UConn Offensive Line Breakdown: Week 8 vs. UCF
Coming off a loss against USF, the Huskies dropped another game against UCF, 16-24, to bring their record to 3-5 (1-4 AAC) on the year. This loss is a difficult one for the Huskies as it makes it that much more difficult to reach the six wins needed to head back to a bowl game. UConn must win 3 out of its remaining 4 games in order to reach post-season play.
What also made the loss difficult was that the offensive line played pretty well. Here's a closer look at how they performed against the Knights.
Run Game:
The Huskies put together a solid ground game Saturday on a rainy day in East Hartford. UConn rushed for 171 yards, which included Arkeel Newsome surpassing the 100-yard mark with 4.8 yards per carry on 21 attempts.
Most of the success came from running multiple variations of inside zone and zone-read concepts which allows the offensive line to block a lighter box and forces a single defensive player to make a decision on how to defend the run.
These zone schemes also open up multiple options for the running back based on the flow of the defenders. Most commonly, the RB can choose to bounce it outside, take it inside, or cut it back depending on how the defense reacts. This combination of choices for the RBs and a lighter box for the offensive line allowed UConn to create some space in order to gain significant yardage on the ground against the UCF Knights.
Another positive that the offensive line showed was their ability to convert short yardage situations, with the Huskies successfully converting multiple QB sneaks on the day. These short-yardage conversions are a real confidence booster for the offensive line as it is a show of brute strength to be able to gain that one extra yard for the first down.
In less positive news, the Huskies had a difficult time with their gap-power scheme runs. These runs are most commonly defined by the front side blocking back, and an extra lineman pulling to block at the point of attack. UConn could not seem to get this style of run play started for them today, especially when getting pressure off the backside from UCF. A bit of clean-up on the gap power run plays would give the Huskies run game some nice thunder to the lightning of their zone and zone-read style plays.
Pass Protection:
The Huskies have looked solid up front in pass protection for a few games this season, and Saturday’s game vs UCF was no different. UConn was able to keep their QB off the ground for the entire game, except for a lone sack on back-up QB Garrett Anderson when Bryant Shirreffs was out with an injury.
The Huskies were able to pick up significant yardage through the air today, with Noel Thomas eclipsing the 100-yard mark for the sixth time this season. Great protection up front combined with excellent pass blocking from the running backs and tight-ends gave Shirreffs plenty of time to get the ball downfield. The Huskies were able to pick up pressure fairly well and even provided enough time for some deep routes and double moves to develop. One on one matchups looked great for the Husky O-line Saturday, with very few, if any, players truly getting beat on a block.
Even with a few different combinations of linemen playing, the protection never wavered, which is a great sign for the depth. While there was still some sloppy play up front that allowed for some pressure and a few QB hits, we continue to see improvement from this group. Allowing only 1 sack from on an overloaded pressure after your starting QB gets injured is much improved over the offensive line play of past seasons and earlier this year. Unfortunately, this great protection was not enough for the Huskies to secure the win against UCF.
This loss was difficult to stomach after watching UConn get off to such a great start, including their first multi-score 1st quarter since 2014. While the offensive line continues to improve, we can only hope their success will translate into victories in UConn’s next four games. The Huskies look to bounce back next week when they travel down to East Carolina to take on the Pirates at noon, before returning back home the following week to face the Temple Owls.