sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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I am having a tough time finding time to do these posts but hey, we got an extra hour today so I thought I would take advantage and post some thoughts.
They might to more than the FSU game. Maybe to apply the last few games...
We all saw what BC did to FSU on Chestnut Hill last week. They ran the ball on them and ripped their defense to shreds. It was disappointing to see how poorly we did running it against them. Only a QB playing on one leg could get past the line of scrimmage and even he failed to do so regularly.
It looked to me as though FSU had a lot of people in the box. It looked like they wanted to take the inside run away. I thought they initially were more than willing to give us passes over the middle, playing a lot of zone with soft coverage. When we tried to go long down the sideline, they had our guys overplayed and their DBs were often in better position to catch the ball than our receivers. It also looked like any passing play that took more than 2 or 3 seconds to develop resulted in a major breakdown by our OL and ED getting flushed from the pocket wide, where nothing good seemed to ever happen.
So we took the passes over the middle and did some damage there. Dungey was able to hurt them on broken plays, scrambling in space, and had some success going around end after faking a run up the middle. I think this was why Ishmael was moved to the slot at times. We wanted and needed our best receiver to get more touches.
Over time, FSU started to tighten up coverage over the middle and played some man, and it caused us some troubles. We were able to throw over it a few times but ED, lacking a strong back leg to throw off, could not throw with zip on the ball long and lacked his usual good touch on passes more than 10 or 15 yards.
It looked to me as though the left side of the OL was usually responsible for breakdowns pass blocking. It seemed like ED was running for his life to the right sideline a lot. We don't give props to OL much but I wanted to spend a little time to praise McGloster for his much improved play this year. He is probably the most improved played on the team, most have worked really hard to get to where he is now, and from all accounts he is the leader of this young OL. Always like seeing a senior who hasn't done a lot step up and become an important part of the team. Too bad he won't be coming back next season.
Dungey is fun to watch. I hate to see him hurt again but maybe this game will show the people that think Mahoney is better than Eric just how clueless they are. Eric made a ton of bad mistakes out there but a lot of amazing plays too. My big worry is what price he will pay for playing this game with his ankle hurt that badly. I am not D1 football player but I have sprained an ankle badly and tried to play on it immediately afterwards. The adrenaline and competition help you fight through the pain and you can get through a game, but with me, whenever I did it, I ended up injuring other parts of my leg trying to protect or compensate for the injury. I always messed up my hamstring on the injured leg, and the calve and knee and even my groin muscles down that leg were affected and my recovery ended up taking weeks. I fear that Eric is not going to be 100% until well after the regular season ends. On the positive side, I was not ED and I did not have access to the state of the art equipment and techniques Eric will have access to, nor did I have a training staff to expertly wrap my ankle and provide other equipment to help protect the leg.
Thought Ishmael had one of his best games. Great to see him finishing his career finally realizing his full potential. Like so many on the team, the guy played his heart out and did everything he could to try and get a win.
Thought Philips had another solid game. He had a chance to catch that one ball in the corner by the goal line on the play where the FSU player threw it back into play when it was thrown out of bounds that was really big, But there were dozens of huge plays in this crazy game, along with a bunch of crazy calls by a really incompetent officiating crew. Most helped FSU but SU got a couple breaks too. I had beefs with Big East crews fairly often but I don't remember seeing so many missed calls as you see watching ACC games. It is almost as if the replay reviews are making the refs worse. The most disappointing thing to me though is how bad the replay reviews are. I am surprised by the call right about 50% of the time, as are the announcers that have the stones to say what they see when the replays are shown. Reviewing officials are still a relatively new thing. I hope they get better at it. Soon.
Hof has had an interesting season. Started off terrific. Looked like an AA candidate. Got into a bad slump for the middle part of the season, when he struggled to kick the ball 35 yards. And now delivers a fine game. Was he hurt? There was a point where Cole was close to be replaced as the placekicker and Hof had a few chances to double up as the PK. I wonder if that screwed him up?
Riley got criticized for playing too far back yesterday, which I think was legitimate. He has done that a lot this year and it has really hurt our field position. It really stood out in a home game where the opponent had a kicker who could only kick a low line drive about 30 yards. Riley never adjusted, always let it bounce and the bum ended up averaging around 50 yards a punt. I think it was against Middle Tennessee State. Anyway, I was glad to see him catch a couple balls and try to return them. When he tries, he usually gets a good result. He is pretty nimble. More catches, less fair catches, and please, stop making fair catches inside the ten (always let those go).
