
2:09	(KU) Shelten 19 FG	3	33
1:09	(CONN) Rivero 21 pass Jones (Miller kick)	10	33
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		CONN	KU
6:30	(KU) Trent 3 pass Holt (Shelten kick)	10	40
5:05	(CONN) Parker 9 run (Miller kick)	17	40
4:07	(KU) Shelten 36 FG	17	43
3:39	(KU) Shelten 52 FG	17	46
:50	(CONN) Hart 1 run (Miller kick)	24	46

Connecticut Huskies PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Isaac Jackson 6-19 96 0 3 Jarrett Rivero 11-16 181 1 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Luke Williamson 16 31 1.9 0 Jarrett Rivero 9 49 5.4 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Rodney Reid 5 66 13.2 0 Rashad Harris 4 109 27.2 0 Jeff Matthews 3 35 11.6 0 DEFENSE TACK (TFL) SACK INT TD Sammie Leonard 9 (4) 3 0 0 John Cox 8 (4) 1 0 0 Jake Crowder 2 0 1 0

Kansas Jayhawks PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Alston Trent 20-39 256 4 2 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Shentran Quinn 11 41 3.7 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Patrick Gutierrez 5 44 8.8 2 Kay'Sena Holt 4 74 18.5 2 Marcellos Horn 4 50 12.5 0 Jon Bagot 3 54 18.0 0 DEFENSE TACK (TFL) SACK INT TD McCoy Bridges 9 (3) 3 0 0 Trevor Jackson 7 (4) 3 0 0 Kino Salantines 6 (2) 1 0 0 Aaron Thomas 6 0 1 0 Anthony Roblenstain 2 0 1 1

Quote: Originally Posted by hudso3

Name: Brett Favre(If it's okay to be an actual ex-NFL player, I chose Favre since he has actually coached offensive in high school in real life, but if you'd rather not do a former player for a created coach I can change the name) Also picking Favre reminds me, how has Kurt Warner done as a coach lately in college? Lol

Awesome! That's absolutely OK by me, thanks for filling out a form! My intent with adding Warner as a coach was to get other prominent ex-college and NFL players in the game, but with so many CAC's I haven't gotten to do that yet. This is great you've elected to go this route.

With Warner at Oklahoma State, hopefully he can keep it up and become a head coach soon. Now that you've got me thinking about this again, look for some new defensive coordinators this offseason....