Real quick notes from UConn's 45-21 victory over Buffalo at Rentschler Field this afternoon:
First, The Good:
- A win! A win against Division I-A competition! It feels so good to win!
- Cody Endres, obviously. As much as I do want to blame the competition - and I do, and I fully expect Endres to be exposed against higher-level athletes - Zach Frazer did nothing against the same Bulls. Endres comes in, boom-boom-boom-boom, and 24 offensive points on UConn's first four drives of the second half. I've said all along that Endres was the better quarterback, and has shown himself to be consistently better basically since this blog was founded. Finally, mercifully, Edsall may have seen the light.
- Robbie Frey looked really good, and made some moves that he hadn't showed in any of his carries before today.
- The secondary's play was mixed (at best), but I thought the cornerbacks played fairly well, and UConn's the type of team that needs big plays on defense to beat a lot of teams on their schedule. Two pick-sixes will suffice.
Now, before we get carried away, The Bad:
- Zach Frazer. 'Nuf said. Thank God that's over.
- The defense. I don't care how good Endres might be, UConn will not surpass .500 in the Big East playing defense like it did today. More allowed third-down conversions, more huge passing plays given up, receivers running all over the place...it keeps happening game-in, game-out. Buffalo gained 368 yards (compared to UConn's 388); That isn't good enough, and it's more than enough to stay on the pessimist wagon for this team.
- The coaching staff. This team looked woefully unprepared, making a ton of mental mistakes (turnovers, silly fumbles, ridiculous penalties). It's amazing the number of problems competent QB play can gloss over, but it is inexcusable that Edsall did not have this team ready for a home game. Especially considering UConn hadn't come within two touchdowns of a Division I-A opponent in its two tries this year.
So yeah, there it is. Happy with the win, but still cautiously pessimistic. Really, I'm just glad we were able to avoid Meltdown Mode after that first half.
On to Vanderbilt.