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Message: [QUOTE="MSOrange, post: 415192, member: 630"] With apologies to sutomcat, here is my attempt at a recap of my first ever live Syracuse football game. I will admit right off that I've never played and am far from a football expert, so I won't go too much into the X's and O's. I went with my dad and brother and we arrived over 3 hours before game because we wanted to make sure we got a handicapped parking spot for me. The tailgating scene was very impressive. There were tons of Mizzou tents set up all over the parking lot. We all had Orange hats and shirts on, so it was no secret who we were cheering for. But everyone was very friendly and a few thanked us for coming to the game. Gates opened 90 minutes before game time. Memorial Stadium/Faurot Field is a very nice facility. Our tickets were on the sideline, but lined up with the north end zone where we played towards in the 1st quarter. That was the same end zone where they have a huge rock M behind the end zone that was pretty cool as well as a grassy area where people can sit. They ended up being much better seats than I had really expected by looking at the stadium map. We could see pretty much everything we needed to see, although it was hard to see what yard line the teams were on from that angle when they were at the opposite end of the field. They had a huge video board on our end of the field that was excellent about playing replays of every play and getting down and distance updated very quickly. They also had regular scoreboard at the other end of the field. They showed quite a few out of town scores before the game, but I didn't really notice too many during the game or anytime else.They also showed some stats at the end of each quarter but not very much during the game. I knew Lemon was having a great game, but had no idea he was over 200 until I got home. Ragman will be thrilled to know that Faurot Field did have pee troughs! Being in a wheelchair, I am sorry I couldn't experience the magic that is using a pee trough, but life is tough sometimes :) The announced crowd was over 63000 which I would say is accurate. It got really loud on 3rd downs for Syracuse and was a definite home field advantage in those situations. That was horrible start to the first quarter with the long pass to Beckham, needless to say. There have been a lot of times where something like that right off the bat would have sent the game spiraling into a blowout, but this team is different. That was great to respond back with a field goal, but I thought that one pass that Nassib underthrew and Lemon let go through his hands after he adjusted would really hurt. That would have given us a first down inside the 10 Obviously, Lemon more than made up for that play, which as I said wasn't totally his fault anyway. Krautman did a good job knocking down the field goal while I was holding my breath :) As others have said, that stop in the second quarter where we held them a field goal to go up 17-3 was huge. Then we responded great with the first TD to make it 17-10 (sadly nature called and I missed a few plays of our first TD drive). I think Marrone did a great job last night, but that sequence at the end of the half was a little bizarre. I would have probably used a TO there with about 50 seconds left and seen what we could do on offense. But just a minor issue in the big picture. I do think we got a break on the play at the end of the half before they punted. I thought we were offsides, even after I looked at the replay this morning. Overall I think the refs did well. Each team had some really costly penalties. The halftime show was really good. They had several Army paratroopers jump and land on the field. It was quite a sight seeing them in the sky at night as they had some sparkler things on to show where they were in the sky. The Mizzou band then did a show for the rest of the half time. This part was really weird. As the band was circling the track outside the field before halftime, I counted 7 tubas that walked by our section. Then I counted them again on their way off the field, and that time I counted 20 tubas. I wasn't really paying too much attention so I have no idea what happened during that performance. But apparently we had tubas reproducing! The 3rd quarter, the defense improved tremendously. Mizzou had 237 yds passing at half time and 260 at the end of the third quarter, so great job there. I take full responsibility for Nassib's interception in the 4th quarter. We were set up so well after the shanked punt by Mizzou. But I had to open my big mouth and tell my dad I didn't think there had been any turnovers in the game to that point. I knew I should have shut my yapper. But the defense stepped up HUGE holding them to a field goal. I was pretty confident on the game winning drive. Obviously running the no huddle is no big deal for us at this point, so that wasn't a change. I could feel the air let out of the stadium when we converted the 4th and 10 to Lemon for the first down. This was such a huge win in a very tough environment. I think it is fair to say we don't win a game like this a few seasons ago. We're going to have a lot to replace next year with Nassib, Sales, Lemon and others, but I think we are building some decent depth and definitely headed in the right directions especially after a game like that. Great job Coach Marrone. The whole experience was awesome! All you guys that live close enough to go to games on a regular basis are really lucky. I know some people would have preferred to schedule an easier opponent like the rest of the conference, but I was thrilled to finally be able to go to a game. It was over a 2 hour drive each way, but well worth it, even after getting home at 1 am. [/QUOTE]

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