Thought the defense played their butts off against one of the better offenses in the conference. BC was eventually able to wear them down some, mostly due to another poor effort by the SU offense, who could only control the ball for about 21 minutes.
If we had a good offense, the defense would benefit greatly. So many times this year they just seem to be on the field 75% of the time, and a team with injuries and opt outs seemingly everywhere just don’t have the depth to overcome this.
Thought White called a great game and had a solid game plan. One wonders why BC didn’t run the ball every play...they didn’t in large part because SU sold out to stop the run in a big way, lining up 6 or 7 players on the LOS regularly. We played press coverage all game long and again, the CBs were not beaten long and gave up no TDs.
I expected BC to throw the ball to Long, their excellent big TE (a guy who I understand wanted to come to SU but was not offered). I think Greenwood was often matched against him. Greenwood is not blessed with great size or speed and on paper, this was a huge mismatch. But he did a fine job trying to defend him. I think he was beat on the TD throw, where the coverage was not bad but Jurkovec happened to make his best throw of the game. But props to him for a gritty effort.
Wanted to give special praise to Kingsley Jonathan, who I thought was our best player on defense and had a great game. He was all over the field making plays. Was easily our best pass rusher and made a lot of tackles or assists on runs too. Good to see a senior step up when his team needed him the most. Thought McKinley, Josh and the rest of the DL played pretty well. McKinley in particular made a number of nice plays. We aren’t nearly as effective against the run when he is replaced by Harper. It is quite noticeable. We got blown off the LOS too much and didn’t do a great job with the pass rush but i thought we were quite good getting pressure on the QB. Especially given it seemed we didn’t blitz very much.
Poor Hanna was asked to stick his head in on a ton of running plays and even though he was thoroughly overmatch physically, he still made a lot of plays and played his heart out.
I guess we are all going to start taking Garrett Williams for granted soon. Yeah, he would be a terrific CB if only for his pass coverage skills. But he is really involved in stopping the run and continues to make an extraordinary number of tackles for a CB. Always hustling, always seems to be in the right place.
Iffy. Talk about a misnomer nickname! Teams rarely try to pass his way any longer but when they do, he is where he needs to be and usually knocks it away. Also very good helping out on plays where he is not targeted. Also gets a lot of tackles that a CB ordinarily does not make.
Thought Carter did well. He is playing undersized a bit this year and will really benefit from another year in the weight room next season.
Thought overall, the LBs did well. Jones is still a little too small and inexperienced and gets blown out of his lane too much, but he still makes a lot of nice plays. He has great athletic ability. Good tackler. That one stick of Flowers in the open field was one of the best defensive plays of the season. Cantin-Arku had some moments and appears to be improving a bit every game as he adjusts to this level of football. Thompson is barely playing any longer, which surprises me. I think this is because Tyrell Richards is now back and taking most of the snaps. Richards is a talented athlete who makes some really nice plays but I see him miss his assignments a lot...could use more discipline. That applies to his propensity to get called for penalties as well.
Kpogba’ s athletic ability just jumps off the page. It looks like he sometimes free lances too much but wow, he gets things down when he is in. I think he is also our best tackler on special teams. And his enthusiasm and energy seems to give the team a lift when he is in.
So I am happy with the defense and I think there is real hope that in the next year or two, there will be real improvement. We really need some big mobile bodies up front. That is the only missing ingredient. Hopefully we can grow some of our relatively skinny DEs into beefy ones, and maybe grow a couple into DTs. Hoping we can get a couple transfers to fill in here as well. But better days are ahead for the defense. Of this I am quite sure.
Let’s talk special teams quickly. Nykeim seems to make a couple big plays every game and has to be one of the best return guys in the conference. I can quibble about some of his decisions to return kicks he probably shouldn’t have but overall, he has been terrific here.
Szmyt has been solid and was again today. It is easy to take him for granted but we are lucky to have him.
Cooney continues to have a terrific season. I believe he is in the top 15 in the country in average yards punting and his hang time seems to be very good as well. Great play to get a punt inside the 5 again today...I believe Jones made a great play to keep that one out of the end zone. Bolinsky has been a rock as the long snapper and should get some recognition as well.
