Would you rather... Solid D or a solid O?

[kirbivore]

A. There's a reason Baylor hasn't been to the NCG, while Alabama and LSU have in past years.

The level of defensive players Alabama and LSU get will never come to 95% of the other college football programs, so sling it!

 

[blizz]

D...next!

 

[TheCusian]

Wouldn't matter. Take the offense. Posted what I did to show how warped our understanding of offense is. It's like when one of your friends is dating a crazy woman, and over time he starts getting familiar with the crazy and it feels normal to him. Not crazy starts to seem crazy to him, you know?

Stockholm Syrdrome, or Syracuse Syndrome if you will

 

[Full_Rebar]

Count me in on the offensive side. If you have a system to score points and you can land the right QB, you can elevate a program quickly.

Scoring points also makes your ugly-ass uniforms appear cooler than they really are...

 

[SmilinBob]

Simple...schedule 4 terrible teams OOC and bump the offense numbers up and defensive numbers down.

 

[alphaorange]

I'm imagining that these stats are not as simple as they seem. I have to believe that a lot of scoring or scoring opportunities are the result of the defense or special teams providing them. Alabama, LSU, ND, et al, do not have mediocre to poor defenses and special teams. If you want to win, you better have better than average teams on both sides. I prefer the defense being great as it is usually a sign that you are physically dominating the opposition. TCU is not putting 40 on Clemson.

 

[phil77]

Give me offense every day of the week. At least the games would be enjoyable if we lose. This 16-6 games where we struggle to get across midfield sucks and not fun to watch. Would rather lost the game 40-30 than 16-6.

 

[Millhouse]

I'm imagining that these stats are not as simple as they seem. I have to believe that a lot of scoring or scoring opportunities are the result of the defense or special teams providing them. Alabama, LSU, ND, et al, do not have mediocre to poor defenses and special teams. If you want to win, you better have better than average teams on both sides. I prefer the defense being great as it is usually a sign that you are physically dominating the opposition. TCU is not putting 40 on Clemson.

i think alabama's offense is perenially underrated because people look at yards more than they look at yards per play. awesome offenses with short fields don't roll up huge yards

they're probably ranked just as highly in yards per play over the last, i don't know, 5 years.

 

[ImperialOrange]

I'd say a solid O because saying I want a solid D makes me feel uncomfortable...

I asked the ladies though and a solid D usually leads to solid O's... wait what are we talking about?

 

[SWC75]

In the 80's we were good on defesne first, started winning our share of games and pulled off a big upset, then went out and got the offensive players that put us over the top. In this era, we pulled ourselves out of G-Rob's hole by playing well on defense first. we are now starting to recruit the offensive players that could put us over the top again. Even frank Maloney started by putting his best players on defesne and becoming competitive. Then he got Art Monk and Joe Morris. His problem is that he could never get them in phase: by the time he built up the offense, the defense had gotten worse. Trying to recruit before we built the Dome was a big problem.

I think the reason this is the pattern here is that there may be more defensive talent out there than offensive talent. You have to get competitive again before you can get good again and defense is the way to do that.

 

[SoBristol]

Not the popular answer here, but I believe you get respect for the program by establishing the run, limiting mistakes, and on defense you stop the run and force turn-overs with an aggressive defense. It was the Marrone formula in 2010.

And I would like to see a QB that can help the running attack -- a genuine dual threat QB -- and a legit TE. Save the aerial circus until we have speedy deep threats.

 

[Millhouse]

Not the popular answer here, but I believe you get respect for the program by establishing the run, limiting mistakes, and on defense you stop the run and force turn-overs with an aggressive defense. It was the Marrone formula in 2010.

And I would like to see a QB that can help the running attack -- a genuine dual threat QB -- and a legit TE. Save the aerial circus until we have speedy deep threats.

i agree that's how you get respect.

i just don't care one bit about whether people respect it.

lots of people disrespect good teams as gimmicks

the marrone formula was 8-5 in 2010. let's not get too nostalgic. good job working with what they had but no need to make it a model.

