4th and 9 Defensive Call

[phil77]

I am still totally confused. I watched Fran's post game and everything still doesn't make any sense. In all the years I have watched football I have never seen such a strange coaching call one that I or them couldn't justify with reason. This isn't a season-is-over thread just trying to talk out the defensive call and trying to make sense of it. I know there are some coaches on here so hopefully they can shine some light.

Went back and watched the final drive, we made good adjustments and started to bring pressure up the middle with a blitz with decent success, which made the final call even more strange.

The decision to not bring pressure and coverage is fine and that can be explained even if I disagree with it since we were having more success blitzing up the middle on that drive.

#13 is a national player and will be playing on Sunday and is the one person on Stanford that you must account for. So if you are playing coverage why is coverage not rolled up on him? Could have played a man over coverage so our DB could have played underneath him with a safety over top. To make the decision to play coverage knowing we can't get pressure it is inexcusable to leave #13 single covered.

Overall the defense has played well seems to be a bend don't break style where they want to keep everything in front but keep them out of the endzone but I just can't mentally understand that last call. In no situation does the call-to-play coverage and single #13 while only rushing 3 make any sense to me.

What am I missing?

 

[orangenauburn]

Over thought the situation

Or

Miscommunication on the play call from coach to field

 

[djcon57]

I feel like a broken record but always think of it from their fanbases side or better yet flip it.

If it was 4th and 9. McCord drops back. Would we feel better with 6 guys coming at him or 3 man allowing him time to pick his spot and fling it. It’s not close

 

[NineOneSeven]

There won’t be an answer because there isn’t one.

 

[TheHaze315]

Over thought the situation

Or

Miscommunication on the play call from coach to field

If it was miscommunication it was one of the biggest falters ever. He had 2 timeouts called to get the call he wanted.

 

[CanadianSU]

It’s overthinking. They likely figured due to bringing pressure earlier the qb would force a quick pass.

Also earlier in another series they rushed three Daniels had a literal hour to throw and nothing came of it.

That’s what I can come up with but I really don’t think there is a logical answer.

 

[phil77]

Over thought the situation

Or

Miscommunication on the play call from coach to field

Seems like from Fran's press conference it wasn't a miscommunication. So overthinking? Trying to be too smart? But still doesn't make sense to single #13

 

[DPCuse]

If it was miscommunication it was one of the biggest falters ever. He had 2 timeouts called to get the call he wanted.

There were two timeouts called but the offensive play switched. And we can’t call back to back timeouts. The headsets stop communication with 15 seconds left so it’s possible we didn’t react to what we saw and messed up coverage. I don’t think we will ever know.

 

[TheHaze315]

There were two timeouts called but the offensive play switched. And we can’t call back to back timeouts. The headsets stop communication with 15 seconds left so it’s possible we didn’t react to what we saw and messed up coverage. I don’t think we will ever know.

He said he specifically wanted Lewis on him in the post game presser, before the TO it was Bellamy. Said they trusted him to make a play. Seems like a total lapse in judgment to me, which should be expected with such an inexperienced staff. Just wish it happened in a different spot and not one that directly lost us the game.

 

[FllCrtPrss]

I hated the 2nd and 20 play just as much. We went to a huge zone / prevent and Lewis was backpedaling so much at the snap that he gave a massive cushion that made it easy for an 11-yard gain. We had two blitzers get in there in about a second too so that easily would've been an incompletion or a game-winning INT if not for the massive zone backpedaling.

 

[SUDadx2]

The coach’s job is to put players in the right position. The player’s job is to execute the call.

Syracuse knew #13 was Stanford’s “go to” guy and still ended up one on one on a fourth and nine call. IMO that is inexcusable.

It was a great catch by a really good receiver, but the coaches failed to put the players in the right position. Take away their number one receiver with double coverage (physical press to disrupt the timing and the receiver’s route with a safety over the top) and make someone else beat you. We did not do this.

This was not the only head scratcher.

Why is Gadsden (48 of 62 offensive snaps. Peña had 61 snaps) not always on the field when we have the ball? Even in a sharp yardage situation, split him out wide and use him as a decoy. Instead we have him on the sidelines and make the defense’s job easier. It’s troublesome to watch Villari and Mang come in and Gadsden go out on 3rd down, then watch Gadsden come back in on punt team when we failed to covert third down. I care about his NFL development, but I care more about winning games for Cuse. IMO we are underutilizing and possibly misusing Gadsden. He is too good to not be on the field.

