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More Context

GoSU96

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Of all the things to worry about the offensive approach is the last. There are obviously some issues with execution, in my opinion because of the OL problems for part of last season and the start of this. It has to, and should, get better.

There are efficiency issues with this offense that have been consistent. They have not been efficient on third down or good in the close redzone. But at a macro level these guys know what they are doing.

Here is SU's offensive performance over the last decade. How is the offensive approach the problem?

1600096994633.png


1600261113080.png


This offense has been the best of any in the last twenty years. There are some inherent weaknesses and it doesn't lend itself to setting up the defensive side of the ball for success, but with the right ingredients it has given the program the ability to compete with, and sometimes beat, more talented teams and dominate even or lesser opponents.

The consistent issue has been defense. If the change tightens that up some, I have confidence that the performance on Saturday will continue to be an outlier.
 
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Scored 6 points saturday. I can be upset about that fact, understand some of the possible reasons for it, recognize positives for improving, recognize troubling trends, while also acknowledging the statistics you shared here that yes, we’ve scored 30+ plenty of times recently.
 
6pts is awful. But we left a lot of points out there. Could have easily been 21-7 at the half
Lions could have have beat the Bears on Sunday too but nope, Same Old Lions. Same Old Devito, Same Old lack of ingenuity, Sat was a continuation of last year, it was like the same exact thing all over with a better defensive scheme.
 
6pts is awful. But we left a lot of points out there. Could have easily been 21-7 at the half

Could have been a lot worse without the +2 turnover margin (+3 until Culpepper at the end) in our favor.

The score was 31-6 with our defense and special teams giving us the ball in the redzone 3 times and we got a whole 6 points.

202 whopping yards of offense.

Someone wake me up.
 
Could have been a lot worse without the +2 turnover margin (+3 until Culpepper at the end) in our favor.

The score was 31-6 with our defense and special teams giving us the ball in the redzone 3 times and we got a whole 6 points.

202 whopping yards of offense.

Someone wake me up.

Was it the Clemson game last year where we had two drives start inside the red zone and scored zero points on those two drives?
 
6pts is awful. But we left a lot of points out there. Could have easily been 21-7 at the half

We for sure left 17 points - AT A MINIMUM - out on the field, and all of which was due to our mistakes, not anything UNC did or did not do.

Punt return TD - I still think that’s a weak call, as Tuazama hit the guy IN THE CHEST with his shoulder.
That said - he didn’t need to make that block anyway, as Nyk already was accelerating past the would-be tackler, who didn’t have the angle or speed to touch him. Sucks


Dropped TD pass - Sharod WIDE OPEN behind D, ball delivered on time and somehow went between his arms.
A P5 WR HAS to make that catch 99x out of 100. Guess this was that 1.
Or Sharod isn’t a P5 WR.

Missed chip-shot FG - Szmyt Happens is usually a good thing, but while he was lining that up, I thought he was gonna miss it R, and he did. There’s your cover right there.

It likely would have been a MUCH different game had we scored 23 points rather than just 6.
And even if not, we’d all feel a LOT better about this team if we’d lost what really was a much closer game for 3 quarters.
 
6pts is awful. But we left a lot of points out there. Could have easily been 21-7 at the half

Coulda-shoulda-woulda.

But if that punt return hadn't been called back, and if Sharrod didn't alligator-arm that WIDE OPEN TD PASS that Tommy put right on the money...

Would have been interesting to play from ahead in the second half, and put some pressure on them. Would have made the game totally different.
 
You want context? here's a little for those who think I'm being unreasonable. I'm deflated and disheartened by what I saw on Sat. Where was the improvement? Where is the ingenuity? Where is the Dino that used to know he can't beat a team with FGs and has some balls? I have serious questions about Dino's approach to some stuff but yes I do believe it can be fixed. As some of you know I'm also a Lions fan. So here's some context/perspective...

If I woke up tomorrow and saw that Dino had been fired. I don't think I'd be at all happy about it. But as fans we have a right to ask What is going on when we see the patterns emerging.

