I think it's safe to say that the defense is NOT the liability...

[OrangeFoo]

We are averaging 66 defensive plays per game. This is below average (bottom 1/3) for FBS. This is also below average for the past 10 years and past 4 coaches at Syracuse.

Our offense is averaging 86 snaps per game which is 6th in FBS (we were 1st last year iirc)

FAST PACED OFFENSE DOESN’T NESSESSARILY CAUSE MORE SNAPS/STRESS FOR THE DEFENSE

For the millionth time.

Last year they averaged 71.8 snaps for the year which was like 60th ranked, not so bad. BUT the last three games of last season that number jumped to more than 80 defensive plays per game... for reference we averaged 81.3 offensive plays with a whopping 63 in the final game. Per my point above, if the bottom falls out on offense when Dungey goes out for the year the D performance will as well. My hope is that given what I’ve seen from tommy gun, the o will be more consistent even after dungey is done and the d has more depth and hopefully will sustain better.

 

[Crusty]

We will know what we have when we play Clemson.

 

[upperdeck]

if we can run for 200+ without using the zone read that will lead to a lot more plays.

 

[OrangePA]

...that many were wringing their hands about after the 3rd quarter against WMU.

All three units looked great today. LBs are rounding into form, our staring DL is comprised of four studs, and we have unprecedented depth in the secondary. Players are making tackles in space, and the youngsters seem to be learning from their early season mistakes. We have playmakers in all three positional units.

Those first two games were intentionally vanilla, because our coaches were confident that they could win against those two opponents playing that way. The hounds are now unleashed.

The benefit of quality depth is becoming readily apparent.

It seems that we did not show our entire playbook on offense or defense against both WMU and Wagner.

That seemed pretty apparent after the first two series against FSU.