Our return teams have been also been good most of the year. Kpogba and Jones seem to be in on a lot of tackles, as does Bolinsky.
Let’s talk about the offense. This has been a nightmare season for Dino and his offensive unit and problems continue to plague the unit. The pass blocking was at times good but it broke down some too and was especially bad late in the game when we had a chance to win. I saw Tucker miss picking up a blitz and worse still, do a blatant hold to take a big gain off the board. That is going to happen playing a true frosh at RB.
The OL has been showing signs of getting better at run blocking but it looked like they got dominated by the BC DL and their veteran LBs. Disappointing.
It was nice to see Dakota play a couple of series but it looked like he wasn’t 100% when he was in.
The OL wasn’t a disaster but they weren’t great either. I look forward to the day when I have confidence in them every game.
Thought the WRs did okay. Harris got a lot of targets and had a good game. He played hard, as always. Thought Queeley had some nice catches. BC played the SU WRs tight and tough and Anthony had a couple drops under heavy pressure. Not much from the rest of the WRs, which remains a concern. Lutz looked good making catches over the middle, which might be a sneak preview of where he will be spending some time next season. Kid has good hands and can run with the ball too.
Tucker had a few really nice runs but had nowhere to run on too many plays. OL needs to be better.
I am pretty sure 95% of the posts about the game will be about Morgan. I gotta talk about him too. Thought he had a fine first game as a starter. I loved the poise I saw from him in the pocket. No happy feet. No rushed timing on passing plays. I didn’t see him get confused on handoffs, or throw to an empty area...the usual things you see when a young QB gets to play for the first time.
Thought he did rush a few throws that ended up at the feet if the receiver. That should go away over time. He made a lot of nice throws. The only one I had a problem with was the long throw into triple coverage that he threw as a high, lazy pass. That was the one that got intercepted (nice job by Taj to try and make a great catch and nice job making the tackle). I saw decent arm strength. The throws to the sideline had more arc and less zip on them than I would like. But it is common for QBs to improve this over time in college. Players like Donovan McNabb made major improvements over time.
I don’t think he is a dual threat QB but he evaded the rush a few times. Broke out of the grasp of a DL, and it was really refreshing to see him get chased out of the pocket, keep his eyes down the field and make a great touch throw over the head of an SU receiver (I think it was Queeley) for a nice gain. And it was even nicer to see him run around on that play late in the game, looking desperately for an open WR, then see a lane and make a great run for the long TD. That was the play where the corrupt refs and even the replay bums somehow decided the ball didn’t break the plane of the end zone. What an awful and shameful call. It is bad enough it was missed on the field. How could the replay official miss it as well? While on the topic of this, I found it unbelievable that there was only one angle provided of the replay of that play. How can a game covered by 8 cameras only show a crucial play replay from one camera? I know the RSN people are the lowest of the low, and maybe it was produced at Newhouse, mostly by students, but that play has to be shown from at least 2, preferably 3 angles.
There was plays where the camera was 20 yards away from where the ball was. Werme was ill prepared. So was the sideline reporter. Where was the talk about how Rex was not going to start before the game? Werme talked at length about SU’s relationship with Camp Bragg. How could the director not tell him immediately that he was off base? Werme is an SU grad. How could he not know he meant Fort Drum?
How does that clown Bates, who is incapable of making coherent observations on anything, allowed to be on the air for any network? Can someone please lock him in a closet?
The most frustrating thing about watching this team play is something that has plagued the Syracuse team for years. Lack of discipline. Specifically with penalties. Many of which are unforced. Many of which are being called on some of our most experienced players. Very disappointing. Dino and his staff need to do something about this. It is killing the team. So many drives start with a penalty by the special teams unit. So many drives end due to a stupid penalty. It could be lining up offsides. It could be a motion penalty. It could be a hold on a player where the hold was not necessary. Unsportsmanlike conduct. So many dumb penalties happening all the time. How many years do we have to be among the worst teams in the country in penalties? It makes me think the staff is not doing a good job holding players accountable for their actions. This needs to change.
