sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Ended up skipping the Fine Mess tailgate to meet some friends early in the Dome. Not a great idea Saturday. It was a sunny day and was 80 degrees out, so inside the Dome it was more like 90, with high humidity. I drsnk 4 waters and was still severely dehydrated by the end of the game. It didn't help that I sit in row YY, 2 rooms from the top of the Dome. On the subject of water, I was charged $4 per bottle. Not a great idea to rip people off on water when asking them to tolerate conditions like we gad to sit through Saturday. Conditions were bad and I was soaked with sweat all game long.
Much to my surprise, the crowd was bigger than the previous two games. Looked like there was a promotion for Brownies and Girl Scouts that helped pad the numbers. CMU looked like they brought 50-100 people; no surprise there. The students looked to have maybe 150 people show up. It was the smallest turnout for them I have ever seen in the Dome and I think it might be the worst attendance by the students since Archbold Stadium was built in 1907. The people that came were great and deserve a lot of credit for the support and noise they contributed.
10 tubas again. Not great but we have seen far worse. Last year, for instance. The same Beatles based halftime show again. The marching is ambitious and well executed. Still sad the tubas have stopped free lance single file dancing off the field. The great Orange Girl who dazzled us for several years is gone. The new one shows some promise but needs work to be P5 worthy. Some dude sang the NA with the SUMB and wasn't half bad.
The bell continues to be featured but the train horn returned. Based on the in person reactions in 302,bthis was really popular. The sinus system was a little better. Bob from Ohio could sometimes understand what was being said. But work needs to be done here. The out of town scoreboard on the ribbon scoreboards showed scores from about 2:30 pm all game long. The same scores. Never updated. For 4 hours. If you can be bothered to update it, it would be best not to show scores at all. I am glad someone is trying, but more effort is needed. Also wish the game stats were showed more often, or better yet, space was reserved on the ribbon scoreboards to show out of town scores and game stats throughout the game, instead of occasionally being showed. One gets the impression the AD is over its head. On that topic, I hate the new compete with Otto promotion. Otto is apparently not allowed to even try and the race and push up contests have been farces. I still long for a Hoffman's promo where hot dog, coney, sausage and brat race, like the Nationals do with presidents. Thought the punt, pass kick promo had promise but didn't see it Saturday. I like the throwing of shirts after TDs thing they have started. That seems popular.
I don't smoke and have almost never left the Dome during a game so it doesn't affect me, but why the change in policy so people who leave the Dome will not be allowed back in? What is the problem with accommodating fans? No wifi, awful carrier signals, single game tickets with prices of $30-$40...no wonder people don't want to go to the games.
Enough complaining. Let's talk about the football game.
I think most games in the Babers era, we have seen a strong start on offense, then a gradual fizzle down, which I have assumed happened as they transitioned from the pre-scripted Babers calls to whoever makes the calls on the fly during games. Saturday was different, as the offense started slowly and struggled pretty much the whole 1st game, before super nova exploding in the third quarter. So that was good to see, I guess.
There was a lot of emphasis on establishing the running game again, and again, it was largely unsuccessful, at least for a good while, which ended up keeping The Hof busy for most of the first half. Hof was incidentally outstanding all game long and is looking really good at this point in the season. As in the past, SU was forced to run the ball with Dungey a lot to get a running game going. He did a good job here but the RBs did little for quite a while. And then, everything changed.
I don't know if it was the heat. Or something that clicked with the young OL. Or if a light bulb went on with the RBs. Or if CMU just had a bad DL and bad LBs. But suddenly, SU started to get yards running. Not just 4 or 5 yards. Big gains. If you told me before the game SU was going run run for 300 yards, I would have laughed. But it happened. And I am very curious if it is going to happen again anytime soon.
I think CMU, who surely had less depth than SU, just got worn down and broken in the oppressive humidity and heat. But we should know the answer more clearly in the coming weeks. It would be great if this was the case, as it is a primary reason to run a fast offense.
