My Take

[sutomcat]

The tailgate was a tough one was MVP AA tailgate expert CuseRegular had a conflict and missed the pregame activities. He would return for the game (more on this later).

JeremyCuse stepped up and filled the big shoes brilliantly with a menu featuring pulled pork sandwiches and grilled chicken. It was quite delicious. Retro was a deep frying machine, producing professional level hand cut french fries with grace and elan. Bravo.

I debuted the Ashton Broyld grill. Like the Carrier Dome, the name has irony in that the AB grill does not have a broiler. Perhaps Carlos the Engineer can make a retroactive upgrade down the road.

Nice turnout of mostly regulars at the tailgate. Great day, nice and sunny and pleasant temperatures around 70 before and during the game. We would not have to deal with wet clothes and the specter of hot stroke today.

The Dome was kind of empty today. Really bad turnout. The students came close to filling their two primary lower level sections but had less than half of what they brought for Northwestern. Stony Brook brought their band and a couple of hundred fans, which is comparable to what schools like Temple, Rutgers and UConn bring. Impressive for a small achool. Perhaps they should be considered as a possible replacement for Notre Dame. At one point, their fans chanted something but with their awful accents and nasal delivery, no one could understand what they were saying. Later, I was told that it was S-B-U! It is nice that they like St Bonaventure but someone should tell them to focus more on their team.

I believe there were definitely less than 25K in the Dome today. I think 20K is a pretty good estimate. Pretty shameful turnout by SU fans.

The SUMB, down to only 10 tubas with an FCS opponent, did a better job playing the national anthem this time, and played the plodding old drinking song about as well as is possible. At halftime, they did a classic song called La Virgen De La Macarena (I think that is the name). I associate it with bull fighting, seems to be played during bull fights a lot in movies I have seen. Anyway, it features a great trumpet solo and the SUMB has someone who played the hell out of it. Tremendous job. We have an Ashton Broyld on the football team and the band. I hope the person in the band is also a freshman.

Back to the game. Our section was pretty empty, a bunch of people were not there that normally are, but we were lucky enough to have CuseRegular and some of his posse join us and they helped us out a lot.

Regarding the game, the first played out for the game again carried the flag of the 10th Mountain Division. This division is based at Fort Drum and the SU football program has developed a close relationship with them. Good to see the respect the SU program shows to our military. It is a great story and hopefully it benefits both groups of young men.

Stony Brook has a big OL and some excellent RBs. They don't have a great set of WRs and their QB is not outstanding throwing the ball. SU opened in their base defense and played things straight up for the most part early in the game. SBU was able to move the ball on the ground with some success, in part because the SU DL was overly aggressive getting upfield and into the backfield and lost contain a lot. Our undersized LBs had some problems defending the run as well, especially Davis and Diabate. Go thought Vaughn should be playing more against a power run attack but it didn't happen. SBU rarely used more than 2 WRs, so the Okie was rarely used, and players like Eskridge and Lynch did not play much accordingly. This was, I think, good preparation for future games against run first power offenses like RU and UConn.

We made some adjustments with our DL and LBs, trying I think to get them to stay in place and making it harder for SBU RBs to get to the edge and cut back against the grain. We got burned a couple of times when our safeties got too aggressive on a rare long pass and on a sweep play to Maysonet that he made a remarkable play on, hurdling an SU defender and continuing on in full stride (this will surely be a Sports Center play of the day). Those long plays constituted much of what SBU was able to do on offense, and once SU made some adjustments, SBU was essentially shut down and shut out for the final 35 minutes of the game. I know SBU is only an FBS school and does not have the talent other schools we will play but I was encouraged by what the defense was able to do after the bad start.

Thought Reddish, Spruill and Thomas in particular had excellent games. Zian Jones is getting more playing time as in Welch, both look like specialists in running situations and both looked like they played pretty well. Anderson gets picked on in passing situations an alarming number of times but makes a lot of tackles and is very good against the run.

On offense, this was kind of a coming out game for Ashton Broyld, who has made some plays in the first 2 games but was featured quite a bit more today. Looks like they have scrubbed the WildCat offensive scheme Ashton was playing in early. He is now playing in the base offense. I continue to maintain he is an exceptional athlete who is destined to play in the NFL and is someone we need to have on the field as much as possible. He is really fun to watch, breaks ankles like no one we have had in many years, has power, great vision and instincts. The TD run he had was pretty special, was it not?

