HUSKIES HUMBLED
After holding the Golden Hurricane scoreless in the 1st quarter, UConn gives up TDs on 7 straight drives
UConn is thrashed, 49-19, by a 1-7 Tulsa team on Saturday.
TULSA, OKLA. – UConn’s loss at Tulsa on Saturday night featured all the hallmarks of Huskies football in 2018.
A disappearing offense. A porous defense. Glaring mistakes. And ultimately, a lopsided score.
The 49-19 defeat was UConn’s sixth straight overall and its 13th straight against FBS opponents. It dropped the Huskies to 1-8 on the season, worst in the American Athletic Conference. It was their sixth loss this year with a margin of at least 30 points. And it came against a Tulsa team had previously failed to record an FBS victory.
“For some of these (players) it’s not important enough,” coach Randy Edsall said. “And until it becomes important enough or until I can go and recruit more guys, that’s what’s going to happen.”
Edsall — who has taken a big-picture view in recent weeks, saying wins and losses were not his top short-term priority — said the Huskies’ program had lost some
of the elements that made it successful last decade.
“One thing this program lost was its toughness, its grit, its chip on the shoulder,” Edsall said. “It lost ‘play every play like it’s the last play you’re ever going to play.’ We don’t play with that heart, we don’t play with that urgency every play.”
Saturday’s game seemed to get worse for the Huskies as it progressed. After holding Tulsa scoreless in the first quarter, UConn gave up touchdowns on seven straight drives, ceding one big play after another.
Postgame, Edsall and players harped on the same theme: UConn’s inability to bounce back when something goes wrong.
“It’s been an all-year-long thing,” receiver Kyle Buss said. “It’s been the biggest problem with our team. One thing goes wrong, and it’s a domino effect. We don’t know how to handle adversity as a team. Offense, defense, special teams.
“One bad thing and guys start to hang their heads. Instead of worrying about the next play and what they’re supposed to do on the next play, they’re sulking about the previous play. And then it just continues to happen play after play, and before we know it, we’re down 30 points.”
Edsall said he asked the players in the locker room why they couldn’t seem to rebound from bad breaks and received no satisfying response. Quarterback David Pindell, for one, was at a loss to explain the phenomenon.
“I can’t really speak on that because it happens weekly,” Pindell said. “So you don’t really know what’s going on. You try to ask the players, and they don’t have an answer for it. And I don’t have an answer for it either.”
Offensive miscues piled up quickly Saturday for the Huskies. Pindell overthrew a wide-open Hergy Mayala at the goal line as time expired in the first half, turning an easy seven points into none. Receiver Keyion Dixon dropped a ball right in his hands early in the third quarter. Minutes later, UConn was forced to punt on fourth-and-40 thanks to three holding penalties. In the fourth quarter, running back Zavier Scott stunted a Huskies drive with a fumble.
Whereas UConn’s offense appeared to be affected by dense, steady rain, Tulsa’s had no trouble racking up yardage. The Golden Hurricane outgained the Huskies 638-487 on the night, as quarterback Seth Boomer threw four touchdowns and running backs Shamari Brooks and Corey Taylor II combined for 284 yards rushing.
By the final whistle, it was easy to forget that UConn had started the night strong, with an 80-yard Buss catch-and-run from Pindell and two Michael Tarbutt field goals sandwiched around a Tulsa touchdown. Early in the second quarter, the Huskies had a 13-7 lead.
But things began to go wrong after that and just kept going wrong from there.
In the second quarter alone, Tulsa gained more than 200 rushing yards, with individual rushes of 48, 32 and 30 yards. Down 28-13 with six seconds to play before halftime, UConn could have kept the game close heading into the break, but Pindell’s overthrow of Mayala sent them to the locker room on a down note.
Tulsa began the third quarter with a seven-play, 75-yard touch- down drive, then followed that with two more scores. Even when the Golden Hurricane turned to its reserves, the Huskies struggled for stops: Tulsa running back TK Wilkerson gained 79 yards on his first career carry early in the fourth quarter.
By the time Pindell found tight end Tyler Davis for a 3-yard touchdown reception in the final minute, the game had long ago been decided.
“Guys don’t believe in themselves, don’t have the confidence in themselves,” Edsall said. “You go down and move things, and then all of a sudden something bad happens and they can’t put it behind them and move forward.”
Edsall left Pindell in at quarterback until the final whistle, declining to audition freshman Steven Krajewski, though he did give freshman running back Dante Black his first career carry (which went for 3 yards).
Pindell finished the game 14 of 28 for 232 yards with two touchdowns and one interception while gaining 150 additional yards on the ground. Running back Kevin Mensah added 65 yards on 15 carries. Buss posted UConn’s most impressive stat line, with six catches for 129 yards.
Scott, cornerback Tahj Herring-Wilson and safety Messiah Turner all exited with apparent injuries and did not return to the field.
Having lost to UMass and Tulsa the past two weeks, UConn finds itself in danger of losing 11 games for the first time since joining the FBS level in 2000. The Huskies close the season at home against SMU, at East Carolina and at home against Temple.