 

[Chip]

Not the popular answer here, but I believe you get respect for the program by establishing the run, limiting mistakes, and on defense you stop the run and force turn-overs with an aggressive defense. It was the Marrone formula in 2010.

And I would like to see a QB that can help the running attack -- a genuine dual threat QB -- and a legit TE. Save the aerial circus until we have speedy deep threats.

Respect from who? Not from enough of our own fan base. That's really who we need. Fill the stadium, better recruits will come.

 

[sufandu]

I'll say solid O. In today's game, with an offense that can score, I feel like you have a chance against any team that's not elite. I also feel like putting up all kinds of points fills the stadium and gets you on sportcenter, and then you can start to draw the players that give you a better D.

 

[SU2NASA]

If given the choice, would you rather have our Syracuse team be:

A.) solid D and a below average O?

or

B.) solid O coupled with a below average D?

Just curious to see what everyone's preference would be.

I personally love watching stout defenses play, but I'd also like to see shootouts like the Big 12 has. I feel like our leaf-rakers would prefer a strong O over anything.

*** You cannot say both. ***

Solid compliance department that's able to hide all of our massive amounts of cheating.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I'll say solid O. In today's game, with an offense that can score, I feel like you have a chance against any team that's not elite. I also feel like putting up all kinds of points fills the stadium and gets you on sportcenter, and then you can start to draw the players that give you a better D.

See, you get it.

 

[sufandu]

See, you get it.

Yeah, I've changed my tune a little. For better or worse, with kids today, if it didn't happen yesterday, it didn't happen. You have to make a splash and hanging with good teams in a low scoring game doesn't do that. Losing 51-48 is almost better than winning 20-16.

 

[SUFan44]

Offense without question. It's too hard to win without the ability to score.

Even great defenses allow points. Clemson's D, by all accounts one of the best we have faced in the history of the program (allegedly), has allowed 35 to UNC and 45 to Georgia. If UNC had just a below average D they'd be 5-3 or 6-2. Their D stinks. As it is they have still won 4 games and are in line for 7 wins with their schedule. Georgia is 6-1 in the SEC.

TCU is Top 10 in the country because of it's offense. There are two non-SEC schools in the Top 5 - Florida State, who gave up 41 points to NC State and 20 points to our anemic offense, and Oregon. Oregon doesn't play defense.

As has been said a billion times on this board, offense wins in college football these days. With our inherent controlled climate advantage, there is no reason why we can't play run and gun and win that way.

 

[SoBristol]

Respect from who? Not from enough of our own fan base. That's really who we need. Fill the stadium, better recruits will come.

Sure, but Upstate Fans rake a lot of leaves on Saturdays when SU has a losing record. Gotta get the wins -- and a solid, opportunistic defense, combined with a running attack, gives the team a chance.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Sure, but Upstate Fans rake a lot of leaves on Saturdays when SU has a losing record. Gotta get the wins -- and a solid, opportunistic defense, combined with a running attack, gives the team a chance.

NO, IT DOES NOT.

That's exactly what we've been trying for the past 15 years. Hasn't been much winning over that stretch.

 

[Millhouse]

NO, IT DOES NOT.

That's exactly what we've been trying for the past 15 years. Hasn't been much winning over that stretch.

2009 on, they're 9 and 20 in Syracuse or NYC against BCS/P5 teams

people act like they've actually won boring. not at home games they haven't

16-24 in conference home or away, i think

there have to be a good number of fans who attend here and there that have a long streak of losses

 

[NineOneSeven]

Solid O /thread

 

[NineOneSeven]

I asked the ladies though and a solid D usually leads to solid O's... wait what are we talking about?

What's a Z job?

 

[Rocco]

I would love it if we had a run and gun offense. It's easier to swallow losing 49-42 than it is 17-10.

 

[Chip]

Sure, but Upstate Fans rake a lot of leaves on Saturdays when SU has a losing record. Gotta get the wins -- and a solid, opportunistic defense, combined with a running attack, gives the team a chance.

Too much stock in 2010. Which was also a year that we couldn't win in the Dome.

2012 our offense was balanced. If we couldn't throw like we did, we wouldn't have run like we did.