sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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- 109,441
The tailgate today was not well attended. A bad season and a really cold day do that. Props to Jeremy, Nell, Consig, Jocko, Kevin and everyone else who are on the crew. Great job.
Took a walk around the dome before the game. They have 5 of the triangle support thingees up now. Two in the northeast corner, two in the northwest corner and one in the middle of the north side of the building. It looks like they are going to put up one in the middle of the east and wide sides, two more in the southeast and southwest corners and one in the middle of the south wall. I think that adds up to 12 all told. Going to be interesting to see if they can get the crown truss finished by the end of January. It is going to take some serious work to make it happen.
I have been watching games for a long time and this one might have been the craziest one I have seen.
So many changes in momentum. So many turnovers. So many penalties. So many bad calls (by the refs). So many balls calls (by the OCs). Both teams were forced to play with backup QBs and in the end, the changes might have helped both offenses.
It was good to see Mikel Jones, in his first start at OLB (Armstrong was in civvies), do well. It was also good to see Juan Wallace do well filling in late after Lakeim Williams separated his shoulder. Williams incidentally had a big game and played a big role in shutting down a good WF rushing attack. That late game LB combo might well be a preview of our starting linebackers next season.
We have seen this game before. Way too many times for a program that seems to have lived in the 4-8 lane the past decade or two. Get a lead, look good. Wilt in the second half. Defense weakens, offense stops producing, lead evaporates, the bad guys take the lead and pull away for a win.
I believe in my heart that it would have happened again today if not for one play. And while the Trill steal and breakaway TD was a great play, that isn’t the one I am taking about. It was a play by captain Moe Neal, late in the game. The offense had stopped moving the ball. Lynch went into the fetal position again, struggled to even make play calls, and could seemingly only call his beloved run up the middle or maybe a shovel pass (his fav call in crucial situations despite going 0-9 with that play).
Anyway, we are late in the game. We have a 3rd and long. Lynch calls another run. Wake knew it was coming and had the whole defense waiting for him. Moe saw the situation. Went way wide, got a little daylight, but it was clear he had no chance that way. Violent reverse, wheels spinning, smoke rides up off his heels. Runs wide the other way. Against all odds, he finds a lane, a couple of SU players make good blocks and Moe runs 50 yards to get the 10 yards needed for a first down.
We end up scoring instead of punting. Game changer. Moe put the team on his back, much as he has done every game late in the season, and led us to victory. So happy for him. So happy for the seniors.
What else? Props to Andre Cisco, who was a man out there today, making monster hits all over the field, really helping out the run defense when we needed him the most. Glad to see the DC go to man coverage late, which took away those quick slants over the middle that Hartman was living off for so long. Wish he had the guts to blitz more. Wish he at least rushed 4 some of the time late in the game when all we needed was a stop to win the game. We had no pressure when we needed it most.
Though it should be noted that I saw some serious holding going on that the refs could only see when the OL wore dark blue shirts. That dirty #36 made one of the most blatant holds ever in a key situation on a play where Hartman faked it to him and ran wide. #36 just bear hugged a LB to spring Hartman. Unbelievable, but so was the face mask call on Hartman, the late hit on a Clayton slide that was not called early, the late hit on a WF slide that was called, the late hit on Nykeim where the ref that blew the call tried to intimidate Nykeim and then called a penalty on him.
The biggest reason the refs are on the field is to protect the players from themselves. They are given rules to enforce and player safety has to be their top priority. Especially in this day and age, when we know how susceptible players are to brain injuries. When you fail to make the calls you are put there to make, you encourage players to ignore the rules and encourage an open season on head hunting. Forget that most of the calls hurt Syracuse. It doesn’t matter. Do your job. Enforce the rules. Do the job you are paid to do. Protect the players. Prevent abuse. The crew today was an a embarrassment to the conference and put the long term health of all the players at risk. Just shameful. Refs need to get suspended. The conference offices need to take heed and stop this crap. Don’t let incompetent refs ruin the game we all love. Please.
Props to WF for coming back and making it a good game. I give them credit for bringing way more fans than they have in the past. I think they had 300 or maybe 400. Not bad for a tiny school with no fan base.
Other stuff: the SUMB has new arrangements for the fight song with some slick embellishments towards the end. Very cool. The marching this year stepped up big time. Much more ambitious programs. And now, they almost run off the field. I think this is done to buy more time for their performance. 13 tubas for the finale. One sang in the chorus. Good to see the band getting bigger and better. The band director is making a difference.
In the final analysis, this game was meaningless. But in terms of perception, it had great meaning. The wins over Duke and Wake mean we will not be a unanimous pick for last in the Atlantic next season. The seniors can go out with the heads held high. And a bunch of bandwagon season ticket holders that have been looking for a reason to renew just got one. For all this, I am grateful and tonight, I am a happy dude!
