sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Haven’t read any posts or stories on the game yet. Too sad. But I thought I would jot down some thoughts.
Heart breaking loss. Sad for all the players and coaches, but especially Rex. That game could have really changed the way his Syracuse career will be perceived by Syracuse fans. Thought he played with a lot of heart and toughness and got us within 5 yards of what could have been an epic win.
But this is 2020, and in 2020, there are few, if any, happy endings. Such is live in a pandemic.
I think the defense deserves a lot of credit for playing well and keeping us in the game. They even found a way to make some key stops down the stretch when they had been on the field for most of the game (again). Was it a great performance? No. But did a reasonably good job against a pretty good offense.
The defense appears to be slowly getting better. We are finally at the point where we are doing a reasonably decent job stopping the run. That seemed impossible for a long while. We actually got consistent pressure on Hockman and got a lot of sacks, and even more pressure driven incomplete passes.
We still wilted some down the stretch but it wasn’t a case of NC State imposing their will on us. It seeemed to me most of the damage they did was on long passes, something we have rarely given up until today. I think Garrett and Iffy both got beat deep for TDs...pretty sure it was the first time that happened all year for both. Though overall though that their coverage wasn’t bad. Hockman made a couple of terrific throws. Mark Reich criticized SU for playing man coverage so much in the 4th quarter, and maybe it was a mistake.
NC State had a group of big, very physical WRs (who appeared to commit offensive pass interference a couple of times). They and their big TE got open a lot, especially on 3rd and long plays, when the SU defense again was consistently at its worse. Not sure why we have been so bad on 3rd and long but I hope we figure it out and get better at it next year.
Thought Carter had his best game so far. He was all over the field making tackles and playing like a man possessed. Thought Iffy made a couple Seems to me like Kpogba makes a big play every series he gets reps in. Wish he played more. Thompson did not follow up his great performance last game with another one. I think he got hurt again and is playing at less than 100%.
I didn’t see Richards play. Think he is hurt. Cantin-Arcu continues to miss assignments and find himself out of position, but he has the size and athletic ability to eventually be a good one. Wax is really struggling out there. Mikel Jones makes a bunch of nice plays and seems to get a little better every game.
Iffy lost a few battles but won his share too. Had two huge plays to stop drives. He is getting better at run support. Really a complete player. Garrett didn’t get as many tackles as he has been getting, but I think a big part of that is better play by our safeties and linebackers. Kingsley and Linton made some plays. So did Caleb and Roscoe. Williams and Harper did a good job inside. Thought Hanna was okay, got beat deep once. Greenwood made a nice play breaking up a pass but didn’t get into a lot of tackles.
Special teams were overall good. Props to Pena for the great return. He has the speed you want. It would be nice find a way to get him the ball in space a few times every game. Nykeim is one of the most gifted punt returners (KOs too) we have ever had, and we have had a lot of good ones. Great acceleration when he sees a seam.
We take Szymt for granted but he was money again. Nice to have such a solid place kicker.
Thought Cooney had another fine game. Happy he is being rewarded for sticking with the program for 4 years, bidding his time. Even drew a routing the kicker penalty.
He also did a great job booming his KOs into the end zone. Except for one, which unfortunately was returned to near midfield, helping to set up the Wolfpack for a big TD drive. But overall, another excellent game.
That leaves the offense. First, props to Rex. He did a fine job managing the offense, and up to the end of the game, made a ton of good decisions. Threw a lot of passes but I don’t think he was close to getting one picked off. Nice discipline. He had some bad throws to be sure but also made a number of terrific ones. That long one to Taj where Taj had 2 steps led him perfectly and if Taj had caught it, it was probably a TD and the game might well have ended with a Syracuse victory.
Taj is such an interesting player. I am not sure I have ever seen him drop a ball. Unless he was open and it was for a TD. In that case, he has dropped an alarming number of them. Quite unfortunate...if he found a way to hold on even half of those, his legacy at Syracuse would be so much more glorious.
That drop was the only bad play I saw Taj make all game. For this team to be successful, Taj has to be a leader. He has to be the go to guy, he has to make plays, get open, get YAC and be clutch. He was all that today, and put together one of the finest performances I have ever seen from a Syracuse WR. He put a great effort out there on every play and I think he lifted the whole team with his play. So props to him for that.
NC State started the game playing a soft zone and let Rex make passes underneath the zone to the flat over and over. I think they were worried about getting deep. They didn’t tighten up their coverage until sometime in the second half. When they did, props to Gilbert for going long. Harris and Johnson both got open for long passes (Taj twice).
