My Take | Syracusefan.com

My Take

sutomcat

No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
Joined
Aug 15, 2011
Messages
25,012
Like
107,445
Another sellout, another very large Fine Lot SyraCruz tailgate. There was a ton of food consumed, along with many many adult beverages. Props to Nell. Jeremy, Mike L, Cliff, Bees, Rich and all the others who helped make it happen. It was another beautiful fall day in what has been a great fall season. Pretty cool to enjoy a brilliant blue sky, a warm sun and the backdrop of the Goodyear blimp.

ND had a good, not great turnout. There was probably only 500 in the normal fa section but ND fans were scattered all through the stadium, easily identified by their white skin, large bellies and ghastly green attire.

The SUMB had 10 tubas. They played the ND fight song to their fans. Classy.

This was a game it was really important to get out to a good start and we all know, that did not happen. Garrett had time on the first play from the line of scrimmage and inexplicitedly threw it directly to an ND player jumping coverage on Gadsden. Pick 6.

This was a harbinger of things to come as Garrett struggled the entire first half. He had a number of bad passes to open receivers. He seemed tentative and passed up chances to run for big yardage several times. Things that just were not in keeping with how he has played this season.

ND was as advertised. They really don’t have a QB or decent WRs and the only hope they had to win the game was to run the ball and wear down the Syracuse defense. It was much like the situation SU faced against a one dimensional Clemson offense last year.

Props to ND for executing this game plan and following the Clemson blueprint very nicely. They used a bunch of TEs, rotated their RBs to keep the fresh and ran up the middle 90% of the time. Pyne did not have a good day throwing the ball but the ND OL gave him a lot of time on passing plays, helped by a conservative SU defense that rarely or never blitzed.

ND blew the SU DL off the line of scrimmage most plays, which is pretty disturbing since they have not been great running the ball this year. SU eventually adjusted but not until the 2nd half. The SU defense spent a ton of time on the field as the SU offense again struggled to get sustained drives, otter forced to punt after running 3 ineffective plays.

It was great to get Garrett W back but he was injured and did not return. That injury unfortunately looked serious. Hope that is not the case.

Good news. Sean Tucker played the whole game. Bad news. He looked good but did not put up his normal numbers. A lot of that is on his OL, who got dominated by the ND DL.

A key moment was a 4th and 7 play late in the first half when Dino, generally extremely conservative, decided to go for it. Shrader rolled to his right and had one man to beat to get a huge gain. But he elected to throw against his body instead and made another poor pass,this time under thrown, and ND took over on downs.

ND was able to drive down the field and score, which I believe put them up 14. I believe that was where Dino determined it was time to sit GS and bring in CDRW.

CDRW did some great things and and no so great things. He played like an inexperienced QB is expected to play. I am excited about his potential but he is really wild right now and I fear he is going to throw a lot of interceptions if we are forced to play him a lot the rest of the year. Hope he learns from this experience and takes better care of the football. No question he has a strong arm and plays with a lot of confidence. Really looks relaxed and poised in the pocket. I don’t have a lot of plays to evaluate him but to me, it looks like he has a really strong arm. And it looks like he is exceptionally fast when he runs too.

I think when he plays, the band is going to be playing a lot. Sometimes it will be our band and sometimes it will be the other team’s band though.

Despite everything, we had the ball down 7 sometime around the start of the 4th quarter and were driving for the tying TD when ND DL 56 got his hand up and deflected a CDRW throw that bounced way up in the air and into the arms of an ND defender. That was another huge play that turned the game. I guess you can add the ND block of an SU punt, which I think happened the next time SU had the ball.

Max had a miserable day punting; his worse so far in his career and Dino decided to give former starter James Williams a chance to punt. James is notoriously slow getting the ball off, and was slow again on his punt and it was blocked. Pretty sure Max punted poorly because he was rushing his punts to ensure none were blocked. ND blocked 2 last week against UNLV and that scared the crap out.of the SU punting unit.

ND has a great DE who wore #7. Think his name is Farley. He dominated things all game long. Got sacks, got pressure, got tackles. A number of times Sean went out on passing routes. Farley was asked to cover him and kept right in his face, down the field. Unbelievable athlete.

Gotta give props to Andre for making that long (was it 54 yards?) FG. Think it was a career long. Brady did a good job kicking off. Thought the SU coverage teams were solid too against some excellent return guys. But the punt team was not good. Max, James and the guys who blocked for them were bad.

