How important is the Minnesota game?

[OrangeinBoston]

Whoa...was that a positive, albeit back-handed, comment? You ok?

I'm feelin' GOOD! At least until the next game. I mean, things could turn sucky at the drop of a hat. But, for now, they are not half-bad!

 

[wfschrec]

I have no clue how good Minnesota is. But, however good they are will have had nothing to do with last year. It would be the same as saying the SU flat out sucks because they flat out sucked last year. While it may be true that SU flat out sucked last year, that suckiness has had no bearing on this year when, I think we can all agree, they are pretty decent.

Again please read my initial response to you ... I have seen nothing in Minny whether its roster turnover ... scheme changes or anything of the like that leads me to believe they will improve significantly enough to make everyone forget their last 2 3-9 campaigns. SU has overhauled the offense and shown fantastic results. Reddish is a significant upgrade over Scott, Eskridge is a player and the DL is the biggest it has ever been in recent memory and that is without Raymon. Teams are not going to be able to pound the ball down our throat like in seasons past ... again I feel SU has improved greatly in some critical areas on top of adding Sales to bolster the passing game ... SU has made major strides I cannot say the same for Minny ... I'm not sure why that is so hard to understand why I feel the way I do about Minny's overall suckiness ... FWIW depending on whom you ask ... (ahem Stern) ... not everyone agrees we are decent. We have had major special teams problems ... and in my opinion the running game needs some work ... we should have been able to easily ram the ball down SB's throat on the goal line and failed twice ... what will happen when we face a big boy opponent with the game on the line and have to punch it in? Again I feel we are better than Minny and I expect the results to show it ... but to say previous results have no bearing on future predictions is ridiculous ... ok so they have 3 wins against an OOC that is much worse than the one they had last season that dealt them a 1-3 record ... so if they go 3-1 in OOC or even 4-0 and then winless in the B1G will that be enough of a track record to say they suck? To paraphrase ... Marion Barber III isn't walking through that door ... if Cuse goes out and lays an egg I will be very disappointed.

 

[baggerbob]

Its nice to be positive ,but this team still has to show it can put together a complete game. I believe the potential is there to be a good team, syracuse needs to go out and show that. That starts with the Senior's who have to step up, and take responsibility for the lack of leadership.

 

[MadNY3]

I am less tactful on this matter.

The Gophers are coming off back to back 3-9 seasons and were 1-11 barely five years ago. If we are truly ready a big boy program capable of winning, we need to be able to beat a peer group team like this in Marrone year four.

1-3 sets a bad, bad tone heading into October for a team that has finished last all but one of the last seven seasons.

Build on many great things from the first two games.
Fix the special teams and molasses first halves from the O.

And take care of business.

Not going to say this is a must win, but for many, many reasons, it is a "we better" win situation.

 

[obliterata]

It's an important game, a big game but not a must win. Stonybrook was a bigger game, lose that one and the rest of the season wouldn't be looking too good.

I thought Syracuse would go WLWL for a 2-2 record after 4 games, LLWW gets SU back on track and erases the Northwestern loss in my mind.

 

[tipphill]

make or break game for this team. confidence vs downward spiral and team dysfunction.

 

[wfschrec]

I am less tactful on this matter.

The Gophers are coming off back to back 3-9 seasons and were 1-11 barely five years ago. If we are truly ready a big boy program capable of winning, we need to be able to beat a peer group team like this in Marrone year four.

1-3 sets a bad, bad tone heading into October for a team that has finished last all but one of the last seven seasons.

Build on many great things from the first two games.
Fix the special teams and molasses first halves from the O.

And take care of business.

Not going to say this is a must win, but for many, many reasons, it is a "we better" win situation.

But ... but history means nothing ... we can't use it to predict anything nor should we use it to levy expectations ... Frankly we better flat out kick their collective a$$es and I have faith the Orange and Blue can do so ... whether or not they do it is up to them.