sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
- Messages
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Due to time constraints, this has to be fairly brief. Sorry about that.
Good tailgate, props to Jeremy, Nell, Kevin, Mark, Justin and a dozen other people I should be mentioning but did not. I think we got about 100, pretty impressive for the third non attractive opponent in a gauntlet of unattractive opponents. Nice to talk to many of our best fans, lots of knowledge out there if you want to sample it. If you have been thinking about going to a Fine Lot tailgate, pull the trigger. I am sure you will not regret it.
It wasn't quite as hot in the Dome as for the URI game. Was fortunate to get a sweat rag SU was giving out as a weak apology for the lack of air conditioning. Okay, maybe that wasn't what that thing was, but that is my interpretation, and I am sticking to it.
Still only 8 tubas in the SUMB. The ones that are out there, much like the fans that are still coming to the games, are top notch though and more than carry their weight.
Crowd was small but pretty loud. The loyalists remain strong of heart and throat.
I like the new video they play when the team runs on the field (just before it actually). I like that Otto is not being carried out on the bed anymore, or driving a vehicle (or getting driven around). Those are not things Otto should do. He is a plain, simple citrus.
Props to the SUMB for some fine marching. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Orange Girl, who is talented and attractive, two important things you need for a good Orange Girl.
CMU brought about 100 fans. About the same as URI and a few more than WF. As far as I know, none danced in the cabs of pickup trucks before the game.
Thought CMU was well coached and had a good gameplan on offense and defense. On offense, they were aware of the strong SU pass rush and used a mix of delayed runs and short dumps to underneath routes to move the ball down the field. We played a lot of zone (maybe exclusively zone), for the most part gave them the short routes and rarely blitzed. CMU would occasionally throw the ball downfield as well, always in the seam between the linebackers and the secondary. Props to Cooper, who made a lot of good throws and was very patient, often with an Orangeman or two in his face. Once they established the short passing game, they had some success running the ball as well as our DL tended to fall into a 'pin your ears back and rush the QB at all costs' mode a lot.
I don't see almost any pass rush from the inside. Our DTs (often NT as we played in the Okie set most of the game) just weren't a factor at all rushing the passer. Simmons didn't do much either. But Luke Arciniega had his best game as an Orangeman (he keeps getting better each game as he makes the transition to DE) and Ron Thompson had another monster game. He looks to be our best DE in a long time. Could see him getting double figures in sacks this year and he isn't just good on passing plays...he dominates and blows up running plays in his direction as well. Among the many great plays he made Saturday was that big play when CMU had the ball 3rd and goal on the 1 in overtime. He just ran past two CMU OL to blow the thing up pretty much by himself. Anyway, I am a big fan and I think if he can stay healthy, he might have a chance to be All ACC and maybe even make an AA team or two. He is legitimate.
We aren't getting much of a pass rush yet from the young DTs but they are doing a good job against the run and I think young Clark is going to be a force pass rushing as his career develops.
At linebacker, we got Franklin back and it helped a lot. He is a good player and I think, by far the best tackler on this unit. There was a huge dropoff when he got hurt against WF and Vigille came in. Bennett had another game where he looked promising. Runs well and looks capable of covering a TE or a WR but at thing point in his career, he is not strong enough and he is not taking good angles on pass defense. So he got picked on some. I think when Franklin left the game against CMU, he was replaced by Hodge. Not good news for Vigille. Hodge was capable but not spectacular, pretty standard for him. And Taylor got his share of reps. Looks like he is playing his way into the rotation. Might be a little more physically ready to play against a big TE than Bennett right now. He looked good to me anyway.
The secondary had a very rough day. Whigham continues to be in the right place most of the time but he is bad at finding the ball and ends up giving up a lot of big plays because he doesn't know where the ball is. I think he might have found his way to the bench for a while...looked like he was in the doghouse late in the game when Dowels was playing all the time. Dowels looks to me like our best cover guy at CB but that might only be because he has played the least and has't proven himself incompetent yet. He can run, plays physical and I think he can tackle too.
The nightmare that is Morgan's season continues. Barely played, as soon as he got in, he lined up offsides and gave CMU a first down. Not good. I think he probably plays the run better than any of the other CBs and is the biggest hitter of the group. His pass coverage is only a rumor though and we really haven't played any top notch WRs yet.
Winfield is clearly the most talented CB we have on the roster. Has some size, can really run and just moves really well. He is probably our best cover guy right now. But his tackling is really bad. Might be the worst I have ever seen for a starting CB at Syracuse. He is young to the position but given the level of WRs he has been going against, this is disturbing. For the most part, we are asking the CBs to play 10 yards off the ball, then make the tackle. Anyone should be able to do that. But Winfield and the other CBs are not doing it. Not good.
