My Take

[sutomcat]

Another massive well executed tailgate. Food was good. The pulled pork was the best I have ever had and I have eaten A LOT of pulled pork. Props to all involved.

Met a bunch of the guys who came from Nova Scotia. Good guys. Most were retieed police officers. They love American football and have gone to something like 20 college venues. Would be interested in their reactions to the dome after attending a game there.

Missed the English visitor(s). Hope they made it and had fun.

Good to see old and new friends. I suspect we had near 300 people for this one. Crazy.

It was a perfect fall day. Not a cloud in the sky. Temperature around 70.

Headed up around 11:10 am. The concourses were already pretty crowded but not bad. I bet it was bad around 11:45 or so,

The sound is still messed up. The Wi-Fi and 5G is still messed up. The player intro videos are still messed up. There was confusion over what the game day production team was doing after a couple of timeouts in the Army game and that continued today. People are not on the same page. For some reason, they are really pushing the light show feature of the Cuse app during timeouts.. But with the horrendous WifI and 5G, there is no chance this can work. It really seems like someone really clueless s making important decisions.

I will say that I love the changes to the Cuse app regarding how it works with tickets for season ticket holders. It allows you to find and load your tickets to your electronic wallet all at once in an easy to use, effIcient manner. Great job on that. I do that before I go to the dome, Once I get in, the app is useless, as it my phone.

9 tubas. Not good.

Great turnout by the students. Awesome job. Yes, several thousand were late and yes, those kids almost all left before the second half started. But Otto’s Army and the students come out in force for this game.

Let’s talk about the game.

First off, Clemson played well. They had a good game plan for attaching our defense and executed it flawlessly. Their defense is top notch and some mental lapses were quickly addressed by great athletic ability. Props to them. Klubnick played as well as he is capable. The biggest difference in the game was when he got some pressure and got flushed from the pocket he consistently made a play to keep the drive alive. Shrader didn’t.

They had some problems getting WRs open at times, but he escaped the pocket and either found a WR open and ran for a first down a number of times. We tried to press them in the first half and they were able to make us pay. Wilson had a horrific half and was picked on relentlessly. Even Johnson got burned a number of times. When he had good coverage, he still made early contact. I think all or almost all the PI calls were legit. Really poor job by our CBs.

I assume Wilson did not get hurt but got benched. Would think DeLaine would replace him and I saw him on specials but Bellamy replaced him. And frankly played far better than Wilson had been doing. Suspect Bellamy is the starter from this point forward.

Barron stopped playing sometime early in the second half and did not return. I assume he is hurt and if so, this is a significant loss for us. Underrated player who is very good against the run and the pass. And he was having a big game too. Hope he is back soon. I think Gould replaced him most of the time, though Farmer was also out there and probably filled in for a couple of drives too.

It was nice to play Clemson and not see them run all over us in the fourth quarter. We played a bunch of DL and LBs to keep people fresh. Thought Ingraham in particular looked good against the rush. He is a minimal. Jobity hasn’t been playing much but he made some nice plays today. Lockett was good as always.

Our DEs were kind of quiet and I think got dominated by the Clemson OL. Not a great pass rush and we lost outside contain a lot too. Not good.

Wax was excellent except for the mindless penalty (and the dropped interception) I expect a veteran to keep his mind better. A number of foolish penalties, as always. This is the thing I will remember most from the Dino Era. He apparently is never going to get it fixed.

Props to Stonehouse for a fine day punting.

Another game another dropped TD reception. This time I think it was Dono Brown on the throw from Vallari.

Dan had his coming out game and let’s hope he becomes a big part of the offense from this point forward. He has athletic ability at TE that we have not had in a long time.

We switched to mostly zone on defense in the second half and had more success with that. Rocky screwed up the game plan and thought his CBs were better than they were. It happens.

