Anomaly?

[Sherman20]

This is Syracuse football for the last 20 years. Coaches and players change but the results stay the same.

Pitt is undefeated, off to their best start in decades, is ranked in the top 20 and has a stalwart defense. They could win the ACC title. Our offensive line isn’t great this season and McCord had a bad game and was rattled after the first pick 6. It’s hard to win when the other team has 3 pick 6es and 3 INTs off tipped passes. Strange game. Have to wipe it and move on.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

Didn't watch. The luckiest team in the country that could be 2-4 got a crazy amount of breaks bc we're Syracuse. Looks like their gameplan was to sellout for sacks/picks and let McCord get yards they knew our running game was below average.

This looks like ND in Yankee Stadium or VT last year both of which I attended glad I was spared this one. Pitt should come back to earth their last 5 games.

We were not beating both Pitt and VT just make up for last years game with a split. If the line were a little more reliable, Allen could make guys miss, and 1-2 difference makers on D you could maybe expect 10 wins out of this squad and to sniff around for a playoff berth but its our coaches first year and honestly a ridiculous expectation.

 

[David321]

Didn't watch. The luckiest team in the country that could be 2-4 got a crazy amount of breaks bc we're Syracuse. Looks like their gameplan was to sellout for sacks/picks and let McCord get yards they knew our running game was below average.

This looks like ND in Yankee Stadium or VT last year both of which I attended glad I was spared this one. Pitt should come back to earth their last 5 games.

We were not beating both Pitt and VT just make up for last years game with a split. If the line were a little more reliable, Allen could make guys miss, and 1-2 difference makers on D you could maybe expect 10 wins out of this squad and to sniff around for a playoff berth but its our coaches first year and honestly a ridiculous expectation.

Not making excuses for our team but Pitt's defensive scheme was no joke.

 

[tep624]

Pitt had a good gameplan
McCord made some poor decisions
SU also got some bad breaks (2nd INT, RTP call after getting an INT, etc.)

Pitt had a really good game plan and defused our offense. But Kyle was consistently throwing where defenders could catch it and not where only his WR’s could. Just a really lousy game for him overall. Yes some of it was pressure but a lot of it wasn’t.

 

[PhatOrange]

True.

But he does have to own why the O was abysmal.

Pressure the QB with bump and grab corners. It’s what Pitt does. The real mess tonight was pretty much just McCord. I’m disappointed that Nixon and the O staff weren’t more ready for it and I don’t think Nixon called a particularly good game to help. But then again, we saw guys open, particularly RBs and check downs but McCord was intent on his primary guy and jamming into him no matter what. McCords performance was pretty wild. All of the picks were terrible decisions on the throw and he didn’t seem to care they were covered. Even his misses were brutal.

Pitt’s a good team to run mis direction, jet sweeps, boots, out and up double moves etc but we saw none of that..

 

[richmondcuse03]

Curious if Kyle’s velocity was same as usual. He definitely forced too many throws and made bad reads. But seemed like he was off on a lot or velocity was down.

 

[sufandu]

It shows you don't completely change what you have in the trenches in 1 off season, and that's always our biggest need. Oline has to get better. We have to get competent at running the ball.

 

[SU91]

Curious if Kyle’s velocity was same as usual. He definitely forced too many throws and made bad reads. But seemed like he was off on a lot or velocity was down.

He doesn’t have a great arm. His velocity seemed down because he was playing against a better scheme and better players who covered our receivers like a wet blanket. He’s been making those throws all year and getting away with them. I love McCord. He wasn’t great but that was a team loss. A lot of issues have been masked or ignored to date.

 

[sdhall01]

This is Syracuse football for the last 20 years. Coaches and players change but the results stay the same.

Oh, Jesus Christ.

 

[PhatOrange]

Curious if Kyle’s velocity was same as usual. He definitely forced too many throws and made bad reads. But seemed like he was off on a lot or velocity was down.

Both deep balls to Hatcher may have been touchdowns, one for sure, if he led him. He put so much air underneath them, both players were waiting for it like they were centerfielders. These weren’t really deep passes either. They were like what maybe 35 yards, 40, in the air? Not the type of passes where you have to put air underneath them to let the receiver run under it. It was bizarre. He was really off last night.

 

[sufandu]

Both deep balls to Hatcher may have been touchdowns, one for sure, if he led him. He put so much air underneath them, both players were waiting for it like they were centerfielders. These weren’t really deep passes either. They were like what maybe 35 yards, 40, in the air? Not the type of passes where you have to put air underneath them to let the receiver run under it. It was bizarre. He was really off last night.

Those throws would've had to have been perfect to have a chance at being TDs. Even then a catch was not a certainty. Hatcher had absolutely no separation on those.

 

[Newhouser]

Curious if Kyle’s velocity was same as usual. He definitely forced too many throws and made bad reads. But seemed like he was off on a lot or velocity was down.

I think his velocity was down because he wasn't setting his feet. Pitt was in his head from the jump.

 

[PhatOrange]

Those throws would've had to have been perfect to have a chance at being TDs. Even then a catch was not a certainty. Hatcher had absolutely no separation on those.

Yeah, he absolutely had separation on the first one, but McCord threw it 10 yards short

 

[Grbac]

This was one for the storybooks. Worst breaks I have ever seen. Terrible biased refs. Pitt should play the lottery with those interceptions especially the guy laying down and ball falls into his hands.

