My (Belated) Take

[sutomcat]

As mentioned previously, I have a hard time saying anything worthwhile after a beatdown like that one. We got killed in every aspect of the game; offense, defense and special teams.

I looked at G Tech's roster before the game. They have better athletes than we do. They are overall bigger, faster, stronger and smarter than we are. They are in contention for the ACC Atlantic Division title just about every year and Paul Johnson and his staff are a terrific group of coaches. Plus, the game was on the road. I was under no delusions; I expected to get beat and to be beaten fairly soundly. Something along the lines of 35-14.

There is a saying in sports that you are never as good as you think you are after a convincing victory and never as bad as you think after a sound drubbing. I think that applies here.

Anyway, I don't have to say did a historically poor job against the option. The question is, why? Would we have been better off using our standard 4-3?

First, it should be noted that we use a 3 man DL all the time when we use the Okie. This wasn't some radical new thing the players never saw before. I thought our players looked really confused, reactive, and readily conceded 5 yards on just about every play. They were not prepared, the game plan was awful and frankly, I don't think our staff has a clue regarding how to defend against this offense.

That shouldn't have been the case. Based on comments from players and the staff, the team has spent time preparing for the triple option since last spring. I think the preparations were bad and the staff needs to spend some time visiting schools that have defended this offense with success in the past. But bottom line, I think to stop this offense, the defense needs to be extremely disciplined. Everyone needs to know their role and execute it perfectly. When you give your front 7 new, completely different roles to play, you are setting yourself up for failure. Heck, the fourth LB was a true frosh. Don't want to single him out; he played very hard, made a ton of tackles and is going to be a fine player for us down the road.

Anyway, I hope this was a learning experience for the HC and the staff and they will learn from their mistakes. To me, when you have a new staff and a first time HC, there are going to be mistakes made. Some will be ghastly. That doesn't surprise me and sour me on them. The key is whether they can learn from their mistakes and not repeat them. No question the G Tech offense is a special situation. I will give them a pass for this disaster this time. Remember G Tech is in the other division and we are not scheduled to play them again for 6 or 7 years. Assuming that doesn't change, we are going to have to wait a while to see how they do against that offense again.

Let's talk offense now.

Hunt is being demonized by many in our fan base right now, much like they did to Ryan Nassib his sophomore and junior years. Watching the games, I do see him screw up fairly often, but our problems with the passing game, which are remarkable, are not all on him.

You can't pass successfully without an offensive line that gives the QB time to makes reads and get his throws off (and doesn't regularly get called for penalties).

You can't pass successfully without receivers that get open consistently and make catches on balls they can get to.

Lastly, you can't pass successfully without good play calling. You have to be willing to take what the defense will give you, you can't just pass in passing situations, you can't try and execute so many plays that the players on the offense don't consistently know what they are supposed to do.

When the game started, G Tech was playing soft coverage with its CBs, giving the SU WRs 10 yards from the line of scrimmage. Hunt, to his credit, checked into plays that took advantage of this. We had a bunch of successful pass plays. Not big yardage, but good gains and the passes were consistently complete (I think he started out 5-6). Don't know why G Tech did this, it was foolish on their part, but to their credit, when this practice became a problem, they stopped it and played our WRs tight.

When they did that, everything changed. We had to use slower developing pass plays, which gave G Tech more of an opportunity to rush Hunt. Over and over I saw Hunt looking at his receivers, ready to throw the ball, but they were blanketed and he held on to it to give them more time to get free. Even when he did throw, there was inevitably some G Tech defender all over our receiver, and the ball was usually slapped away or nearly intercepted.

I agree with the G Tech coaches who are saying Hunt doesn't go to his second option when his first option is covered. He did early in the season against teams that could not pressure him much but as the season has progressed and he has gotten hammered time and again, he has lost that discipline and usually runs for his life when his first option is not open.

I think part of this is on Hunt, but the receivers need to do a better job running routes, being physical and wanting the ball. There have been far too many plays where the ball was passed into a tight spot and as the ball flies to the target, I see the defensive player breaking on the ball far harder than our receiver. That is unacceptable and has to end. Unfortunately, I see little in the way of improvement on this front.

