Game review - SU pass game | Syracusefan.com

Game review - SU pass game

GoSU96

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Ran through the pass plays quickly.

Reality is a little different than many of the takes here.

Nassib was not under constant pressure. He's wasn't running for his life.

There were 40 called pass plays. 29 were completions, 7 incompletions, 1 int, 3 sacks.

Of the sacks, the first was on the last play of the first half out of the shotgun, Pugh didn't pick up the outside rusher at all and he came free.

The second was a delayed blitz up the middle and Harris didn't pick up the LB. It looked like it might have been a screen that didn't work at all because Mackey and Chibane were up field.

The third was on an all out blitz, the left corner came free, forced Nassib back into the pocket which then collasped.

From what I could see Nassib was knocked down twice, and he completed the pass on both plays. The first was when they were in the gun and Chibane whiffed. The second was on a three step drop and he was hit after a delayed blitz.

Other than those 5 plays he wasn't touched, and wasn't heavily pressured. If he was moving more than a step or two it was by design. He wasn't close to having to tuck the ball and escape pressure up field. He had to get a little deeper once on a roll out because a DL split Tiller and Hay but that was the extent of it. He had to slide in the pocket a couple of times and completed the pass when he did it.

Of the 8 misses none were caused by pressure. 5 came on straight drops. Of those 5, 3 were where the ball was out of his hand as soon he got back on his last step and the ball sailed, the int, one to Lemon, and the miss to Stevens in the end zone. That might have been the single biggest issue all night, his misses on timing routes. On the deep ball to Chew he got back but instead of releasing the ball immediately got set and actually came up short. The last miss was to Lemon down the sideline where he just led him too far.

He missed two passes out of the shotgun, one to Chew on a quick out and a crossing pattern to Provo that was dropped. The last incompletion was knocked down at the LOS when he tried to check down to Bailey after he couldn't find anyone open.
 
This is crazy, our offensive line is absolutely terrible. Mackey is only D-3 talent at best and is just a little bit bigger than marcus sales. How dare anyone challenge reactionary thought on this board.
 
This is crazy, our offensive line is absolutely terrible. Mackey is only D-3 talent at best and is just a little bit bigger than marcus sales. How dare anyone challenge reactionary thought on this board.

I'm not saying the OL doesn't have major issues. They have to get better, in particular run blocking. However, the claim that Nassib was getting immediate pressure up the middle constatly is not true.
 
I'm not saying the OL doesn't have major issues. They have to get better, in particular run blocking. However, the claim that Nassib was getting immediate pressure up the middle constatly is not true.

Did a guard give Macky a lot of help like the WF game? I would think we wouldn't have any problem with the RI DL and we really didn't in the passing game. The run game is another story.
 
This is encouraging. I'm very pleased by the way the passing game is developing, and the number of times we're putting the ball in the air. This is the move that I think we've needed for a long time.

Hopefully the run blocking improves sooner rather than later.
 
Watched the 2nd-3rd quarters .. i saw 3 times where SU had double teams off the nose. all 3 times the player spun off the center and was able to go around the guard but it never led to the qb as the ball was gone.. we are really struggling with speed in both phases of the oline play..
 
Watched the 2nd-3rd quarters .. i saw 3 times where SU had double teams off the nose. all 3 times the player spun off the center and was able to go around the guard but it never led to the qb as the ball was gone.. we are really struggling with speed in both phases of the oline play..

Honestly, we are struggling with speed rush up thy middle and bull rush up the middle. Rutgers will destroy our offense if we don't fix this
 
I'm just wondering if it has something to do with game planning and a lack of film on the 2 teams we have played - more like a home opener against URI again. I am not making excuses, but they said to game plan they had to go back to last years film. It makes me think that's why we missed assignments and missed out understanding the strength and weaknesses of the opposing defense. Feels like we went in blind each game.

I'm still reserving judgement until they play the coference opener with Rutgers then their are no excuses with the game planning aspect.
 
Nice analysis GoSU96. The stats show the passing attack was just fine -- Nassib and our two top receivers are the strength of the team. Graham and Stevens look like they are coming along.

We can disagree about whether giving up 3 sacks and a few pressures -- against Rhode Island -- is a decent performance from the OL.

But the real issue (as others have posted) is the lack of a running attack. Not much push from the OL. Not much confidence that the OL can convert on 3rd and short or 4th and short -- again, this was Rhode Island.

So what can Marrone do? Maybe Moore gets into the RB mix by week 5. Marrone has kept this OL group together from day 1 in the Spring, but maybe it is time to work Lou Alexander into the mix? There aren't a lot of other levers to pull but there has to be concern about having some run/pass balance.
 
Nice analysis GoSU96. The stats show the passing attack was just fine -- Nassib and our two top receivers are the strength of the team. Graham and Stevens look like they are coming along.