We are way better than this showing. This doesn’t define Kyle McCord. All QB’s have an off game. Plus he wasn’t helped with any run game. He was forced to bring us back by throwing into coverage on every play. Bad bad play calling.

I also chalk this up to Narduzzi being a good coach in his 10th year at Pitt. Having a good DC in Randy Bates. Their DT coach is Tim Daoust, our former DT coach. They all did an amazing job game planning for us.

Fran Brown is in year 1 of building this team. He has a long way to go but has already given us a lot of excitement and a decent product to cheer for. With his recruiting prowess he’ll have us getting better every year.

 

[DPCuse]

I know all coaches say it, but why do coaches say I need to coach better next week.

Look coach, you have a game next week. Start coaching as hard as you can now. When a coach says that, it's like they are acknowledging they left some coaching in the tank. I'd rather the coach say, we did all we could, we prepared the team, it just didn't work out. They were better than us tonight.

 

[PhatOrange]

I know all coaches say it, but why do coaches say I need to coach better next week.

Look coach, you have a game next week. Start coaching as hard as you can now. When a coach says that, it's like they are acknowledging they left some coaching in the tank. I'd rather the coach say, we did all we could, we prepared the team, it just didn't work out. They were better than us tonight.

I don’t know, if the team was unprepared, he’s acknowledging he needs to do a better job in my opinion.

You know when you’re on the losing end of an ass kicking sometimes you just have to tip your cap, there’s always room for improvement and all you can do is get after it Next week and practice, fix mistakes and try to get better. If nothing else I like that he takes responsibility unlike Dino .

 

[DocFlanders]

My problem is that Pitt knuckles out close wins against everyone they play (minus a few tomato cans) but blows our doors off. They simply own us...

 

[sufan59]

I don’t know, if the team was unprepared, he’s acknowledging he needs to do a better job in my opinion.

You know when you’re on the losing end of an ass kicking sometimes you just have to tip your cap, there’s always room for improvement and all you can do is get after it Next week and practice, fix mistakes and try to get better. If nothing else I like that he takes responsibility unlike Dino .

It’s quite simple looking back was that they messed up the game planning on this one and dug themselves too deep to reverse course. Pitt practiced and prepared aggressively to undercut our short to medium passing routes. Up until this point we had success playing that way. Our coaching staff didn’t anticipate this and that was the issue in that we continued to gamble starting out the game that way. In hindsight, they probably wished to have switched things up and anticipate that the same game plan would bite us at some point and went run heavy in the first quarter before bringing out the passing attack once we settled into the game more.

 

[Fanalways]

I’d argue a tipped ball interception is far from rare, but 3 is a little ridiculous

Happy to see someone else noticed the tipped ball interceptions. Luck was definitely on Pitt’s side.

 

[Scooch]

Both deep balls to Hatcher may have been touchdowns, one for sure, if he led him. He put so much air underneath them, both players were waiting for it like they were centerfielders. These weren’t really deep passes either. They were like what maybe 35 yards, 40, in the air? Not the type of passes where you have to put air underneath them to let the receiver run under it. It was bizarre. He was really off last night.

Agreed. People were saying the DB had our guy covered. But it was much more than McCord threw lollipops that didn’t lead the receiver IMHO.

 

[Orangello]

Because the OL ain't good.

Hasn't really been all year.

Wohlabaugh hasn't been a factor. Reed is hobbled.

We brought in a lot of transfers from name schools. Now we see why they weren't playing in the first place.

Buying QB's and WR's is easy. We need the beef too.

OL is bad but the lack of an offensive game plan, horrible play calling and lack of adjustments are also to blame. Cals DL is as good or better than Schpitts. I'm thinking BC and UConn are the remaining wins for this team.

 

[shu 49]

A tipped ball INT is rare. We had three in one half. For maybe 21 points? At least 17. That’s some amazing bad breaks

We really shouldnt have thrown the ball to anyone of them as they were really well covered.

 

[Newhouser]

It’s quite simple looking back was that they messed up the game planning on this one and dug themselves too deep to reverse course. Pitt practiced and prepared aggressively to undercut our short to medium passing routes. Up until this point we had success playing that way. Our coaching staff didn’t anticipate this and that was the issue in that we continued to gamble starting out the game that way. In hindsight, they probably wished to have switched things up and anticipate that the same game plan would bite us at some point and went run heavy in the first quarter before bringing out the passing attack once we settled into the game more.

But how do professional coaches not anticipate that strategy? 99% of this board were discussing it.

 

[PhatOrange]

It’s quite simple looking back was that they messed up the game planning on this one and dug themselves too deep to reverse course. Pitt practiced and prepared aggressively to undercut our short to medium passing routes. Up until this point we had success playing that way. Our coaching staff didn’t anticipate this and that was the issue in that we continued to gamble starting out the game that way. In hindsight, they probably wished to have switched things up and anticipate that the same game plan would bite us at some point and went run heavy in the first quarter before bringing out the passing attack once we settled into the game more.

I 100% agree with this assessment

 

[MSOrange]

Because the OL ain't good.

Hasn't really been all year.

Wohlabaugh hasn't been a factor. Reed is hobbled.

We brought in a lot of transfers from name schools. Now we see why they weren't playing in the first place.

Buying QB's and WR's is easy. We need the beef too.

Agree. Far from the only issue last night, but they aren't good. This is finally the last year I'm going to believe the board when people say the OL will be improved. We suck at evaluating OL (not directed at you specifically)