The OL certainly needs to share some of the blame as well. They are making too many penalties that put the offense in the hole and ruin good drives. They should be getting better at this as the season progresses but they are getting worse. Unacceptable.

Worse still, I think we got badly outcoached in the G Tech game here. Thought we didn't do a bad job overall blocking the G Tech DL head to head. That big Australian DT is going to play in the NFL and their DE is one of the best pass rushers in the ACC...they didn't kill us. They killed us rushing an LB lined up as a DL. This happened repeatedly...we just let their linebacker (I believe he wore #45) run to the QB unblocked all game long.

Again, I understand mistakes will be made. Coaches can't foresee everything that can happen. But when you have an issue like this that destroys the play everytime the player lines up like that, you have to make an adjustment. It concerns me greatly how poorly we adjusted during the game on the defensive and offensive sides of the ball. When you have a severed limb, shouldn't you at least try and stop the bleeding?

Lastly, I think on offense, we are trying to do too much. We have too many formations, too many looks, too many patterns and twists. Receivers are running the wrong routes on an astonishing number of plays. Players lined up incorrectly more often than I have ever seen on any Syracuse team ever. The players can't handle what the staff is asking them to do. Simplify the offense. It is a lot better to do 7 plays really well than 27 poorly.

The play calling isn't great but I don't hate what GM is doing. As far as I could tell, once G Tech took away our short passing game, a big part of his answer was to start throwing long. When you play coverage really tight, you expose yourself to long passes, so I don't have a big issue with this (though I would like more pump fakes on the short throw to get the defender to really get out of position first).

We had some guys open at times on long passes but Hunt seemed to throw them all on a line, all over throws. Like Nassib, he needs to learn to put some air on these throws. Underthrows will often still lead to completions or PI calls but overthrows are just wasted plays.

Speaking of Hunt, in the Clemson game, he definitely got in the habit of looking at his primary, making it obvious where he was going with the ball and then running if he felt he couldn't get the ball to that receiver.

If you watch the NC State game, there is a major change in how Hunt operates on passing plays. He consistently looks in one direction, fakes a pass, then looks in another direction, then looks to his primary receiver. I assume that was put in to stop the NC State defenders from reading his eyes and breaking on the ball too quickly. The good news is that I think it worked on that front; we had guys open pretty regularly. The bad news is that I think doing that stuff really messed up Hunt's rhythm and ability to throw the ball accurately.

He didn't do it at all against G Tech (I suspect it was because of the impact on his throwing). Based on the comments from their coaches and players, that might have been a mistake. If the only way Hunt can throw the ball accurately is to lock in on his receiver and follow him like a heat seeking missile for the whole route he is running, he is not fit to be our QB.

Is Hunt the answer? My concern with him is that I don't see him improving as the season progresses. It is clear to me there are a lot of things that are out of his control that are making him look worse than he is. I want to see our receivers fighting for the ball and playing tougher. I want to see our receivers reduce the number of balls they drop. I want to see our OL reduce the penalties they are getting called for and to give Terrell a little more time. Most of all, I want to see Terrell be patient in the pocket, go to his second option when his first is covered and only run as a last resort (or when the play is a designed QB run).

Glad we have two weeks to prepare for Wake. We need it.

 

[storange]

As mentioned previously, I have a hard time saying anything worthwhile after a beatdown like that one. We got killed in every aspect of the game; offense, defense and special teams.

I looked at G Tech's roster before the game. They have better athletes than we do. They are overall bigger, faster, stronger and smarter than we are. They are in contention for the ACC Atlantic Division title just about every year and Paul Johnson and his staff are a terrific group of coaches. Plus, the game was on the road. I was under no delusions; I expected to get beat and to be beaten fairly soundly. Something along the lines of 35-14.

There is a saying in sports that you are never as good as you think you are after a convincing victory and never as bad as you think after a sound drubbing. I think that applies here.

Anyway, I don't have to say did a historically poor job against the option. The question is, why? Would we have been better off using our standard 4-3?