I believe Cordy had the bonehead illegal block that cost us a touchdown, though I am not sure, like I am not sure when identifying any player because the uniform numbers are so poorly designed and hard to read. He makes some good plays and some bad plays...he is wildly inconsistent but he is one of the rate SU DBs to sometimes make good plays, so I think he has to remain a starter. Certainly is a big hitter and he shows signs of being a good tackler in the open field. Sometimes.
Thought Scissum did not have a good game. Seemed like everytime I saw someone fly by a CMU ball carrier, wildly out of control, everytime I saw an SU defender get his ankles 'broken' by a sharp cut, everytime I saw a big gain on a long passing play, Scissum was involved. He has great size and he appears to be a good athlete. But good lord, learn how to tackle. At least learn how to contain.
I see Rodney Williams as more like Cordy. I think he is by far the best athlete of the safeties. He can fly, he hits like a truck and he has a knack of being in the right place at the right time. But he was way too aggressive and has to play more under control. I think he will get it and become a good player. Just hope it starts happening soon. Because we need him to emerge as a solid, reliable player at FS.
So overall, I thought the defense was not very good. Though they played very well given there was no offense to speak of in the second half and they were forced to play for extremely extended periods with little or no rest.
On offense, it was the best of times and it was the worst of times. The first half, when Dungey was in, the offense was close to unstoppable. We lit a pretty good CMU defense up and looked great. Then, literally nothing in the second half. Literally nothing. Not a single first down. Unbelievable. I tried to talk about the drop off after Dungey and how extreme it was earlier. Now everyone knows.
Dungey has great instincts. Really runs the option well, makes great decisions when plays are broken, is capable of saving a broken play with his arm or his feet, has the best accuracy we have seen since Ryan Nassib left the building and is just so much fun to watch play. How sad what happened. College football (and the NFL too) have to find better ways to prevent targeting of the head on hits. I understand you will get helmet to helmet sometimes if the guy with the ball unexpectedly crouches. But if they don't and someone spears a helmet, there needs to be a serious penalty. I think they should go with a full year of suspension from the time of the infraction. That might stop this madness, convince mothers to let their sons play football and keep some great young talent on the field and not in hospitals.
Coming off my soapbox, was happy to see McFarlane and Fredericks get most of the PT at RB. Morris has just not delivered despite being given many chances. It is time to give the others a try now. I think Fredericks is clearly distancing himself from McFarlane now and he looks to be primed for a big career. Good to see. A power back that can run helps opens up the passing game...it really makes it easier on everyone else on the offensive unit in one way or another. Good stuff.
I think with Ishmael out in the second half, and Philips already out, there was a great chance for a youngster to get some PT and move up in the depth charts. Saturday was a day Strickland got targeted with a lot of touches as he was probably our best athlete still out there not named Estime. He had a little success but I thought he looked a little timid and tentative and didn't have the success we needed him to have. I think he will learn from it...he has a lot of speed and athletic ability and will get more consistent (he has already had a couple of great plays) in the future. As for now, he is clearly ahead of Perkins for the 3rd team X back position. Thought Lewis played okay...he is never going to be a big star but he makes the basic plays, finishes his assignments consistently and is quite solid.
Maybe this will pass into the mists of time as something utterly meaningless, or maybe it was the first small step in the start of a big career. Lester called a fade route to Jamel Custis. And he caught it, looking like a 15 year old playing a pick up game with 10 year olds. As Oliver once said, in a book, not for real, "more please".
Estime had a couple big plays (Cordy!) and is finally delivering on all the promise and hype bestowed onto him by GMc and others earlier in his career. AC had a nice catch. Moore had a couple drops that hurt us pretty bad but to me anyway, he is clearly more mobile and more of a threat to catch the ball than Paris will ever be. If he can hold on to the ball. There is a lot of potential there.
Thought the OL did a reasonably good job given Trudo was held out of the game. Emerich did a much better job snapping from the shotgun that Rob has been doing but his blocking, especially run blocking, was not awesome. Palmer got beat on pass blocking quite a bit. I think Foy is doing relatively well, and so is Robinson. A couple of times when I saw our OL got abused badly, I checked to see who got beat and it was Seamus Shanley. He needs to step up his game. Last I knew, Roberts was sharing time with him. It will be interesting to see what happens here.
I won't dog Mahoney or Wilson. Neither should have been playing, it is clear they aren't ready but the staff has no other choices here.
So we are awesome when Dungey is out there and very un-awesome when he is not. That to me was the biggest takeaway from the game. This was another important step for Eric in his development path. I just hope he gets to continue to walk that path for another 4 years.