It looks like our offense is going to struggle the rest of the year. Tucker is not 100%. Shrader is not 100%. Will either be completely healthy the rest of the year? The only positive I can say is that today might mark the day Umari Hatcher started to emerge as a factor for SU. Umari has size and speed and I think he has the highest ceiling of any of our WRs. He needs strength but the kid can get open and he did get open today. He dropped one tough catch and they just missed on another but he did get at least one. I expect to see him get more PT the rest of the year. Cooper had another costly drop and continues to drop about half the passes thrown his way. Adams had a TD and maybe he will also get more PT down the road.

Worried about our run defense the rest of the year. Teams are going to see the film and go with a power rush attack against us.

Pitt is struggling to throw the ball and has had awful QB play (sound familiar?) but they can run the ball. Not good.

Wake always seems to have a strong rushing attack and is going to be tough to stop on offense. Though I have to say, they look awful in all aspects of the game today. Especially on offense. No pass blocking at all. Hartman is human after all.

FSU destroyed Georgia Tech and also runs it well. They are going to be a problem for our defense.

That leaves BC, who has completely imploded and has no offense at all. They are another team that can’t throw it much and can’t run it much either. That is the one game I feel good about. The rest are going to be wars that will take great efforts to win.
 
Another sellout, another very large Fine Lot SyraCruz tailgate. There was a ton of food consumed, along with many many adult beverages. Props to Nell. Jeremy, Mike L, Cliff, Bees, Rich and all the others who helped make it happen. It was another beautiful fall day in what has been a great fall season. Pretty cool to enjoy a brilliant blue sky, a warm sun and the backdrop of the Goodyear blimp.

ND had a good, not great turnout. There was probably only 500 in the normal fa section but ND fans were scattered all through the stadium, easily identified by their white skin, large bellies and ghastly green attire.

The SUMB had 10 tubas. They played the ND fight song to their fans. Classy.

This was a game it was really important to get out to a good start and we all know, that did not happen. Garrett had time on the first play from the line of scrimmage and inexplicitedly threw it directly to an ND player jumping coverage on Gadsden. Pick 6.

This was a harbinger of things to come as Garrett struggled the entire first half. He had a number of bad passes to open receivers. He seemed tentative and passed up chances to run for big yardage several times. Things that just were not in keeping with how he has played this season.

ND was as advertised. They really don’t have a QB or decent WRs and the only hope they had to win the game was to run the ball and wear down the Syracuse defense. It was much like the situation SU faced against a one dimensional Clemson offense last year.

Props to ND for executing this game plan and following the Clemson blueprint very nicely. They used a bunch of TEs, rotated their RBs to keep the fresh and ran up the middle 90% of the time. Pyne did not have a good day throwing the ball but the ND OL gave him a lot of time on passing plays, helped by a conservative SU defense that rarely or never blitzed.

ND blew the SU DL off the line of scrimmage most plays, which is pretty disturbing since they have not been great running the ball this year. SU eventually adjusted but not until the 2nd half. The SU defense spent a ton of time on the field as the SU offense again struggled to get sustained drives, otter forced to punt after running 3 ineffective plays.

It was great to get Garrett W back but he was injured and did not return. That injury unfortunately looked serious. Hope that is not the case.

Good news. Sean Tucker played the whole game. Bad news. He looked good but did not put up his normal numbers. A lot of that is on his OL, who got dominated by the ND DL.

A key moment was a 4th and 7 play late in the first half when Dino, generally extremely conservative, decided to go for it. Shrader rolled to his right and had one man to beat to get a huge gain. But he elected to throw against his body instead and made another poor pass,this time under thrown, and ND took over on downs.

ND was able to drive down the field and score, which I believe put them up 14. I believe that was where Dino determined it was time to sit GS and bring in CDRW.

CDRW did some great things and and no so great things. He played like an inexperienced QB is expected to play. I am excited about his potential but he is really wild right now and I fear he is going to throw a lot of interceptions if we are forced to play him a lot the rest of the year. Hope he learns from this experience and takes better care of the football. No question he has a strong arm and plays with a lot of confidence. Really looks relaxed and poised in the pocket. I don’t have a lot of plays to evaluate him but to me, it looks like he has a really strong arm. And it looks like he is exceptionally fast when he runs too.

I think when he plays, the band is going to be playing a lot. Sometimes it will be our band and sometimes it will be the other team’s band though.

Despite everything, we had the ball down 7 sometime around the start of the 4th quarter and were driving for the tying TD when ND DL 56 got his hand up and deflected a CDRW throw that bounced way up in the air and into the arms of an ND defender. That was another huge play that turned the game. I guess you can add the ND block of an SU punt, which I think happened the next time SU had the ball.