First, it should be noted that we use a 3 man DL all the time when we use the Okie. This wasn't some radical new thing the players never saw before. I thought our players looked really confused, reactive, and readily conceded 5 yards on just about every play. They were not prepared, the game plan was awful and frankly, I don't think our staff has a clue regarding how to defend against this offense.

That shouldn't have been the case. Based on comments from players and the staff, the team has spent time preparing for the triple option since last spring. I think the preparations were bad and the staff needs to spend some time visiting schools that have defended this offense with success in the past. But bottom line, I think to stop this offense, the defense needs to be extremely disciplined. Everyone needs to know their role and execute it perfectly. When you give your front 7 new, completely different roles to play, you are setting yourself up for failure. Heck, the fourth LB was a true frosh. Don't want to single him out; he played very hard, made a ton of tackles and is going to be a fine player for us down the road.

Anyway, I hope this was a learning experience for the HC and the staff and they will learn from their mistakes. To me, when you have a new staff and a first time HC, there are going to be mistakes made. Some will be ghastly. That doesn't surprise me and sour me on them. The key is whether they can learn from their mistakes and not repeat them. No question the G Tech offense is a special situation. I will give them a pass for this disaster this time. Remember G Tech is in the other division and we are not scheduled to play them again for 6 or 7 years. Assuming that doesn't change, we are going to have to wait a while to see how they do against that offense again.

Let's talk offense now.

Hunt is being demonized by many in our fan base right now, much like they did to Ryan Nassib his sophomore and junior years. Watching the games, I do see him screw up fairly often, but our problems with the passing game, which are remarkable, are not all on him.

You can't pass successfully without an offensive line that gives the QB time to makes reads and get his throws off (and doesn't regularly get called for penalties).

You can't pass successfully without receivers that get open consistently and make catches on balls they can get to.

Lastly, you can't pass successfully without good play calling. You have to be willing to take what the defense will give you, you can't just pass in passing situations, you can't try and execute so many plays that the players on the offense don't consistently know what they are supposed to do.

When the game started, G Tech was playing soft coverage with its CBs, giving the SU WRs 10 yards from the line of scrimmage. Hunt, to his credit, checked into plays that took advantage of this. We had a bunch of successful pass plays. Not big yardage, but good gains and the passes were consistently complete (I think he started out 5-6). Don't know why G Tech did this, it was foolish on their part, but to their credit, when this practice became a problem, they stopped it and played our WRs tight.

When they did that, everything changed. We had to use slower developing pass plays, which gave G Tech more of an opportunity to rush Hunt. Over and over I saw Hunt looking at his receivers, ready to throw the ball, but they were blanketed and he held on to it to give them more time to get free. Even when he did throw, there was inevitably some G Tech defender all over our receiver, and the ball was usually slapped away or nearly intercepted.

I agree with the G Tech coaches who are saying Hunt doesn't go to his second option when his first option is covered. He did early in the season against teams that could not pressure him much but as the season has progressed and he has gotten hammered time and again, he has lost that discipline and usually runs for his life when his first option is not open.

I think part of this is on Hunt, but the receivers need to do a better job running routes, being physical and wanting the ball. There have been far too many plays where the ball was passed into a tight spot and as the ball flies to the target, I see the defensive player breaking on the ball far harder than our receiver. That is unacceptable and has to end. Unfortunately, I see little in the way of improvement on this front.

The OL certainly needs to share some of the blame as well. They are making too many penalties that put the offense in the hole and ruin good drives. They should be getting better at this as the season progresses but they are getting worse. Unacceptable.

Worse still, I think we got badly outcoached in the G Tech game here. Thought we didn't do a bad job overall blocking the G Tech DL head to head. That big Australian DT is going to play in the NFL and their DE is one of the best pass rushers in the ACC...they didn't kill us. They killed us rushing an LB lined up as a DL. This happened repeatedly...we just let their linebacker (I believe he wore #45) run to the QB unblocked all game long.

