Concerns

[PAcuse]

Don’t sugar coat it, he played like Shyt and I bet he would be the first one to say it. He’ll learn from it and be better. I’m not concerned.

Not sugar coating anything, pointing out factors that happened in camp and the game that affected his output.
I'm sure he will be very critical of his game.

 

[orangecuse]

I don't understand why this is so hard to comprehend, even after Babers explained it. Yes, the coaches make adjustments, as they should. The players. however, have to try to recognize situations and then react to them in a split second. Being told what to look for and what to do is completely different than being out there and doing it when you might never have seen it before. You assume these guys should automatically be able to do what they are told...on the fly...and with no experience. To me, that's just crazy.

There's a difference between comprehension and acceptance. Even 'ol Rusty understood the difference.

 

[Pyle]

It wasn't 90 degrees and not all missed most of camp. 1 x missed most of camp and the other missed some of camp.

First site I checked said it was 91 on 8/30, another site reported 88 in Lynchburg. I'll split the difference - 89.5 and round up - 90 degrees. I guess if you really want to argue a degree or two then go ahead. I'm still not any more concerned than I was when I made that post.

 

[bevosu]

Howard obviously isn't a good team, but Maryland scored 56 points in the first half and backed off in the second. That's impressive I don't care who you're playing.

If teams truly do improve from the first game to the second (which I don't think is gospel) then Maryland should also improve. Based on our performance against Liberty this game is probably a toss up at best.

 

[PhatOrange]

Two things: The camera work on the broadcast was terrible. You couldn't really see what the WRs were doing. So, it's hard to know if the body language was inappropriate, or Jackson was justifiably frustrated.

Running game: Where is Jordan? We need something other than run it up the middle and hope it works. Jordan supposedly is lightning fast. If so, that would diversify the running attack.

Run it up the middle is our running. Jordan would have no impact there.

While I agree with you overall sentiment. We did just run one play against them. Devito never kept the ball despite the easy read and fact that their unblocked DE was crashing the run.
I've always disliked the slide for the college QB. Running QBs are so important to the college game to pick up critical 3rd downs. Learn how to have glancing tackles going forward so you're protected. The slide is basically saying crush me once to get me out of the game while I'm unprotected for a 15 yard penalty. Its a good trade off for many teams. Some people think the slide keeps QBs safe while I think the slide makes you're QB mor vulnerable to that one A-hole cheap shot.

Its an easy rule to say if a QB is in a slide you can't take a shot at him like that. Down by ground contact in college so it's not like you have to prevent the QB from sliding 3 feet.

 

[billsin01]

Watch him have a big game this weekend and then we start seeing threads with concerns that he may declare for the draft this year.

This is true, although I'd rather be posting in those threads than these.

 

[ImperialOrange]

If he was good enough last week he would have played. We don't hold out players as secret weapons.
Dino said it himself. We don't play personnel games. If they are good enough they will play.

May well be right but could be case of depth chart ahead of him being stacked. I'm forever and optimist so my thought is IF the WR group is going to play like that we'll see 1 less of them on the field in favor of +1 from the RB room. Also tend to think we'll go screen heavy this week so will be more reps to go around

 

[billsin01]

I'm more concerned with our wideouts and I really didn't like Tristin Jackson's on screen body language and apparent griping throughout the game. His outward frustration wreaked of a bad teammate so I really hope I was seeing things or he bottles that up.

I didn't really feel like we had a WR threat and Harris looked skinnier to me this season if that's possible. The kid on Liberty's squad would be our #1.

I do believe DeVito had jitters in his first start and suspect he'll calm down once the game slows down for him a little. Would be nice if we can have a consistent run game. Without Moe's 42 yarder, our RB's 3.5 yards per rush against Liberty doesn't have me feeling warm and fuzzy. Why can't we run better? LVille tore up ND last night running a zone scheme.

I think the running game -- or lack thereof -- is a big part of this. Need to figure that out and I'm not sure how likely we are to do that. Hoping the line improves quickly.

