Fordham Scrimmage (2/25)

After almost canceling the scrimmage in the face of weather forecasts predicting rain, snow and 40 mph wind gusts, we decided to forge ahead. And it's a good thing we did as the skies were sunny and the winds were only light to moderate all afternoon.

Since this was a scrimmage, the scoreline isn't too important, but after trading points to 4-4, NYU made a run to take half 8-5. We let them back in the game, 8-7, after two excruciatingly long points that saw us with the disc on the goal line 15-20 times, only to fail at executing our endzone plays every single time. 2.5 hours into the game, we decided to cap it at 13, then NYU pulled away to win 13-8. Fordham has about 4 good to very good players, then there's a big drop off. We were missing about 4 solid second-string players, or else we would have had significantly more depth than them. If we want to be the type of team we want to be -- one that wins the Section and wins games at Regionals -- we'll have to beat teams like Fordham much much more quickly...

...And we could have done so. We knew throwing was not a strength of the team, but the numbers of bad throws, even by our experienced handlers, was unacceptable. And the drops, many by our best receivers, were baffling. There were many times where we executed proper, though slow, swing cuts but our handlers simply missed the wide-open swing cutters. As a result, we didn't get many opportunities to demonstrate just how effective the dump-swing is. Which brings me to the dumps: grade "F." Granted, we didn't have the time in practice to devote to dumps that we would have liked, but again, it was often our experienced handlers who messed them up. The cuts were tentative, like they didn’t really want the disc. And on the dump passes were extremely wild. Instead of floating them out into space ahead of the dump cutter, our handlers often waited until the the dump cutter already made their cut, then they would try to gun the pass into a small, difficult space. And for some reason, we're obsessed with the up-the-line dump cut -- and oftentimes rightfully so, because it worked. However, our handlers automatically make that up-the-line pass whether it's open or not, instead of realizing that the ace is coming back to be the dump's fill. A couple other common mistakes by the handlers include waiting too long to throw to cutters coming in from the stack, and not making the open huck throw. We also need to clear up the confusion about when they should look dump when trapped -- we usually waited too long. Part of the problem results from the lack of a good system before this year. Our handlers are better at hitting vertical cutters than they are moving the disc horizontally. In fairness, I've seen each handler play infinitely better last fall and summer than they did on Saturday.

The cutters had a difficult time comprehending just how short the stack is supposed to be. But after a half-time lecture from Ken and me, they got it, which was good since stacking was our main goal for the day. As a result, we were able to repeatedly burn Fordham, who were fronting on D, with immediate hucks off the stopped disc, even with less than perfect hucks. The cutters had the same problems the handlers had when trapped or looking to dump.

The endzone plays also get an "F," for those two aforementioned points alone -- mental mistakes and a failure to execute simple throws. But that's just more practice, because they were a strength of the team in the fall.

There were a handful of instances where we executed parts of the offense successfully, but we seemed to get nervous or impatient after doing so and we rarely followed it up with the next step.

Our defense was better, as to be expected as there are fewer brand-new concepts with it than there are with our offense. Plus athleticism is much more our strength than throwing. Force-middle man-D improved steadily as the game progressed and we learned how be more active on the mark. The marks still need work and we need better fronting from our downfield defenders. Our trap-cup also improved dramatically as the game progressed. We knew we'd need an actual game to get the players to fully understand how it works. We need to be faster, fix the holes, and get the trap-side wing player to cover her wing responsibility first before joining the cup. Sarah and Amanda stood out on defense, and of course Mia who D'd a lot of deep throws, and Marley was a pleasant surprise -- she's faster than we realized (now that her injury is improving) and has a better understanding of the game too.

Overall, the mistakes with running the system and the plays were understandable as this was our first competitive game and we didn't have much practice time. Still we had even more poor throwing and drops and other simple mistakes than even I expected with my modest expectations. But it was a very productive day, because now we know what we need to work on as we head into the first official games next weekend at Atlantis.