2 drives that sum up our offense-Playing not to lose

[orangepassion]

1) We have the ball on our 1-yard line-3 straight runs. Basically concede at least 3 points.
2) Our last drive of the game. 1st-and-goal and the Tulane 5. Our kicking game has been shaky. Why not try to run 3 different running plays and not all 3 right up the middle? I know we got the FG, but we need to establish an aggressive coming at you mentality and all we do is settle.
Same thing as going for the FG at the Rutgers 1 yard line last week. We are lucky Tulane missed that FG and we got that roughing the passer call on that last drive. Without them, I believe we lose this game.

 

[cuseguy]

1) We have the ball on our 1-yard line-3 straight runs. Basically concede at least 3 points.
2) Our last drive of the game. 1st-and-goal and the Tulane 5. Our kicking game has been shaky. Why not try to run 3 different running plays and not all 3 right up the middle? I know we got the FG, but we need to establish an aggressive coming at you mentality and all we do is settle.

Same thing as going for the FG at the Rutgers 1 yard line last week. We are lucky Tulane missed that FG and we got that roughing the passer call on that last drive. Without them, I believe we lose that game.

Definitely a pro mentality. Marrone has a lot of good qualities...but being risky isn't one of them. Maybe it will change with different personel...but I have my doubts.

 

[jekelish]

Do you really expect a guy who basically lives on bologna sandwiches to take a lot of risks?

 

[Rocco]

The 2nd half was horrible for the offense. Sooooo phucking conservative.

I am also done with Lemon and Chew. They just don't have IT. Throw the young guys out to the wolves and let them learn.

 

[Stern]

Definitely a pro mentality. Marrone has a lot of good qualities...but being risky isn't one of them. Maybe it will change with different personel...but I have my doubts.

Pro Mentality is spot on. This is going to be a bigger issue going forward. The days of "just being better than GROB" and winning 4 or 5 games and everyone being happy are over. Time for that "next" leap of maybe some easy wins vs teams you should beat easily (ie Rhode Island and Tulane). And showing some signs of more improvement.

Guys who make it to this level of success in football usually don't change who they are all that much. I unfortunately think what we see with Doug is what we have.

 

[orlandoorange]

Do you really expect a guy who basically lives on bologna sandwiches to take a lot of risks?

That is a great point... he has every day planned out. Eats the same meals every week. This is who he is. He probably won't get a lot of style points, but he did get a W yesterday and with the play of Pitt against RU, a bowl game seems within his grasp.

 

[suloyalfan]

99 out of 100 coaches would run the ball starting from their own 1 yard line. That's not "conservative", it's smart. When you're pinned that deep your first goal is to get your QB's feet out of the endzone while he's taking the snap.

However, I do agree with the general growing sentiment that the team, and thereby Marrone, plays every game "not to lose" instead of "to win". They don't have a killer instinct to put the pedal down and pull away from someone. Clearly the defense had a letdown game after an outstanding game against Rutgers, but I think it's clear that Syracuse was playing to hold on to a win instead of being agressive to claim victory. This has been a common theme in Marrone's tenure here, and unless he has a change of heart or makes a change to an agressive style of offense then this is what we'll see regularly. It's like the statement last year that we didn't run shotgun because it wasn't worth the risk. We saw the risk earlier this year when Macky snapped the ball when Ryan wasn't ready... obviously it (the risk) didn't change with a new center.

My honest opinion... Marrone is overthinking way too much, too worried about making a mistake, and this is holding the offense back. Micro-managing is not a path to success... it's a path to stress and tension (for everyone).

 

[suloyalfan]

The 2nd half was horrible for the offense. Sooooo phucking conservative.

I am also done with Lemon and Chew. They just don't have IT. Throw the young guys out to the wolves and let them learn.

Correction... the 3rd Quarter was horrible for the offense. The first drive was stopped by 2 penalties... the second drive Nassib was taken down for a loss and fumbled... and the third drive Nassib was sacked on 3rd and 5. Tulane was fired up... Syracuse was sloppy and flat coming out from halftime.

