Schiano held his post-game presser yesterday afternoon. Highlights:
ASSESSMENT OF OFFENSE AS A WHOLE
"I think we’re very close when you watch the tape. Maybe one block here, a poor choice there, we underthrew one, we dropped one, protected it up pretty well except for one guy (on a given play). It’s not very far off. They’re all correctable errors and some of the mistakes were by guys that have not played a lot. And you could see that in a game situation, we did not always handle it the way we did in practice. That’s only going to come with experience. They’re all correctable issues, but we need to correct them."
ON TEEL’S DECISION MAKING
With the exception of the flea-flicker, I thought his decision-making was actually really good. We underthrew one on the first drive, we had Ti open when we had a guy leaking out (blitzing Teel), we had Ti open on the post, he was behind his man and he underthrew it. Other than that I thought we threw it well. It’s inches on Kenny’s (deep pass), it’s actually a perfectly thrown post to (Dennis Campbell) in the end zone and they told me that the feet got tangled up and that’s why it wasn’t a DPI (pass interference). I thought he threw some good footballs. We didn’t drop many; we dropped 2 or 3 but 2 or 3 critical plays. We threw the interception, that was the one bad decision really."
Is knowing your limitations part of decision making? What if Teel was largely making good decisions, but he just isn't a very accurate quarterback? I don't agree with that perception, but there's a lot of people who aren't fans of his accuracy.
ON TEAM’S MENTAL OUTLOOK TODAY?
"I don’t have any concern about our team’s heads being up. We played uncharacteristic football. I know our guys are more angry at themselves for what transpired but I’m very confident they’ll be ready to go (for practice) on Thursday."
EXPECT MORE TEAMS TO DEFEND BRITT PHYSICALLY?
"I’m sure people are going to do that. What we need to do is make sure we keep throwing the ball to Kevin Brock. If you want to double Kenny than we gotta throw it to Kevin. I thought Kevin made some great catches yesterday; we just gotta make sure we keep him loaded up if they double Kenny."
One positive from Monday: the play of Manny Abreu.
Keith Sargeant has some observations that are well worth reading.
The women's basketball team has released their season schedule.
As expected, the achilles heel of Rutgers's defense is the ability to defend against a power running attack. This update on UNC's struggles in the run game were quite telling. Pay particular attention to this bit, because it's very similar to what our scheme does:
Part of the problem was in making solid blocks at the line of scrimmage. North Carolina had anticipated a variety of stunts and slants to help create penetration for the Cowboys’ smaller defensive linemen, but Davis said that the great angles required for successful point of attack blocking were rarely obtained.
As with the Fresno State game, UNC finally did wear down McNeese's DL over the course of the game.
Ray Rice was one of the best performing rookie backs in preseason. Football Outsiders has been mixed on Rice. Their research has found that preseason success matters, but they have also found that the most relevant NFL combine stat is a player's 40 time with respect to their weight, a metric in which Rice does not fare well. They also hate the New York Giants. (I'm joking. Not really.)
Practice squad watch: in addition to Brandon Renkart (Jets), add Derrick Roberson (Texans), Joey Porter (Packers), and J'Vonne Parker (Ravens). Pedro Sosa may still be in the mix in Miami too.
A look ahead to North Carolina.
At least the first part of the expansion looks nice.
The Pittsburgh Steelers traded lineman Sean Mahan, which should mean an increased backup role for Darnell Stapleton.
Piscataway is appealing a tax issue regarding the children of graduate students.
The Darren Rizzi era is underway at URI. The Rams won their first game over Monmouth 27-24.
Our basketball rivals at Seton Hall are taking a gamble on forward Herb Pope.