WAR DAMN OTTO! Go Cuse!
Good tailgate, props to Jeremy, Nell, Kevin, Mark, Justin and a dozen other people I should be mentioning but did not. I think we got about 100, pretty impressive for the third non attractive opponent in a gauntlet of unattractive opponents. Nice to talk to many of our best fans, lots of knowledge out there if you want to sample it. If you have been thinking about going to a Fine Lot tailgate, pull the trigger. I am sure you will not regret it.
It wasn't quite as hot in the Dome as for the URI game. Was fortunate to get a sweat rag SU was giving out as a weak apology for the lack of air conditioning. Okay, maybe that wasn't what that thing was, but that is my interpretation, and I am sticking to it.
Still only 8 tubas in the SUMB. The ones that are out there, much like the fans that are still coming to the games, are top notch though and more than carry their weight.
Crowd was small but pretty loud. The loyalists remain strong of heart and throat.
I like the new video they play when the team runs on the field (just before it actually). I like that Otto is not being carried out on the bed anymore, or driving a vehicle (or getting driven around). Those are not things Otto should do. He is a plain, simple citrus.
Props to the SUMB for some fine marching. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Orange Girl, who is talented and attractive, two important things you need for a good Orange Girl.
CMU brought about 100 fans. About the same as URI and a few more than WF. As far as I know, none danced in the cabs of pickup trucks before the game.
Thought CMU was well coached and had a good gameplan on offense and defense. On offense, they were aware of the strong SU pass rush and used a mix of delayed runs and short dumps to underneath routes to move the ball down the field. We played a lot of zone (maybe exclusively zone), for the most part gave them the short routes and rarely blitzed. CMU would occasionally throw the ball downfield as well, always in the seam between the linebackers and the secondary. Props to Cooper, who made a lot of good throws and was very patient, often with an Orangeman or two in his face. Once they established the short passing game, they had some success running the ball as well as our DL tended to fall into a 'pin your ears back and rush the QB at all costs' mode a lot.
I don't see almost any pass rush from the inside. Our DTs (often NT as we played in the Okie set most of the game) just weren't a factor at all rushing the passer. Simmons didn't do much either. But Luke Arciniega had his best game as an Orangeman (he keeps getting better each game as he makes the transition to DE) and Ron Thompson had another monster game. He looks to be our best DE in a long time. Could see him getting double figures in sacks this year and he isn't just good on passing plays...he dominates and blows up running plays in his direction as well. Among the many great plays he made Saturday was that big play when CMU had the ball 3rd and goal on the 1 in overtime. He just ran past two CMU OL to blow the thing up pretty much by himself. Anyway, I am a big fan and I think if he can stay healthy, he might have a chance to be All ACC and maybe even make an AA team or two. He is legitimate.
We aren't getting much of a pass rush yet from the young DTs but they are doing a good job against the run and I think young Clark is going to be a force pass rushing as his career develops.
At linebacker, we got Franklin back and it helped a lot. He is a good player and I think, by far the best tackler on this unit. There was a huge dropoff when he got hurt against WF and Vigille came in. Bennett had another game where he looked promising. Runs well and looks capable of covering a TE or a WR but at thing point in his career, he is not strong enough and he is not taking good angles on pass defense. So he got picked on some. I think when Franklin left the game against CMU, he was replaced by Hodge. Not good news for Vigille. Hodge was capable but not spectacular, pretty standard for him. And Taylor got his share of reps. Looks like he is playing his way into the rotation. Might be a little more physically ready to play against a big TE than Bennett right now. He looked good to me anyway.
The secondary had a very rough day. Whigham continues to be in the right place most of the time but he is bad at finding the ball and ends up giving up a lot of big plays because he doesn't know where the ball is. I think he might have found his way to the bench for a while...looked like he was in the doghouse late in the game when Dowels was playing all the time. Dowels looks to me like our best cover guy at CB but that might only be because he has played the least and has't proven himself incompetent yet. He can run, plays physical and I think he can tackle too.
The nightmare that is Morgan's season continues. Barely played, as soon as he got in, he lined up offsides and gave CMU a first down. Not good. I think he probably plays the run better than any of the other CBs and is the biggest hitter of the group. His pass coverage is only a rumor though and we really haven't played any top notch WRs yet.
Winfield is clearly the most talented CB we have on the roster. Has some size, can really run and just moves really well. He is probably our best cover guy right now. But his tackling is really bad. Might be the worst I have ever seen for a starting CB at Syracuse. He is young to the position but given the level of WRs he has been going against, this is disturbing. For the most part, we are asking the CBs to play 10 yards off the ball, then make the tackle. Anyone should be able to do that. But Winfield and the other CBs are not doing it. Not good.