Very disappointed in our total inability to run the football. We tried to run up the middle repeatedly and failed repeatedly. I think the issues are with our interior OL. Our OGs and C just do not open holes reliably and got manhandled by a big and good NC State DL today. It looked like Dakota Davis made his first start and played a lot in the first half, but maybe got gassed and missed a lot of series in the second half. Elmore was moved to FB, where he played a lot, and Tisdale and Ilaoa also played a lot at OG. I don’t think any of them played very well. Thought Bergeron and Servais had relatively good games.
Wish we tried more passes to our RB to get them the ball in space. Lutz has shown he can make that play on the pass over the middle and I would like to see Tucker get a chance there was well. Queeley had a decent game and almost made a great catch on a deflected ball in the back of the end zone. So close. Sigh.
Alford again was given a chance and again screwed it up. He might become a great player some day (I think he will be a fine player for us). But he is not ready now. It is a shame Hendrix got hurt and will miss the rest of the season. He was developing nicely. On the positive side, Courtney made a couple of nice plays and might be emerging as a player late in the season. Hope to see more of him against ND.
What is going on with these ACC refs? Am I a hopeless homer who can’t watch games objectively? It seems like everything close play is called to hurt Syracuse. The replay rule saved SU from a couple of major awful calls, but that ‘late hit’ on Josh was so lame (and was uncalled when Rex was hit with similar timing later in the game). They can’t even get illegal procedure calls right. Even Dino is getting frustrated at the constant botched calls. Don’t get me wrong. SU is a very undisciplined team and they definitely make their share of stupid penalties. But we don’t need the refs to add to that with made up ones as well.
As I watch this ACC season unfold, I am struck by how fine the line is between winning and losing. For all the losses we have seen, this team is not so far from getting some wins. You see teams like Syracuse go from 4-8 to 10-3 from one season to another (and 10-3 to 5-7 the next year). NC State keeps going up and down and now up again. It is very possible for a team that goes 1-10 to go to say 7-5 from one season to the next and that knowledge should give us all hope.
So I remain hopeful despite all the adversity and losing. I believe we can and will be good next year. I hope every Syracuse fan does as well.
Heart breaking loss. Sad for all the players and coaches, but especially Rex. That game could have really changed the way his Syracuse career will be perceived by Syracuse fans. Thought he played with a lot of heart and toughness and got us within 5 yards of what could have been an epic win.
But this is 2020, and in 2020, there are few, if any, happy endings. Such is live in a pandemic.
I think the defense deserves a lot of credit for playing well and keeping us in the game. They even found a way to make some key stops down the stretch when they had been on the field for most of the game (again). Was it a great performance? No. But did a reasonably good job against a pretty good offense.
The defense appears to be slowly getting better. We are finally at the point where we are doing a reasonably decent job stopping the run. That seemed impossible for a long while. We actually got consistent pressure on Hockman and got a lot of sacks, and even more pressure driven incomplete passes.
We still wilted some down the stretch but it wasn’t a case of NC State imposing their will on us. It seeemed to me most of the damage they did was on long passes, something we have rarely given up until today. I think Garrett and Iffy both got beat deep for TDs...pretty sure it was the first time that happened all year for both. Though overall though that their coverage wasn’t bad. Hockman made a couple of terrific throws. Mark Reich criticized SU for playing man coverage so much in the 4th quarter, and maybe it was a mistake.
NC State had a group of big, very physical WRs (who appeared to commit offensive pass interference a couple of times). They and their big TE got open a lot, especially on 3rd and long plays, when the SU defense again was consistently at its worse. Not sure why we have been so bad on 3rd and long but I hope we figure it out and get better at it next year.
Thought Carter had his best game so far. He was all over the field making tackles and playing like a man possessed. Thought Iffy made a couple Seems to me like Kpogba makes a big play every series he gets reps in. Wish he played more. Thompson did not follow up his great performance last game with another one. I think he got hurt again and is playing at less than 100%.
I didn’t see Richards play. Think he is hurt. Cantin-Arcu continues to miss assignments and find himself out of position, but he has the size and athletic ability to eventually be a good one. Wax is really struggling out there. Mikel Jones makes a bunch of nice plays and seems to get a little better every game.
