Game Thoughts

[anomander]

What an interesting game. Talk about a tale of 2 halves. Have to go and watch the replay, but from the stands here's what stood out to me.

- Defensive Line - Once again Daoust is showing why he is one of the very best in the business. DL controlled the game, and absolutely dominated in the 2nd half. Sugar Bear was the game MVP in my eyes. It's so much easier when we can generate an organic pass rush. Suga Bear was causing all sorts of problems, and Simmons was making plays again as well. Such an upgrade between these 2 and Welsh/Robinson from last year. The young DT's were excellent as well. All the DT's were very good clogging the middle and making plays.

- Linebackers - Excellent once again. On both INT''s it was caused by blitzes from Franklin, and then Hodge who hit the QB forcing an errant pass. Lots of hard hits too. I liked what I saw from Jonathan Thomas. Thought he made a couple splash plays against URI, and did the same today. Love this unit and they still have 3 years together.

- DB's - Ugh. Cordy is a playmaker, but also cost 2 big plays with missed tackles. Still think he's the best of the bunch though. I think Morgan has to be in there, even if it's for Whigham who just continues to struggle. There are cushions, and then there is Whigham covering his man. This unit has to improve in a hurry, even if it means shaking it up.

- Defensive adjustments - That being said above Shafer and the staff went in and made some good adjustments. Increased the pressure on Wolford, and CB's were more aggressive.

- 1st half - Made me want to puke. Far too conservative on both sides of the ball. I'm hoping the real team is the one that came out and played and coached like the team in the 2nd half.

- Dungey - Bright future, and has the ability to be very good this season. That TD to Ish was all him. His feet gave him the ability to buy time and hit Ish as his man got caught peeking in. Same thing with the TD to Bris. Those were all Dungey. Could Hunt do that? I'm not so sure. imo Dungey gives us a better chance to win THIS year.

- Speaking of Ish, Lester has to find a way to get him more involved. He's one of the only WR's who can get open consistently.

- More Fredericks. More Strickland.

- Still thought Shafer was far too conservative with his game management.

- How did we get back to people thinking it's a good idea to jingling their damn keys. So freaking stupid. Just clap, and yell, and put your damn keys in your pocket..

CUSE 3wins
WAKE 0

 

[upperdeck]

this offense needs a WR who can get open you cant scheme every play or always have the QB creating time to get someone open. i thought the opposite , i thought they were not conservative enough. gave up on the running too soon , even the WR reverse pass, odd time, but it was open for the run or the check down for big yds but he threw deep. we need the RB to break a tackle cause Wake was run blitzing all day makeing it hard sledding much of the game

 

[OburgOrange]

2-0

 

[Full_Rebar]

Thompson was the best player on the field. Daoust is the most valuable coach in my opinion.

Agree that Lester needs to get Ishmael more touches. 1 catch in a close game isn't good. Same with Estime who only had 4 touches.

Good to be 2-0 w/ room to improve.

 

[rrlbees]

Thompson was the best player on the field. Daoust is the most valuable coach in my opinion. Agree that Lester needs to get Ishmael more touches. 1 catch in a close game isn't good. Same with Estime who only had 4 touches. Good to be 2-0 w/ room to improve.

Ish had a real hard time today getting open or some separation.

 

[cuseguy]

Ish had a real hard time today getting open or some separation.

Wake's defense is a bit underrated and they usually have a few quality corners.

 

[upperdeck]

we lose the corner/wr battle it seems like every game both sides of the ball and have for years..

 

[BVille44]

Ish had a real hard time today getting open or some separation.

Ish and Dungey were having some issues on a couple of series in the first half. After both of the series Dungey, Ish, and Acosta got together on the sidelines.

 

[CbusCuse]

we lose the corner/wr battle it seems like every game both sides of the ball and have for years..

Agree. These are our weakest units. Coming into the season I was hoping our WR's were getting better with the additional experience but it doesn't look to be the case right now. It appears to still be a subpar unit that also seems to have given many the impression our DB's were better than they are. Ish is solid for a Soph but right now I think he would only be a #2 WR on most ACC teams and probably a #3 on the better ones.

 

[SoBristol]

-Dungey had a solid overall game - very mature decisions, and he was our best runner on this day. Lester sure picked a winner.

Need Phillips back to boost the WR corps. Wake's set of WRs were much better than ours -- and they rolled out a grad transfer, two true frosh, a RS-, and a very good TE who is only a RS-Soph. Ishmael -- maybe the expectations got built up too much?
Have to mention Parris Bennett, who made a lot of plays. Wake's LBs are a good unit, but out trio was their equal.
Our three RBs were OK, nothing special. Jordan Fredericks will be good, but people were getting ahead of themselves after his debut against a weak RI.

 

[SoBeCuse]

-Dungey had a solid overall game - very mature decisions, and he was our best runner on this day. Lester sure picked a winner.

Need Phillips back to boost the WR corps. Wake's set of WRs were much better than ours -- and they rolled out a grad transfer, two true frosh, a RS-, and a very good TE who is only a RS-Soph. Ishmael -- maybe the expectations got built up too much?
Have to mention Parris Bennett, who made a lot of plays. Wake's LBs are a good unit, but out trial was their equal.
Our three RBs were OK, nothing special. Jordan Fredericks will be good, but people were getting ahead of themselves after his debut against a weak RI.

Agreed. Wake's frosh RB to me has more pop and strength than our guys. No question their receivers collectively are better than ours. SugarBear and Dungey were the best performers on SU.

 

[SUalldway]

this offense needs a WR who can get open you cant scheme every play or always have the QB creating time to get someone open. i thought the opposite , i thought they were not conservative enough. gave up on the running too soon , even the WR reverse pass, odd time, but it was open for the run or the check down for big yds but he threw deep. we need the RB to break a tackle cause Wake was run blitzing all day makeing it hard sledding much of the game

Need to drop it to the TE across the middle when Wake kept blitzing up the middle just before the snap.

 

[Toga]

I have to ask because I haven't seen any comments on it over the first two games. Am I wrong or does it seem on almost every offensive snap that all the players are not initiating the play at the same time? I keep waiting for a flag but they thankfully never come.

 

[Briancuse]

A lot more of Fredericks for sure, and we need to improve on our tackling.

 

[cuseincincy]

What I like is that we won the game and yet this team still has lots to improve on. Could have scored another 3-4 TD's. There will be some games we may need that ability. Defense is young with a few playmakers. Their development will be critical.