Max had a miserable day punting; his worse so far in his career and Dino decided to give former starter James Williams a chance to punt. James is notoriously slow getting the ball off, and was slow again on his punt and it was blocked. Pretty sure Max punted poorly because he was rushing his punts to ensure none were blocked. ND blocked 2 last week against UNLV and that scared the crap out.of the SU punting unit.

ND has a great DE who wore #7. Think his name is Farley. He dominated things all game long. Got sacks, got pressure, got tackles. A number of times Sean went out on passing routes. Farley was asked to cover him and kept right in his face, down the field. Unbelievable athlete.

Gotta give props to Andre for making that long (was it 54 yards?) FG. Think it was a career long. Brady did a good job kicking off. Thought the SU coverage teams were solid too against some excellent return guys. But the punt team was not good. Max, James and the guys who blocked for them were bad.

It looks like our offense is going to struggle the rest of the year. Tucker is not 100%. Shrader is not 100%. Will either be completely healthy the rest of the year? The only positive I can say is that today might mark the day Umari Hatcher started to emerge as a factor for SU. Umari has size and speed and I think he has the highest ceiling of any of our WRs. He needs strength but the kid can get open and he did get open today. He dropped one tough catch and they just missed on another but he did get at least one. I expect to see him get more PT the rest of the year. Cooper had another costly drop and continues to drop about half the passes thrown his way. Adams had a TD and maybe he will also get more PT down the road.

Worried about our run defense the rest of the year. Teams are going to see the film and go with a power rush attack against us.

Pitt is struggling to throw the ball and has had awful QB play (sound familiar?) but they can run the ball. Not good.

Wake always seems to have a strong rushing attack and is going to be tough to stop on offense. Though I have to say, they look awful in all aspects of the game today. Especially on offense. No pass blocking at all. Hartman is human after all.

FSU destroyed Georgia Tech and also runs it well. They are going to be a problem for our defense.

That leaves BC, who has completely imploded and has no offense at all. They are another team that can’t throw it much and can’t run it much either. That is the one game I feel good about. The rest are going to be wars that will take great efforts to win.
Bottom line for me: Too many mistakes. Three turnovers - three ND scores.

Carlos impressed me.
 
CD-RW doesn't play wild.

I prefer to think of it like his play is chaotic energy.

I think we need it. I mentioned in the game thread, but Shrader looked like a kicked dog out there, and the offense was similarly listless. Then CD-RW starts taking snaps, throwin' darts, and it completely changed the energy level of the team.

I'll guess Shrader isn't ready to go next week, CD-RW gets the start. It'll probably have some big ups and downs, but no matter how it goes he's going to keep the Pitt defense on their toes in a way that a less than 100% Shrader just can't do.

I think he's got "it."
 
Dino should have punted 4th and 7 asked our D to hold and get to halftime within a score. The punt change to a slow kicker in that spot of the field...um no.
I like CDRW. Got a live arm. The tipped pass was a bad break as I think we drive there and things get interesting.
Our D line is banged up but I continue to believe our OL is our most overrated unit by a wide margin, and looking at ND OL compared to ours was like looking at the varsity line and the JV.
 
CD-RW doesn't play wild.

I prefer to think of it like his play is chaotic energy.

I think we need it. I mentioned in the game thread, but Shrader looked like a kicked dog out there, and the offense was similarly listless. Then CD-RW starts taking snaps, throwin' darts, and it completely changed the energy level of the team.

I'll guess Shrader isn't ready to go next week, CD-RW gets the start. It'll probably have some big ups and downs, but no matter how it goes he's going to keep the Pitt defense on their toes in a way that a less than 100% Shrader just can't do.

I think he's got "it."
Agree. I re-watched the game this morning. CDRW has a live arm. To Tom’s point, there were at least 1-2 passes that were nearly picked, but the killer was really a fluky play with the ball going so high in the air. Just a tough break. His arm is a cannon. The drops were tough to stomach.

There were actually very few RPOs called (playing from 14 down, they needed to throw), but the few that were CRDW seemed to make the right read and be really quick. Would imagine you would see more of this if he is starting without such a deficit.

Shrader is an incredibly tough kid but you could see he was throwing completely with his arms and not stepping into anything. I am not a coach but hard to see how he plays against Pitt if he can’t run and has no zip on his fastball.

There have been years where our back up QB hasn’t shown much- this doesn’t look like that situation. Kudos to the coaching staff for adding talent to the room in the off-season. I think it’s time to use it.
 