Iffy lost a few battles but won his share too. Had two huge plays to stop drives. He is getting better at run support. Really a complete player. Garrett didn’t get as many tackles as he has been getting, but I think a big part of that is better play by our safeties and linebackers. Kingsley and Linton made some plays. So did Caleb and Roscoe. Williams and Harper did a good job inside. Thought Hanna was okay, got beat deep once. Greenwood made a nice play breaking up a pass but didn’t get into a lot of tackles.
Special teams were overall good. Props to Pena for the great return. He has the speed you want. It would be nice find a way to get him the ball in space a few times every game. Nykeim is one of the most gifted punt returners (KOs too) we have ever had, and we have had a lot of good ones. Great acceleration when he sees a seam.
We take Szymt for granted but he was money again. Nice to have such a solid place kicker.
Thought Cooney had another fine game. Happy he is being rewarded for sticking with the program for 4 years, bidding his time. Even drew a routing the kicker penalty.
He also did a great job booming his KOs into the end zone. Except for one, which unfortunately was returned to near midfield, helping to set up the Wolfpack for a big TD drive. But overall, another excellent game.
That leaves the offense. First, props to Rex. He did a fine job managing the offense, and up to the end of the game, made a ton of good decisions. Threw a lot of passes but I don’t think he was close to getting one picked off. Nice discipline. He had some bad throws to be sure but also made a number of terrific ones. That long one to Taj where Taj had 2 steps led him perfectly and if Taj had caught it, it was probably a TD and the game might well have ended with a Syracuse victory.
Taj is such an interesting player. I am not sure I have ever seen him drop a ball. Unless he was open and it was for a TD. In that case, he has dropped an alarming number of them. Quite unfortunate...if he found a way to hold on even half of those, his legacy at Syracuse would be so much more glorious.
That drop was the only bad play I saw Taj make all game. For this team to be successful, Taj has to be a leader. He has to be the go to guy, he has to make plays, get open, get YAC and be clutch. He was all that today, and put together one of the finest performances I have ever seen from a Syracuse WR. He put a great effort out there on every play and I think he lifted the whole team with his play. So props to him for that.
NC State started the game playing a soft zone and let Rex make passes underneath the zone to the flat over and over. I think they were worried about getting deep. They didn’t tighten up their coverage until sometime in the second half. When they did, props to Gilbert for going long. Harris and Johnson both got open for long passes (Taj twice).
Very disappointed in our total inability to run the football. We tried to run up the middle repeatedly and failed repeatedly. I think the issues are with our interior OL. Our OGs and C just do not open holes reliably and got manhandled by a big and good NC State DL today. It looked like Dakota Davis made his first start and played a lot in the first half, but maybe got gassed and missed a lot of series in the second half. Elmore was moved to FB, where he played a lot, and Tisdale and Ilaoa also played a lot at OG. I don’t think any of them played very well. Thought Bergeron and Servais had relatively good games.
Wish we tried more passes to our RB to get them the ball in space. Lutz has shown he can make that play on the pass over the middle and I would like to see Tucker get a chance there was well. Queeley had a decent game and almost made a great catch on a deflected ball in the back of the end zone. So close. Sigh.
Alford again was given a chance and again screwed it up. He might become a great player some day (I think he will be a fine player for us). But he is not ready now. It is a shame Hendrix got hurt and will miss the rest of the season. He was developing nicely. On the positive side, Courtney made a couple of nice plays and might be emerging as a player late in the season. Hope to see more of him against ND.
What is going on with these ACC refs? Am I a hopeless homer who can’t watch games objectively? It seems like everything close play is called to hurt Syracuse. The replay rule saved SU from a couple of major awful calls, but that ‘late hit’ on Josh was so lame (and was uncalled when Rex was hit with similar timing later in the game). They can’t even get illegal procedure calls right. Even Dino is getting frustrated at the constant botched calls. Don’t get me wrong. SU is a very undisciplined team and they definitely make their share of stupid penalties. But we don’t need the refs to add to that with made up ones as well.
As I watch this ACC season unfold, I am struck by how fine the line is between winning and losing. For all the losses we have seen, this team is not so far from getting some wins. You see teams like Syracuse go from 4-8 to 10-3 from one season to another (and 10-3 to 5-7 the next year). NC State keeps going up and down and now up again. It is very possible for a team that goes 1-10 to go to say 7-5 from one season to the next and that knowledge should give us all hope.
So I remain hopeful despite all the adversity and losing. I believe we can and will be good next year. I hope every Syracuse fan does as well.