Gulley and Smith both also had their moments, as the SU OL did a fine job opening holes for the running game. SBU often rushed only 3 players, despite this we had some problems pass blocking. This need to be addressed. Continue to be very impressed with Hickey and Chibane, Mackey has raised his game considerably from last year and I like what I have seen from Foy and Trudo at RG. Alexander continues to struggle and is clearly the weak spot of our offense, thought at least for now, he continues to get the vast majority of the snaps at RT.

Nassib came out looked less than sharp again, as is his wont. It would be great if he would play better in the first quarter. Thought he ran the ball better than he has in the past but still needs work there. Threw the ball well for the most part, when he throws long, he has stopped the overthrows he was plagued with, now mostly underthrows these. His touch isn't great and sometimes he missed the deep guy on combo routes, getting locked in on the underneath route, but he throws the medium passes really well, and really hurt their zone coverages throwing to the sidelines over the linebacker and under the defensive back. No interceptions, no turnovers, thought he played quite well.

Sales remains his top target so far. He is doing a nice job taking advantage of being in single coverage against the weakest CB, had a really nice TD, his hands are excellent. Only negative I can say is that he is not a good blocker and his missed blocks and penalties for holding need to stop ASAP.
Lemon does not look 100% to me yet, probably because he has missed so much practice time. West looks good, has a real knack for getting yards after the catch. With Kobena out, Clark got a lot more reps and did a good job. Hopeful Flemming can get some snaps soon too so all the WRs can get some rest during the game.

They did not throw to the TE much today. I think Wales and Stevens each got at least one touch. We are using 3 WR sets with 1 TE almost every play now, and formations with 2 TEs in together are rarely used, so I think the catches for TEs might go down some this season.

For the first time in a long time, we were defended with a defense designed to take away our passing offense (no 8 men in the box, yea!). SBU had 2 LBs and 5 DBs in for most plays, and they zoned us with that personnel package, doing a nice job of taking our receivers out of the game. We tried to attack this package with passes anyway and didn't have success doing it. Really took until after halftime before we were able to beat this, and it happened by running the ball. Once we got them into a traditional 3 LB, 4 DB package, we could do whatever we wanted running or passing the ball and the game was essentially over.

Good to see the staff able to make adjustments on offense and defense to stop the SeaHorses, or whatever they are called, though we could have adjusted quicker.

Disturbing to see SBU completely outplay SU in the punting game. Their punter really did a nice job kicking the ball. We again had some problems punting, but it was not as bad as it has been. At least our coverage team was not burned for a TD today. The KOR coverage team had a fine game, aided greatly by the high, low hang time KOs of Ryan Norton. Rene got hurt (we weren't sure if it was a shoulder, arm or concussion injury), and Desir did a nice job filling in for him at PR. He looks like he might break a big return soon. Rene was filling in for injured KR specialist Kobena and made a bone headed decision to catch a KO on the sideline that was clearly headed OB. Looks like Gulley will serve as the primary KOR guy with Kobena and Rene out. Fisher was okay, Dixon continues to punt in coffin corner situations and he continues to struggle at this.

I loved the drive to score a TD in the middle of the 4th quarter that made the game a 2 possession game and ended the upset hopes of the SeaSpills or whatever they are called. Really nice play calling and execution. I think it is the start of the turnaround for the season and the future of the program.

Perhaps I am naive, perhaps I am insane, but I think this team can get 6 wins this year and go from there. The Ashton Coming Out game will always be remembered fondly by me because it was the first time Broyld made a big impact. I think we are going to see a lot more of this young man in the future and I look forward to seeing a lot of defenders get their ankles broken and their bodies bowled over by the phemenon that is Ashton Broyld.

The game next week is an important one. If we can beat Minnesota, we have 2 weeks to prepare and get healthy for Pitt and if we can beat them, things get really interesting. I had a long and spirited discussion with some esteemed board members regarding what this team is capable of. I remain optimistic we can get to 6 wins in the regular season. Next week will be a key one if we are to accomplish this goal. I wish Minneapolis was a little closer to Syracuse than it is...

 

[RF2044]

Great post, Tom--the Minnesota game is HUGE!!!