If I woke up tomorrow and saw that Matt Patricia was fired, I would hug my TV, dance in the streets, and post happy happy joy joy thoughts in the OT all day.

But some of you guys need to stop thinking Dino is a saint.
 
That's what poor teams often do.
That was my reaction, too. It takes more than good athletes to win. Winners make plays and losers get played. Let's start being on the positive side of those plays.
 
Of all the things to worry about the offensive approach is the last. There are obviously some issues with execution, in my opinion because of the OL problems for part of last season and the start of this. It has to, and should, get better.

There are efficiency issues with this offense that have been consistent. They have not been efficient on third down or good in the close redzone. But at a macro level these guys know what they are doing.

Here is SU's offensive performance over the last decade. How is the offensive approach the problem?

View attachment 187869

View attachment 187871

This offense has been the best of any in the last twenty years. There are some inherent weaknesses and it doesn't lend itself to setting up the defensive side of the ball for success, but with the right ingredients it has given the program the ability to compete with, and sometimes beat, more talented teams and dominate even or lesser opponents.

The consistent issue has been defense. If the change tightens that up some, I have confidence that the performance on Saturday will continue to be an outlier.
I expected a better running game, I know the offense should work and I just don't understand why they can't run the ball at all
 
You want context? here's a little for those who think I'm being unreasonable. I'm deflated and disheartened by what I saw on Sat. Where was the improvement? Where is the ingenuity? Where is the Dino that used to know he can't beat a team with FGs and has some balls? I have serious questions about Dino's approach to some stuff but yes I do believe it can be fixed. As some of you know I'm also a Lions fan. So here's some context/perspective...

If I woke up tomorrow and saw that Dino had been fired. I don't think I'd be at all happy about it. But as fans we have a right to ask What is going on when we see the patterns emerging.

If I woke up tomorrow and saw that Matt Patricia was fired, I would hug my TV, dance in the streets, and post happy happy joy joy thoughts in the OT all day.

But some of you guys need to stop thinking Dino is a saint.
A buddy is from Detroit. He absolutely hates Patricia and Quinn
 
I agree with much of the OP. The questions I have are:
  • How much was the offensive game plan inhibited by the patchwork OL, vs. this being a full game plan [i.e., was it vanilla due to personnel limitations]

  • Is Tommy a difference maker or a dud? Will he perform better with better play from the guys up front -- or is this his ceiling?

  • Will the run game improve as the OL pieces return to the puzzle board to give us a reasonable rushing game, or will we struggle to run the ball all year?

  • All week we heard about how terrific the WRs were and how deep the group was. Well... Saturday's game was not an impressive performance. Who from this group [if anybody] will step up?

  • Were the TEs ignored because we needed them in tighter to help block, or are they not going to be a foundational component of the offensive attack?

The way these five questions get answered will go a long way toward explaining how the team performs this year. I tend to think that the ridiculous OL injury issue was the main root cause, and that our issues Saturday were more personnel / depth related instead of systemic problems. Time will tell.
 
I agree with much of the OP. The questions I have are:
  • How much was the offensive game plan inhibited by the patchwork OL, vs. this being a full game plan [i.e., was it vanilla due to personnel limitations]

  • Is Tommy a difference maker or a dud? Will he perform better with better play from the guys up front -- or is this his ceiling?

  • Will the run game improve as the OL pieces return to the puzzle board to give us a reasonable rushing game, or will we struggle to run the ball all year?

  • All week we heard about how terrific the WRs were and how deep the group was. Well... Saturday's game was not an impressive performance. Who from this group [if anybody] will step up?

  • Were the TEs ignored because we needed them in tighter to help block, or are they not going to be a foundational component of the offensive attack?

The way these five questions get answered will go a long way toward explaining how the team performs this year. I tend to think that the ridiculous OL injury issue was the main root cause, and that our issues Saturday were more personnel / depth related instead of systemic problems. Time will tell.
The wideout thing blows my mind. I exaggerate this but like 2 years ago, maybe 1, didn’t we have like 15 wideouts? I remember saying how absurd it was. I guess the strategy is- get as many as possible (quantity), and hope that %s allow for quality ones to step up.

