Delaware Missed Flacco

[BuckWilds]

"Good game!" to two local teams. I wonder what the final would have been with Flacco at the helm...

[theFRANCHISE]

QB Rob Schoenhoft's Blue Hen debut was flat, to me. He had a couple of good throws, but he never truly developed a rhythm outside of UD's lone scoring drive. I wanted to see Lou Ritacco take a few snaps under center after Schoenhoft struggled, but I understand why Coach Keeler didn't split snaps.

This was a mostly defensive game, despite Maryland's strong 1-2 ground attack.

I was still happy with Delaware's ever-strong special teams unit (minus WR Aaron Love's boneheaded fair catch at the 2-yard line), and the defensive line played better than I thought they would against Maryland's larger offensive line.

There was much more penetration in the backfield than I expected from UD, and LB Erik Johnson showed why he and fellow LB Matt Marcorelle dominated the CAA last season.

CB Anthony Bratton should've had that one near-pick on 3rd down on the opening drive, and SS Anthony Walters was back in true hard-hitting form.

WR Mark Duncan's performance had me wondering if he'd be better as part of the running-back-by-committee rotation; Jonathan Smith grinded it out as best as he could, but backup Phil Thaxton showed much more of that speed that I like to see from the RB position.

The Blue Hens offense is missing Joe Flacco, RB Omar Cuff, and C Mike Byrne dearly...

Overall, it was a good game, though. Maryland still has some question marks at QB, in my opinion, but the offensive line played well, and the Terps ground game looks to be strong this year. The kicker is definitely playing himself out of a job, though; there's no excuse to be missing kicks in your home stadium, well within a standard kicker's range, with no real pressure from the defense in getting the kick blocked.

[foreversunny23]

I was disappointed. We controlled the flow of the game early on, but all that marching down the field and no points really frustrated me. I'm happy about our running game. Those two guys had to replace our seniors and did really well. All three QB did not do anything impressive. I can't believe they would let Josh Portis run the same exact play 4 times! Let him throw the ball once...

Delaware had some nice punts. I'm sure you were frustrated that there was little passing. All I remember was you guys kept running the football. Maryland got the better of you this time

[theFRANCHISE]

[quote name='foreversunny23' post='61832' date='Aug 31 2008, 11:29 AM']Delaware had some nice punts. I'm sure you were frustrated that there was little passing. All I remember was you guys kept running the football.[/quote]

You have no idea how happy I was with the punter...and I appreciate special teams and all, but it's hard for me to get [i]that[/i] excited over that unit...lol.

And yes, I was extremely frustrated with Rob Schoenhoft and the passing game. I understand that Coach Keeler wanted to keep his starter a secret until kickoff, but I still expected snaps to be split between Schoenhoft and Lou Ritacco.

I was pleased with the ground game and defense, though.

[RoflDogs]

missed the game >.< sounds like smash mouth hard running defensive football

[bossman419]

im so tired of having no QB just start chris turner and move on with it, we have too much talent at WR to have a sucky air attack

[foreversunny23]

[quote name='bossman419' post='61890' date='Aug 31 2008, 09:22 PM']im so tired of having no QB just start chris turner and move on with it, we have too much talent at WR to have a sucky air attack[/quote]

My friend was telling me that one of his relatives had been a fan Maryland football since the 1950s. And that relative claims that this is the best WR corps he's ever seen. If only we had a QB to throw to such talent...

[bossman419]

yeah darrius heyward-bey is def first round talent with world class speed