That said, anyone who doesn't have a bit of concern about DeVito's debut is a bit misguided, IMO. Not crushing the kid -- we know he has talent and we know he's got a strong personality, a good thing in a QB. But, I haven't had too many of those stretches where I've watched and found myself thinking 'this kid's going to be a stud.' Hope to see some of that this weekend.

 

[DomeStranger]

I think the good news is we didn't show MD much to prepare for. Did we run more than 10 plays?

 

[FasterCuse]

I think the good news is we didn't show MD much to prepare for. Did we run more than 10 plays?

When I was watching the game I said the same thing... I think we ran 5 plays out of a couple of different formations.

IMHO I think everyone is blowing this TD thing out of proportion. He had a couple of bad throws, and then some dropped passes. I actually was impressed with the arm strength on the one interception towards the endzone. If I had a to guess there are going to be a lot of posters eating crow next week.

 

[Sudano]

When I was watching the game I said the same thing... I think we ran 5 plays out of a couple of different formations.

IMHO I think everyone is blowing this TD thing out of proportion. He had a couple of bad throws, and then some dropped passes. I actually was impressed with the arm strength on the one interception towards the endzone. If I had a to guess there are going to be a lot of posters eating crow next week.

Being wrong doesn't negate the concern. Just like I won't gloat if he struggles again. I want it solved, not to embarrass those who thought differently than I. Most of us on both sides are making legitimate points to consider going forward. Its the balance of both sides that we should enjoy talking about and debating. I personally want to win, not to be right. None of us have a crystal ball. That's what most mistakenly conflate. Having concerns are completely different than wanting, hoping, or expecting TD to not play well. None of us really know, none of us can predict the future.

 

[TheCusian]

Howard obviously isn't a good team, but Maryland scored 56 points in the first half and backed off in the second. That's impressive I don't care who you're playing.

If teams truly do improve from the first game to the second (which I don't think is gospel) then Maryland should also improve. Based on our performance against Liberty this game is probably a toss up at best.

You’re prob right - but some things to consider:

- coaching (4th year lots of continuity and success at previous stops as HC vs 1st year, horrible last time as HC)

- along with coaching, continuity of systems and players recruited for that system

- S&C + tempo

- our DEs vs their freshman OT

 

[Crusty]

Game 1 means very little. It has been said a thousand times that the greatest improvement comes from game 1 to game 2. One reason is that coaches find out who they need to coach up and what they need to change. However, I think the biggest reason may be that we never see the whole play book in game 1.

Not much to change on D and focus will be on the Turtles.
Offense will obviously call for work on the O Line. They will get better with the full package installed for a MD team with more to go on than was the case with Liberty.

We are not last year's team and will most likely have growing pains all year. It will be a transitional year (not a rebuilding) year. That said, we will be very good by the end of the season.

 

[OttoMets]

...
We are not last year's team and will most likely have growing pains all year. It will be a transitional year (not a rebuilding) year. That said, we will be very good by the end of the season.

I hope so. Because there are a lot of "S"s next to the names of defensive players on the roster. This'd be a good year to win some games before what's sure to be a rebuilding year next season.

 

[Whitey23]

I don't understand why this is so hard to comprehend, even after Babers explained it. Yes, the coaches make adjustments, as they should. The players. however, have to try to recognize situations and then react to them in a split second. Being told what to look for and what to do is completely different than being out there and doing it when you might never have seen it before. You assume these guys should automatically be able to do what they are told...on the fly...and with no experience. To me, that's just crazy.

Good teams adapt to defenses all the time. Why are we building in an excuse for them playing poorly?

 

[RF2044]

Good teams adapt to defenses all the time. Why are we building in an excuse for them playing poorly?

Reasons aren't "excuses." And there were a long list of reasons why the offense was out of sync:

• DeVito making his first start, on the road
• Unsettled OL having to adjust in 2nd quarter and shuffle guys around
• WR unit dealing with injuries all camp, weren't on sync
• No film on Liberty
• Adjustments were made by coaches, but players hadn't practiced them because Freeze et al threw some wrinkles at them
• Keeping the offense simple, vanilla, and not trying to go downfield which made it easy for Liberty to not have to be concerned about the long ball
• The team playing their first game of the season, when they are not in a groove yet and hence not easier to flip the switch on adjustments

All of those things are causes for concern, but not all to the same degree. Need to get the OL settled [which should happen, with a week to prepare] and hope that DeVito and WRs work out the kinks. If those two things happen, then everything will be fine.