IMO, we did not respect Stanford and were not ready to play. We looked sloppy in pregame. I wasn’t sure if we were loose or just not focused. Now I can say we were not focused. That happens when you coaches tell the team during the week that you are going to blow them out. I was told this was a frequent message during the week. If this is true, the game was lost before it was played. Good teams stay laser focused regardless of the opponent. Hopefully we can refocus and play up to our potential next week against Holy Cross.

One last note. While I like how Coach Fran had the team out picking up trash in the community during the bye week, I would prefer we spend time cleaning up our fundamentals so we can create a run game and minimize penalties. He’s being paid to coach, not pick up trash. Leave the community service for off-season.

Go Orange. I’ll be back in my seat next week.

 

[Eric15]

We were SO close to getting a sack on 3rd and 20. That’s one of the plays I keep replaying in my head.

 

[djorange1989]

The coach’s job is to put players in the right position. The player’s job is to execute the call.

Syracuse knew #13 was Stanford’s “go to” guy and still ended up one on one on a fourth and nine call. IMO that is inexcusable.

It was a great catch by a really good receiver, but the coaches failed to put the players in the right position. Take away their number one receiver with double coverage (physical press to disrupt the timing and the receiver’s route with a safety over the top) and make someone else beat you. We did not do this.

This was not the only head scratcher.

Why is Gadsden (48 of 62 offensive snaps. Peña had 61 snaps) not always on the field when we have the ball? Even in a sharp yardage situation, split him out wide and use him as a decoy. Instead we have him on the sidelines and make the defense’s job easier. It’s troublesome to watch Villari and Mang come in and Gadsden go out on 3rd down, then watch Gadsden come back in on punt team when we failed to covert third down. I care about his NFL development, but I care more about winning games for Cuse. IMO we are underutilizing and possibly misusing Gadsden. He is too good to not be on the field.

IMO, we did not respect Stanford and were not ready to play. We looked sloppy in pregame. I wasn’t sure if we were loose or just not focused. Now I can say we were not focused. That happens when you coaches tell the team during the week that you are going to blow them out. I was told this was a frequent message during the week. If this is true, the game was lost before it was played. Good teams stay laser focused regardless of the opponent. Hopefully we can refocus and play up to our potential next week against Holy Cross.

One last note. While I like how Coach Fran had the team out picking up trash in the community during the bye week, I would prefer we spend time cleaning up our fundamentals so we can create a run game and minimize penalties. He’s being paid to coach, not pick up trash. Leave the community service for off-season.

Go Orange. I’ll be back in my seat next week.

I love this post

 

[djorange1989]

We were SO close to getting a sack on 3rd and 20. That’s one of the plays I keep replaying in my head.

It would have been like the end of the OT in the Illinois game last night when Nebraska had a 4th and 33.

 

[OrangeinBoston]

Not bringing the blitz on 4th and 9, when it was the blitz that put Stanford in that situation, was absolutely inexcusable. A true meathead coaching decision. Gave the game away.

 

[FrancoPizza]

That happens when you coaches tell the team during the week that you are going to blow them out. I was told this was a frequent message during the week.

This is unreal and doesn’t make any sense. What is the upside????

 

[Eric15]

I'm sure others have made this observation but man it would have been helpful to have Marlowe Wax yesterday.

 

[PhatOrange]

One last note. While I like how Coach Fran had the team out picking up trash in the community during the bye week, I would prefer we spend time cleaning up our fundamentals so we can create a run game and minimize penalties. He’s being paid to coach, not pick up trash. Leave the community service for off-season.

Go Orange. I’ll be back in my seat next week.

I agree a 100% with your post except for this part. They are only allotted so many practice hours per week which I am sure you know. So unless they are using actual practice time to pick up trash, then I dont see a problem. I am sure they are still doing film study and all that in addition to picking up trash.

 

[orangecuse]

The coach’s job is to put players in the right position. The player’s job is to execute the call.

Syracuse knew #13 was Stanford’s “go to” guy and still ended up one on one on a fourth and nine call. IMO that is inexcusable.

It was a great catch by a really good receiver, but the coaches failed to put the players in the right position. Take away their number one receiver with double coverage (physical press to disrupt the timing and the receiver’s route with a safety over the top) and make someone else beat you. We did not do this.

This was not the only head scratcher.

Why is Gadsden (48 of 62 offensive snaps. Peña had 61 snaps) not always on the field when we have the ball? Even in a sharp yardage situation, split him out wide and use him as a decoy. Instead we have him on the sidelines and make the defense’s job easier. It’s troublesome to watch Villari and Mang come in and Gadsden go out on 3rd down, then watch Gadsden come back in on punt team when we failed to covert third down. I care about his NFL development, but I care more about winning games for Cuse. IMO we are underutilizing and possibly misusing Gadsden. He is too good to not be on the field.

