sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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We started the day with another great tailgate with the SyraCruz folks. We have 2 Blackstones available for use now and used them to deliver mass quantities of breakfast sandwiches, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and pancakes.
Blackstones are great (no sponsorship deal) .
We had key people out and were trying some new stuff but it will worked out. Good start to the day.
Headed up to the dome earty. There were a bunch of recruits out on the field watching the team warm up. After some time, the band took the field and then the team. 8 tubas. Not what you want. Not what I want anyway.
It was nice seeing the dome almost full with the individual seats in. The only area of the dome that was empty was the 300 level on the eastern side. Students do not get up in time for a noon kickoff. At least most of them. Props to the jones who woke up early and had the 100 level filled.
Was interested to see how many fans Holy Cross would bring. Not many. Guessing about 100. Looked like all of them were in the visitors section. Sometimes with a team close by you GT fans scattered though the stands. Not today.
Holy Cross saw the film from the Stanford game and tried to defend us the same way. Press coverage. Various blitzes. 7 or 8 men in the box.
But their corners were not as good as Stanford’s and early on, we were able to beat them deep a lot. They adjusted and switched to playing mostly a 2 deep zone, which took away our deep ball success. We adjusted by throwing more underneath the safeties and running more. Successful but it took more time and we had more chances to make mistakes, which we did sometimes. Looks to me as though our big tackles do okay against big DEs close to their size but struggle against smaller, quicker guys. Those guys have been able to beat our big tackles running wide. Happened again today.
At one point, Cruz came in for Spoon but he immediately gave up a sack and was out for the next series. A big part of our pass blocking woes was due to problems Reed had. It is pretty clear he is still really banged up and not able to play well. Got abused pass blocking every time I watched him. He just gives up a ton of ground. Ilaoa came in for him a couple of times but pass blocking is not his thing either. We have a proble here. Wish we rested Reed to hopefully get him 100% for UNLV. I fear he is going to be a mess all season. Might need to move someone else to center to get this fixed. Changes to center are tough. They snap it and we use shotgun a lot. And I think the center normally calls the assignments on blocking. So this will not be easy to do,
Looked like we targeted Gadsden at least 5 times but had a hard time getting the ball to him. He looks like he is not giving 100%. He is getting bodied a bit and getting hit as he touches the ball and he is dropping it. Constantly. He is getting a lot of doubles and it is clearly bothering him. I hope this gets fixed because we need him to be a dominant force against good defenses. He is not close to that right now.
Pena was again very good and continues to be a revelation at WR. So much more assertive and confident. Hatcher was open all game but he dropped a couple of balls that he must catch. Also made a couple really nice catches. Overall, good effort from him. But the WR who really stood out and who made a bunch of big play catches to get us first downs, etc. was Jackson Meeks. REally happy for him. Seems like a great young man. Good for him. Don’t think he is super fast but he is tough, physical, can really jump and he wins 50-50 balls. A lot. Was hoping JRS was going to be this guy for us but it looks like it is going to be Meeks.
McCord missed some throws and made a couple really bad ones that were picked off. He has to be more careful with the ball. Can’t be getting a couple picks every game. That said, he made a bunch of really good throws and is piling up passing yards and passing TDs at a rate we have never seen at Syracuse. It is hard to criticize him much. Really nice to have a weapon like him at QB. He is even running away from pressure and finding players while running for his life. He got sacked a llot and got a lot of pressure in the first half (maybe three sacks) and it might have affected him some. Way too many hits from Holy Cross players on him.
Thought the refs were reasonably competent this game but the reviewed call where the HC QB got hit just as he was able to release the ball stood out as another blown review call. It looked like there was no way his arm was going forward when he was hit on the one replay they showed on the center hung. Thoughts?
Thought LeQuint had a solid game. Not sure what he ended up with but I assume he was over 100 yards rushing and he made some nice catches as well. We struggled some to put points on the board in the second half but decent special teams play would have made that look a.lot better.
What is going on with Brady? I was surprised the staff went with Jadyn Oh instead of the kid from Cornell (Kennedy?). Scary to have a major issue at placekicker with so many close games expected the rest of the season. Brady was the second worst PK in the ACC last season and if anything, he has gotten worse. Not good.