Wae Damn Otto! Wait until next year!
Took a walk around the dome before the game. They have 5 of the triangle support thingees up now. Two in the northeast corner, two in the northwest corner and one in the middle of the north side of the building. It looks like they are going to put up one in the middle of the east and wide sides, two more in the southeast and southwest corners and one in the middle of the south wall. I think that adds up to 12 all told. Going to be interesting to see if they can get the crown truss finished by the end of January. It is going to take some serious work to make it happen.
I have been watching games for a long time and this one might have been the craziest one I have seen.
So many changes in momentum. So many turnovers. So many penalties. So many bad calls (by the refs). So many balls calls (by the OCs). Both teams were forced to play with backup QBs and in the end, the changes might have helped both offenses.
It was good to see Mikel Jones, in his first start at OLB (Armstrong was in civvies), do well. It was also good to see Juan Wallace do well filling in late after Lakeim Williams separated his shoulder. Williams incidentally had a big game and played a big role in shutting down a good WF rushing attack. That late game LB combo might well be a preview of our starting linebackers next season.
We have seen this game before. Way too many times for a program that seems to have lived in the 4-8 lane the past decade or two. Get a lead, look good. Wilt in the second half. Defense weakens, offense stops producing, lead evaporates, the bad guys take the lead and pull away for a win.
I believe in my heart that it would have happened again today if not for one play. And while the Trill steal and breakaway TD was a great play, that isn’t the one I am taking about. It was a play by captain Moe Neal, late in the game. The offense had stopped moving the ball. Lynch went into the fetal position again, struggled to even make play calls, and could seemingly only call his beloved run up the middle or maybe a shovel pass (his fav call in crucial situations despite going 0-9 with that play).
Anyway, we are late in the game. We have a 3rd and long. Lynch calls another run. Wake knew it was coming and had the whole defense waiting for him. Moe saw the situation. Went way wide, got a little daylight, but it was clear he had no chance that way. Violent reverse, wheels spinning, smoke rides up off his heels. Runs wide the other way. Against all odds, he finds a lane, a couple of SU players make good blocks and Moe runs 50 yards to get the 10 yards needed for a first down.
We end up scoring instead of punting. Game changer. Moe put the team on his back, much as he has done every game late in the season, and led us to victory. So happy for him. So happy for the seniors.
What else? Props to Andre Cisco, who was a man out there today, making monster hits all over the field, really helping out the run defense when we needed him the most. Glad to see the DC go to man coverage late, which took away those quick slants over the middle that Hartman was living off for so long. Wish he had the guts to blitz more. Wish he at least rushed 4 some of the time late in the game when all we needed was a stop to win the game. We had no pressure when we needed it most.
Though it should be noted that I saw some serious holding going on that the refs could only see when the OL wore dark blue shirts. That dirty #36 made one of the most blatant holds ever in a key situation on a play where Hartman faked it to him and ran wide. #36 just bear hugged a LB to spring Hartman. Unbelievable, but so was the face mask call on Hartman, the late hit on a Clayton slide that was not called early, the late hit on a WF slide that was called, the late hit on Nykeim where the ref that blew the call tried to intimidate Nykeim and then called a penalty on him.
The biggest reason the refs are on the field is to protect the players from themselves. They are given rules to enforce and player safety has to be their top priority. Especially in this day and age, when we know how susceptible players are to brain injuries. When you fail to make the calls you are put there to make, you encourage players to ignore the rules and encourage an open season on head hunting. Forget that most of the calls hurt Syracuse. It doesn’t matter. Do your job. Enforce the rules. Do the job you are paid to do. Protect the players. Prevent abuse. The crew today was an a embarrassment to the conference and put the long term health of all the players at risk. Just shameful. Refs need to get suspended. The conference offices need to take heed and stop this crap. Don’t let incompetent refs ruin the game we all love. Please.
Props to WF for coming back and making it a good game. I give them credit for bringing way more fans than they have in the past. I think they had 300 or maybe 400. Not bad for a tiny school with no fan base.
Other stuff: the SUMB has new arrangements for the fight song with some slick embellishments towards the end. Very cool. The marching this year stepped up big time. Much more ambitious programs. And now, they almost run off the field. I think this is done to buy more time for their performance. 13 tubas for the finale. One sang in the chorus. Good to see the band getting bigger and better. The band director is making a difference.
In the final analysis, this game was meaningless. But in terms of perception, it had great meaning. The wins over Duke and Wake mean we will not be a unanimous pick for last in the Atlantic next season. The seniors can go out with the heads held high. And a bunch of bandwagon season ticket holders that have been looking for a reason to renew just got one. For all this, I am grateful and tonight, I am a happy dude!
Wae Damn Otto! Wait until next year!