SU started the game short Custis, one of its starting outside WRs. They appeared to address this by moving Philips to the outside, and starting Riley inside in Ervin's place. I was surprised to see this, thought with Butler and A Johnson, we were okay with depth at outside WR. Anyway, Philips got hurt and missed a big part of the game. That meant Riley got a ton of playing time and SU largely played with only one outside WR, who was almost always Ishmael. Props to Riley for taking advantage of the added PT and really playing well. You can make an argument he was our MVP; he did major damage Nykeim Johnson got some snaps inside, and Butler played some, but the guy who ended up playing the most as a result of the injuries was TE Pierce. He scored a TD and had a couple of other catches, did some good things blocking but also took a couple of really stupid penalties that had me shaking my head. Thought Butler looked promising but he alligator armed a catchable ball and looked kind of scared out there. Didn't see A Johnson play a snap, though he might have gotten in there a little. Ishmael got a lot of passes thrown his way, and I thought he was going to finally get a TD after a long drought but he continues to have something bad happen every time he has a chance to score, Still, he played well and had some big time catches to save the bacon.
Sam Heckel went down early and when he punched the turf repeatedly, it looked bad for him. But he returned the next series and played well. Servais really seemed to play well, Adams looked solid and the tackles appeared to have good games too. Good to see.
Don't understand why Dungey played so late into the game again and don't understand why he was running the ball late either. No need for that.
Thought Cole Murphy rebounded from a bad game to play well, though he had to rely on a good bounce off an upright to get a PAT to count. Also had a KO go OB but overall, he kicked off well and looked good. CMU had a punter who kicked every punt low and short and every time, the ball seemed to bounce and bounce and get by our PRs and end up getting good yardage. After the fumble last game, I think our PRs were told only catch it if you know you have it, do not take any chances. They kicked off short too and Ruff, standing on the 25 yard line, ended up with a couple returns.
On defense, Zaire Franklin played great. We all just assume this each game, but he was dominating and might have had his best game at SU. Bennett got hurt and limped off, and it seemed right after that, the performance of the defense fell apart for a while. But Paris returned to the game and things seemed to settle down again almost immediately. He is that important to the team. Slayton again looked really good. Robinson plays more each game and I think he is pretty much a starter at DE now, with Josh Black coming in on passing downs. Robinson is our best pash rusher, I think, by a large margin. Slayton continues to have a dominating OOC season. Big, fast and nasty. In the backfield seemingly every play. Nice. Thomas had some nice plays too and Valdez subbed in to keep things fresh when LBs needed a break. He can play too. Armstrong got quite a lot of PT but had 2 bad penalties. I guess young players sometimes try too hard and that is what appears to be happening with him.
The secondary was a mixed bag. I thought Fredericks rebounded from a bad game against MTST with a really strong game. I thought Bradshaw had a really quiet game, which generally means he also played pretty well. Foster screwed up an angle attacking a pass that led to a TD and had a couple of mistakes but he also had an interception for a TD and some nice hits. Martin, taking over for Cordy at FS, looked adequate but unsure of himself. I think he will get better as he learns how to play FS. Rodney Williams makes plays when he is in. Period. And Butler the DB has become the nickel back, got a lot of PT and I think played well there. He is a big reason CMU struggled to move the ball. Impressive player.
Overall, the defense had a terrific game and looks vastly improved. Yes, this was only CMU but to dominate games against good teams, you have to dominate games against bad ones. And I thought the SU defense was pretty dominant Saturday.
Good win. Dungey jawed with chippy Chippewas most of the game and I think he won most of those battles, as well as the ones on the field. No doubt the added strength is making him harder to mess with on running plays. Hope it ends up keeping his healthy all season long.
LSU suddenly looks like a game we have a chance to win. Pittsburgh looked horrific against Okie State; they have the same awful defense and now their offense, missing some key players and their gifted OC, are all gone. Maybe the dream of a bowl game is not over just yet.