Where are all of these guys? Thankfully we saw some stuff from Queeley. Hope he keeps it up.
 
We for sure left 17 points - AT A MINIMUM - out on the field, and all of which was due to our mistakes, not anything UNC did or did not do.

Punt return TD - I still think that’s a weak call, as Tuazama hit the guy IN THE CHEST with his shoulder.
That said - he didn’t need to make that block anyway, as Nyk already was accelerating past the would-be tackler, who didn’t have the angle or speed to touch him. Sucks
The call on Tuazama was the right call - it was for a blindside block. That rule was added last season. The language is "an open field block against an opponent that is initiated from outside the opponent’s field of vision, or otherwise in such a manner that the opponent cannot reasonably defend himself against the block."
 
The wideout thing blows my mind. I exaggerate this but like 2 years ago, maybe 1, didn’t we have like 15 wideouts? I remember saying how absurd it was. I guess the strategy is- get as many as possible (quantity), and hope that %s allow for quality ones to step up.

Where are all of these guys? Thankfully we saw some stuff from Queeley. Hope he keeps it up.
Between the Cuse rolling out Queeley and the Lions busting out Cephus, I do have one thing to look forward to. I get a kick out of hearing both of those name when announced. Not sure why but they hit my funny bone.
 
Lions could have have beat the Bears on Sunday too but nope, Same Old Lions. Same Old Devito, Same Old lack of ingenuity, Sat was a continuation of last year, it was like the same exact thing all over with a better defensive scheme.

I seemingly punish myself every weekend during football season...I'm also a life long Browns fan. Just brutal. :(
 
Of all the things to worry about the offensive approach is the last. There are obviously some issues with execution, in my opinion because of the OL problems for part of last season and the start of this. It has to, and should, get better.

There are efficiency issues with this offense that have been consistent. They have not been efficient on third down or good in the close redzone. But at a macro level these guys know what they are doing.

Here is SU's offensive performance over the last decade. How is the offensive approach the problem?

View attachment 187869

View attachment 187871

This offense has been the best of any in the last twenty years. There are some inherent weaknesses and it doesn't lend itself to setting up the defensive side of the ball for success, but with the right ingredients it has given the program the ability to compete with, and sometimes beat, more talented teams and dominate even or lesser opponents.

The consistent issue has been defense. If the change tightens that up some, I have confidence that the performance on Saturday will continue to be an outlier.

You may not be wrong. However, in my opinion, when you try and hurry up the tempo, your skill deficiency is magnified and so is the score differential. If you run 40 plays a game and lose by 10, one could reason that if you double the plays (80), you will lose by 20. Tempo used to be a big advantage. Not sure it is any longer.
 
The call on Tuazama was the right call - it was for a blindside block. That rule was added last season. The language is "an open field block against an opponent that is initiated from outside the opponent’s field of vision, or otherwise in such a manner that the opponent cannot reasonably defend himself against the block."
I have a problem with the rule as written. "[O]utside the opponent's field of vision" is extremely subjective--not everyone has the same peripheral vision.

Plus "otherwise in such a manner". What does that even mean?
 
You want context? here's a little for those who think I'm being unreasonable. I'm deflated and disheartened by what I saw on Sat. Where was the improvement? Where is the ingenuity? Where is the Dino that used to know he can't beat a team with FGs and has some balls? I have serious questions about Dino's approach to some stuff but yes I do believe it can be fixed. As some of you know I'm also a Lions fan. So here's some context/perspective...

If I woke up tomorrow and saw that Dino had been fired. I don't think I'd be at all happy about it. But as fans we have a right to ask What is going on when we see the patterns emerging.

If I woke up tomorrow and saw that Matt Patricia was fired, I would hug my TV, dance in the streets, and post happy happy joy joy thoughts in the OT all day.

But some of you guys need to stop thinking Dino is a saint.
Thank you for saying it.....many on here just can't come to grips that Dino could be part of the problem. However, I do think he can also be the "fixer". These are his players so I am pretty sick of hearing about the OL not producing or RB''s not producing. That all falls on Dino. His players, his system, his coaches.
 

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