sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
- Messages
- 25,423
- Like
- 110,190
In past years, I have made the MetLife football games a combo vacation and included a visit to Bethpage as part of the road trip (the Black course remains my favorite course ever, and the course I hate the most too but that is a topic for another day).
Anyway, now that I am married man (first year anniversary is tomorrow), things are different and this year, I went with them wife and we are spending some time in NYC exploring various cultural and economic landmarks in the area. Don't want to digress but Blue Man Group was a very good time. Though it would have been better if it were Orange Man Group.
I found that an interesting eatery was located not far from where I am staying, so I found myself sitting down in a very interesting place called Rutt's on Friday afternoon to try a ripper with the special relish. I love to check out old school mom and pop places like this when I travel to get some insight into what makes the area I am visiting special. This place has been around a long time, looks like no one has thought about a renovation in 50 years and appeared to be filled with working class locals, though I saw a couple of businessmen in suits in there as well. Waitresses with attitude, deep fried hot dogs, food is packaged in plain brown paper bags. The decor inside looks like it was put together over the course of 60 years of business. What is not to like about that? The dog wasn't a Hoffman but it was surprisingly good and my party enjoyed them.
Also enjoyed a small tailgate at MetLife before the game with the old school folks from the Syracuse fan.com board. We talked a lot about the future of the football program, what is going on with SU hoops, the renovation project with the Dome, etc. And we speculated at length over what we might see later in the day at MetLife. Good times, special props to Nell, Jeremy and Mike and everyone else involved whose names I missed. Great food and great people = great times.
Headed inside the stadium about an hour before the kickoff. Engaged in some trash talk with some Irish fans seated near us in the 210 Syracuse section. This went on before and during the game. Good times. I like good natured trash talk and props to the Irish fans we were with for doing it well and not getting crazy. This is one of the great benefits of scheduling good, long established programs.
One of my biggest takeaways was how small the crowd was. It is hard to make good estimates at a place I rarely go to events at but I would say at best it was half full. My guess is that ND fans outnumbered SU fans by around a 2 to 1 ratio. Though we were louder and drunk more and were definitely more obnoxious. My bad (in some ways).
They would have been able to fill the place had they priced their tickets more in line with the market. Hard to justify spending $130 for a pretty bad seat on the second level between the 10 and 20 yard line. Especially when you couple it with a $30 parking fee and crazy prices for the food and drink sold (thanks to the Syracuse fan.com tailgate, this was not a problem). Anyway, I am really glad we are not going to do this again anytime soon. I am not against neutral site games though and would support playing here again, just as long as the game doesn't count as a home game for us. All of the Gross ones did. We have to schedule more intelligently now that we are financially solid. Getting to bowl games consistently is really important if we want to crack the top 25 again anytime soon.
I thought ND was bigger, stronger and faster than we were. Not just on the OL and DL. Everywhere. Their DBs looked bigger and stronger than our WRs. Their RBs looked bigger and stronger than our LBs, etc. This is the 3rd time I have thought this in 5 games this year. Not cool.
That makes it tough to beat them. Kizer has a strong and accurate arm on deep throws, and was well suited to make the type of tough throws needed to beat the Tampa 2 defense. We would have been much better suited to stopping Malik Zaire. Oh well. Anyway, props to Kizer for making a bunch of great throws. Watch...you will often see a linebacker in line for a pick, but Kizer put the ball in just the right spot in the seam of the zone a lot. He misses some throws too but I suspect he is headed for play on Sundays down the road. They have some big WRs who can really run too. Kelly is no slouch on the offensive end and when he got man coverage, he went deep and was successful a lot on it.
Very tough to see this defense beaten for long TDs so often. DBs run into each other, blow assignments, but more than anything, they are small and can't run as fast as the guys ND has out there. Even Winfield was beaten badly deep.
A lot of this changes with a consistent pass rush but we don't have that either. I think the DBs and LBs actually played fairly well today in pass coverage but the DL just couldn't get much pressure on Kizer and given 10 seconds or more to throw, even the best pass coverage is going to spring leaks and give up big plays. We have people like Marquez Hodge or true frosh out there trying to beat huge, really agile OTs for ND. It shouldn't be a surprise this was going to happen and it will definitely happen more this season, at least against teams with good talent at QB, OL and WR. The good news is that I think the young kids who are playing now, while not ready to be good players today, have the raw talent to become good players at this level in a year or two.
This applies across the board. This OL is incredibly young. The WR corp is really young. Our QBs are really young. The secondary and even the linebackers are young. As they gain experience and get their bodies filled out and ready to play at this level, I think they will improve. This is a huge key for this program. Some players don't have high ceilings and never improve. They just get older. To my eye, these kids have high upsides and will get better. Heck, I can see progress already this year for a bunch of the youngsters.
