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Post by Ignutz on Sept 19, 2021 17:28:53 GMT -5
Over Coach Chesney's tenure we have been a much higher scoring team in the second half of game than in the first half, Here's the composite scoring by quarter for our 31 games since Bob Chesney took the helm. Holy Cross= 104--192--181--248--3 OT points
Opponents=219--248--147--129--0 OT points
So this is a perfect topic for debate and how one interprets it may depend on one's predisposition (1) Chesney teams struggle to get the offense started-- bad, bad, bad! (2) Chesney teams are not prepared for their opponents and always get off to a bad start-- bad, bad, bad ! (3) Chesney teams are so well-coached that they "adjust in the locker room" and exploit opponents weaknesses in the second half game after game-- good, good, good! (4) Chesney teams are well-conditioned and when our opponents run out of gas we are still fresh, strong, quick late in the game-- good, good, good! This is like so many topics we discuss: if you have a "confirmation bias" you'll immediately interpret evidence to support your firmly held belief. I think I could do this for PL games only and it would tell the same story #4 is certainly a key component in Chesney’s program. The new Strength & Conditioning coach he brought over from Assumption appears to be excellent. Another explanation echoing Kaftan12 — we play not to lose and are extremely conservative in the first half, and then finally give guys chances to make plays when we start needing points. I would be very interested in seeing these stats broken out by quality of opponent. As in without including BC, Navy and Syracuse. Monmouth and South Dakota State numbers should, however, be included.
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Post by Ignutz on Sept 19, 2021 17:40:27 GMT -5
I hope that, at some time this season, we see Sluka and Siderman on the field at the same time. Sluka in the backfield, split wide, in the pistol, who knows?
No matter what goes on, having both of them in the huddle would likely result in a lot of “palms up” on the other side of the line. (Is this arrow already in HCBC’s quiver?)
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Post by longsuffering on Sept 19, 2021 18:35:27 GMT -5
When Sluka is the sole QB and runs we get an extra blocker compared to a typical hand-off to a runner. How do you value that in the QB battle?
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Post by efg72 on Sept 19, 2021 19:04:10 GMT -5
Look Sluka earned the role as QB
Let him lead the team forward and Seiderman and/or Pessanky play an important role
Keep our eye on the ball Win as many games as possible Win the PL Win in the playoffs
The rest is up to the coaches and player executiom
Fans might plan but God and coaches decide
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Post by rgs318 on Sept 19, 2021 19:10:59 GMT -5
Look Sluka earned the role as QB Let him lead the team forward and Seiderman and/or Pessanky play an important role Keep our eye on the ball Win as many games as possible Win the PL Win in the playoffs The rest is up to the coaches and player executiom Fans might plan but God and coaches decide I hope God and gthe coaches are on the same team.
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Post by kaftan12 on Sept 19, 2021 19:45:41 GMT -5
Perhaps the natural talent portion of Sluka's game, the Slither, can and has been effective right away in his college career but the refined skill areas of quarterback play require more ongoing reps and coaching to perfect. As Ralph Willard said, the Patriot League is a senior driven league. I like having both options at QB. If either one could have taken over the Merrimack game we'd have our answer already but neither could. How is Pessansky developing? Anybody have first hand info? Mine is either anecdotal or 2/3 hand They suggest when the staff believes he is ready?? he might be the best of the three at the position to run/pass But not good and reliable information that is why I ask If he’s developing better than he played last year he’s probably a secret weapon in hiding. They keep things pretty quiet for sure but looking at his film POY 5A Florida is a great pickup for HC.
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Post by longsuffering on Sept 19, 2021 21:46:16 GMT -5
Baseball: "You can never have too much pitching" Football: "Quarterback Controversy"
It's just great having a winning HC program to discuss.
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Sept 19, 2021 23:41:46 GMT -5
#4 is certainly a key component in Chesney’s program. The new Strength & Conditioning coach he brought over from Assumption appears to be excellent. Another explanation echoing Kaftan12 — we play not to lose and are extremely conservative in the first half, and then finally give guys chances to make plays when we start needing points. I would be very interested in seeing these stats broken out by quality of opponent. As in without including BC, Navy and Syracuse. Monmouth and South Dakota State numbers should, however, be included. Here's what the numbers are by quarter for games excluding bc, Navy, and Syracuse Holy Cross= 104--182--174--241--3 OT points
Opponents= 171--214--109--101--0 OT points
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Post by Sons of Vaval on Sept 20, 2021 6:46:14 GMT -5
A random thought I had while rewatching the 4th quarter — what was Tony Reno thinking not using his final timeout before Ng kicked the go ahead field goal?
HC was able to run down the clock to about :48, but if he used his timeout they could have gotten the ball back with around 1:30 left. That’s a lot of time in college football to go, say, 45 yards to get into field goal range.