What happened on offense? From my seat, it seemed like Clemson had a lot of success with a variety of blitzes.. They got some sacks off these and blew up some plays blitzing. Cruz struggled pass blocking, ,as did some other guys. Fairly early in the first half, Bradford was replaced by Ellis and I think that was it for Bradford. Ellis appeared to play well, especially run blocking. That was good to see. I think More was dressed and appeared ready to play and he might have at garbage time but I think Petry was the RT almost all game. He struggled too.

That said, in the first half, we had WRs open a number of times, mostly for long gains, but Shrader could not make the pass to the open WR. He found him fine but just made bad passes too often. In the second half, it looked like our WRs had problems getting open (maybe facing more zone) and Shrader took a bunch of sacks that looked to be coverage based. Our WRs are big but they aren’t tough and the Clemson DBs physically dominated them. We need to get tougher here. And Garrett needs to throw it better too,

Thought LeQuint played well. Ran hard, often without much of a hole. Showed his skill as a receiver again. That wheel route to the corner of the end zone was a thing of beauty (great throw by GS too).

Bottom line is that Clemson remains bigger, stronger and faster than we are. We have to play really well to be competitive and we did not do that today. It was good to see our depth improve and when we had to go to second team players, there wasn’t much impact on the quality of play. So there was some progress on that front.

The bad news is that UNC is better offensively than Clemson. By quite a bit. The good news is that their defense is vastly worse. We should be able to move the ball and score some points on the Tar Heels. If we can find a way to stop them some, we just might have a chance,

 

[BVille44]

Dan Vallari was injured when he ran the when he wildcat on the goal line. I sit in Section 210 and he went into the locker room with a trainer. His right hand was wrapped in a towel and it appeared he injured in hand/wrist by the way he was holding it. He never returned to the field.

 

[tbonezone]

"It was a perfect fall day. Not a cloud in the sky. Temperature around 70."


exactly. why is everyone acting so bummed ? look around.

 

[bballbeadle]

Tom, I had a revelation today. I wore earplugs. I could hear the sound much better! Maybe it was just me. One time I took them out, and the loudness was deafening. Really, people could get deaf from that. I quickly put them back in.

I have no wisdom about the game. Come to think of it, I just may have no wisdom at all!

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Dan Vallari was injured when he ran the when he wildcat on the goal line. I sit in Section 210 and he went into the locker room with a trainer. His right hand was wrapped in a towel and it appeared he injured in hand/wrist by the way he was holding it. He never returned to the field.

That's not great.

 

[CuseLegacy]

Tom, I had a revelation today. I wore earplugs. I could hear the sound much better! Maybe it was just me. One time I took them out, and the loudness was deafening. Really, people could get deaf from that. I quickly put them back in.

I have no wisdom about the game. Come to think of it, I just may have no wisdom at all!

You're a female...of course you are wise.

 

[Biaxtar]

Dan Vallari was injured when he ran the when he wildcat on the goal line. I sit in Section 210 and he went into the locker room with a trainer. His right hand was wrapped in a towel and it appeared he injured in hand/wrist by the way he was holding it. He never returned to the field.

He came out of the locker room with one of his fingers wrapped. Hopefully, it is not too bad.

 

[Newhouser]

I think Rocky thought are blitzes would get home more mitigating our coverage limits. Pass rush discipline was also lacking giving their QB a lot of escapes. Add in fatigue, etc. Tough assignment

 

[hoopsupstate]

We lost because Shrader didn’t perform well and our defense didn’t stop them on several third and long. It’s basically that simple. Shrader fumbled, got intercepted and had a bad toss to Allen that caused another fumble. Our defense also dropped two interceptions. Clarks could have been a pick six. I think Long found out some of our new transfers should be on the field.

 

[sutomcat]

Dan Vallari was injured when he ran the when he wildcat on the goal line. I sit in Section 210 and he went into the locker room with a trainer. His right hand was wrapped in a towel and it appeared he injured in hand/wrist by the way he was holding it. He never returned to the field.