Again, I understand mistakes will be made. Coaches can't foresee everything that can happen. But when you have an issue like this that destroys the play everytime the player lines up like that, you have to make an adjustment. It concerns me greatly how poorly we adjusted during the game on the defensive and offensive sides of the ball. When you have a severed limb, shouldn't you at least try and stop the bleeding?

Lastly, I think on offense, we are trying to do too much. We have too many formations, too many looks, too many patterns and twists. Receivers are running the wrong routes on an astonishing number of plays. Players lined up incorrectly more often than I have ever seen on any Syracuse team ever. The players can't handle what the staff is asking them to do. Simplify the offense. It is a lot better to do 7 plays really well than 27 poorly.

The play calling isn't great but I don't hate what GM is doing. As far as I could tell, once G Tech took away our short passing game, a big part of his answer was to start throwing long. When you play coverage really tight, you expose yourself to long passes, so I don't have a big issue with this (though I would like more pump fakes on the short throw to get the defender to really get out of position first).

We had some guys open at times on long passes but Hunt seemed to throw them all on a line, all over throws. Like Nassib, he needs to learn to put some air on these throws. Underthrows will often still lead to completions or PI calls but overthrows are just wasted plays.

Speaking of Hunt, in the Clemson game, he definitely got in the habit of looking at his primary, making it obvious where he was going with the ball and then running if he felt he couldn't get the ball to that receiver.

If you watch the NC State game, there is a major change in how Hunt operates on passing plays. He consistently looks in one direction, fakes a pass, then looks in another direction, then looks to his primary receiver. I assume that was put in to stop the NC State defenders from reading his eyes and breaking on the ball too quickly. The good news is that I think it worked on that front; we had guys open pretty regularly. The bad news is that I think doing that stuff really messed up Hunt's rhythm and ability to throw the ball accurately.

He didn't do it at all against G Tech (I suspect it was because of the impact on his throwing). Based on the comments from their coaches and players, that might have been a mistake. If the only way Hunt can throw the ball accurately is to lock in on his receiver and follow him like a heat seeking missile for the whole route he is running, he is not fit to be our QB.

Is Hunt the answer? My concern with him is that I don't see him improving as the season progresses. It is clear to me there are a lot of things that are out of his control that are making him look worse than he is. I want to see our receivers fighting for the ball and playing tougher. I want to see our receivers reduce the number of balls they drop. I want to see our OL reduce the penalties they are getting called for and to give Terrell a little more time. Most of all, I want to see Terrell be patient in the pocket, go to his second option when his first is covered and only run as a last resort (or when the play is a designed QB run).

Glad we have two weeks to prepare for Wake. We need it.

I agree that Tech may have had better athletes overall but Im not so sure that the gap is as big as all that, there not Ohio State or FSU bringing in all 4 and 5 star recruits. Hunt reminds of RJ Anderson, if the D is playing well and he gets enough opportunity he can get us down the field, if we need scores in a hurry then were sunk. Whenwe fall behind early this team is dead with our QB situation.

 

[TexanMark]

Nice recap...just one minor comment. I rmember the same amount of confusion (wrong formations, late plays, wrong routes) under GRob too. West is in my fan doghouse right now...he has several offensive mental lapses every game. I hope this improves.

 

[orangenirvana]

I looked at G Tech's roster before the game. They have better athletes than we do. They are overall bigger, faster, stronger and smarter than we are.

I just don't believe this to be true.

Agree with you about Hunt. It's simple minded to think he's to blame for everything. At the same time he needs to start making progress, starting with Wake. But it's too early to give up on him.

 

[orangecuse]

Excellent synopsis...thanks sutomcat...

 

[SoBristol]

Tom, you were accurate in the beginning of that long post -- we got killed in every phase of the game, and a team isn't as bad as it looks in its worst drubbing of the year.

For the rest, you touched on every possible factor. Ga Tech has bigger, faster, stronger, smarter players (and better coaching) -- outmatched.