In the 4th Quarter, the offense was pinned on their 1 yard line to start the drive and punted after a 3 and out... however, the other 2 possessions were a 12 play, 58 yard drive for a FG and a 13 play, 66 yard drive for a FG as time expired.

Without the sputtering in the 3rd Quarter, the team was on pace to put up +50 points... just what we expected in this game. With that, 37 points is nothing to sneeze at. The "problem" in this game was all of the big plays given up on defense because our defense is very undisciplined. The Tulane coach said as much, stating that their game plan was to use the Syracuse speed and agressiveness on defense against them with misdirection and trick plays, and then when they're on their heels they would hit them with deep passes. That's exactly what they did.

 

[Orangeyes]

Definitely a pro mentality. Marrone has a lot of good qualities...but being risky isn't one of them. Maybe it will change with different personel...but I have my doubts.

I thought he was being too risky at the end of the half. I was happy to be up by 10 on the road. We did not manage the clock very well, a recurring theme, and gave them time to pull within one score. The momentum from that energized Tulane's team and coaching staff to believe they could win this game and carried over to the second half where they made some great adjustments. We went three and out four straight times and our third quarter stats were down-right embarrassing.

 

[Orangeyes]

99 out of 100 coaches would run the ball starting from their own 1 yard line. That's not "conservative", it's smart. When you're pinned that deep your first goal is to get your QB's feet out of the endzone while he's taking the snap.

However, I do agree with the general growing sentiment that the team, and thereby Marrone, plays every game "not to lose" instead of "to win". They don't have a killer instinct to put the pedal down and pull away from someone. Clearly the defense had a letdown game after an outstanding game against Rutgers, but I think it's clear that Syracuse was playing to hold on to a win instead of being agressive to claim victory. This has been a common theme in Marrone's tenure here, and unless he has a change of heart or makes a change to an agressive style of offense then this is what we'll see regularly. It's like the statement last year that we didn't run shotgun because it wasn't worth the risk. We saw the risk earlier this year when Macky snapped the ball when Ryan wasn't ready... obviously it (the risk) didn't change with a new center.

My honest opinion... Marrone is overthinking way too much, too worried about making a mistake, and this is holding the offense back. Micro-managing is not a path to success... it's a path to stress and tension (for everyone).

I think he took some shots down the field but Ryan overthrew his receivers.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

2) Our last drive of the game. 1st-and-goal and the Tulane 5. Our kicking game has been shaky. Why not try to run 3 different running plays and not all 3 right up the middle? I know we got the FG, but we need to establish an aggressive coming at you mentality and all we do is settle.

Maybe we should have passed on 1st down? I'm sure Foster would have been open.

 

[ClkWrkOrange]

but he did get a W yesterday
Should this ever have been in doubt?Tulane is a bad team that's been CRUSHED by some pretty bad teams.If we're even decent we should have no business losing to them.It doesn't matter who's left on the schedule.We will keep doing the NFL thing of trying to sit on any lead for 3 quarters and keeping everyone we play in the game til the bitter end.Every game will continue to be a toss up regardless of how bad the opponent is.We could so easily be 0-6 and nobody seems to want to make any significant changes in how we're doing things.

 

[Bornorange]

Playing not to lose is better than losing.

 

[ClkWrkOrange]

Playing not to lose is better than losing.

Putting teams away when we have the chance is better still.

 

[orangepassion]

99 out of 100 coaches would run the ball starting from their own 1 yard line. That's not "conservative", it's smart. When you're pinned that deep your first goal is to get your QB's feet out of the endzone while he's taking the snap."

I don't mind running once or twice there, but running all 3 downs basically conceded at least 3 points.

 

[orangepassion]

Maybe we should have passed on 1st down? I'm sure Foster would have been open.

I wouldn't pass there-that's not worth the gamble. However you have 3 shots to do 3 different runs. Wouldn't mind Nassib trying to run it in again like he did earlier after a good fake.