CDRW had the awareness and ability to scramble out of pressure and throw the ball away a few times. Shrader couldn’t and has struggled with that from time to time. On the other had CDRW threw a few What passes but it was his first real action so I can’t blame him. And the tipped INT might have been picked off anyway. Peña was not open.
 
I'll guess Shrader isn't ready to go next week, CD-RW gets the start. It'll probably have some big ups and downs, but no matter how it goes he's going to keep the Pitt defense on their toes in a way that a less than 100% Shrader just can't do.

I think he's got "it."
If Shrader is going to be out for a bit, the reps that CDRW gets with the 1's this week will be crucial. Even compared to a healthy Shrader, CDRW throws a very different ball. I can't help but think that may have contributed to some of the drops yesterday.
 
Agree. I re-watched the game this morning. CDRW has a live arm. To Tom’s point, there were at least 1-2 passes that were nearly picked, but the killer was really a fluky play with the ball going so high in the air. Just a tough break. His arm is a cannon. The drops were tough to stomach.

There were actually very few RPOs called (playing from 14 down, they needed to throw), but the few that were CRDW seemed to make the right read and be really quick. Would imagine you would see more of this if he is starting without such a deficit.

Shrader is an incredibly tough kid but you could see he was throwing completely with his arms and not stepping into anything. I am not a coach but hard to see how he plays against Pitt if he can’t run and has no zip on his fastball.

There have been years where our back up QB hasn’t shown much- this doesn’t look like that situation. Kudos to the coaching staff for adding talent to the room in the off-season. I think it’s time to use it.
CD-RW is young as a quarterback and I fully expect with more reps defenses will play the chess match trying to trick him into mistakes, and he'll take the bait on a few plays.

But in his favor, he also has some obvious gifts. He's quick and runs low, and the ball flies out of his hand and looks effortless. He looks every bit of what his recruiting profile would lead you to believe he can be.

Your last paragraph makes a great point. When Lamson got injured the staff felt they needed a higher ceiling at QB from what they had on the roster and went out and got him. This is our "in case of emergency break glass" moment.
 
I think we need it. I mentioned in the game thread, but Shrader looked like a kicked dog out there, and the offense was similarly listless. Then CD-RW starts taking snaps, throwin' darts, and it completely changed the energy level of the team.

This is so accurate. I thought this but never put it all together. But the offense looked lifeless the first half of the game. It’s was almost like the team got a jolt when CDRW came in. All of a sudden guys were “open” that hadn’t been before.

I’ll need to watch again but is CDRW getting his passes off quicker to his WR’s than GS. So some guys are open for a second and GS isn’t releasing fast enough? It could also be that ND changed their defense, which I saw they did but couldn’t see at the time if that was giving WR’s chances to make catches.
 
This is so accurate. I thought this but never put it all together. But the offense looked lifeless the first half of the game. It’s was almost like the team got a jolt when CDRW came in. All of a sudden guys were “open” that hasn’t been before.

I’ll need to watch again but is CDRW getting his passes off quicker to his WR’s than GS. So some guys are open for a second and GS isn’t releasing fast enough? It could also be that ND changed their defense, which I saw they did but couldn’t see at the time if that was giving WR’s chances to make catches.
I don't know if he was getting passes off faster, but the ball was sure getting to guys faster. I think that caught the WRs off guard a few times, and might have been why we saw Adams and Hatcher in more - as 2s they're probably a little more used to the way he throws.
 
Dino should have punted 4th and 7 asked our D to hold and get to halftime within a score. The punt change to a slow kicker in that spot of the field...um no.
I like CDRW. Got a live arm. The tipped pass was a bad break as I think we drive there and things get interesting.
Our D line is banged up but I continue to believe our OL is our most overrated unit by a wide margin, and looking at ND OL compared to ours was like looking at the varsity line and the JV.
Our Oline is actually bigger than ND, but it’s not athletic, besides Bergeron.
 
Dino should have punted 4th and 7 asked our D to hold and get to halftime within a score. The punt change to a slow kicker in that spot of the field...um no.
I like CDRW. Got a live arm. The tipped pass was a bad break as I think we drive there and things get interesting.
Our D line is banged up but I continue to believe our OL is our most overrated unit by a wide margin, and looking at ND OL compared to ours was like looking at the varsity line and the JV.
CD-RW is a few inches shorter than GS...tipped passes are more likely. He reminds me a bit of Marvin Harrison...we'll see if he can beat out the others and start in '23.
 
