UConn Snowflakes - The Offense

Please freaking block for Cade, O-line. Thank you.

I am starting to believe that if JJ has time, he is absolutely going to light the B1G up this year.

Also a lot more concerned about that if than I thought I'd have to be.

8 Michigan quarterbacks played.  Hated to see Cade take the big hit on the excellent pass he completed.  Blake Corum was a beast. Ronnie Bell and the Flyin Hawaiian made big plays.  Leon Franklin's TD catch, run, and effort was amazing.  What a great memory for him.  Hail !

Overall things looked pretty good. Definitely want to see the pass protection clean up heading into big ten play. 

JJ looked solid. I liked that he made the decision to get out of bounds instead of initiating contact with a defender close to the end zone. 

I feel slightly nervous about having to play Maryland with the possibility of not having Cade next week (guessing he’ll be in concussion protocol?). We’ve been so spoiled having two serviceable starters that the thought of suddenly not having one is strange. I hope Cade recovers quickly. 

Good overall.  Hopefully Barnhart comes back or a light goes on for Jones bc he’s now had a number of bad busts.

Why is the OL trying to get Cade killed?

JJ is a "problem". His pre-snap reads were incredible. Perfect example was when he set Ronnie in motion, brought him back, and hit him on the out before the db could recover. That was the most obvious one, but he was doing it all game long. He keeps his eyes downfield and extends plays with his legs. Both are absolutely necessary given the pass pro.

Pass pro is a problem, literally. Hopefully it gets cleaned up, but I won't hold my breath. I'm most concerned about them more than any other unit.

Wide receivers were great in downfield blocking. I'm looking forward to seeing more of them in the downfield passing game. Roman Wilson has been a revelation in the lateral game. he is what I hoped Kekoa and thought Bell would be. 

TBD: Tight ends. 

Misc: I'm taking last year out of the equation 100%. cade, as a quarterback, isn't a good fit for this offense. He has been getting killed all year because he just isn't mobile enough and doesn't process quickly enough to make up for this line's shortcomings. Davis Warren, Orji, and Bowman have been solid. Best situation would be for cade to stay on as Captain, redshirt, and remain healthy for a transfer next year. I'm not sure about his ability to take a second redshirt year though.

It will be interesting to see how the offense does against greater competition. I'm sure it will be fine, and the playbook will open up a bit. 

I'm really happy that backups are getting meaningful snaps during these glorified scrimmages,  I just think it's more beneficial for #2 or in today's case the #3 QB to get more snaps instead of bringing in 8 qbs. 

No complaints really.  It honestly felt like this was a "don't put too much on film" kind of game with Maryland being next week. I know we used to joke about that when Peppers was here but this time it feels more real.

Defense played pretty vanilla today and gave up nothing.  They flew to the ball and as a team look faster than last year.

Online was solid but had some struggles.  I think some of that isearning to gell with a new center and RT and also having a different more mobile QB, means some different blocking schemes.

Overall we were more balanced the first 3 games this year than last year.  I feel very good about this season.

Well, that was entertaining I guess.

It was a balanced attack wrt running and passing. Corum was outstanding with his record tying 5 TDs. JJ played well and held back a little. I think there's a lot more in his tool box.

It was good to all of new faces out there, especially at QB & RB.

The final score says it all: 59-0.

They did what they had to do. Worried about Oline, but I'm hoping the harder opponents will benefit them. Maryland, Iowa, and Indiana will give us a better grasp as to where we really rank. While I enjoy the rushing TD's, I would have liked to see some red zone passing touchdowns. Surprised we didn't see AA get anything, and same with CJ.  

Admittedly I’m a little bit nervous for a conference play given how the OL is playing. Especially when they head to Iowa against a very good defense. 

I’m not sure if it’s just a product of keeping things vanilla against overmatched opponents. I will readily admit upfront that I’m not smart enough to know everything I’m seeing, but it just seems like there were fairly frequent stretches of time where UConn’s front seven was more than holding its own and was applying some pressure. That was…..disconcerting. 

Whatever curse was put on Cade by his offensive line has hopefully been broken now that he's out multiple weeks.

Otherwise, not much to take from this game except we don't really know how McCarthy is going to handle a defense that can actually make his life difficult.  I think he'll be okay but I again saw a couple of plays this week where he tried to highlight reel a gain where against better teams that might have blown up.

Did Keegan get hurt?

Agreed with others.  The TFLs and pass pro breakdowns are a little alarming.  Generally speaking, run blocking is pretty good, but could be and needs to be better as we face better defenses.  JJ puts more distance between himself and Cade, but I was a little disappointed Cade didn't play more.  I think Orji got more snaps than Cade.  I hope he wasn't hurt on those hits he absorbed.

We saw very little of the TEs today but they are making big impact plays through the first three games.  This bodes well for the rest of the season.  All and Schoonmaker are ultra solid.

EDIT: just read that Cade was hurt and will miss a few weeks.  Damn.

-Bell will be our first receiver over 60 receptions in a while (2016?) and probably/maybe 1000 yards after 13+ games. 
 

-Corum is just waiting to bust a BIG one, and will soon, but you can tell he is key for every defense 

-There will be counters off all these Roman Wilson screens and end arounds, think Donovan Edwards vs OSU last year after big game against Maryland. I think Iowa game we see some of these unleashed. 
 

-a downfield passing game will be in full swing by mid October, like last year. Last years first half of season ultra emphasis on power running is this year’s first half emphasis on a lateral passing game I think. 
 

- Trente Jones is a concern in pass pro, hopefully it’s only mental and can be corrected soon 

-This will be an incredibly explosive and balanced offense. 

JJ wasn’t gonna remain absolutely perfect forever and made a few mistakes that he will definitely learn from. The redzone pass that was batted down, taking the sack on the rollout, etc. He still continued to usually make the right play and make some wow plays.

I’m a little concerned about the OL. They seem to be underperforming sometimes or having random breakdowns and Im not sure why

I wish they would unleash the dragon and take more deep shots, but there isn’t anything real to complain about if we grant that they are trying to avoid putting things on tape against cupcakes

poor damn cade mcnamara.  that is all.

C.J. Stokes continues to look great for a true freshman.  I like how he gets north/south quickly.

Loved Andrel Anthony's block on that early TD.

Enjoyed seeing Corum get 5 TD, which brought the numbers 42-27 to mind unexpectedly.  I seem to remember another Michigan running back with 5 TD not that long ago, but I forget...

JJ continues to prove he can run the offense (or whatever part of it isn't still in the garage to deploy later) to smash cupcake teams.  Next test is carrying the load against a B1G foe.

What I don't like is how we're already down Cade McNamara and Donovan Edwards and we haven't even played anyone yet.

JJ was the steady QB today and so many skill players (great to see AJ getting so many touches) for JJ to spread around the ball. OL doesn’t look like the best OL in the country yet - must get the pass pro cleaned up before Iowa.

Trente Jones deserves a cyan 

Hot take? Our O-line is soft. Needs to improve soon or our season is in trouble.