Headed into therapy

[Consigliere]

So disheartened this morning. Like many, after LSU I truly felt Cuse football had turned the corner and was headed for sustainable prosperity. I headed on the road honestly expecting to see two wins and this morning we're staring at a 3-3 record, the heart of a challenging second half schedule and a host of "what-ifs." I was able to write off USF as the first road game for a young team, cautious return of Dungey and Phillips and a team that was perhaps a bit better than we thought. But following yesterday's debacle I just don;t know where we are as program. Expected to see us dominate a patchwork O-line with a front seven that showed signs of being very good early in the season. We ended up with two sacks - one on corner blitz facing a very pedestrian QB. Expected to see a multi-faceted offense with a vertical passing game and dynamic runners. The only effective running back was QB1 and I cringe every time he takes a hit. We end up with no true RB running for more than 35 yards and 22 passes including 3 OT periods - if more than two or three went more than 15 yards in the air I must have been sunblind.

Absolutely love Shaf as the face of the program. The passion, the values, and the dedication to Cuse are so evident and seem to resonate well on the recruiting trail but to see a team come out obviously not ready to play in Tampa and missing multiple opportunities yesterday - when the actual score was 24-14 I remarked that the "should be" score was 37-7 - I wonder if those positives will be enough to bring Orange football back to respectability instead of every team's favorite homecoming opponent.

Can anyone help talk me off the ledge?

 

[Oswego93]

So disheartened this morning. Like many, after LSU I truly felt Cuse football had turned the corner and was headed for sustainable prosperity. I headed on the road honestly expecting to see two wins and this morning we're staring at a 3-3 record, the heart of a challenging second half schedule and a host of "what-ifs." I was able to write off USF as the first road game for a young team, cautious return of Dungey and Phillips and a team that was perhaps a bit better than we thought. But following yesterday's debacle I just don;t know where we are as program. Expected to see us dominate a patchwork O-line with a front seven that showed signs of being very good early in the season. We ended up with two sacks - one on corner blitz facing a very pedestrian QB. Expected to see a multi-faceted offense with a vertical passing game and dynamic runners. The only effective running back was QB1 and I cringe every time he takes a hit. We end up with no true RB running for more than 35 yards and 22 passes including 3 OT periods - if more than two or three went more than 15 yards in the air I must have been sunblind.

Absolutely love Shaf as the face of the program. The passion, the values, and the dedication to Cuse are so evident and seem to resonate well on the recruiting trail but to see a team come out obviously not ready to play in Tampa and missing multiple opportunities yesterday - when the actual score was 24-14 I remarked that the "should be" score was 37-7 - I wonder if those positives will be enough to bring Orange football back to respectability instead of every team's favorite homecoming opponent.

Can anyone help talk me off the ledge?

This board is the wrong place for counseling after a loss. A great place for forming suicide pacts, however.

I understand the rollercoaster of emotions, though.

The bold portion of your post has me very confused. Throughout the Marone/HCSS era, the one consistent has been the ability of the defense to provide pressure. Many times, it needs to be generated by a crazy blitz scheme, but that pressure comes. Now, at times, that exposes our secondary, and we have been torched in previous years, but we STILL generated that pressure.

Where has that gone this year? With the group of athletic LBs we have, you would figure it would be a mainstay. Our front 4 simply does not generate any pressure consistently. RT is good for 1-2 impressive sacks or pressures per game, but then disappears for long stretches. Occasionally LA or Simmons will get in there too. Other than that? Nothing.

You combine that lack of pressure with awful FS and Whigham play, and the inability to play the screen or keep contain, and you end up with the show we have witnessed the last two games (CMU, as well...though they were on the field for so much of the 2nd half, it is forgivable).

 

[Consigliere]

This board is the wrong place for counseling after a loss. A great place for forming suicide pacts, however.

I understand the rollercoaster of emotions, though.

The bold portion of your post has me very confused. Throughout the Marone/HCSS era, the one consistent has been the ability of the defense to provide pressure. Many times, it needs to be generated by a crazy blitz scheme, but that pressure comes. Now, at times, that exposes our secondary, and we have been torched in previous years, but we STILL generated that pressure.

Where has that gone this year? With the group of athletic LBs we have, you would figure it would be a mainstay. Our front 4 simply does not generate any pressure consistently. RT is good for 1-2 impressive sacks or pressures per game, but then disappears for long stretches. Occasionally LA or Simmons will get in there too. Other than that? Nothing.

You combine that lack of pressure with awful FS and Whigham play, and the inability to play the screen or keep contain, and you end up with the . . . . show we have witnessed the last two games (CMU, as well...though they were on the field for so much of the 2nd half, it is forgivable).

I talked about it pre-game continuously. To me this was THE key to the game. Pressure a mediocre QB by taking advantage of a makeshift O-line, don't give him time to sit back and dink and dunk us to death or get the ball downfield to a pair of talented WRs, shut down one of the weakest running games in P5 and we win going away. I'll need to watch the tape if I can stomach it but ONE sack by the front seven and not many more hurries? What happened???