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Well, the UMass defense turned in an absolutely heroic performance yesterday against a very good SEC team. The Minutemen defensive numbers are distorted by the time of possession. The 166 yards rushing-240 yards passing-406 total yards do not reflect the fact the defense was on the field almost five more minutes than the offense and the defenders were out there a brutal 10:47 in the fourth quarter...
Kevin Byrne had a career high in tackles. He drew a couple of "Hey that Byrne kid can tackle!" on Vanderbilt boards. Tom Brandt had an excellent game. Devin Brown had another double-digit tackling game. Justin Anderson looked like the the guy we expected him to be.The defensive secondary repeatedly smothered the Vanderbilt receivers. Basically, the defense did just about anything you could ask except score.
On offense, things went less well. Liam Coan would have won that game. Maybe Kyle Havens 2.0 would have too. A.J.Doyle continued to struggle. He missed a hand-off on a routine running play. Doyle again threw early INT and had another negated by a penalty At least three more times he threw the ball close to Vanderbilt defenders, including a mammoth Commodore defensive tackle who was the only player in the area. Doyle's longest pass was just 10 yards. We really need to fix this.
UMass again lost the special teams contest. We continue to be 0 for 2013 in field goals. The Vandy punter only punted once, but it was for 54 yards and was out inside the UMass ten yard line.
What was up with the play review? Every time something positive happened for UMass there was a four minute review that sucked all the momentum out of our play.
One other thing I want to point out. Has anyone noticed that even with us losing the attendance has been good? Working with the 2007 UMass Press Guide, (the NCAA banned them after that year) and assuming we didn't have any near sellouts in the Morris era, the 15, 624 of the opening game would have been the 15th largest attendance in McGuirk history (in the new 17,000 configuration) and yesterday's 16,491 would have been the second largest crowd at McGuirk. If we start winning, UMass will easily average 20,000 or more at Gillette.
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Dan Malone has UMass falls to Vanderbilt as injuries take their toll.
He also has UMass gets positive results from the return to a 4-3 defense.
Dan also write the Minutemen give Vanderbilt all it can handle.
Dan's football notebook talks about Rob Blanchflower's return and the various injuries suffered by the Minutemen in the first half.
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Boston.com says Vanderbilt grinds out a win over UMass.
The Gazette has Vanderbilt pulls away from the Minutemen.
The Boston Herald thinks we play too tough a schedule.
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The Anchor of Gold blog has Vanderbilt grinds out a win over UMass.
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All the results from yesterday's MAC games.
More MAC coverage from Hustle Belt.
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UConn put a scare into Michigan.
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