 

[FrancoPizza]

hope that DeVito and WRs work out the kinks.

We had reports that DeVito and Trish were working together all summer to develop chemistry on their routes. And presumably other receivers were also participating. I don't recall hearing Dino make a big deal about receivers missing time during camp. I also wasn't worried because they already put the time in before camp.

But so be it. If it's truly about getting on the same page, I think it will take a few weeks to get there. It's not going to be a 180 in week 2, especially facing a tougher defense that also now has more tape on Tommy's tendencies. As fans we need to temper expectations for improvement from week 1 to week 2.

Really don't have a good feeling about Saturday. Thinking we have a 30% chance to win. Hoping the rumors about Locksley being a poor coach helps us out in the same way UNC handed us the game last year.

 

[HOFCeluck]

Last November I said a lot of people would spend the offseason underrating the loss of Dungey.

Welp...

 

[RF2044]

We had reports that DeVito and Trish were working together all summer to develop chemistry on their routes. And presumably other receivers were also participating. I don't recall hearing Dino make a big deal about receivers missing time during camp. I also wasn't worried because they already put the time in before camp.

But so be it. If it's truly about getting on the same page, I think it would take a few weeks to get there. It's not going to be a 180 in week 2, especially facing a tougher defense that also now has more tape on Tommy's tendencies.

Really don't have a good feeling about Saturday. Thinking we have a 30% chance to win.

Of course you do, because the sky is always falling in Camillus Mall.

The reports you heard about off-season workouts were true. But if you were expecting a well-oiled machine in game one, with several key players missing substantial chunks of preseason camp, a QB making his first start, and an OL dealing with injuries and two new starters, then you probably weren't being realistic. It is also important to note that we didn't open up the playbook -- we ran a handful of basic sets, and didn't take shots deep. When teams have to account for the deep pass, they'll be forced to defend things a little different.

Minor timing issues are what happened on Saturday. Pointing that out isn't an "excuse" -- they'll need to all perform better, including DeVito.

 

[raf4488]

Winning 79-0 is impressive, but let’s try to put that into context

 

[Cuseregular]

Last November I said a lot of people would spend the offseason underrating the loss of Dungey.

Welp...

Uhhh huhh....

Time to hit the brakes

A bit. What a wonderful problem to have compared to past problems with the program and I am not normally the one to sound the alarm for concern but haven't seen anything to this effect yet. It has been absolutely exhilarating to read see and hear the unbridled optimism and enthusiasm going on...

syracusefan.com

 

[Pyle]

Winning 79-0 is impressive, but let’s try to put that into contextView attachment 169378

You should circle that entire schedule. Beats Howard 76-0, goes 1-9 rest of the season and only score more than 20 points exactly zero times after that. Winning!

 

[OttoMets]

Winning 79-0 is impressive, but let’s try to put that into contextView attachment 169378

Nice. Yeah, Howard is bad. Like, routinely loses to Georgetown level of bad.

Can't take too much away from Saturday.

 

[DaCuse]

The insecurity of this fan base never ceases to amaze me. Devito is going to be fine. SU will still win at least nine games. Teams have won national championships with far worse talents at QB and our defense and RBs can compete with all the top teams.

This defense is legit and will show that once again on Saturday. It will take time for this offense as it is a completely different animal with Tommy’s skill set in comparison to Eric’s. Good thing half the players on defense will play on Sundays.

If I had a dollar for every time an SU fan thought the sky was falling because of one rough performance (basketball or football) I’d be a rich man.

This fan base is manic depressive.

 

[Sudano]

It has been said a thousand times that the greatest improvement comes from game 1 to game 2.

Does this apply to just Syracuse or for all other teams including Maryland?