Malachi is no longer returning kickoffs. Willis has that job now. Not sure if James got benched, got hurt or this is a redshirt thing. Someone was saying he wanted this. That makes the most sense.
Great punt return by Kerr, who was a big surprise star of preseason camp. I think we made at least one more ghastly penalty on specials. What the hell is going on? Good lord.
Very concerned over our almost total lack of a pass rush. It is bad we can’t even get sacks against Holy Crioss and worse because we can’t even contain a gut who runs a 4.9 40 in the pocket. He got outside and bought as much time as he wanted, seemingly whenever he wanted. The DL is just not getting the job done pass rushing. It was great to see King Joseph Edwards get some playing time late and actually look like a BCS level DE. Simmons did get his first start at DE and appeared to do fairly well. One play Jacquez had the QB dead to rights and he ran right past him. No awareness. Not good.
On the positive side, overall, though the defense did well. Especially in the second half. Holy Cross could not run the ball all game long. We had a couple major issues in the first half that led to TDs but after that, it was pretty much lights out. Thought Grant looked even better in his second start at the hero (or whatever it is SU calls it these days). Thought Bellamy was in great position all game long and could have had 3 picks. Barnes missed the game and that opened up playing time for DeLaine, who appeared to do well. Lewis was excellent all game long. Clark had another good game. Chestnut is still learning on the job but appears to slowly be getting better at safety. Saw McDonald make some nice plays and Barron appears more comfortable and effective playing LB.
Late in the game, SU cleared the bench and the second team played a lot on offense. Michael Johnson Jr was revealed to be our backup QB. Looked athletic and dangerous there. Not the strongest arm but passable. Seemed reasonably poised. Not McCord but a lot better than what we had last season.
Tremble got out there and made a catch. Looked really impressive. Hornsby made a catch too. The kids looked good.
Watched UNLV mutilate Fresno State this afternoon when I got home. Good lord that was a massacre. I can tell you one thing. We will not be over confident.
Looks like they will be ranked again next week when we play them. As they should be. Going to take a really good game to beat them.
Blackstones are great (no sponsorship deal) .
We had key people out and were trying some new stuff but it will worked out. Good start to the day.
Headed up to the dome earty. There were a bunch of recruits out on the field watching the team warm up. After some time, the band took the field and then the team. 8 tubas. Not what you want. Not what I want anyway.
It was nice seeing the dome almost full with the individual seats in. The only area of the dome that was empty was the 300 level on the eastern side. Students do not get up in time for a noon kickoff. At least most of them. Props to the jones who woke up early and had the 100 level filled.
Was interested to see how many fans Holy Cross would bring. Not many. Guessing about 100. Looked like all of them were in the visitors section. Sometimes with a team close by you GT fans scattered though the stands. Not today.
Holy Cross saw the film from the Stanford game and tried to defend us the same way. Press coverage. Various blitzes. 7 or 8 men in the box.
But their corners were not as good as Stanford’s and early on, we were able to beat them deep a lot. They adjusted and switched to playing mostly a 2 deep zone, which took away our deep ball success. We adjusted by throwing more underneath the safeties and running more. Successful but it took more time and we had more chances to make mistakes, which we did sometimes. Looks to me as though our big tackles do okay against big DEs close to their size but struggle against smaller, quicker guys. Those guys have been able to beat our big tackles running wide. Happened again today.
At one point, Cruz came in for Spoon but he immediately gave up a sack and was out for the next series. A big part of our pass blocking woes was due to problems Reed had. It is pretty clear he is still really banged up and not able to play well. Got abused pass blocking every time I watched him. He just gives up a ton of ground. Ilaoa came in for him a couple of times but pass blocking is not his thing either. We have a proble here. Wish we rested Reed to hopefully get him 100% for UNLV. I fear he is going to be a mess all season. Might need to move someone else to center to get this fixed. Changes to center are tough. They snap it and we use shotgun a lot. And I think the center normally calls the assignments on blocking. So this will not be easy to do,
Looked like we targeted Gadsden at least 5 times but had a hard time getting the ball to him. He looks like he is not giving 100%. He is getting bodied a bit and getting hit as he touches the ball and he is dropping it. Constantly. He is getting a lot of doubles and it is clearly bothering him. I hope this gets fixed because we need him to be a dominant force against good defenses. He is not close to that right now.
