UConn Defeats R.I.
Quarterback Accounts For Six TDs As Huskies Hold On For First Victory
The Huskies get their first win of the season, 56-49 over the Rams, and David Pindell, above, is the hero with six touchdowns.
EAST HARTFORD — UConn scored eight touchdowns Saturday afternoon at Rentschler Field and needed every single one of them.
The Huskies prevailed 56-49 in a shootout against Rhode Island that featured 15 touchdowns, more than 1,000 yards of total offense, several ugly turnovers and enough missed tackles and open receivers to make any defensive coach cringe.
The Huskies’ victory did not resolve questions about the team’s work-in-progress defense or erase the memory of two season-opening blowouts, but it did give Randy Edsall’s team a much-needed first win of the season. The fact it came against a lower-division FCS opponent felt almost beside the point.
Quarterback David Pindell played hero for the Huskies on Saturday, passing for 308 yards and rushing for 144 more, while accounting for six total touchdowns. Repeatedly, he dodged Rhode Island defenders in open spaces and planted perfect passes into the arms of his receivers. Outside of one third-quarter interception, he was nearly flawless.
“If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know where we would be,” Edsall said after the game. “When we needed things to
happen, he made them happen.”
As Pindell enjoyed a big day, Huskies running back Kevin Mensah added a career high 144 yards on the ground, giving UConn its first pair of 100-yard rushers since Jordan Todman and Robbie Frey both hit triple digits in a 2010 game against Texas Southern. It was Mensah who supplied the Huskies their decisive score with less than a minute to play, on a 22-yard rush up the middle of the Rhode Island defense.
UConn’s problems, as has been the case all season, came on defense. The Huskies failed to force a single third down in the first half, stopping Rhode Island only once — on a diving interception from freshman safety Oneil Robinson. Things didn’t go much better for the UConn D after halftime, when the Rams erased a two-touchdown deficit to tie the score at 49 late in the fourth quarter.
Following Mensah’s go-ahead score, Rhode Island marched down the field to the UConn 16-yard line before a sack from junior linebacker Eli Thomas as time expired iced the game for the Huskies.
“We were nervous on the sideline,” Pindell said. “But after that sack it was a big relief off our shoulders.”
Mensah said he was just happy to see smiles on the sideline after the final whistle.
“Just to see how far we came from January to our first victory is very touching and emotional a little bit,” he said. “Because we’re all young, and we’re just working to get better.”
Most of UConn’s scoring came in the first half, when the Huskies reached the end zone on all six of their first-half drives. By the break, Pindell had completed 14 of his 17 passes for 246 yards and four touchdowns. He connected on a deep ball to Heron Maurisseau on which the Rhode Island defender fell down, placed two pinpoint passes to Hergy Mayala in the end zone and a found Aaron McLean for a nifty catch near the goal line. Rushing touchdowns in the first and fourth quarters rounded out Pindell’s impressive day.
Pindell’s performance Saturday underlined just how dramatically he has improved since last season, when he completed only 52.8 percent of his passes and threw more interceptions than touchdowns. The quarterback credited offensive coordinator John Dunn with helping him understand football at a deeper level.
“I felt really comfortable,” Pindell said. “When you know what’s going on and you know the offense really well, it makes the game much slower for you.”
Thanks largely to Pindell’s quick decision-making, UConn converted on eight of its 15 third downs and on all four of its fourth down attempts.
By the end of the game, UConn had accounted for 573 yards of total offense, compared to 550 for Rhode Island. Rams quarterback JaJuan Lawson finished 23 of 31 for 351 yards and four touchdowns. Rhode Island helped the Huskies by committing seven penalties, many of them personal fouls, that gave UConn an extra 82 yards on the afternoon.
UConn suffered several significant injuries during Saturday’s game, with cornerback Tahj Herring-Wilson and linebacker Marshe Terry both suffering ankle injuries that could threaten their availability for next week’s game at Syracuse. In addition, safety Oneil Robinson cramped up during the second half and Ryan Crozier endured a bloody nose.
The Huskies could have scored even more points Saturday if not for several costly turnovers. Along with Pindell’s interception, UConn gave the ball away on a third-quarter fumble by Maurisseau on a botched end-around play and on a high snap in the red zone early in the fourth.
Edsall acknowledged after the game that the Huskies have plenty to work on, particularly on defense, but he also praised his team’s effort. In the end, he said, he’ll take a victory wherever he can get one.
“I’m just happy for our kids to get a win,” Edsall said. “It doesn’t matter how we got it. The bottom line is we won.”