Offense
It has been a strange year. At times, this unit looks terrific and almost unstoppable. It is capable of playing dominant ball for a quarter. But it is also capable of shutting down and being miserable for 15 or 30 minutes. Part of it is adjustments defenses make and our struggles to make adjustments to their changes. Coach Babers talks about the offense needing to be like a reed and bend as needed to be successful. When he talks about it talking 1. 5 seasons or so to get the offense really going, perhaps this is a big part of what he is referring to.
Barring an injury, Amba is going to break very single season receiving record in the books for SU. I don't think anyone saw this coming; even the coaching staff. Amazing how well he is playing week in and week out. I have seen Monk, Harrison, Johnson, Williams, etc. play for the Orange and to be sure, if the offenses those guys played on were like this one, they would have had crazy numbers too. But still, this is an amazing step up for Amba and I am enjoying watching him play greatly. Philips, Ishmael and Estime are also having fine years and will surely break all their personal records. It is fun to watch a scheme that gets players open fairly consistently, even against good defenses.
I feel like I am too hard on Dungey each week, saying I think he is only playing okay when he continues to pile up amazing numbers and rank as one of the best QBs in college football. So yes, he might have gotten happy feet and ran out of the pocket early a few times. Yes, he missed a few throws. And he might have been a bad read on a few RPO plays. But he made some great throws too, throws the long ball well and his athletic ability really helps this offense keep the chains moving when plays break down. Overall, he is doing a great job.
This offense could really use at least one more WR to step up and make a contribution. AC II has made his usual strong start and then disappeared. Don't think he is strong enough or fast enough to get separation at this level. Riley is getting some snaps and having some success inside but I think he is too small right now to be a workhorse, though he will help some. Custis continues to stand on the sideline, without pads and I fear this will be a lost year for him.
If someone is going to emerge, it is Devin Butler. The kid has size and speed; all the tools needed to be successful. And he is getting a lot of snaps now. Don't be surprised if he gets 5 catches for 100 yards in a game or two down the road. I like what I see from him.
Conway and Emerich sat out the game again. Lasker and McGloster are okay but when we have breakdowns in pass blocking, they seem to be the culprits most often. We still can't run the ball inside. The OL isn't opening holes and the RB isn't making good reads or breaking tackles. I suspect this will be a problem for the rest of the season.
Defense
Franklin and Bennett are playing much better now, as is our DL and that is a big reason why the run defense is significantly better these days. Still needs to improve but it is good to see the DL getting some penetration and the LBs chasing down RBs like they need to. Ellison has been a help in run support at safety. That kid has good instincts and hits like a truck. Williams is also impressing me. Probably our best athlete at safety. I think he was the guy who was covering some big WR for ND, who blatantly pushed off on him and made the catch. No call. Sigh.
Winfield continues to quietly have a strong season. Fast, good instincts, if we stop a play going wide, it was probably Corey that made the play. Yes, he got burned deep in man but the body of work is really good. Hudson got burned deep a couple of times but at least once he saw it happening and interfered to save a TD. Not sure he has the speed to play CB at this level but he is the best we have and I will credit him for making some good plays in run support. He is getting better.
I thought Slayton had a decent game but he isn't getting a rush at DE. We really need that from him. I thought Clark had a fine game, made some nice plays in the backfield. The DTs played well overall. We are getting killed at the DE position playing three true frosh a lot but it will play off in the long run.
Special Teams
Everyone is going to go after Cole Murphy but watching him today, it was clear he is playing hurt and I think you have to take that into account when judging his play. It is unfortunate but I can't rip a kid for playing hurt and struggling. I hope he gets well soon, it would be a shame if he has to play hurt the rest of the year.
Sterling has been struggling mightily all season. The staff tried something new this week with a side wards snap and Sterling punting off a running start. And with one exception, it would out really well. Props to the staff and to Sterling...I am sure they worked really hard to make the change and get the problems fixed.
Brisly is awesome returning punts. Never let anyone else touch one until he graduates. Would like to see him returning KOs too. Riley is struggling big time at this.
The SUMB was down to 4 tubas but still put on a fine performance. They have more bass drums than tubas. Unusual. But they are making it work. Very courageous.
Meghan Sinisi
One of the highlights of the day was the performance of Orange Girl. Meghan Sinisi has been doing this for 4 years now and is the best I can remember. She can do it all...she can throw it, catch it, juggle batons, spin them on her shoulders and even make a catch while doing a spilt. If I had a vote, she would be an All-American.