Pena was again very good and continues to be a revelation at WR. So much more assertive and confident. Hatcher was open all game but he dropped a couple of balls that he must catch. Also made a couple really nice catches. Overall, good effort from him. But the WR who really stood out and who made a bunch of big play catches to get us first downs, etc. was Jackson Meeks. REally happy for him. Seems like a great young man. Good for him. Don’t think he is super fast but he is tough, physical, can really jump and he wins 50-50 balls. A lot. Was hoping JRS was going to be this guy for us but it looks like it is going to be Meeks.
McCord missed some throws and made a couple really bad ones that were picked off. He has to be more careful with the ball. Can’t be getting a couple picks every game. That said, he made a bunch of really good throws and is piling up passing yards and passing TDs at a rate we have never seen at Syracuse. It is hard to criticize him much. Really nice to have a weapon like him at QB. He is even running away from pressure and finding players while running for his life. He got sacked a llot and got a lot of pressure in the first half (maybe three sacks) and it might have affected him some. Way too many hits from Holy Cross players on him.
Thought the refs were reasonably competent this game but the reviewed call where the HC QB got hit just as he was able to release the ball stood out as another blown review call. It looked like there was no way his arm was going forward when he was hit on the one replay they showed on the center hung. Thoughts?
Thought LeQuint had a solid game. Not sure what he ended up with but I assume he was over 100 yards rushing and he made some nice catches as well. We struggled some to put points on the board in the second half but decent special teams play would have made that look a.lot better.
What is going on with Brady? I was surprised the staff went with Jadyn Oh instead of the kid from Cornell (Kennedy?). Scary to have a major issue at placekicker with so many close games expected the rest of the season. Brady was the second worst PK in the ACC last season and if anything, he has gotten worse. Not good.
Malachi is no longer returning kickoffs. Willis has that job now. Not sure if James got benched, got hurt or this is a redshirt thing. Someone was saying he wanted this. That makes the most sense.
Great punt return by Kerr, who was a big surprise star of preseason camp. I think we made at least one more ghastly penalty on specials. What the hell is going on? Good lord.
Very concerned over our almost total lack of a pass rush. It is bad we can’t even get sacks against Holy Crioss and worse because we can’t even contain a gut who runs a 4.9 40 in the pocket. He got outside and bought as much time as he wanted, seemingly whenever he wanted. The DL is just not getting the job done pass rushing. It was great to see King Joseph Edwards get some playing time late and actually look like a BCS level DE. Simmons did get his first start at DE and appeared to do fairly well. One play Jacquez had the QB dead to rights and he ran right past him. No awareness. Not good.
On the positive side, overall, though the defense did well. Especially in the second half. Holy Cross could not run the ball all game long. We had a couple major issues in the first half that led to TDs but after that, it was pretty much lights out. Thought Grant looked even better in his second start at the hero (or whatever it is SU calls it these days). Thought Bellamy was in great position all game long and could have had 3 picks. Barnes missed the game and that opened up playing time for DeLaine, who appeared to do well. Lewis was excellent all game long. Clark had another good game. Chestnut is still learning on the job but appears to slowly be getting better at safety. Saw McDonald make some nice plays and Barron appears more comfortable and effective playing LB.
Late in the game, SU cleared the bench and the second team played a lot on offense. Michael Johnson Jr was revealed to be our backup QB. Looked athletic and dangerous there. Not the strongest arm but passable. Seemed reasonably poised. Not McCord but a lot better than what we had last season.
Tremble got out there and made a catch. Looked really impressive. Hornsby made a catch too. The kids looked good.
Watched UNLV mutilate Fresno State this afternoon when I got home. Good lord that was a massacre. I can tell you one thing. We will not be over confident.
Looks like they will be ranked again next week when we play them. As they should be. Going to take a really good game to beat them.