He is our only weapon at TE and the closest thing we have to OG. Hope he has a broken finger and this is something he can play with. Feel bad for Dan. He is a great athlete who has waited a long time to play, finally gets his chance and gets hurt almost immediately.

 

[llandz]

Tom, I had a revelation today. I wore earplugs. I could hear the sound much better! Maybe it was just me. One time I took them out, and the loudness was deafening. Really, people could get deaf from that. I quickly put them back in.

I have no wisdom about the game. Come to think of it, I just may have no wisdom at all!

Left over from our possible Springsteen adventure?

 

[BillSU]

That's not great.

Observations:

I’m surprised Shrader was able to get up after the hit he took when we were moving the ball in the first quarter. I hope we don’t hear that he won’t be available next week. It was a hit he did not know was coming and was totally unprepared for. He’s tough but that was brutal.

Perhaps that was why he seemed, to me anyway, off the entire game although his touch pass to Allen in the end zone was beautiful.

If you are a receiver at this level you have to catch the ball. If you are a DB and you have several attempts to intercept the ball – do it.

Denaburg’s attempt came after a week where Dino watched him hit from 60 yards out and Coach Lig communicates with Denaburg every game about his leg. The surprising thing is that Denaburg said it all depends on the day you’re having and the “ball”. He wants the ball he kicks off with, not the one Shrader throws. The alternative would have been him trying to get the ball inside the twenty which is a risk and no points – at least he had a chance and kicked well all day. By the way the kick offs are at least 64 yards each. Stonehouse was exceptional with his punting. He had 6 for 304 yards, 50.7 Avg., a long of 60, 3 inside the 20 and 3 of 50 + yds.

Most seem to think that our quarterback can and should make those sideline passes catchable for the receivers not one yard out of bounds. I agree – gotta work on them if that’s what Beck wants to do. Overall I think the receivers need to be able to catch the ball period. We do certainly miss OG. Villari is a legitimate threat we should have used him before today – then he gets hurt. Our receiver room is dwindling.

“They played exactly how we thought they would,” Shrader said. “We were prepared, we knew everything we needed to, we just did not play well. I thought we beat ourselves more than they beat us today, especially on the offensive side.” And I totally agree. It’s too bad in some bigger games we just can’t seem to provide great drives resulting in scores. I don’t think Clemson is that much better than we are – we just didn’t play the way we are capable.

Penalties, although Dino says they don’t determine the outcome of games, were prevalent. WE had 9 for 92 yards. I disagree with Dino. Refs are there to make game decisions and sometimes they do not call the right penalty or none at all. We had an example of that today. On our own we were terrific in creating stupid errors resulting in yards against us.

On to tobacco road.

 

[JRHEETER]

the sound in the 100 level was VASTLY
Improved today.

You could hear all of the announcements crystal clear and wasn’t too loud


The light show thing is a horrendous flop currently. They need to use the video boards more effectively to communicate things. We have this beautiful center hung scoreboard and we don’t know how to properly use it. It’s a shame

 

[OrangePA]

Another massive well executed tailgate. Food was good. The pulled pork was the best I have ever had and I have eaten A LOT of pulled pork. Props to all involved.

Met a bunch of the guys who came from Nova Scotia. Good guys. Most were retieed police officers. They love American football and have gone to something like 20 college venues. Would be interested in their reactions to the dome after attending a game there.

Missed the English visitor(s). Hope they made it and had fun.

Good to see old and new friends. I suspect we had near 300 people for this one. Crazy.

It was a perfect fall day. Not a cloud in the sky. Temperature around 70.

Headed up around 11:10 am. The concourses were already pretty crowded but not bad. I bet it was bad around 11:45 or so,

The sound is still messed up. The Wi-Fi and 5G is still messed up. The player intro videos are still messed up. There was confusion over what the game day production team was doing after a couple of timeouts in the Army game and that continued today. People are not on the same page. For some reason, they are really pushing the light show feature of the Cuse app during timeouts.. But with the horrendous WifI and 5G, there is no chance this can work. It really seems like someone really clueless s making important decisions.

