Game Thread: Elon

[UD '01 grad]

Wasn't a fumbled snap here either. RO was scrambling for a positive gain when suddenly the ball fell to the turf.

[finpxz1]

Over the years I've seen many woulda, coulda, shoulda, losses in sight of the goal line. I've seen losses where a RB fumbled on the 5 yard line. I've seen losses where the QB threw an int on the end zone, I've seen muffed winning FG's. I have never seen it come down to a fumbled snap. Isn't this a heck of a time to have first and second team QB's dinged?

Wasn’t a fumbled snap. O’Connor simply dropped the ball after he started to run.

[jd of de]

That hurt. Elon had more energy, which was expected in their situation and we needed to match and didn’t, and our execution just wasn’t there.

Campbell is a must win now.

[Warrior Hen]

He failed to tuck the ball when he started to run with the ball.

[Attila the Hen]

Ended like a Villanova game. Trisciani must have one of Talley's old jockstraps.

[bluehens2005]

It took the Hens too long to realize that the deep ball was not there and adjust to the short and intermediate passes which worked in the later part of the game

Coaching and execution by the players determined the outcome of the game.

Carty is stubborn as a mule!

[bluehens2005]

That hurt. Elon had more energy, which was expected in their situation and we needed to match and didn’t, and our execution just wasn’t there.

Campbell is a must win now.

I’ve seen this movie before and I don’t like the ending…

[Hensfansince03]

We are not a top 10 Team in FCS, we all knew this going in and it was exposed today as we got into a slugfest with an average FCS team and got beaten down. We had a chance to win in the end and lost a fumble, but the game was lost well before this. Elon played really hard and deserved to win, they knew we would come out to stop the run and came out throwing and found a lot of holes in our coverage and weaknesses against our Dbacks. Our secondary is suspect at this point. Oconner is a good backup qualify QB but not the star we need to execute Cartys O to its full potential. His deep throws are not good but yet we kept airing it out and he missed open guys over and over again putting the O in deep holes. Marker has way more talent and upside (stronger Arm and running ability) Minicucci might have the most talent out of everyone in terms of arm strength and running ability, just needs to learn the O and gain more experience. We should beat Campbell next week (not guaranteed but likely) then Nova is a crap shoot. If we win next week we make the playoffs, we lose it comes down to Nova again. We move this week into the lower teens of FCS rankings as is probably more accurate than our over inflated and exposed 5 ranking this week. It was good to see an actually competitive game in the tub with a decent crowd for the first time in a while.

[77HEN]

One of the CSC event staff was jumping up and down with joy and hootin’ and hollerin’ when O’Conner fumbled the ball. I couldn’t believe what I saw from him. I sent an email to the AD informing her and asking to make sure this staffer doesn’t work at any more UD events. I wlll be in the same spot for the Nova game to check it out.

No good energy from the start of the game. Seemed like there was no real game plan except to try and have Youngblood beat his man long. Who would have thought they would beat us with long TD pass plays. Their kicking game was solid, ours not so much. Was like going back to Brocco years where it seems everyone is taking their turn causing breakdowns. Oh, typical end of season drama.

Is Yarns Ok? How about Harvin? These injuries are taking a toll. I believe Marker, with his mobility, could have made a difference in today’s game.

[CapeHen]

Here we go again! One loss and the sky is falling on GoHens.net.

We all know we aren’t a top 10 team in the FCS. Top 20? I think so. The expectation for this team is and should have always been to make the playoffs and win a game. That’s probably the ceiling. Anything beyond that is gravy.

Obviously we all want more than that. But let’s not act like we were contenders who just lost their shot at glory.

[GhostOfThePeeWall]

The offense never got into a rhythm today, which I would put more onto clunky playcalling than anything else. I don't think we got a fully healthy version of O'Connor, and it didn't appear that Marker was healthy enough to play at all. Lots of guys playing hurt this time of year.

Special teams... woof

[BlueHenBobby]

The sky is not falling, however that was a winable game. Poor play by the pass defense and special teams. How does a QB lose the ball in a potential game winning drive without being touched. Two games to go. Win one and we're in the playoffs. Win two and we may be atop the CAA. A 7-4 season is a failure in my mind especially given our strength of schedule. 8-3 shows some improvement especially given the 30 plus players who left the program but if that includes a loss to Nova then it is not an improvement. 9-2 would be an absolute confirmation we are moving forward. However I have two words for the next two games - Zach Marker..

[Firstand10BlueHens]

Carty: "They obviously made more plays than we did. ... [O'Connor] was a little rusty. ... We had some people wide open that we missed. We have to put our head down and work."

He’s right. O’Connor missed at least a couple of open TD’s with better throws. Can’t miss them when your own secondary is getting torched and you loss the T0 3-0. Elon tried to give the Hens the game in the last 6 minutes but the Hens couldn’t close the deal.

He definitely looked rushed and rusty today hence finding under 50% for a normally pretty accurate passer. The play calling today was pretty infuriating. The low percentage side line routes and deep balls for 80% of the throws weren't building momentum. Was Yarns dinged up? Would have liked to see Markers improvised runs in there to keep the D off guard.

[Double G]

Don't worry guys we're back to playing another team with a losing record this Saturday. Elon outplayed and outcoached the Hens certainly leaving doubts about the overall status of our continued improvement. . . It will all come down to Villanova as many of us suspected since day one. Our OL really let us down today as a "rusty "O'Connor was running for his life all day. His 48% completion might be upsetting to some but Elon's QB was a hefty 49% in the win and he wasn't asked to throw 40+ yard bombs every series. Let me echo the disappointment with our special teams , missing another PAT and giving up 137 yards on 4 KO returns.

Losing one l of the best runners in the country certainly was a bummer so let's get the injuries behind us and move to 8-2.

[HensRock]

Carib, I'm reminded of a certain cliché...

HR, we have one

Au contraire, we have 2!
Remember how good Marker looked against Towson?
Remember how good O'Connor looked against Stony Brook?

That's the problem with scheduling cupcakes. Week 10 and we STILL don't know what we have!