I believe Cordy had the bonehead illegal block that cost us a touchdown, though I am not sure, like I am not sure when identifying any player because the uniform numbers are so poorly designed and hard to read. He makes some good plays and some bad plays...he is wildly inconsistent but he is one of the rate SU DBs to sometimes make good plays, so I think he has to remain a starter. Certainly is a big hitter and he shows signs of being a good tackler in the open field. Sometimes.
Thought Scissum did not have a good game. Seemed like everytime I saw someone fly by a CMU ball carrier, wildly out of control, everytime I saw an SU defender get his ankles 'broken' by a sharp cut, everytime I saw a big gain on a long passing play, Scissum was involved. He has great size and he appears to be a good athlete. But good lord, learn how to tackle. At least learn how to contain.
I see Rodney Williams as more like Cordy. I think he is by far the best athlete of the safeties. He can fly, he hits like a truck and he has a knack of being in the right place at the right time. But he was way too aggressive and has to play more under control. I think he will get it and become a good player. Just hope it starts happening soon. Because we need him to emerge as a solid, reliable player at FS.
So overall, I thought the defense was not very good. Though they played very well given there was no offense to speak of in the second half and they were forced to play for extremely extended periods with little or no rest.
On offense, it was the best of times and it was the worst of times. The first half, when Dungey was in, the offense was close to unstoppable. We lit a pretty good CMU defense up and looked great. Then, literally nothing in the second half. Literally nothing. Not a single first down. Unbelievable. I tried to talk about the drop off after Dungey and how extreme it was earlier. Now everyone knows.
Dungey has great instincts. Really runs the option well, makes great decisions when plays are broken, is capable of saving a broken play with his arm or his feet, has the best accuracy we have seen since Ryan Nassib left the building and is just so much fun to watch play. How sad what happened. College football (and the NFL too) have to find better ways to prevent targeting of the head on hits. I understand you will get helmet to helmet sometimes if the guy with the ball unexpectedly crouches. But if they don't and someone spears a helmet, there needs to be a serious penalty. I think they should go with a full year of suspension from the time of the infraction. That might stop this madness, convince mothers to let their sons play football and keep some great young talent on the field and not in hospitals.
Coming off my soapbox, was happy to see McFarlane and Fredericks get most of the PT at RB. Morris has just not delivered despite being given many chances. It is time to give the others a try now. I think Fredericks is clearly distancing himself from McFarlane now and he looks to be primed for a big career. Good to see. A power back that can run helps opens up the passing game...it really makes it easier on everyone else on the offensive unit in one way or another. Good stuff.
I think with Ishmael out in the second half, and Philips already out, there was a great chance for a youngster to get some PT and move up in the depth charts. Saturday was a day Strickland got targeted with a lot of touches as he was probably our best athlete still out there not named Estime. He had a little success but I thought he looked a little timid and tentative and didn't have the success we needed him to have. I think he will learn from it...he has a lot of speed and athletic ability and will get more consistent (he has already had a couple of great plays) in the future. As for now, he is clearly ahead of Perkins for the 3rd team X back position. Thought Lewis played okay...he is never going to be a big star but he makes the basic plays, finishes his assignments consistently and is quite solid.
Maybe this will pass into the mists of time as something utterly meaningless, or maybe it was the first small step in the start of a big career. Lester called a fade route to Jamel Custis. And he caught it, looking like a 15 year old playing a pick up game with 10 year olds. As Oliver once said, in a book, not for real, "more please".
Estime had a couple big plays (Cordy!) and is finally delivering on all the promise and hype bestowed onto him by GMc and others earlier in his career. AC had a nice catch. Moore had a couple drops that hurt us pretty bad but to me anyway, he is clearly more mobile and more of a threat to catch the ball than Paris will ever be. If he can hold on to the ball. There is a lot of potential there.
Thought the OL did a reasonably good job given Trudo was held out of the game. Emerich did a much better job snapping from the shotgun that Rob has been doing but his blocking, especially run blocking, was not awesome. Palmer got beat on pass blocking quite a bit. I think Foy is doing relatively well, and so is Robinson. A couple of times when I saw our OL got abused badly, I checked to see who got beat and it was Seamus Shanley. He needs to step up his game. Last I knew, Roberts was sharing time with him. It will be interesting to see what happens here.
I won't dog Mahoney or Wilson. Neither should have been playing, it is clear they aren't ready but the staff has no other choices here.
So we are awesome when Dungey is out there and very un-awesome when he is not. That to me was the biggest takeaway from the game. This was another important step for Eric in his development path. I just hope he gets to continue to walk that path for another 4 years.
WAR DAMN OTTO! Go Cuse!