Unfortnately, Matt Canada, the Pitt OC last year, is now at LSU. That guy can coach and I do not look forward to what he is going to do next week. Let's hope their QB has a bad game.
War Damn Otto. I am out.
Much to my surprise, the crowd was bigger than the previous two games. Looked like there was a promotion for Brownies and Girl Scouts that helped pad the numbers. CMU looked like they brought 50-100 people; no surprise there. The students looked to have maybe 150 people show up. It was the smallest turnout for them I have ever seen in the Dome and I think it might be the worst attendance by the students since Archbold Stadium was built in 1907. The people that came were great and deserve a lot of credit for the support and noise they contributed.
10 tubas again. Not great but we have seen far worse. Last year, for instance. The same Beatles based halftime show again. The marching is ambitious and well executed. Still sad the tubas have stopped free lance single file dancing off the field. The great Orange Girl who dazzled us for several years is gone. The new one shows some promise but needs work to be P5 worthy. Some dude sang the NA with the SUMB and wasn't half bad.
The bell continues to be featured but the train horn returned. Based on the in person reactions in 302,bthis was really popular. The sinus system was a little better. Bob from Ohio could sometimes understand what was being said. But work needs to be done here. The out of town scoreboard on the ribbon scoreboards showed scores from about 2:30 pm all game long. The same scores. Never updated. For 4 hours. If you can be bothered to update it, it would be best not to show scores at all. I am glad someone is trying, but more effort is needed. Also wish the game stats were showed more often, or better yet, space was reserved on the ribbon scoreboards to show out of town scores and game stats throughout the game, instead of occasionally being showed. One gets the impression the AD is over its head. On that topic, I hate the new compete with Otto promotion. Otto is apparently not allowed to even try and the race and push up contests have been farces. I still long for a Hoffman's promo where hot dog, coney, sausage and brat race, like the Nationals do with presidents. Thought the punt, pass kick promo had promise but didn't see it Saturday. I like the throwing of shirts after TDs thing they have started. That seems popular.
I don't smoke and have almost never left the Dome during a game so it doesn't affect me, but why the change in policy so people who leave the Dome will not be allowed back in? What is the problem with accommodating fans? No wifi, awful carrier signals, single game tickets with prices of $30-$40...no wonder people don't want to go to the games.
Enough complaining. Let's talk about the football game.
I think most games in the Babers era, we have seen a strong start on offense, then a gradual fizzle down, which I have assumed happened as they transitioned from the pre-scripted Babers calls to whoever makes the calls on the fly during games. Saturday was different, as the offense started slowly and struggled pretty much the whole 1st game, before super nova exploding in the third quarter. So that was good to see, I guess.
There was a lot of emphasis on establishing the running game again, and again, it was largely unsuccessful, at least for a good while, which ended up keeping The Hof busy for most of the first half. Hof was incidentally outstanding all game long and is looking really good at this point in the season. As in the past, SU was forced to run the ball with Dungey a lot to get a running game going. He did a good job here but the RBs did little for quite a while. And then, everything changed.
I don't know if it was the heat. Or something that clicked with the young OL. Or if a light bulb went on with the RBs. Or if CMU just had a bad DL and bad LBs. But suddenly, SU started to get yards running. Not just 4 or 5 yards. Big gains. If you told me before the game SU was going run run for 300 yards, I would have laughed. But it happened. And I am very curious if it is going to happen again anytime soon.
I think CMU, who surely had less depth than SU, just got worn down and broken in the oppressive humidity and heat. But we should know the answer more clearly in the coming weeks. It would be great if this was the case, as it is a primary reason to run a fast offense.