We can haggle about preparation, and defensive schemes, but the fact is that the Ga Tech O-line blocked well, they made us respect the inside run, blocked well for option plays, their QBs were fast and elusive, they often had us out-numbered on the edge, but even one on one they outran the defenders, and when a good team runs a triple option well, the defense looks silly. Play Crume in a 4-3, or insert Hodge in a 3-4, against good blocking, an elusive QB and speed, same result.

On defensive, GaTech took away our strength -- smothered the running game, and confined Hunt.

 

[buffalorange]

Anyway, I hope this was a learning experience for the HC and the staff and they will learn from their mistakes. To me, when you have a new staff and a first time HC, there are going to be mistakes made. Some will be ghastly. That doesn't surprise me and sour me on them. The key is whether they can learn from their mistakes and not repeat them. No question the G Tech offense is a special situation. I will give them a pass for this disaster this time. Remember G Tech is in the other division and we are not scheduled to play them again for 6 or 7 years. Assuming that doesn't change, we are going to have to wait a while to see how they do against that offense again.

Lastly, I think on offense, we are trying to do too much. We have too many formations, too many looks, too many patterns and twists. Receivers are running the wrong routes on an astonishing number of plays. Players lined up incorrectly more often than I have ever seen on any Syracuse team ever. The players can't handle what the staff is asking them to do. Simplify the offense. It is a lot better to do 7 plays really well than 27 poorly.

Very nice summary. I saved two paragraphs because it looks like "deja vue all over again." Didn't the team have the same issue when Hackett first started as OC - too much quantity and not enough quality. "too many formations, looks, patterns, etc." Perhaps this is a common syndrome for new OC's. It seems apparent that a new starting QB + huge playbook = less than stellar results. Might be a good idea to let the QB and playbook grow up together.

 

[retro44]

for the year the q.b' have more pass plays on first down than 3rd. down...from the numbers I posted in another thread

hen our D.E'S were lined up either inside the tackles shoulders or straight up...that must have brought smiles to Paul Johnson's face

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I believe three things by being at the game and seeing both teams up close. GT is definitely bigger, faster and more athletic than SU. GT has consistency in their coaching staff for the past 4-5 years which helps tremendously, GT isn't great but they are much much better than people are giving them credit for which includes before and after the game. They execute on offense very well and they had the right D plan and better athletes that destroyed us on offense.

They have lost to Miami, VT, and BYU. No shame in any of that. BYU tough place to play as well

 

[Rocco]

Nice recap...just one minor comment. I rmember the same amount of confusion (wrong formations, late plays, wrong routes) under GRob too. West is in my fan doghouse right now...he has several offensive mental lapses every game. I hope this improves.

100% agree Mark. He just simply doesn't do anything good right now. I watch him all the time, and he just appears uninterested and it seems he gives a half-ass effort. His only productive game came against Wagner.

Really disappointing.

 

[Millhouse]

As mentioned previously, I have a hard time saying anything worthwhile after a beatdown like that one. We got killed in every aspect of the game; offense, defense and special teams.

I looked at G Tech's roster before the game. They have better athletes than we do. They are overall bigger, faster, stronger and smarter than we are. They are in contention for the ACC Atlantic Division title just about every year and Paul Johnson and his staff are a terrific group of coaches. Plus, the game was on the road. I was under no delusions; I expected to get beat and to be beaten fairly soundly. Something along the lines of 35-14.

There is a saying in sports that you are never as good as you think you are after a convincing victory and never as bad as you think after a sound drubbing. I think that applies here.

Anyway, I don't have to say did a historically poor job against the option. The question is, why? Would we have been better off using our standard 4-3?

First, it should be noted that we use a 3 man DL all the time when we use the Okie. This wasn't some radical new thing the players never saw before. I thought our players looked really confused, reactive, and readily conceded 5 yards on just about every play. They were not prepared, the game plan was awful and frankly, I don't think our staff has a clue regarding how to defend against this offense.

That shouldn't have been the case. Based on comments from players and the staff, the team has spent time preparing for the triple option since last spring. I think the preparations were bad and the staff needs to spend some time visiting schools that have defended this offense with success in the past. But bottom line, I think to stop this offense, the defense needs to be extremely disciplined. Everyone needs to know their role and execute it perfectly. When you give your front 7 new, completely different roles to play, you are setting yourself up for failure. Heck, the fourth LB was a true frosh. Don't want to single him out; he played very hard, made a ton of tackles and is going to be a fine player for us down the road.