Terrible decision.
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Post by thecrossisback on Sept 20, 2021 6:58:37 GMT -5
Reno definitely botched the ending of that game.
HC still really hasn't gotten its receivers or tight ends going that should be able to win 1 on 1 matchups. Waiting for a breakout game for Ayir Asante
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Post by HC92 on Sept 20, 2021 7:09:04 GMT -5
A random thought I had while rewatching the 4th quarter — what was Tony Reno thinking not using his final timeout before Ng kicked the go ahead field goal? HC was able to run down the clock to about :48, but if he used his timeout they could have gotten the ball back with around 1:30 left. That’s a lot of time in college football to go, say, 45 yards to get into field goal range. Terrible decision. Definitely inexcusable. We used to do stuff like that. Some of these guys should just get a smart undergrad to stand next to them and tell them when to call their timeouts at the end of each half.
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Post by rgs318 on Sept 20, 2021 7:25:25 GMT -5
How much difference would that time have made in the actual game if te first pass was intercepted, as it was? The move was a poor one in theory (by someone that at least one poster said was a better coach than Chesney), but in the actual game may not have made that much of a difference.
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Post by Sons of Vaval on Sept 20, 2021 7:37:39 GMT -5
How much difference would that time have made in the actual game if te first pass was intercepted, as it was? The move was a poor one in theory (by someone that at least one poster said was a better coach than Chesney), but in the actual game may not have made that much of a difference. Maybe Yale doesn’t have to call a play like that if they were operating with another 35 seconds. Could have gotten a few chunk plays in before needing to get really aggressive.
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Post by mm67 on Sept 20, 2021 8:24:10 GMT -5
Woulda', Coulda', Shoulda'. Blah!
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Post by midwestsader05 on Sept 20, 2021 9:29:13 GMT -5
Was able to rewatch some parts of the game yesterday…A few takeaways that jumped out at me.
1) We rotated O-lineman a lot more than I first noticed. This has confused a lot of pundits in past seasons (it is weird to watch) but I think it helped with endurance in the 4th quarter. We still had a good push on the QB run game on our last couple drives. LG Brekke got banged up early in the 4th quarter (came off under his own power) and Schon played all of the last 2 possessions. Will be interesting to see if Brekke is healthy for Monmouth as we will likely need as much depth as possible.
2) A few posters have complained about our Defensive Line’s lack of production (specifically Whitley) and while I agree in their play making ability especially against the pass, BW and Dan Kuz were VERY effective at setting the edge on running plays (against one of the top O-line’s we play). They might not make the tackle but they were driving their OT’s backwards with their strength. It’s tough to see this in real time but I noticed the same thing re-watching the UCONN game.
3) We essentially played a new Defensive front 80% of the game. I mentioned in real time about having 3 LB’s on the field at once but Anderson basically played a Mike Vrabel type of stand up edge LB almost all game. Could this be the beginning of a new base defense? If you rewatch how Jake D made 3 of his 4 TFLs, they were inside blitzes. He’s really good at creating confusion for the guard and center where he will line up at the snap standing over one gap (probably waits for the center to call out the protection) and then at the snap will blitz through the other A or B gap (not where he was lined up) He’s just so fast and relentless running sideline to sideline.
4) Our best play on offense most of the day was designed QB run. Not RPO. To the announcers point (one of the few things they got right), with Sluka’s leg strength, vision and patience and giving him an extra blocker with the RB, he’s likely to pick up 3-5 yard chunks with this. Do Chesney and Roper just end up saying “F it”, run that offense until teams stop it/keep them honest and that will create play action or open up other misdirection? (I’m still waiting for the Sluka jump pass to Morris or another TE on short yardage) We still need to get the ball to our better play making WR’s in space on high percentage throws, these are often 7-8 yard gains. Also, Sluka throws better with his feet set than on the run (like most QB’s but very noticeable with him).
Will take a tremendous effort this week as Monmouth looked very good against Charleston Southern. If we clean up the mental errors and some executional mistakes, this could be another great game into the 4th quarter. However, given that Monmouth is likely the best team we will face in the regular season, WE HAVE TO AVOID THE SLOW START which has haunted us for years. I agree with KY 75 that winning the field possession battle was an intangible that’s tough to quantify. Again, kudos to Pat H! Need the same effort in NJ on Saturday!
