While far from perfect, win over URI a step in the right direction

EAST HARTFORD — They got a stop.

In a season when they had gotten no stops that matter, they got the stop that mattered.

In a game when they couldn’t stop anything in an FCS uniform, they got an FBS stop.

Maybe in the larger scope what Eli Thomas did Saturday in the closing seconds of UConn’s first victory since last October will prove to mean little this September, October and November.

Maybe the 2018 UConn offense will be pressed to score 56 points to win every game. Maybe they will have to go for it on fourth down over and over

and pray that David Pindell will figure something out with his arm, his legs and his indefatigable moxie.

Maybe the 2018 UConn defense, too young, too unproven, is doomed to allow a national-worst average of 56 points per game. Maybe the 2018 UConn defense, too young, too unproven, too damned vulnerable, is doomed to allow a national-worst average of 673 yards per game.

But here’s the good news. No, here’s the doggone giddy news.

The Huskies gave up a whopping 49 points and 550 yards on this warm Saturday afternoon at Rentschler Field.

And they won.

They got a stop.

And that’s a step in the right direction.

With five seconds left, Rhode Island had the ball on the UConn 17. No timeouts left. The play before, quarterback JaJuan Lawson barely escaped Thomas’ grasp to dump an incomplete pass and stop the clock. Not this time. No, this time Thomas sacked Lawson.

“James Atkins opened it up for me and I did my job on the quarterback,” Thomas said. “I missed the first one. I had to make sure I got that next one.”

He did.

Final whistle. UConn 56, URI 49. Considerable celebration.

This had felt like one of those crazy flag football weekend games. You know: Keep chucking, keep running and when we finish we’ll run for the keg.

The 49 points allowed was the most ever in a UConn win.

The 105 combined points was eclipsed only by UConn’s 125-0 triumph over Newport Naval Training Station in 1949.

“It doesn’t matter how we got it,” coach Randy Edsall said. “We won.” Truth.

There was some zany stuff in this one.

On a second-quarter drive when UConn went up 35-21, URI’s Andre Bibeault was called for roughing the passer. The passer on the trick play was wide receiver Quayvon Skanes. When was the last time you saw that?

On the drive right before

halftime when UConn went up 42-28, URI’s D.J. Stewart got called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for taunting after he laid out Tyler Davis. Think about it. A defensive player taunting anybody but himself in a half in which 70 total points were scored. When was the last time you saw something like that? Oh, forgot. It’s 2018. That happens all the time.

Heck, something like that happened in the second half, when UConn freshman defensive back Jeremy Lucian couldn’t hold on to what would have been an interception in the end zone and URI wide receiver Marvin Beauvais giddily waved his hands incomplete. As if he had broken up a pass to Rob Gronkowski in the Super Bowl. Sheesh.

Edsall said he saw players with more confidence in the fourth quarter. Maybe that manifests itself in the coming games. Maybe it doesn’t.

“What matters is we made big plays when we needed them,” Edsall said. “Eli made big plays.” Again, truth. Edsall said they had experimented in preseason

when Thomas did drills on one-on-one pass rush with the offensive line.

“We put that in this week to help us a little bit on third down,” Edsall said. “This is a constant evolution of trying to get the best mix, the best packages of guys we can for all different scenarios we might see.

“Putting him and Darrian (Beavers) in there, making that move with Beavers (from linebacker to defensive end) and putting James (Atkins) and Lwal (Uguak) inside, and also Pierce (DeVaughn) we got in there this week,” Edsall said. “We had to find a way to get more speed on the field on third down and generate a pass rush without having to blitz all the time.

“Maybe that’s something we look at on first and second downs.”

Edsall thought Pindell fatigued a little in the second half. Running around, getting 137 yards with his feet and 308 with his arm — the first guy to do that since Bryant Shirreffs in 2015 — Pindell said he did start to cramp.

“(Accounting for) six TDs, we better get him an IV or do something to get

fluids,” Edsall said. “If it wasn’t for him I don’t know where we’d be.”

Edsall said he studied some analytics on fourth down. He said his gut told him he couldn’t settle for field goals. He was right. UConn went 4-for-4 on fourth down and would need every one of its eight touchdowns. At that point, Edsall started talking about the need not to play tentatively, especially on defense, that it’s a game and not life and death.

“I won’t even get into something that happened at halftime,” Edsall said, out of the blue. “It kind of concerned me a little bit. Well, not a little bit, a lot.”

Edsall wouldn’t elaborate. Kevin Mensah — who rushed for 144 yards and joined with Pindell to give UConn the first 1-2 100-yard rushing punch since Jordan Todman and Robbie Frei in 2010 — said there was no fiery speech.

“The coaches came in and made adjustments at halftime and we bought in,” Thomas added. “We did our job. Everybody believed.”

Pindell played at Lackawanna College. Thomas, who has overcome a slew of

injuries to get back on the field, played at Lackawanna, too. Truth is, UConn defenders have lacked a wanna on defense too much this season. Not Saturday.

“Young dudes” came up big, Pindell said. “And Eli stepped up and made a play.”

Omar Fortt, who missed the game with concussion symptoms, is expected to be back against Syracuse next week. But Tahj Herring-Wilson and Marshe Terry went out with ankle injuries and their availability is uncertain. Edsall said freshman Messiah Turner came in and he liked his confidence.

“We didn’t tackle as well as I hoped,” Edsall said. “Some of it’s strength. Some technique.”

Asked whether UConn is simply going to have to outscore people, Edsall answered, “That’s the way it looks right now. But we did get some critical stops. Bottom line, we won the game. That’s all I care about. And I’ll have another iced tea.”