Anyway, I hope this was a learning experience for the HC and the staff and they will learn from their mistakes. To me, when you have a new staff and a first time HC, there are going to be mistakes made. Some will be ghastly. That doesn't surprise me and sour me on them. The key is whether they can learn from their mistakes and not repeat them. No question the G Tech offense is a special situation. I will give them a pass for this disaster this time. Remember G Tech is in the other division and we are not scheduled to play them again for 6 or 7 years. Assuming that doesn't change, we are going to have to wait a while to see how they do against that offense again.

Let's talk offense now.

Hunt is being demonized by many in our fan base right now, much like they did to Ryan Nassib his sophomore and junior years. Watching the games, I do see him screw up fairly often, but our problems with the passing game, which are remarkable, are not all on him.

You can't pass successfully without an offensive line that gives the QB time to makes reads and get his throws off (and doesn't regularly get called for penalties).

You can't pass successfully without receivers that get open consistently and make catches on balls they can get to.

Lastly, you can't pass successfully without good play calling. You have to be willing to take what the defense will give you, you can't just pass in passing situations, you can't try and execute so many plays that the players on the offense don't consistently know what they are supposed to do.

When the game started, G Tech was playing soft coverage with its CBs, giving the SU WRs 10 yards from the line of scrimmage. Hunt, to his credit, checked into plays that took advantage of this. We had a bunch of successful pass plays. Not big yardage, but good gains and the passes were consistently complete (I think he started out 5-6). Don't know why G Tech did this, it was foolish on their part, but to their credit, when this practice became a problem, they stopped it and played our WRs tight.

When they did that, everything changed. We had to use slower developing pass plays, which gave G Tech more of an opportunity to rush Hunt. Over and over I saw Hunt looking at his receivers, ready to throw the ball, but they were blanketed and he held on to it to give them more time to get free. Even when he did throw, there was inevitably some G Tech defender all over our receiver, and the ball was usually slapped away or nearly intercepted.

I agree with the G Tech coaches who are saying Hunt doesn't go to his second option when his first option is covered. He did early in the season against teams that could not pressure him much but as the season has progressed and he has gotten hammered time and again, he has lost that discipline and usually runs for his life when his first option is not open.

I think part of this is on Hunt, but the receivers need to do a better job running routes, being physical and wanting the ball. There have been far too many plays where the ball was passed into a tight spot and as the ball flies to the target, I see the defensive player breaking on the ball far harder than our receiver. That is unacceptable and has to end. Unfortunately, I see little in the way of improvement on this front.

The OL certainly needs to share some of the blame as well. They are making too many penalties that put the offense in the hole and ruin good drives. They should be getting better at this as the season progresses but they are getting worse. Unacceptable.

Worse still, I think we got badly outcoached in the G Tech game here. Thought we didn't do a bad job overall blocking the G Tech DL head to head. That big Australian DT is going to play in the NFL and their DE is one of the best pass rushers in the ACC...they didn't kill us. They killed us rushing an LB lined up as a DL. This happened repeatedly...we just let their linebacker (I believe he wore #45) run to the QB unblocked all game long.

Again, I understand mistakes will be made. Coaches can't foresee everything that can happen. But when you have an issue like this that destroys the play everytime the player lines up like that, you have to make an adjustment. It concerns me greatly how poorly we adjusted during the game on the defensive and offensive sides of the ball. When you have a severed limb, shouldn't you at least try and stop the bleeding?

Lastly, I think on offense, we are trying to do too much. We have too many formations, too many looks, too many patterns and twists. Receivers are running the wrong routes on an astonishing number of plays. Players lined up incorrectly more often than I have ever seen on any Syracuse team ever. The players can't handle what the staff is asking them to do. Simplify the offense. It is a lot better to do 7 plays really well than 27 poorly.