SU started the game short Custis, one of its starting outside WRs. They appeared to address this by moving Philips to the outside, and starting Riley inside in Ervin's place. I was surprised to see this, thought with Butler and A Johnson, we were okay with depth at outside WR. Anyway, Philips got hurt and missed a big part of the game. That meant Riley got a ton of playing time and SU largely played with only one outside WR, who was almost always Ishmael. Props to Riley for taking advantage of the added PT and really playing well. You can make an argument he was our MVP; he did major damage Nykeim Johnson got some snaps inside, and Butler played some, but the guy who ended up playing the most as a result of the injuries was TE Pierce. He scored a TD and had a couple of other catches, did some good things blocking but also took a couple of really stupid penalties that had me shaking my head. Thought Butler looked promising but he alligator armed a catchable ball and looked kind of scared out there. Didn't see A Johnson play a snap, though he might have gotten in there a little. Ishmael got a lot of passes thrown his way, and I thought he was going to finally get a TD after a long drought but he continues to have something bad happen every time he has a chance to score, Still, he played well and had some big time catches to save the bacon.
Sam Heckel went down early and when he punched the turf repeatedly, it looked bad for him. But he returned the next series and played well. Servais really seemed to play well, Adams looked solid and the tackles appeared to have good games too. Good to see.
Don't understand why Dungey played so late into the game again and don't understand why he was running the ball late either. No need for that.
Thought Cole Murphy rebounded from a bad game to play well, though he had to rely on a good bounce off an upright to get a PAT to count. Also had a KO go OB but overall, he kicked off well and looked good. CMU had a punter who kicked every punt low and short and every time, the ball seemed to bounce and bounce and get by our PRs and end up getting good yardage. After the fumble last game, I think our PRs were told only catch it if you know you have it, do not take any chances. They kicked off short too and Ruff, standing on the 25 yard line, ended up with a couple returns.
On defense, Zaire Franklin played great. We all just assume this each game, but he was dominating and might have had his best game at SU. Bennett got hurt and limped off, and it seemed right after that, the performance of the defense fell apart for a while. But Paris returned to the game and things seemed to settle down again almost immediately. He is that important to the team. Slayton again looked really good. Robinson plays more each game and I think he is pretty much a starter at DE now, with Josh Black coming in on passing downs. Robinson is our best pash rusher, I think, by a large margin. Slayton continues to have a dominating OOC season. Big, fast and nasty. In the backfield seemingly every play. Nice. Thomas had some nice plays too and Valdez subbed in to keep things fresh when LBs needed a break. He can play too. Armstrong got quite a lot of PT but had 2 bad penalties. I guess young players sometimes try too hard and that is what appears to be happening with him.
The secondary was a mixed bag. I thought Fredericks rebounded from a bad game against MTST with a really strong game. I thought Bradshaw had a really quiet game, which generally means he also played pretty well. Foster screwed up an angle attacking a pass that led to a TD and had a couple of mistakes but he also had an interception for a TD and some nice hits. Martin, taking over for Cordy at FS, looked adequate but unsure of himself. I think he will get better as he learns how to play FS. Rodney Williams makes plays when he is in. Period. And Butler the DB has become the nickel back, got a lot of PT and I think played well there. He is a big reason CMU struggled to move the ball. Impressive player.
Overall, the defense had a terrific game and looks vastly improved. Yes, this was only CMU but to dominate games against good teams, you have to dominate games against bad ones. And I thought the SU defense was pretty dominant Saturday.
Good win. Dungey jawed with chippy Chippewas most of the game and I think he won most of those battles, as well as the ones on the field. No doubt the added strength is making him harder to mess with on running plays. Hope it ends up keeping his healthy all season long.
LSU suddenly looks like a game we have a chance to win. Pittsburgh looked horrific against Okie State; they have the same awful defense and now their offense, missing some key players and their gifted OC, are all gone. Maybe the dream of a bowl game is not over just yet.
Unfortnately, Matt Canada, the Pitt OC last year, is now at LSU. That guy can coach and I do not look forward to what he is going to do next week. Let's hope their QB has a bad game.
War Damn Otto. I am out.
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