UCONN Bowl Hopes Crushed By The Orange

On Saturday afternoon, the UCONN Huskies had their bowl hopes crushed by the Syracuse Orange 20-14 to fall to 4-6 on the season. The Huskies must now win their next two games against Cincinnati at home and at #10 Louisville to become bowl eligible.

The game didn’t start out well for the Huskies as the Orange drove down the field in their first possession. UCONN did bounce back with a 16 play 86 yard drive to knot the score at 7. Both teams were scoreless until the Orange kicked a field goal with 51 seconds left in the first half to take the lead 10-7.

10 points later the Orange were leading 20-7 when the Huskies made one last ditch effort to get close. They drove 85 yards to score with 4 seconds left in the game. The subsequent onsides kick was recovered by the Orange. Next up for the Huskies is the Cincinnati Bearcats next Saturday, Nov 25 at 12 noon at Rentschler Field. This will be the last home game for the seniors and they will be honored before the game.

Notes and Observations:

• DJ Hernandez was 19 of 29 for 188 yards with 2 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. DJ was really unable to do much scrambling with the ball this week as the Syracuse defense shut down his running lanes.
• Donald Brown II wasn’t as effective as normal. He started off strong rushing for 30 yards out of the gate but ended the game with only 67 yards rushing on 18 carries.
• Matt Nuzie “missed” a field goal. The television replay showed the ball clearly went thru the uprights but it was not overturned.
• The UCONN offense managed only 266 yards of total offense while the defense yielded 306 yards