I will say that I love the changes to the Cuse app regarding how it works with tickets for season ticket holders. It allows you to find and load your tickets to your electronic wallet all at once in an easy to use, effIcient manner. Great job on that. I do that before I go to the dome, Once I get in, the app is useless, as it my phone.

9 tubas. Not good.

Great turnout by the students. Awesome job. Yes, several thousand were late and yes, those kids almost all left before the second half started. But Otto’s Army and the students come out in force for this game.

Let’s talk about the game.

First off, Clemson played well. They had a good game plan for attaching our defense and executed it flawlessly. Their defense is top notch and some mental lapses were quickly addressed by great athletic ability. Props to them. Klubnick played as well as he is capable. The biggest difference in the game was when he got some pressure and got flushed from the pocket he consistently made a play to keep the drive alive. Shrader didn’t.

They had some problems getting WRs open at times, but he escaped the pocket and either found a WR open and ran for a first down a number of times. We tried to press them in the first half and they were able to make us pay. Wilson had a horrific half and was picked on relentlessly. Even Johnson got burned a number of times. When he had good coverage, he still made early contact. I think all or almost all the PI calls were legit. Really poor job by our CBs.

I assume Wilson did not get hurt but got benched. Would think DeLaine would replace him and I saw him on specials but Bellamy replaced him. And frankly played far better than Wilson had been doing. Suspect Bellamy is the starter from this point forward.

Barron stopped playing sometime early in the second half and did not return. I assume he is hurt and if so, this is a significant loss for us. Underrated player who is very good against the run and the pass. And he was having a big game too. Hope he is back soon. I think Gould replaced him most of the time, though Farmer was also out there and probably filled in for a couple of drives too.

It was nice to play Clemson and not see them run all over us in the fourth quarter. We played a bunch of DL and LBs to keep people fresh. Thought Ingraham in particular looked good against the rush. He is a minimal. Jobity hasn’t been playing much but he made some nice plays today. Lockett was good as always.

Our DEs were kind of quiet and I think got dominated by the Clemson OL. Not a great pass rush and we lost outside contain a lot too. Not good.

Wax was excellent except for the mindless penalty (and the dropped interception) I expect a veteran to keep his mind better. A number of foolish penalties, as always. This is the thing I will remember most from the Dino Era. He apparently is never going to get it fixed.

Props to Stonehouse for a fine day punting.

Another game another dropped TD reception. This time I think it was Dono Brown on the throw from Vallari.

Dan had his coming out game and let’s hope he becomes a big part of the offense from this point forward. He has athletic ability at TE that we have not had in a long time.

We switched to mostly zone on defense in the second half and had more success with that. Rocky screwed up the game plan and thought his CBs were better than they were. It happens.

What happened on offense? From my seat, it seemed like Clemson had a lot of success with a variety of blitzes.. They got some sacks off these and blew up some plays blitzing. Cruz struggled pass blocking, ,as did some other guys. Fairly early in the first half, Bradford was replaced by Ellis and I think that was it for Bradford. Ellis appeared to play well, especially run blocking. That was good to see. I think More was dressed and appeared ready to play and he might have at garbage time but I think Petry was the RT almost all game. He struggled too.

That said, in the first half, we had WRs open a number of times, mostly for long gains, but Shrader could not make the pass to the open WR. He found him fine but just made bad passes too often. In the second half, it looked like our WRs had problems getting open (maybe facing more zone) and Shrader took a bunch of sacks that looked to be coverage based. Our WRs are big but they aren’t tough and the Clemson DBs physically dominated them. We need to get tougher here. And Garrett needs to throw it better too,

Thought LeQuint played well. Ran hard, often without much of a hole. Showed his skill as a receiver again. That wheel route to the corner of the end zone was a thing of beauty (great throw by GS too).

