The lack of offensive production and execution is a big part to why UConn is 1-5 and winless in conference play so far this season. However, their defense, ranked 17th in the nation, is giving the Huskies a fighting chance in most of their games this season and will have their biggest test yet Thursday.
The 18th-ranked ECU Pirates will host UConn on national television for the first meeting between the two schools.
The biggest difference between the two? Besides their record so far, it is points scored per game. ECU puts up an impressive 41 points per game, whereas UConn struggles to find the endzone and is scoring 12.8. Thanks to a pair of bye weeks and five quarters without reaching the end zone, it’s been nearly a month since UConn’s last offensive touchdown.
Both teams are coming off an extra week of rest, but both are playing for polar opposite futures. With a win, ECU clinches a bowl bid for the third straight year. On the other side, UConn is looking for the first win on the road in 11 months.
UConn’s highest point total in any game this season is 21 in a 17-point loss to Boise State. For the Huskies to have a chance, that seems to be the magic number. As 23-point underdogs, Vegas seems to be favoring a big Pirate win Thursday, but as seen in recent weeks, ECU hasn’t won by the amount of points as they were expected to.
ECU’s first AAC matchup of the year was against the winless SMU team, and as a surprise to many, SMU played its best game of the season. After going through the first four games of the season tallying only one touchdown, the Mustangs scored three against ECU as 40-point underdogs.
In their most recent game, ECU trailed USF at halftime, and it took a 14-point fourth quarter to escape with a victory. The pressure was on, but Shane Carden and company didn’t seem to feel it as they turned to the running game to close out the Bulls. Carden was held to just 250 yards passing — his lowest this year.
If there is a way for UConn to hold its ground, it will have to be led with causing problems for Carden on the defensive side, and keeping up with the high-scoring pace.
I’m looking at you, Bob Diaco. Let Chandler Whitmer throw. Let Tim Boyle throw. Even let Deshon Foxx mix it up and run a wildcat offense, but the only way to stay competitive with ECU’s lethal offense is to let it fly. Casey Cochran’s 31 pass attempts in the season opener still stands as the most attempts by a quarterback for the Huskies this season. Whitmer and Boyle combined for more during the Boise State loss, but that was a competitive game—for three quarters, at least.
If UConn wants to compete against ECU, it will have to be a team effort to hold the Pirates out of the end zone, and to carry first half momentum into the second. If the defense can keep the Huskies in the game, even with cornerback Byron Jones having his hands full against top-notch receivers, it’s purely up to offensive execution on the part of Whitmer, and big playmakers like Geremy Davis and Arkeel Newsome.
The pressure will be on the defense primarily, but there is no reason why UConn won’t be able to go all-out offensively and give the AAC the biggest shock of the season so far, as there aren’t any games left on the schedule as big as this for the Huskies.
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