sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Welcome to National Hot Mulled Cider Day!
Today is National Hot Mulled Cider Day! Hot mulled cider is a delicious drink perfectly suited for crisp September afternoons. Apple cider is produced using a cider press and is a time-honored favorite of the autumn season.
To make mulled cider, slowly add brown sugar to apple cider in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until all the sugar has dissolved. Add other ingredients such as nutmeg, allspice, orange juice, and lemon juice, and bring to a boil. Strain out the spices, pour into a mug, and add a cinnamon stick.
Enjoy National Hot Mulled Cider Day as you sip on your homemade brew!
SU News
How Does SU Football Look After 4 Games? (thejuice; Stechschulte)
The opening third of the Syracuse football season has passed on schedule and not just in that every game was on played at the time and date posted on the schedule. The Orange started out with three wins in games in which they were favored, then suffered their first loss to an elite team in #8 LSU. Even with that loss, there is a lot to like about what SU has shown to this point.
There is no quit on the team.
In spite of LSU’s dominance on paper (and in reality with Leonard Fournette in the backfield), Syracuse continued to fight on the field throughout the game. With Zack Mahoney starting at quarterback, the team showed up from the opening kick and gave their all, never once letting the gap be more than two possessions until late in the fourth. Even then, they marched for a score and forced the Tigers to cover an onside kick to keep things from getting more interesting.
The week prior, the Carrier Dome turf may as well have been an island in the second half with the length of time the Orange defensive unit was stranded on it, as Central Michigan ran 46 offensive plays compared to SU’s 17 in the third and fourth quarters. With all that stress and time on the field, the defense held up enough to get the game to overtime. (Yes, you are free to say they “blew the lead”, but they got almost literally nothing from the offense, which generated zero first downs in that half.) After all that, they still forced a field goal in overtime, giving their offensive mates a chance to win the game on the ensuing possession. The offense did just that, notching the score that had eluded them the previous two quarters.
The playcalling is not offensive.
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Breaking Down Defensive Play-Calling vs. LSU (TNIAAM; Tahmosh)
Is it weird to be encouraged by a run defense that just gave up 268 yards on 6.4 yards per carry? Probably, but stay with me.
We don't usually track opposing players in the defensive breakdowns, since it doesn't typically serve our purposes of evaluating the Orange defense. But this week, I decided to track plays where Leonard Fournette got touches and non-Fournette plays, not to gush over the Heisman frontrunner some more (we've already done enough of that for the year), but to prove that this defense can actually hang with a real offense ... just not with superhuman running backs like Fournette (note: there are no other running backs like Fournette).
The results were encouraging. And when you consider the fact that the offensive line didn't change, and the backup running backs for LSU are extremely highly-rated recruits as well, it means the SU defense can play against real competition and the dominant early-season rushing numbers probably weren't a fluke.
Fournette tallied 27 touches in the contest, and abused the Orange defense to the tune of 251 total yards (9.3 yards per play). Don't try to fool yourself that his production was limited to a few big plays either - 16 of his 27 touches (59.3%) went for at least 5 yards. He thoroughly dominated Syracuse, but that's nothing to be ashamed of, as he's going to dominate nearly every defense he plays this year, most likely.
On the flip side, when Fournette didn't touch the ball on the 31 other plays, LSU only gained 173 yards (5.6 yards per play). And in the first half in particular, SU held non-Fournette LSU to just 24 yards on 14 plays (1.7 yards per play). The 5.6 yards per play is on par with the 5.7 yards per play Central Michigan averaged last week and the 5.4 yards per play Wake Forest averaged, meaning Syracuse played just as well against LSU as it did against its other FBS competition, with the exception of Fournette.
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Breaking Down Offensive Play-Calling vs, LSU (TNIAAM; Cassillo)
Syracuse lost to LSU this past Saturday, but the game was not only watchable -- it was fun too. Beyond the first quarter, this was an Orange offense worth sticking around for, and they fought until the end. We'll get into specifics below, recapping a surprisingly enjoyable afternoon of offensive execution from SU against the vaunted Tigers defense.