Gotta win against Wake. Let's find a way to keep this season interesting, shall we? It would be a great achievement to get to a bowl during a year like this one.
War Damn Otto!
Anyway, now that I am married man (first year anniversary is tomorrow), things are different and this year, I went with them wife and we are spending some time in NYC exploring various cultural and economic landmarks in the area. Don't want to digress but Blue Man Group was a very good time. Though it would have been better if it were Orange Man Group.
I found that an interesting eatery was located not far from where I am staying, so I found myself sitting down in a very interesting place called Rutt's on Friday afternoon to try a ripper with the special relish. I love to check out old school mom and pop places like this when I travel to get some insight into what makes the area I am visiting special. This place has been around a long time, looks like no one has thought about a renovation in 50 years and appeared to be filled with working class locals, though I saw a couple of businessmen in suits in there as well. Waitresses with attitude, deep fried hot dogs, food is packaged in plain brown paper bags. The decor inside looks like it was put together over the course of 60 years of business. What is not to like about that? The dog wasn't a Hoffman but it was surprisingly good and my party enjoyed them.
Also enjoyed a small tailgate at MetLife before the game with the old school folks from the Syracuse fan.com board. We talked a lot about the future of the football program, what is going on with SU hoops, the renovation project with the Dome, etc. And we speculated at length over what we might see later in the day at MetLife. Good times, special props to Nell, Jeremy and Mike and everyone else involved whose names I missed. Great food and great people = great times.
Headed inside the stadium about an hour before the kickoff. Engaged in some trash talk with some Irish fans seated near us in the 210 Syracuse section. This went on before and during the game. Good times. I like good natured trash talk and props to the Irish fans we were with for doing it well and not getting crazy. This is one of the great benefits of scheduling good, long established programs.
One of my biggest takeaways was how small the crowd was. It is hard to make good estimates at a place I rarely go to events at but I would say at best it was half full. My guess is that ND fans outnumbered SU fans by around a 2 to 1 ratio. Though we were louder and drunk more and were definitely more obnoxious. My bad (in some ways).
They would have been able to fill the place had they priced their tickets more in line with the market. Hard to justify spending $130 for a pretty bad seat on the second level between the 10 and 20 yard line. Especially when you couple it with a $30 parking fee and crazy prices for the food and drink sold (thanks to the Syracuse fan.com tailgate, this was not a problem). Anyway, I am really glad we are not going to do this again anytime soon. I am not against neutral site games though and would support playing here again, just as long as the game doesn't count as a home game for us. All of the Gross ones did. We have to schedule more intelligently now that we are financially solid. Getting to bowl games consistently is really important if we want to crack the top 25 again anytime soon.
I thought ND was bigger, stronger and faster than we were. Not just on the OL and DL. Everywhere. Their DBs looked bigger and stronger than our WRs. Their RBs looked bigger and stronger than our LBs, etc. This is the 3rd time I have thought this in 5 games this year. Not cool.
That makes it tough to beat them. Kizer has a strong and accurate arm on deep throws, and was well suited to make the type of tough throws needed to beat the Tampa 2 defense. We would have been much better suited to stopping Malik Zaire. Oh well. Anyway, props to Kizer for making a bunch of great throws. Watch...you will often see a linebacker in line for a pick, but Kizer put the ball in just the right spot in the seam of the zone a lot. He misses some throws too but I suspect he is headed for play on Sundays down the road. They have some big WRs who can really run too. Kelly is no slouch on the offensive end and when he got man coverage, he went deep and was successful a lot on it.
Very tough to see this defense beaten for long TDs so often. DBs run into each other, blow assignments, but more than anything, they are small and can't run as fast as the guys ND has out there. Even Winfield was beaten badly deep.
A lot of this changes with a consistent pass rush but we don't have that either. I think the DBs and LBs actually played fairly well today in pass coverage but the DL just couldn't get much pressure on Kizer and given 10 seconds or more to throw, even the best pass coverage is going to spring leaks and give up big plays. We have people like Marquez Hodge or true frosh out there trying to beat huge, really agile OTs for ND. It shouldn't be a surprise this was going to happen and it will definitely happen more this season, at least against teams with good talent at QB, OL and WR. The good news is that I think the young kids who are playing now, while not ready to be good players today, have the raw talent to become good players at this level in a year or two.
This applies across the board. This OL is incredibly young. The WR corp is really young. Our QBs are really young. The secondary and even the linebackers are young. As they gain experience and get their bodies filled out and ready to play at this level, I think they will improve. This is a huge key for this program. Some players don't have high ceilings and never improve. They just get older. To my eye, these kids have high upsides and will get better. Heck, I can see progress already this year for a bunch of the youngsters.
