My Take | Syracusefan.com

My Take

sutomcat

No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Full disclosure. Was talking with an aunt I rarely see a couple of months ago and she said she was doing a dinner for family members in October. Asked me if I would go.

I said yes. Did not ask when. Bad move. Really bad move.

So the dinner started at 1 pm Saturday. I was hoping we would get a night game against NC State so I could attend both but we all know that did not happen. So I kept my word, and went to the dinner. She did not have cable. I brought an IPad and we all gathered around it to watch the game Iher TV was a little smart but not smart enough to take casting or run the ESPN app).

So I kind of saw the game live, from a distance, interrupted regularly for various reasons. Finally watched a replay this afternoon (after a nice round at Green Lakes this morning; always nice and thankful to get a round in here in late October).

Here is what I thought…

Agree with those unhappy with the announcers. I don’t know who the play by play guy was. He was okay. Hasselback talked a lot, repeated himself a lot, and rarely offered any interesting or insightful information. He doesn’t speak well and I don’t like his voice or his face either.

Agree the refs were a mess. Lots of strange calls all game long. Obvious calls were ignored. Calls were made when I could not see a penalty happening. I think they were equally incompetent for both teams and in the grand scheme, do not think their crappiness affected the outcome.

Thought we made a tactical error sending NC State in the first half. Thought we were too aggressive getting after the QB and kept getting hurt when he used his good agility to escape our DEs and run for good yardage. That was their best play in the first half. The little guy could not throw accurately more than 10 or 15 yards. NC State knew this and rarely even tried to throw anything except screen passes. We figured this out pretty quick. They were not able to run at all so they had little ability to move the ball or do anything on offense. Especially in the second half, when we changed our pass rush, forgot (for the most part) about getting sacks and just tried to contain the little guy. Really nice job by Tony White, and the defense, as usual.

It was nice to see McDonald back out there. Sparrow did not dress so Derek was really needed. And he will continue to be needed, especially after Lowery appeared to dislocate his shoulder. He was playing well before then…very unfortunate.

The injury to Garrett Williams was however, the biggest issue was faced, and likely will continue to face. I hope he will be back in a couple of games. Looked like a pretty serious hamstring pull to my unlearned eyes. Thought Johnson played quite well backing Garrett up. It is good to get him some experience. Hope the injury to Duce was not serious. Did not like watching Jeremiah and Isaiah playing CB towards the end of the game.

People rarely talk about Jones because we all take his excellence for granted. But for the record, he was excellent again yesterday. Wax overran a couple of pretty easy sacks, but made a bunch of plays too. Thought McDonald was solid.

Darton appeared to have another big game and more than held his own going against NC State center Gibson, who is really experienced and well respected. Caleb was very good but the guy I thought really stood out at DE was once again Geer. He seems to get a little better every game. Very impressive young player.

Thought Clark, Barron, Simmons and Carter were okay at the safety positions. Not dominant but not bad. Simmons made a terrific play breaking up a pass at the key time in the game. Looks like he and Carter are splitting time at BS. Barron was in on a lot of plays. Tackled pretty well but could be better in the open field. He split time with Hanna early in the season but at this point, the rover job is his alone.

Good to see the running game have some success against an NC State defense that is very good. Happy to see some new running plays being used. Seems to help get Sean some more room to run. Fun watching Garrett out there lead blocking on that one mis-direction play that was so successful yesterday. Hope we see it more in the future. I suspect we will.

Gadsden seems to become a more important part of the offense with each game. Great to see him getting recognition for some mid season all conference teams. It is well deserved. He is so much better than the rest of our WRs right now it is amazing. He did have a drop and was called for a holding, but he made up for the penalty by getting a TD catch almost immediately afterwards.

Thought Cooper had another good game, getting open and making tough catches over the middle. Courtney got run out of bounds and was run out of the play completely on the second interception. I think that pick was as much on him as it was on Garrett. He has to be tougher and stronger on his routes.

Alford had another big play but it appeared he screwed up a couple of routes where he was targeted as well. This good play, bad play stuff seems to happen every hame with him.

Not sure any other receivers got a lot of chance to play. This is a little disturbing to me. Still hoping Pena, Queeley, Hatcher…someone else can emerge as another contributor here.

Thought the OL did a nice job pass blocking. Just watched the 2021 SU-NC State game on Saturday morning and the difference in execution was amazing. Of course, that 2021 game was one where we were forced to use Tisdale at RT and Josh Ilaoa at LG and they were not ready to play. It was nice to play them with a relatively healthy team.

Also nice to have the better OC and DC consistently in every game we play. And it was nice to have clearly better players at QB, RB and WR than NC State. We were the better team and we should have won.

I am heartened to see Notre Dame lose to a poor Stanford team. That game is far more winnable today than it seemed a few months ago. I am heartened to see Florida State lose a 3rd straight game. Granted, they were all to top 25 teams (they are facing the same gauntlet we must face). But I think it is going to be tough for them to continue to battle 100% as they pile up losses.

Anyone watch that behind the scenes series on this NC State team? It showed them during the summer and the preseason, working out, in great detail. Their goal was not to get to a bowl game, or get to 8 wins. Their goal was to win an NC. This season has been a crushing blow for them. They are halfway through the season and still haven’t played well and with Leary out, they are unlikely to ever play really well. I almost feel bad for them. But they have beaten us far too many times for me to do that.

Good win. Clemson is going to be a huge test. They will not take us lightly. They have already beaten Wake, NC State and FSU. With ND decaying into mediocrity, we are the only top 20 team left on their schedule. This is going to be a huge challenge for us.
 
That running play where Shrader was lead blocker for Tucker was used last season at NC State. I was at that game and remarked on it right away. It may be the way NC State plays their version of 335 defense. Shrader discussed it briefly in th post game press conference
 
Agree on the second pick, Tom. Jackson cannot get pinned against that sideline, especially on a double move - just a mediocre route at best.

Shrader could have checked down as well, and gave it, the State kid made a great play too…
 
Yet another nice game summary.
Shrader's energetic blocking on Tucker's td run was great to see. He was very animated talking to Sean on the sidelines after the td, so it seems it pumped up Shrader as well.
This third year of of White's system proves its effectiveness. Despite the injuries the D keeps making stops and keeps teams out of the end zone.
 

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