Agree. I re-watched the game this morning. CDRW has a live arm. To Tom’s point, there were at least 1-2 passes that were nearly picked, but the killer was really a fluky play with the ball going so high in the air. Just a tough break. His arm is a cannon. The drops were tough to stomach.

There were actually very few RPOs called (playing from 14 down, they needed to throw), but the few that were CRDW seemed to make the right read and be really quick. Would imagine you would see more of this if he is starting without such a deficit.

Shrader is an incredibly tough kid but you could see he was throwing completely with his arms and not stepping into anything. I am not a coach but hard to see how he plays against Pitt if he can’t run and has no zip on his fastball.

There have been years where our back up QB hasn’t shown much- this doesn’t look like that situation. Kudos to the coaching staff for adding talent to the room in the off-season. I think it’s time to use it.
This game was essentially decided before it was played. Shrader wasn’t close to being healthy and it affected his passing as well. Dino finally benched him to keep him from getting injured. Had Vegas known about Shrader, ND would have been at least a TD favorite.
 
Great assessment as usual!
Wilson lacks game experience but his upside looks very good!
He needs to play more to gain enough experience to help us down the road!
 
Dino should have punted 4th and 7 asked our D to hold and get to halftime within a score. The punt change to a slow kicker in that spot of the field...um no.
I like CDRW. Got a live arm. The tipped pass was a bad break as I think we drive there and things get interesting.
Our D line is banged up but I continue to believe our OL is our most overrated unit by a wide margin, and looking at ND OL compared to ours was like looking at the varsity line and the JV.

Our OL graded higher than ND yesterday in pass blocking while ND graded higher in run blocking which is no shame since they grade as the 4th best in the country for the season. As for SU we grade 47th in both pass and run blocking for the season. Great? No. But very good being in the top 1/3 in the country. In the ACC they are 5th and 6th. Very good there too.
 
CDRW is an SEC qb playing for us. GS is playing for us because he couldn’t cut it in the SEC.

This is now the worst take I’ve ever seen on this board.


So GS couldn’t hack it because he transferred?

Sooo therefore CDRW ALSO couldn’t hack it because he got recruited over.

I’ll take a healthy GS over CDRW any day. The evidence was clear in yesterdays game. CDRW is a serviceable backup QB but there’s a reason GS was the starter and lead this team to a historic 6-0 start
 
It will be interesting who starts at qb Saturday. I hope if GS is hurt he rests until FSt. I do not want DB to rush GS back to not create a qb in his mind. Healthy I would take GS but do think CDRW could become a very good qb.
 
It will be interesting who starts at qb Saturday. I hope if GS is hurt he rests until FSt. I do not want DB to rush GS back to not create a qb in his mind. Healthy I would take GS but do think CDRW could become a very good qb.

I believe CDRW will start and play on Saturday.


Think GS needs to rest.

If he doesn’t have the threat to run, it limits what he can do offensively, especially with our lack of no #2 receiver
 
This is Shrader’s team but he’s clearly hurt.

We’re playing for a relevant bowl and top 15 finish. Gotta play who gives you the best chance to win each game.
When had Dino ever put our team in a position to be successful? Name one coaching call in his tenure that was good. I can name dozens that SMH. Watch SEC football. They don’t onside kick with time on the clock and 3 TO remaining. They kick off and challenge the D to get the ball back. Do they go for it on 4th down in a position that has little benefit? Do those coaches freeze at the end of the game and run 30 needed seconds off the clock before calling a time out?
 
Your history screams troll. You only seem to comment about Dino. You are barely comment and we you do talk you just talk about the bad. Almost never about the good. Trolls come out when they cant stand to see a team do well.
Bad? “
The kids are playing over their heads and coach is negating their efforts. This team has true leadership and superstars. It needs a coach who enhances that.” Is that bad?
Apparently Syracuse has no interest in being competitive. The coach is accountable. He is making more than probably everyone on this board. Wish I could find a job that I could get well below average results and have nobody question them. Coaches who make the gameday decisions he makes are Saturday pee wee volunteers. They are not getting paid. I challenge you to name one other coach who has been retained by their team after making the crazy decisions that Dino has. They don’t exist. Throw a bone at Deion. One trait he doesn’t have is freezing on decision making. Do you think that he would do a better job?
 

Forum statistics

Threads
167,131
Messages
4,681,990
Members
5,900
Latest member
DizzyNY

Online statistics

Members online
337
Guests online
2,313
Total visitors
2,650


Top Bottom