Offense
It has been a strange year. At times, this unit looks terrific and almost unstoppable. It is capable of playing dominant ball for a quarter. But it is also capable of shutting down and being miserable for 15 or 30 minutes. Part of it is adjustments defenses make and our struggles to make adjustments to their changes. Coach Babers talks about the offense needing to be like a reed and bend as needed to be successful. When he talks about it talking 1. 5 seasons or so to get the offense really going, perhaps this is a big part of what he is referring to.
Barring an injury, Amba is going to break very single season receiving record in the books for SU. I don't think anyone saw this coming; even the coaching staff. Amazing how well he is playing week in and week out. I have seen Monk, Harrison, Johnson, Williams, etc. play for the Orange and to be sure, if the offenses those guys played on were like this one, they would have had crazy numbers too. But still, this is an amazing step up for Amba and I am enjoying watching him play greatly. Philips, Ishmael and Estime are also having fine years and will surely break all their personal records. It is fun to watch a scheme that gets players open fairly consistently, even against good defenses.
I feel like I am too hard on Dungey each week, saying I think he is only playing okay when he continues to pile up amazing numbers and rank as one of the best QBs in college football. So yes, he might have gotten happy feet and ran out of the pocket early a few times. Yes, he missed a few throws. And he might have been a bad read on a few RPO plays. But he made some great throws too, throws the long ball well and his athletic ability really helps this offense keep the chains moving when plays break down. Overall, he is doing a great job.
This offense could really use at least one more WR to step up and make a contribution. AC II has made his usual strong start and then disappeared. Don't think he is strong enough or fast enough to get separation at this level. Riley is getting some snaps and having some success inside but I think he is too small right now to be a workhorse, though he will help some. Custis continues to stand on the sideline, without pads and I fear this will be a lost year for him.
If someone is going to emerge, it is Devin Butler. The kid has size and speed; all the tools needed to be successful. And he is getting a lot of snaps now. Don't be surprised if he gets 5 catches for 100 yards in a game or two down the road. I like what I see from him.
Conway and Emerich sat out the game again. Lasker and McGloster are okay but when we have breakdowns in pass blocking, they seem to be the culprits most often. We still can't run the ball inside. The OL isn't opening holes and the RB isn't making good reads or breaking tackles. I suspect this will be a problem for the rest of the season.
Defense
Franklin and Bennett are playing much better now, as is our DL and that is a big reason why the run defense is significantly better these days. Still needs to improve but it is good to see the DL getting some penetration and the LBs chasing down RBs like they need to. Ellison has been a help in run support at safety. That kid has good instincts and hits like a truck. Williams is also impressing me. Probably our best athlete at safety. I think he was the guy who was covering some big WR for ND, who blatantly pushed off on him and made the catch. No call. Sigh.
Winfield continues to quietly have a strong season. Fast, good instincts, if we stop a play going wide, it was probably Corey that made the play. Yes, he got burned deep in man but the body of work is really good. Hudson got burned deep a couple of times but at least once he saw it happening and interfered to save a TD. Not sure he has the speed to play CB at this level but he is the best we have and I will credit him for making some good plays in run support. He is getting better.
I thought Slayton had a decent game but he isn't getting a rush at DE. We really need that from him. I thought Clark had a fine game, made some nice plays in the backfield. The DTs played well overall. We are getting killed at the DE position playing three true frosh a lot but it will play off in the long run.
Special Teams
Everyone is going to go after Cole Murphy but watching him today, it was clear he is playing hurt and I think you have to take that into account when judging his play. It is unfortunate but I can't rip a kid for playing hurt and struggling. I hope he gets well soon, it would be a shame if he has to play hurt the rest of the year.
Sterling has been struggling mightily all season. The staff tried something new this week with a side wards snap and Sterling punting off a running start. And with one exception, it would out really well. Props to the staff and to Sterling...I am sure they worked really hard to make the change and get the problems fixed.
Brisly is awesome returning punts. Never let anyone else touch one until he graduates. Would like to see him returning KOs too. Riley is struggling big time at this.
The SUMB was down to 4 tubas but still put on a fine performance. They have more bass drums than tubas. Unusual. But they are making it work. Very courageous.
Meghan Sinisi
One of the highlights of the day was the performance of Orange Girl. Meghan Sinisi has been doing this for 4 years now and is the best I can remember. She can do it all...she can throw it, catch it, juggle batons, spin them on her shoulders and even make a catch while doing a spilt. If I had a vote, she would be an All-American.
Gotta win against Wake. Let's find a way to keep this season interesting, shall we? It would be a great achievement to get to a bowl during a year like this one.
War Damn Otto!