The play calling isn't great but I don't hate what GM is doing. As far as I could tell, once G Tech took away our short passing game, a big part of his answer was to start throwing long. When you play coverage really tight, you expose yourself to long passes, so I don't have a big issue with this (though I would like more pump fakes on the short throw to get the defender to really get out of position first).

We had some guys open at times on long passes but Hunt seemed to throw them all on a line, all over throws. Like Nassib, he needs to learn to put some air on these throws. Underthrows will often still lead to completions or PI calls but overthrows are just wasted plays.

Speaking of Hunt, in the Clemson game, he definitely got in the habit of looking at his primary, making it obvious where he was going with the ball and then running if he felt he couldn't get the ball to that receiver.

If you watch the NC State game, there is a major change in how Hunt operates on passing plays. He consistently looks in one direction, fakes a pass, then looks in another direction, then looks to his primary receiver. I assume that was put in to stop the NC State defenders from reading his eyes and breaking on the ball too quickly. The good news is that I think it worked on that front; we had guys open pretty regularly. The bad news is that I think doing that stuff really messed up Hunt's rhythm and ability to throw the ball accurately.

He didn't do it at all against G Tech (I suspect it was because of the impact on his throwing). Based on the comments from their coaches and players, that might have been a mistake. If the only way Hunt can throw the ball accurately is to lock in on his receiver and follow him like a heat seeking missile for the whole route he is running, he is not fit to be our QB.

Is Hunt the answer? My concern with him is that I don't see him improving as the season progresses. It is clear to me there are a lot of things that are out of his control that are making him look worse than he is. I want to see our receivers fighting for the ball and playing tougher. I want to see our receivers reduce the number of balls they drop. I want to see our OL reduce the penalties they are getting called for and to give Terrell a little more time. Most of all, I want to see Terrell be patient in the pocket, go to his second option when his first is covered and only run as a last resort (or when the play is a designed QB run).

Glad we have two weeks to prepare for Wake. We need it.

it seems a little weird to blame the line for not giving him more time while blaming hunt for not being more patient in the pocket.

i don't think the line is that bad.

 

[Chip]

One thing I noticed watching the 2nd half last night, it seems like we have a set of Hunt passing plays and a set of Allen passing plays. They don't look the same. More bubble screens and slants when Allen is in.

Really curious who the staff will start for Wake. We can debate it until we're blue in the face (and we do), but I'm sure Shafer, GMC, Lester are doing a lot of evaluation when they're not recruiting this week.

 

[Doctor44]

i agree with what youve said. both hunt and allen seem to lock in on their first targets and dont do well going through progressions. is any of this on lester and the coaches? similarly - last years staff seemed high on west, clark and kobena and they cant get open - is any of that on moore?

one note - i know when i played qb, when wed play team that were bigger and faster than us, id have to lock on receivers, because all my options would be covererd and id have to wait and wait and wait and hope therre was a split second my guy got open that i could fire it in to him. sounds like our guys are having the same problem. maybe the adjustment is that they will never be open, move through tthe progressions like youre supposed to then tuck it and run.

 

[Crusty]

Thanks, Tom.
I have gone to three games - PSU, Tulane and NC State so I saw Hunt at his best and no so bad. I must say I also think he has not improved as we all hope/assumed he would.

McDonald is clearly promising freshman playing time to some of these WR recruits and they have every reason to believe him. I think he is planning on cleaning house because he sees nothing with which to work at WR.

Four of the five teams left on our schedule are much weaker than four of the teams we have already played. We have an opportunity to right the ship but I fear the receivers are so weak that it will be very hard to win with them. (Nassib might not be in the NFL if he had to throw to these guys.) I think we will have to crank up the running game to get to a bowl. Hard to do when everyone stacks the box. We'll see.

 

[TheCusian]

Great fair take, as usual .

Remember back when Hunt was poised vs Tulane and Wagner? That player is no where to be found. It's the staff's job to coax that kind of performance back out of him - any way that they can.

 

[Chip]

it seems a little weird to blame the line for not giving him more time while blaming hunt for not being more patient in the pocket.

i don't think the line is that bad.