Franklin and Bennett looked slow yesterday. They aren't and this is all about the general team speed of FSU. All it took was a couple plays where we weren't lined up correctly or someone took a bad line and BOOM, their tailback was gone. We miss Cordy most against teams like UM and FSU, where his 4.4 speed gives him a chance to make tackles guys like Williams and Foster just can't make.
It was nice to get Bradshaw back. He is our best cover guy and you need that against FSU, even if their QB can't throw the ball very well. Thought Frederick was solid too. Williams got burned repeatedly by overplaying the run and letting a WR get past him. With his speed, that can't happen. This is why he was out third option at FS. That said, he has made some nice tackles and is generally very good against the run. But man, it would be great to have a FS that consistently was in position on passing plays and actually broke some plays up. Martin did it a couple of times before he got hurt. The good news is that we have some kids red shirting that are much better equipped physically to get the job done here.
Valdez seems to play more and more each game. He is just a little stronger and tougher than Thomas though Thomas has had a nice senior season too.
Good to see Shy, who busts his butt on every special teams play, get the fumble recovery that nearly turned the game around. No surprise he was there; I think he has been our best cover guy on special teams. A lot of times these kinds of guys parlay their success on special teams into serious PT on 'regular' teams. Could Shy follow in their footsteps?
Has there ever been a play that consistently yielded as poor results as the shovel pass to the TE just in front of the center? Not sure it has gained even a yard all season long. The only possible contender: the bubble screen play installed by Rob Spence during his brief stint as SU OC. He is now the OC at Morgan State and that isn't just random happenstance.
Reason #34 why I think the ACC network games are the worst productions ever: How can Dungey get hurt and get walked into the locker room, limping badly, and the broadcasters doing the game, as well as everyone else involved with the telecast do not notice and are surprised when they see the backup QB in the game?
Wake Forest is going to be a war. These elimination or near elimination games for bowls always are. I hope if you are on the fence about coming to the Dome and supporting this team, you decide to do it. They are a lot like the people of CNY. Tough, hard working, blue collar. They will give it their all and not give up. Come to the Dome and support them. They are worth rooting for in person.
They might to more than the FSU game. Maybe to apply the last few games...
We all saw what BC did to FSU on Chestnut Hill last week. They ran the ball on them and ripped their defense to shreds. It was disappointing to see how poorly we did running it against them. Only a QB playing on one leg could get past the line of scrimmage and even he failed to do so regularly.
It looked to me as though FSU had a lot of people in the box. It looked like they wanted to take the inside run away. I thought they initially were more than willing to give us passes over the middle, playing a lot of zone with soft coverage. When we tried to go long down the sideline, they had our guys overplayed and their DBs were often in better position to catch the ball than our receivers. It also looked like any passing play that took more than 2 or 3 seconds to develop resulted in a major breakdown by our OL and ED getting flushed from the pocket wide, where nothing good seemed to ever happen.
So we took the passes over the middle and did some damage there. Dungey was able to hurt them on broken plays, scrambling in space, and had some success going around end after faking a run up the middle. I think this was why Ishmael was moved to the slot at times. We wanted and needed our best receiver to get more touches.
Over time, FSU started to tighten up coverage over the middle and played some man, and it caused us some troubles. We were able to throw over it a few times but ED, lacking a strong back leg to throw off, could not throw with zip on the ball long and lacked his usual good touch on passes more than 10 or 15 yards.
It looked to me as though the left side of the OL was usually responsible for breakdowns pass blocking. It seemed like ED was running for his life to the right sideline a lot. We don't give props to OL much but I wanted to spend a little time to praise McGloster for his much improved play this year. He is probably the most improved played on the team, most have worked really hard to get to where he is now, and from all accounts he is the leader of this young OL. Always like seeing a senior who hasn't done a lot step up and become an important part of the team. Too bad he won't be coming back next season.