 

[orangepassion]

Correction... the 3rd Quarter was horrible for the offense. The first drive was stopped by 2 penalties... the second drive Nassib was taken down for a loss and fumbled... and the third drive Nassib was sacked on 3rd and 5. Tulane was fired up... Syracuse was sloppy and flat coming out from halftime.

In the 4th Quarter, the offense was pinned on their 1 yard line to start the drive and punted after a 3 and out... however, the other 2 possessions were a 12 play, 58 yard drive for a FG and a 13 play, 66 yard drive for a FG as time expired.

Without the sputtering in the 3rd Quarter, the team was on pace to put up +50 points... just what we expected in this game. With that, 37 points is nothing to sneeze at. The "problem" in this game was all of the big plays given up on defense because our defense is very undisciplined. The Tulane coach said as much, stating that their game plan was to use the Syracuse speed and agressiveness on defense against them with misdirection and trick plays, and then when they're on their heels they would hit them with deep passes. That's exactly what they did.

The 37 points are a bit misleading with Kobena's return to the 5-yard line and the Defense getting 2 turnovers deep in Tulane territory.

 

[SWC75]

Putting teams away when we have the chance is better still.

Marrone wants his teams to "put them away" But I wonder if he himself has that "killer instinct". If he does nothing but avoid risks, are his players going to go all out?

 

[Toga]

I agree with everyone's points. To play devil's advocate though, HCDM is one Bailey fumble away from winning every close game this year.

 

[ClkWrkOrange]

But I wonder if he himself has that "killer instinct".
That is my concern as well.

 

[RoysRunts]

Hard not to agree on all the above Posts. I was / am a DM supporter
but their's a pattern emerging that makes it hard to deny "Play not to lose" . I think Krautman is right up in the top 5 SU FG Kickers in History (Now) but I want TD's inside the 5 :blah:

 

[ClkWrkOrange]

I agree with everyone's points. To play devil's advocate though, HCDM is one Bailey fumble away from winning every close game this year.

The problem is imo that every close game doesnt need to be so close.We are putting ourselves in the situation where 1 good or bad play at the end is the difference in a W or a L.3 of the 6 so far shouldn't have come down to that,imo.With any kind of agressiveness in playcalling with a lead/killer insinct we're comfortably sitting at 5-1 and looking pretty impressive doing it.Instead we're viewed as a crap team lucky to not be 0-6.

 

[Tornado91]

I think it's more than just the play calling and the coach's demeanor. I get frustrated with some of the calls, and I think the jury's still out on how marrone's personality affects the team's performance. Last year's defense was as aggressive and attacking as any in recent memory, and if that's in spite of HCDM, then it suggests the coordinators and personnel are at least as important.

At this point, I think it's as much about Ryan. I think he is talented enough to be successful, and he has stretches that are impressive. But I remember reading in the preseason that he is a pretty tightly-wound kid, and we may be seeing that in these games. The kid's just not a 'fly by the seat of his pants,' gunslinging type of kid, and with shoddy line protection and no skill position stars to pick of the slack, he tightens up and we see lots of short, quick, tight passes. He just looks at times like a QB who's not truly comfortable with the chaos around him.

Is the play calling frustrating? Definitely, at times. On other drives- when we have more than 3 plays- there are encouraging, balanced stretches.

 

[ClkWrkOrange]

But I remember reading in the preseason that he is a pretty tightly-wound kid

This sure does look to be the root of his problem to me.On these long passes he looks like he is just wound too tight.If he waited a second or less longer and relaxed a bit, I believe he throws a catchable ball.Same with these laser shot short to mid ranged passes.Maybe he's taken so many shots that he feels pressure even when it's not there,idk.His problems seem to be more mental than physical though.

 

[suloyalfan]

Agreed... they did take some deep shots. Ryan seems to have difficulty with passes over 20 yards down the field. He seems to overthrow them the vast majority of the time.