We can disagree about whether giving up 3 sacks and a few pressures -- against Rhode Island -- is a decent performance from the OL.

But the real issue (as others have posted) is the lack of a running attack. Not much push from the OL. Not much confidence that the OL can convert on 3rd and short or 4th and short -- again, this was Rhode Island.

So what can Marrone do? Maybe Moore gets into the RB mix by week 5. Marrone has kept this OL group together from day 1 in the Spring, but maybe it is time to work Lou Alexander into the mix? There aren't a lot of other levers to pull but there has to be concern about having some run/pass balance.

Completely agree with the run game, but some context is needed here as well. I'm going to go a little upperdeck at the moment, but here goes. There were 25 carries for for a net of 36 yds. That is ridiculous, but the fact is that they never even attempted to establish the run. In reality SU only called 19 run plays the whole game.

SU ran 62 offensive plays in the game. 3 of those were kneel downs the last series. So out of 59 actual plays 40 were called passes and 19 were runs. That has NEVER happened here without being behind big early and trying to catch up. That was part of the game plan.

On the 19 called runs SU gained 64, lost 4 for a net of 60 yds, just over 3 yds a carry. Not acceptable by any means against URI, but not as bad as the raw numbers look. The losses from the sacks and kneel downs had a greater than normal impact on the net.

Bottomline is that SU didn't even bother trying to establish the run intentionally for what might be the first time in program history. Isn't that what scrimmages are for?

As for the sacks, I just want to note it wasn't because they were overpowered by URI, two were missed assignments on blitzes and one was because Nassib missed the hot read when they brought the house.

None of this is intended to be pie in the sky/all is well, but it isn't as bad, or of the nature, presented by most.
 
Completely agree with the run game, but some context is needed here as well. I'm going to go a little upperdeck at the moment, but here goes. There were 25 carries for for a net of 36 yds. That is ridiculous, but the fact is that they never even attempted to establish the run. In reality SU only called 19 run plays the whole game.

SU ran 62 offensive plays in the game. 3 of those were kneel downs the last series. So out of 59 actual plays 40 were called passes and 19 were runs. That has NEVER happened here without being behind big early and trying to catch up. That was part of the game plan.

On the 19 called runs SU gained 64, lost 4 for a net of 60 yds, just over 3 yds a carry. Not acceptable by any means against URI, but not as bad as the raw numbers look. The losses from the sacks and kneel downs had a greater than normal impact on the net.

Bottomline is that SU didn't even bother trying to establish the run intentionally for what might be the first time in program history. Isn't that what scrimmages are for?

As for the sacks, I just want to note it wasn't because they were overpowered by URI, two were missed assignments on blitzes and one was because Nassib missed the hot read when they brought the house.

None of this is intended to be pie in the sky/all is well, but it isn't as bad, or of the nature, presented by most.

Good post and clearly they weren't trying to run and clearly in 11 0f the 12 games that we play, we won't be trying to overpower anyone but using the zone blocking scheme that if well executed can be succesful with a guy like Mack at center, my biggest worry here is because Macky is not big people feel he is quick, and I am not sure here that he is quick either, don't know but that could be an issue. As I have said, our 5 lineman were at least adequate last year and Bailey needs to see the holes a bit better, a few swing passes may help too.

Clearly we are better than wha we have shown so far, I hate that URI was jumping the snap count as well.. Rutgers I believe was doing this to use last year as well as Lville
 
If the oline had done its job on the 2-3 key 3rd and 4th down plays much of the rushing issues would not be being discussed. You look at how teams go after us on 4th and one and we dont even try a sneak anymore.. that says alot.. We need to get to the point were 3rd and two is a 50/50 instead of a 1/10 when we run.. If bailey breaks a 50 yd run vs RI the stats look almost identical even with the sacks.. 30-121 4yd a carry. 25-96 3.8 yd a carry... and would have almost doubled the passing yds..

shows that we need 1-2 big runs if we are be productive.. we had several games last year where we had solid running drives. I think USF was really the first time against a real D last year.. then against WV/cincy and not again until KSU . if you count akron/colgate thats 6 out of 12..

we also had one 250 yd passing game last year and that came vs maine.. 318 is nothing to scoff at.. Thats 11th all time for SU..
 
Great write-up and analysis Go.

If our O-line especially in the middle continues to get blown up, Nassib will never have time to create consistency with his targets. The most troubling thing about all of this is the number of missed blocks. That CANNOT happen as much against USC.

The one player that I am disappointed at this point would be Provo. He's had a few drops and just hasn't been a big part of the passing game.

What is the deal with Wales? I thought he started to show glimpses of being a good pass-catching TE last year. I haven't seen him on the field that much, if any yet.

I would really like to see what Flemming and Kobena can do as well. Only seen Kobena running reverses.
 

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