First Quarter
DRIVE 1
Time Down Ball Run/Pass Player Direction Result
14:54 1st and 10 SYR 37 Run McFarlane Off Tackle L 0 Yard Gain
14:15 2nd and 10 SYR 37 Pass Ishmael Short R 7 Yard Gain
13:38 3rd and 3 SYR 44 PENALTY (Illegal Formation) Lewis N/A 5 Yard Loss
13:12 3rd and 8 SYR 39 Run; Fumble Mahoney Off Tackle L 2 Yard Gain
DRIVE 2
Time Down Ball Run/Pass Player Direction Result
8:19 1st and 10 SYR 47 Play Action; Pass Mahoney Short R Incomplete (Lewis)
8:15 2nd and 10 SYR 47 Direct Snap; Run Fredericks Dive R 2 Yard Gain
7:36 3rd and 8 SYR 49 Pass Mahoney Mid Range R Incomplete (Lewis)
DRIVE 3
Time Down Ball Run/Pass Player Direction Result
3:49 1st and 10 SYR 27 Run McFarlane Off Tackle L 3 Yard Gain
3:11 2nd and 7 SYR 30 Play Action; Pass Mahoney Screen R Incomplete (Estime)
3:06 3rd and 7 SYR 30 Pass; Sack Mahoney N/A 8 Yard Loss
DRIVE 4
Time Down Ball Run/Pass Player Direction Result
0:38 1st and 10 LSU 47 Run Fredericks End R 2 Yard Gain
0:01 2nd and 8 LSU 45 Pass Mahoney Short R Incomplete
Play-Call Breakdown: 6 passes, 5 runs
Through one quarter of this game, I was losing my goddamn mind. "More passes than runs, with ZACK MAHONEY at QB?!" I screamed at the television. Given this team's success running the ball through the season's first four games -- spurred on by the QB position, really -- it made zero sense to suddenly lean on the pass, especially when putting the more mobile of the team's two passer options under center. Mahoney looked jittery throwing the ball early, completing just one throw (the first one). I try not to wonder how this game could've gone differently with a different approach to start off.
Second Quarter
15:00 3rd and 8 LSU 45 Option; Run Strickland End L 5 Yard Gain
14:16 4th and 3 LSU 40 Play Action; Pass Mahoney Short R Incomplete (Strickland)
DRIVE 5
Time Down Ball Run/Pass Player Direction Result
11:40 1st and 10 SYR 40 Pass Estime Mid Range L 10 Yard Gain
11:16 1st and 10 LSU 50 Direct Snap; Run Fredericks Off Tackle L 3 Yard Gain
10:33 2nd and 7 LSU 47 Option; Run Estime End R 1 Yard Gain
9:51 3rd and 6 LSU 46 Pass Parris Short R 5 Yard Gain
9:09 4th and 1 LSU 41 Direct Snap; Run Fredericks Dive R 10 Yard Gain
8:39 1st and 10 LSU 31 Option; Run Morris End L 2 Yard Loss
7:53 2nd and 12 LSU 33 Pass Mahoney Deep R Incomplete (Estime)
7:48 3rd and 12 LSU 33 Run Morris Counter L 7 Yard Gain
7:04 4th and 5 LSU 26 Field Goal Murphy N/A FG is Good
DRIVE 6
Time Down Ball Run/Pass Player Direction Result
4:16 1st and 10 SYR 26 Run Morris Dive L 5 Yard Gain
3:32 2nd and 5 SYR 31 Run Morris Off Tackle L 7 Yard Gain
2:58 1st and 10 SYR 38 Reverse; Run Estime End L 8 Yard Gain
2:14 2nd and 2 SYR 46 Pass Mahoney Screen L Incomplete (Morris)
2:10 3rd and 2 SYR 46 Run Morris Dive L 5 Yard Gain
1:37 1st and 10 LSU 49 PENALTY (Pass Interference) Jefferson N/A 14 Yard Gain
1:31 1st and 10 LSU 35 Run Fredericks Off Tackle L 6 Yard Gain
0:52 2nd and 4 LSU 29 Direct Snap; Run Fredericks Dive L 2 Yard Loss
0:44 3rd and 6 LSU 31 Pass Lewis Screen R 2 Yard Gain
0:38 4th and 4 LSU 29 Fake FG; Run Dixon End R 5 Yard Gain
0:13 1st and 10 LSU 24 Play Action; Pass Parris Mid Range R 11 Yard Gain
0:07 1st and 10 LSU 13 Pass Mahoney Mid Range M Incomplete (Ishmael)
0:03 2nd and 10 LSU 13 Field Goal Murphy N/A FG is No Good
Play-Call Breakdown: 13 runs, 8 passes
Other
New Home of Super Dirt Week to Be Announced Today, Rumors Point to Central New York Raceway Park in Hastings (PS; Moriarty)
The new home of Super DIRT Week won't be far from the New York State Fairgrounds, where it has been held since the five-day racing spectacular started 43 years ago.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to announce the location of the event's new home during a press conference tomorrow at the fairgrounds. And there are strong indications it will be Central New York Raceway Park, the big racing complex being built in the Oswego County town of Hastings by Glenn Donnelly, the entrepreneur who started Super DIRT Week and ran it for 33 years.
"I can tell you it will be in Central New York," said Jeff Hachmann, Northeast director for World Racing Group, the Concord, N.C., organization that bought the event from Donnelly 10 years ago. "It's going to be in the vicinity of the fairgrounds."
Asked if it will be Donnelly's new race park, Hachmann said, "Surely, that's one of the options that has been discussed. It's one of multiple options that's been discussed."
Central New York Raceway Park is being built in a 150-acre field between Route 11 and Interstate 81, just 17 miles north of Syracuse and a 30-minute drive from the fairgrounds in Geddes. Clusters of hotels and restaurants are just a short drive south into Onondaga County.
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