Dungey is fun to watch. I hate to see him hurt again but maybe this game will show the people that think Mahoney is better than Eric just how clueless they are. Eric made a ton of bad mistakes out there but a lot of amazing plays too. My big worry is what price he will pay for playing this game with his ankle hurt that badly. I am not D1 football player but I have sprained an ankle badly and tried to play on it immediately afterwards. The adrenaline and competition help you fight through the pain and you can get through a game, but with me, whenever I did it, I ended up injuring other parts of my leg trying to protect or compensate for the injury. I always messed up my hamstring on the injured leg, and the calve and knee and even my groin muscles down that leg were affected and my recovery ended up taking weeks. I fear that Eric is not going to be 100% until well after the regular season ends. On the positive side, I was not ED and I did not have access to the state of the art equipment and techniques Eric will have access to, nor did I have a training staff to expertly wrap my ankle and provide other equipment to help protect the leg.
Thought Ishmael had one of his best games. Great to see him finishing his career finally realizing his full potential. Like so many on the team, the guy played his heart out and did everything he could to try and get a win.
Thought Philips had another solid game. He had a chance to catch that one ball in the corner by the goal line on the play where the FSU player threw it back into play when it was thrown out of bounds that was really big, But there were dozens of huge plays in this crazy game, along with a bunch of crazy calls by a really incompetent officiating crew. Most helped FSU but SU got a couple breaks too. I had beefs with Big East crews fairly often but I don't remember seeing so many missed calls as you see watching ACC games. It is almost as if the replay reviews are making the refs worse. The most disappointing thing to me though is how bad the replay reviews are. I am surprised by the call right about 50% of the time, as are the announcers that have the stones to say what they see when the replays are shown. Reviewing officials are still a relatively new thing. I hope they get better at it. Soon.
Hof has had an interesting season. Started off terrific. Looked like an AA candidate. Got into a bad slump for the middle part of the season, when he struggled to kick the ball 35 yards. And now delivers a fine game. Was he hurt? There was a point where Cole was close to be replaced as the placekicker and Hof had a few chances to double up as the PK. I wonder if that screwed him up?
Riley got criticized for playing too far back yesterday, which I think was legitimate. He has done that a lot this year and it has really hurt our field position. It really stood out in a home game where the opponent had a kicker who could only kick a low line drive about 30 yards. Riley never adjusted, always let it bounce and the bum ended up averaging around 50 yards a punt. I think it was against Middle Tennessee State. Anyway, I was glad to see him catch a couple balls and try to return them. When he tries, he usually gets a good result. He is pretty nimble. More catches, less fair catches, and please, stop making fair catches inside the ten (always let those go).
Franklin and Bennett looked slow yesterday. They aren't and this is all about the general team speed of FSU. All it took was a couple plays where we weren't lined up correctly or someone took a bad line and BOOM, their tailback was gone. We miss Cordy most against teams like UM and FSU, where his 4.4 speed gives him a chance to make tackles guys like Williams and Foster just can't make.
It was nice to get Bradshaw back. He is our best cover guy and you need that against FSU, even if their QB can't throw the ball very well. Thought Frederick was solid too. Williams got burned repeatedly by overplaying the run and letting a WR get past him. With his speed, that can't happen. This is why he was out third option at FS. That said, he has made some nice tackles and is generally very good against the run. But man, it would be great to have a FS that consistently was in position on passing plays and actually broke some plays up. Martin did it a couple of times before he got hurt. The good news is that we have some kids red shirting that are much better equipped physically to get the job done here.
Valdez seems to play more and more each game. He is just a little stronger and tougher than Thomas though Thomas has had a nice senior season too.
Good to see Shy, who busts his butt on every special teams play, get the fumble recovery that nearly turned the game around. No surprise he was there; I think he has been our best cover guy on special teams. A lot of times these kinds of guys parlay their success on special teams into serious PT on 'regular' teams. Could Shy follow in their footsteps?
Has there ever been a play that consistently yielded as poor results as the shovel pass to the TE just in front of the center? Not sure it has gained even a yard all season long. The only possible contender: the bubble screen play installed by Rob Spence during his brief stint as SU OC. He is now the OC at Morgan State and that isn't just random happenstance.
Reason #34 why I think the ACC network games are the worst productions ever: How can Dungey get hurt and get walked into the locker room, limping badly, and the broadcasters doing the game, as well as everyone else involved with the telecast do not notice and are surprised when they see the backup QB in the game?
Wake Forest is going to be a war. These elimination or near elimination games for bowls always are. I hope if you are on the fence about coming to the Dome and supporting this team, you decide to do it. They are a lot like the people of CNY. Tough, hard working, blue collar. They will give it their all and not give up. Come to the Dome and support them. They are worth rooting for in person.