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Post by hchoops on Sept 20, 2021 9:55:47 GMT -5
Thanks again for the insight, MW
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Post by midwestsader05 on Sept 20, 2021 10:12:03 GMT -5
There was a 5th observation I forgot to mention cause why not 5…
It’s a much bigger question if we win that game if Merrimack’s Elliot is Yale’s QB. O’Connor missed 3-4 wide open receivers on deeper crossing patterns that Elliot doesn’t (many on crucial downs) I’m betting for Yale’s sake O’Connor doesn’t miss those throws in weeks to come. One of our DBs (which will remain nameless as I don’t single out players for broadly poor performance when they simply don’t have the physical tools to compete), should not be on the field as much from the missed tackles, inability to cover/lack of speed I’ve seen in the first 3 games. He was on the field less in the 2nd half so maybe the coaches realized what they are seeing in practice is not translating to games (which happens). PM me if you’d like but again never expect me to publicly speak generally negative of a player. It’s one thing to point out occasional mistakes or mental errors but it’s not fair to pick on someone that just doesn’t have the physical skill set to accomplish what they are being asked. That’s on the coaches.
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Post by sader1970 on Sept 20, 2021 10:16:39 GMT -5
Very refreshing to have posters second guessing an opponent's coach instead of our own coach.
FWIW, I don't put a lot of stock in timeouts "icing" a kicker.
Can't recall the game years back but had a conversation with Tom Gilmore after a loss on a last minute opponent field goal. We had all 3 TOs left and used all 3. The kicker easily made the FG and we lost.
My suggestion if he ever encountered it again was to consider calling the first 2 timeouts; then telling the official that he may feign calling the 3rd timeout but he would not actually do it. If you think you can psyche out a kicker, let him and the opponents assume that last timeout is coming and then . . . . . . don't - see if they then have to rush the kick. Maybe he was just being polite but he said he had never thought of that and it had some possibilities. Now, he may well have been simply humoring me but I hope that he never gets to use that psy-war against Holy Cross.
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Post by timholycross on Sept 20, 2021 10:19:32 GMT -5
Did anyone notice how much dead time there was in that game?
Some of it was after time outs (probably because the ineptitude of ESPN+ production crew couldn't communicate correctly to the officials when they'd be coming back from commercial breaks) and some of it didn't seem to be tied to the telecast at all.
The game could have been 10-15 minutes shorter than it was w/o any ads/Yale-public-service-messages being removed.
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Post by timholycross on Sept 20, 2021 10:22:14 GMT -5
Very refreshing to have posters second guessing an opponent's coach instead of our own coach. FWIW, I don't put a lot of stock in timeouts "icing" a kicker. Can't recall the game years back but had a conversation with Tom Gilmore after a loss on a last minute opponent field goal. We had all 3 TOs left and used all 3. The kicker easily made the FG and we lost. My suggestion if he ever encountered it again was to consider calling the first 2 timeouts; then telling the official that he may feign calling the 3rd timeout but he would not actually do it. If you think you can psyche out a kicker, let him and the opponents assume that last timeout is coming and then . . . . . . don't - see if they then have to rush the kick. Maybe he was just being polite but he said he had never thought of that and it had some possibilities. Now, he may well have been simply humoring me but I hope that he never gets to use that psy-war against Holy Cross. Is it the NFL where you can't call more than one time out w/o another play being run? I'd be in favor of college ball changing that as well.
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Post by sader1970 on Sept 20, 2021 10:24:15 GMT -5
Can't answer your question but in my specific case, we did call 3 consecutive time outs.
I posted my FG "defense" theory shortly after my conversation with TG but that might have even been on the old board.
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Post by rgs318 on Sept 20, 2021 10:45:32 GMT -5
Perhaps I missed it, but is there a video of post-games comments from the coach? All the highlights from Merrimack are still up on the football board, but I have not yet seen any from Yale.
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Post by HC92 on Sept 20, 2021 11:13:03 GMT -5
I like the “last week is on me” comment. That’s why the guys seem like they want to run through a wall for him.
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Post by midwestsader05 on Sept 20, 2021 11:15:42 GMT -5
Very refreshing to have posters second guessing an opponent's coach instead of our own coach. FWIW, I don't put a lot of stock in timeouts "icing" a kicker. Can't recall the game years back but had a conversation with Tom Gilmore after a loss on a last minute opponent field goal. We had all 3 TOs left and used all 3. The kicker easily made the FG and we lost. My suggestion if he ever encountered it again was to consider calling the first 2 timeouts; then telling the official that he may feign calling the 3rd timeout but he would not actually do it. If you think you can psyche out a kicker, let him and the opponents assume that last timeout is coming and then . . . . . . don't - see if they then have to rush the kick. Maybe he was just being polite but he said he had never thought of that and it had some possibilities. Now, he may well have been simply humoring me but I hope that he never gets to use that psy-war against Holy Cross. It was against UMASS in 2007 or 2008…I remember it well and had the same thought. Again, CTG had a very questionable (being diplomatic) clock management acumen.
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Post by mm67 on Sept 20, 2021 11:57:06 GMT -5
Sluka is PL Offensive Player of the Week. Hmmnn. Joined by Dobbs on D and NG, Special Teams. There must be something about Sluka. Appreciate what we have in this fine young QB. Dobbs & NG are first class.
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