IMO, we did not respect Stanford and were not ready to play. We looked sloppy in pregame. I wasn’t sure if we were loose or just not focused. Now I can say we were not focused. That happens when you coaches tell the team during the week that you are going to blow them out. I was told this was a frequent message during the week. If this is true, the game was lost before it was played. Good teams stay laser focused regardless of the opponent. Hopefully we can refocus and play up to our potential next week against Holy Cross.

One last note. While I like how Coach Fran had the team out picking up trash in the community during the bye week, I would prefer we spend time cleaning up our fundamentals so we can create a run game and minimize penalties. He’s being paid to coach, not pick up trash. Leave the community service for off-season.

Go Orange. I’ll be back in my seat next week.

Excellent post! Authentic!

 

[Bayside44]

I agree a 100% with your post except for this part. They are only allotted so many practice hours per week which I am sure you know. So unless they are using actual practice time to pick up trash, then I dont see a problem. I am sure they are still doing film study and all that in addition to picking up trash.

Yeah, assume that's part of the community service part of NIL. And keeping them grounded (regardless of the rest of it)

 

[Eric15]

It’s water under the bridge at this point, but I just rewatched the highlights while working out, and I can’t believe Villari didn’t make an effort to chase down the Stanford defender after the pick six INT. You have to run it out. Anything can happen if the defender has to slow down for blockers, etc. He just stopped and watched, even though it was all his fault.

 

[SUDadx2]

I agree a 100% with your post except for this part. They are only allotted so many practice hours per week which I am sure you know. So unless they are using actual practice time to pick up trash, then I dont see a problem. I am sure they are still doing film study and all that in addition to picking up trash.

They had two days off during the bye week. They did not practice on the day they did the community service. There aren’t enough hours in the day to go to class, have practice and going into the community to perform community service.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the community service but I would prefer we practice and clean up our blocking schemes instead of cleaning up the community during the season.

Everything is subject to scrutiny when you lose. Scrutiny can lead to accountability.


Go Orange.

 

[DoctorBombay]

It’s water under the bridge at this point, but I just rewatched the highlights while working out, and I can’t believe Villari didn’t make an effort to chase down the Stanford defender after the pick six INT. You have to run it out. Anything can happen if the defender has to slow down for blockers, etc. He just stopped and watched, even though it was all his fault.

Villari looks and acts like a totally different player. Simply put... he's s*cked.

 

[MSOrange]

Villari looks and acts like a totally different player. Simply put... he's s*cked.

He was really fun to watch last year when we were just trying to whatever we could to field a team and get bowl-eligible. I'm just not sure he's a key cog if you're trying to take that next step to be better than that.

 

[MikeSU02]

I am still totally confused. I watched Fran's post game and everything still doesn't make any sense. In all the years I have watched football I have never seen such a strange coaching call one that I or them couldn't justify with reason. This isn't a season-is-over thread just trying to talk out the defensive call and trying to make sense of it. I know there are some coaches on here so hopefully they can shine some light.

Went back and watched the final drive, we made good adjustments and started to bring pressure up the middle with a blitz with decent success, which made the final call even more strange.

The decision to not bring pressure and coverage is fine and that can be explained even if I disagree with it since we were having more success blitzing up the middle on that drive.

#13 is a national player and will be playing on Sunday and is the one person on Stanford that you must account for. So if you are playing coverage why is coverage not rolled up on him? Could have played a man over coverage so our DB could have played underneath him with a safety over top. To make the decision to play coverage knowing we can't get pressure it is inexcusable to leave #13 single covered.

Overall the defense has played well seems to be a bend don't break style where they want to keep everything in front but keep them out of the endzone but I just can't mentally understand that last call. In no situation does the call-to-play coverage and single #13 while only rushing 3 make any sense to me.

What am I missing?

I want to know what Barron’s assignment on that play was.

Barron and Sparrow show blitz but back out of it.

They put a RB in motion and Clark goes with him. Not sure if the two RBs were back there assuming blitz and they used motion once Barron backed out (he backed out like a step or two ahead of Sparrow).

Ball snapped. Diggs immediately takes himself out of the play getting way too upfield. He does this a lot, btw. Has to work on this.

Leaving our guy on an island in man isn’t acceptable, but I have to know what Barron’s assignment was bc he ended up in no man’s land.