Bottom line is that Clemson remains bigger, stronger and faster than we are. We have to play really well to be competitive and we did not do that today. It was good to see our depth improve and when we had to go to second team players, there wasn’t much impact on the quality of play. So there was some progress on that front.

The bad news is that UNC is better offensively than Clemson. By quite a bit. The good news is that their defense is vastly worse. We should be able to move the ball and score some points on the Tar Heels. If we can find a way to stop them some, we just might have a chance,

Bigger, stronger and faster is the formula for winning.

To win the game the Orange had to play error free ball and had to make some plays.

We didn't do that.

The errors were frustrating but the failure to make plays - that were there for the taking - was perhaps more frustrating.

Still, this team was physical today and never gave up. The talent level of this program has improved up and down the roster

I choose to be positive coming out of this game.

 

[GreekFreak]

“They played exactly how we thought they would,” Shrader said. “We were prepared, we knew everything we needed to, we just did not play well. I thought we beat ourselves more than they beat us today, especially on the offensive side.”

I would have preferred that Garrett just tip his hat to the opponent and say they played better than us today. With his response, I’d have to then you choked today.

 

[SUbear]

I would have preferred that Garrett just tip his hat to the opponent and say they played better than us today. With his response, I’d have to then you choked today.

Well the offense certainly choked today.

 

[DonutHole]

Schrader needs to be a smarter runner and know when to go down. He can't be standing up and make himself a target.

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

Schrader needs to be a smarter runner and know when to go down. He can't be standing up and make himself a target.

I said the same thing. After the spin move in the middle of the field just go down. He got destroyed on that hit.

 

[orangemass]

I said the same thing. After the spin move in the middle of the field just go down. He got destroyed on that hit. View attachment 231803

Not targeting

 

[Cuseregular]

Not targeting

Maybe so, but still the personal foul part about hitting and lighting up a defenseless player should have been called if not targeting itself.

That pic above is the definition of this part of the rule imo:

In the old days no, but these days when they’re trying to save bodies and minds of this dumb fluckin sport I love if not save the sport itself, it’s a penalty.

 

[Nicknack]

One positive that I came away with (even in a frustrating way) is that we can compete with the talent that Clemson has. The challenge though is we have to play a really good game with minimal mistakes and Clemson has to only play average. That didn't happen today, thus a loss. Shrader has to have a special game against the likes of Clemson and FSU for us to win. Let's see what happens against UNC and FSU. Would love to get one W. In this 3 game stretch, that would be a great result.

 

[Bayside44]

One positive that I came away with (even in a frustrating way) is that we can compete with the talent that Clemson has. The challenge though is we have to play a really good game with minimal mistakes and Clemson has to only play average. That didn't happen today, thus a loss. Shrader has to have a special game against the likes of Clemson and FSU for us to win. Let's see what happens against UNC and FSU. Would love to get one W. In this 3 game stretch, that would be a great result.

Tend to agree - we needed those picks though - feel like we had 2 that could've gone for 6...

 

[IthacaMatt]

I said the same thing. After the spin move in the middle of the field just go down. He got destroyed on that hit. View attachment 231803

Pretty clearly not targeting. No hit to the helmet, it's straight into Shrader's shoulder pad. Defender has not "launched" himself at the offensive player, and clearly has 1 foot on the ground at the time he delivered the hit.

 

[rvandersy]

Schrader needs to be a smarter runner and know when to go down. He can't be standing up and make himself a target.

Don't think he gets nailed on purpose. Don't think he saw this guy. It happens, it's football. Several times when you slide, you still get hit in the head

 

[tep624]

Pretty clearly not targeting. No hit to the helmet, it's straight into Shrader's shoulder pad. Defender has not "launched" himself at the offensive player, and clearly has 1 foot on the ground at the time he delivered the hit.

Your helmet doesn’t move sideways when you get hit straight to the shoulder pad. The helmet contacted his face mask and chin.