80% of the line could play great and you could still have an issue. That's what I noticed more with Allen in the 2nd half. It seemed like on a good % of his passes, there was always one guy who would beat his OL.

The line has played much better than that though, so I think it's correctable.

 

[Frozen]

Tom, are you going to be at the MD game?

 

[Full_Rebar]

If teams are going to play the WR's tight and blitz, then SU has to use Smith/Gulley/Estime in the screen game. Our offensive coaches should watch how teams beat our blitz defense- they throw a lot of screens, short stuff and that opens up plays over the top when the safeties cheat up.

 

[Chip]

If teams are going to play the WR's tight and blitz, then SU has to use Smith/Gulley/Estime in the screen game. Our offensive coaches should watch how teams beat our blitz defense- they throw a lot of screens, short stuff and that opens up plays over the top when the safeties cheat up.

Paul Johnson and Ted Roof were playing Chess.

Our staff was playing Chutes and Ladders.

As Tom said, they need to learn from it.

 

[Crusty]

Paul Johnson and Ted Roof were playing Chess.

Our staff was playing Chutes and Ladders.

As Tom said, they need to learn from it.

You were generous.

 

[Millhouse]

Paul Johnson and Ted Roof were playing Chess.

Our staff was playing Chutes and Ladders.

As Tom said, they need to learn from it.

Johnson and Roof look like they lurk around playgrounds with chutes and ladders

 

[ImperialOrange]

We need to have more check down options for the qb. It seems as though everything we run is a wr screen or all wr's running 10-20 yard routes. I'd be curious what we could do with broyld/estime running a 5 yard drag route from the slot while our rb chip blocks and releases into the flat where broyld/estime vacated. Seems like our rb's either stay in to block or free release for screen passes which rarely fools a defense.

This would give hunt/allen/loeb? options mid/deep on both sides, short/mid crossing with the defender trailing, short in the flat or the option to tuck it and run up the middle. Would have us attacking every level and forcing the defense to defend the entire field.

Also, off of play action we need to have an outside wr run a post or dig route into the area the safety vacates when they cheat up for the run. On fly/go routes our wr's need to get inside position rather than forcing the qb to dropnit in between the db and the sideline. We simply don't have a qb that can make that throw.

 

[upperdeck]

we are in a catch 22.. we want to run smith.. the D is crashing our line so they are often forced to play Gulley to give us some way to release pressure with short passes/screens.. our RB avg 4-5 yds a carry against GT but we didnt finish enough drives to get any momentum. against NCst we broke 3-4 long runs.. against Gt we had almost the same chances but we slipped/got tripped on 2-3 .

the oline is functional its the WR play that is killing the offense. we are forced to run plays that make it easier to defend and that make sit easier for the D to go after the QB. still Hunt probably had 5 chances to complete 20-30 yd passes and missed them all..

it may not look like it but the offense played better against GT than NCst but we didnt hit 5 home run plays and didnt finish off the drives for scores the couple times we functioned down the field. the first half we left so many things on the field that were out fault it was sad. we performed much better than the NCst game and got zip for it and then the D struggled and the play calling/qb was changed..

wake plays into our strength.. stop the undersize NT/DT from making plays and you will move the ball on them. Macky should be better against him than almost any other NT/DT we have seen.

 

[CusefanATL]

I looked at G Tech's roster before the game. They have better athletes than we do. They are overall bigger, faster, stronger and smarter than we are. They are in contention for the ACC Atlantic Division title just about every year and Paul Johnson and his staff are a terrific group of coaches.

Wow. That is very different than the story told in Atlanta.

I know 3 different people who gave up their season tix until paul johnson is fired.

And they think he is the worst recruiter in college football.

 

[CusefanATL]

First, it should be noted that we use a 3 man DL all the time when we use the Okie. This wasn't some radical new thing the players never saw before. I thought our players looked really confused, reactive, and readily conceded 5 yards on just about every play. They were not prepared, the game plan was awful and frankly, I don't think our staff has a clue regarding how to defend against this offense.

Ga Tech sneezed and gained 5 yards.