SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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- We got a much needed win – and on the road where we’d lost 8 in a row. I feel like we are climbing a mountain and each win is a place where the footing is solid and each defeat is a spot that gave way when we stepped on it. Now we can move up.
- What a way to win it: a goal line stand against a bigger team followed by a 99 yard drive for the clinching score. That took intestinal fortitude. But the best thing about the game is that we went from dominating to being dominated to dominating again. As we saw last week it’s easy to come out firing, as we saw last week. Turning a game back in your direction when you’ve lost control of it is much more impressive.
- The most impressive player, of course was Amba Etta-Tawo, who has turned into our version of Megatron. He had 12 catches for a school record 270 yards and 2TDs. And he did it against Jamar Summers, considered a prime NFL prospect. Guess what that makes Amba? He’s on a pace now for 120 catches for 2,118 yards and 15 touchdowns, all of which would be Syracuse records, to say the least, (only Tommy Kane’s 14 TD catches in 1987 would be even comparable: Alec Lemon had 72 catches and Marvin Harrison had 1,131 yards). The NCAA record for receiving yards is 2,060.
- It was pointed out in the postgame show that Babers and his staff can point out to recruits that Etta-Tawo came to Syracuse having caught 30 balls in two years for 438 yards and one score. He came here to play in our system and he’s exceeded those numbers in four games and is on his way to the NFL. We could get some other big-time talents to come here based on this.
- But it wasn’t Baber’s system that created this success. Etta-Tawo made that first score by out-maneuvering defenders and most of his catches after those first two were well-defended. He used his strength, agility and hands to get the ball away from defenders. And yet he can out-run them to the goal line. When we had the goal line stand I thought back to 1995 against West Virginia when we had a similar stand and McNabb hit Harrison for 96 yards to clinch the game. Could it happen again? It almost did. ET made a great catch on that 59 yarder and almost broke away for the other 37 yards. It would have been 96, just like Harrison.
- Cordell Hudson had an interesting day. An underthrown pass came right to him at the SU 11. He batted it into the air and then dived backwards to apparently catch it but lost it on the way down. Fortunately Bob Diaco bailed him out by going for it on fourth down and Bryant Shirreffs overthrew a wide open receiver in the end zone and we actually got the ball 23 yards upfield on our 34. But in the fourth quarter Hudson made the big play of the game by grabbing a pass Zaire Franklin had tipped and tip-toeing down the sidelines to give us the lead we never surrendered.
- Eric Dungey had a far from perfect game but these days a far from perfect game for our quarterback is 26 for 40 for 407 yards, 2TDs and 0 interceptions. A far from perfect game used to be 10 for 25 for 105 yards, 0TDs and 2 interceptions, or something similar. Dungey is on pace for 351 for 537 (65.4%) for 4,101 yards, 27TDs and 9 interceptions. That tops Ryan Nassib’s records from 2012 in every category, (Ryan was 294 of 482 61.0% with 26 scores and 10 pics). And he’ll only get better.
- It’s been my frustration all year that we haven’t diversified the offense more. We do things fast but not a lot of things. I had thought we’d have an offense that seeks to spread the defense out by using all our weapons and the whole field. But we seemed to be fixated on that little draw play and looking for #7. It seemed more of the same through the first half. But slowly, that began to change in the second half as Phillips, Estime, and Ismael started to catch balls, (they wound up with as many as ET: 12). We also ran a sweep and an option. It’s a small beginning but a beginning. The caterpillar may soon become a butterfly.
- We had 7 tackles for a loss in this game. Connecticut has a snail of an offense and it allowed us to show what we did again Colgate, (who was pretty similar): keep the ball in front of us and close on the play. And our tackling was crisp.
- We won this game with 7 of our original starters not available. That’s’ 32% of our planned line-up. Five of those guys will be coming back.
2-2 with 8+ to go
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
- What a way to win it: a goal line stand against a bigger team followed by a 99 yard drive for the clinching score. That took intestinal fortitude. But the best thing about the game is that we went from dominating to being dominated to dominating again. As we saw last week it’s easy to come out firing, as we saw last week. Turning a game back in your direction when you’ve lost control of it is much more impressive.
- The most impressive player, of course was Amba Etta-Tawo, who has turned into our version of Megatron. He had 12 catches for a school record 270 yards and 2TDs. And he did it against Jamar Summers, considered a prime NFL prospect. Guess what that makes Amba? He’s on a pace now for 120 catches for 2,118 yards and 15 touchdowns, all of which would be Syracuse records, to say the least, (only Tommy Kane’s 14 TD catches in 1987 would be even comparable: Alec Lemon had 72 catches and Marvin Harrison had 1,131 yards). The NCAA record for receiving yards is 2,060.
- It was pointed out in the postgame show that Babers and his staff can point out to recruits that Etta-Tawo came to Syracuse having caught 30 balls in two years for 438 yards and one score. He came here to play in our system and he’s exceeded those numbers in four games and is on his way to the NFL. We could get some other big-time talents to come here based on this.
- But it wasn’t Baber’s system that created this success. Etta-Tawo made that first score by out-maneuvering defenders and most of his catches after those first two were well-defended. He used his strength, agility and hands to get the ball away from defenders. And yet he can out-run them to the goal line. When we had the goal line stand I thought back to 1995 against West Virginia when we had a similar stand and McNabb hit Harrison for 96 yards to clinch the game. Could it happen again? It almost did. ET made a great catch on that 59 yarder and almost broke away for the other 37 yards. It would have been 96, just like Harrison.
- Cordell Hudson had an interesting day. An underthrown pass came right to him at the SU 11. He batted it into the air and then dived backwards to apparently catch it but lost it on the way down. Fortunately Bob Diaco bailed him out by going for it on fourth down and Bryant Shirreffs overthrew a wide open receiver in the end zone and we actually got the ball 23 yards upfield on our 34. But in the fourth quarter Hudson made the big play of the game by grabbing a pass Zaire Franklin had tipped and tip-toeing down the sidelines to give us the lead we never surrendered.
- Eric Dungey had a far from perfect game but these days a far from perfect game for our quarterback is 26 for 40 for 407 yards, 2TDs and 0 interceptions. A far from perfect game used to be 10 for 25 for 105 yards, 0TDs and 2 interceptions, or something similar. Dungey is on pace for 351 for 537 (65.4%) for 4,101 yards, 27TDs and 9 interceptions. That tops Ryan Nassib’s records from 2012 in every category, (Ryan was 294 of 482 61.0% with 26 scores and 10 pics). And he’ll only get better.
- It’s been my frustration all year that we haven’t diversified the offense more. We do things fast but not a lot of things. I had thought we’d have an offense that seeks to spread the defense out by using all our weapons and the whole field. But we seemed to be fixated on that little draw play and looking for #7. It seemed more of the same through the first half. But slowly, that began to change in the second half as Phillips, Estime, and Ismael started to catch balls, (they wound up with as many as ET: 12). We also ran a sweep and an option. It’s a small beginning but a beginning. The caterpillar may soon become a butterfly.
- We had 7 tackles for a loss in this game. Connecticut has a snail of an offense and it allowed us to show what we did again Colgate, (who was pretty similar): keep the ball in front of us and close on the play. And our tackling was crisp.
- We won this game with 7 of our original starters not available. That’s’ 32% of our planned line-up. Five of those guys will be coming back.
2-2 with 8+ to go
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
