Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Tuesday--October 29, 2013

The Play, Part III

Last Saturday I ranted to Mrs Blog all the way home about Coach Molnar's decision to go for two against Western Michigan.

Jimmy Kelly has a excellent article over on Hustle Belt on the decision. Also be sure to read the quotes by A.J. Doyle and Coach Molnar in the UMass game summary.

After reading Coach Molnar's quotes (again) I can appreciate better the quandary the coaches were in. Lucas' fourth quarter chip shot miss rattled everybody. Remember, most overtime games now end up as multiple possessions  (Buffalo-Stony Brook took five overtime periods). I can understand, that on this day, the UMass coaches didn't want to get in a field goal contest. We weren't going to win that.

Kelly's article has video. You can step through the play by tapping the start and stop button. Doyle, in his post game quotes said it was a play UMass has practiced, but had not yet run in a game. Looking at the video, it appears to have worked. Elgin Long breaks into the endzone and is running uncovered along the far end of the endzone. Coach Molnar said in his quote they couldn't see if Doyle was being screened from picking up Long. A. J. ran right. Tajae Sharpe seems to have been Doyle's first read (again see Molnar's quote). So, the play worked; UMass had an open receiver in the endzone. The play didn't succeed because of:

  1. Bad Luck. Doyle was screened
  2. Doyle didn't do his reads fast enough and by the time he decided to throw the ball, Long was running out of real estate and the coverage was closing.
  3. We'll never know which one is true.
Anyway, I feel better. UMass had a much better chance of making the play than it appeared at the time. I still would have gone for the tie and extended the game, but after looking at the video, you can't say UMass didn't have a good chance to win the game on the 2 point conversion.

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Dan Malone has a story about the first good showing from the Minutemen's offense.

Matty V reports on Lorenzo Woodley's breakout game.

UMass is one of 21 FBS teams to have more INT's than touchdown passes.

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MAC Report Online has Western Michigan's Andrew Haldeman as the MAC Special Teams Player-of-the-Week.

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Sports Chat place looks at the upcoming UMass-NIU game.


I watched the NIU-Eastern Michigan game on DVR. The Huskies kept scoring after pulling Lynch half-way through the third quarter.



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