 

[upperdeck]

I really think that we are slower than every time we will play at the skill positions. Every team has a WR that can run by our DBs and every team has a RB that seems to take it to the house once a game. it was nice to see PTG turn a little play into a big one. If sales had that extra step he would be really be a game changer, the deep post he ran would have been a TD for a speed rcvr. Clark is supposed to have that speed but he really doesnt run those routes.

but the oline blocking is still suspect, the tempo and play style is hiding that issue. it will be fascinating to see what it means when Pugh comes back. we have not had two solid tackles in years.

 

[stuckinbig11]

Thanks for the analysis, Tom. One correction--on TV they said that SBU has 25K students, more than SU, so they are not small.

 

[Cuseregular]

forget more Cowbell, more Broyld!!!

BTW great hanging with you guys, 301 is certaintly where the action is!

 

[WickedOrange]

This year, I have a feeling the team starts out slow and gets stronger as the season progresses.

Now that we have the slow start out of the way... Cuse is ready to rock!

 

[bnoro]

I listened while I read. Always a joy to read, Tom.

 

[orangepassion]

I'd still rather have Broyld at WR, where I think he'd be unstoppable, particularly in the red zone.

 

[mantonio]

 

[alibrat66]

I wasn't too enthralled with the play calling when they were within the five yard line.

 

[JD]

I only have one question, what movies are you watching featuring bull fighting?

 

[sufandu]

My main concern with this game was the inability to punch it in from inside the 5 twice. As big as their o-line was, their d-line was not, and we should have been able to get some push against them. I'm happy to see us making more big plays this year, but at some point we're going to have to get those short yardage touchdowns or it'll come back to bite us.

 

[Crusty]

Can someone who knows more than me explain why it always seems to take until halftime to make adjustments? It seems that all too often the opposing DCs presents us with something we did not prepare for and it takes until halftime to make adjustments. Our O was sitting for a long time as SB chewed up the clock in the first half - why were adjustments not made then? Very frustrating.

 

[Cuseregular]

Can someone who knows more than me explain why it always seems to take until halftime to make adjustments? It seems that all too often the opposing DCs presents us with something we did not prepare for and it takes until halftime to make adjustments. Our O was sitting for a long time as SB chewed up the clock in the first half - why were adjustments not made then? Very frustrating.

that's actualy a very good question. I can tell you some it has to do with it being just the way of doing things. LIke having certain down and distance decision depending on where on the field you are preordained that coaches in general won't deviate from. Particularly this staff. Basically you spend the whole week preparing your gameplan and you wan't to give it at least a half to see if it comes to fruition in a positive way. The game is obviously a game of halves and that's how it's traditionally approached.

When you lose a half you then need to revevaluate said game plan and you have the technology now in front of you what they're presenting (pictures, etc.). Coaches then have time to put their collective heads together in the halftime (during the game your mostly caught up with individual responsibilities) and they can make their adjustments. I can tell you some adjustments do occur on a micro scale in game but it always seems to take after halftime to do it wholesale macro.

I say its a "good question" because maybe there is a better way to do it. From a players perspective you just keep going at it regardless and listen to your coaches.

 

[GoSU96]

My main concern with this game was the inability to punch it in from inside the 5 twice. As big as their o-line was, their d-line was not, and we should have been able to get some push against them. I'm happy to see us making more big plays this year, but at some point we're going to have to get those short yardage touchdowns or it'll come back to bite us.

They had been perfect in the redzone this year until yesterday. I think part of it was using those two close in opportunties as a challenge to the OL.

I can't wait till Pugh gets back.

 

[GoSU96]

The tailgate was a tough one was MVP AA tailgate expert CuseRegular had a conflict and missed the pregame activities. He would return for the game (more on this later).

JeremyCuse stepped up and filled the big shoes brilliantly with a menu featuring pulled pork sandwiches and grilled chicken. It was quite delicious. Retro was a deep frying machine, producing professional level hand cut french fries with grace and elan. Bravo.

I debuted the Ashton Broyld grill. Like the Carrier Dome, the name has irony in that the AB grill does not have a broiler. Perhaps Carlos the Engineer can make a retroactive upgrade down the road.

Nice turnout of mostly regulars at the tailgate. Great day, nice and sunny and pleasant temperatures around 70 before and during the game. We would not have to deal with wet clothes and the specter of hot stroke today.

The Dome was kind of empty today. Really bad turnout. The students came close to filling their two primary lower level sections but had less than half of what they brought for Northwestern. Stony Brook brought their band and a couple of hundred fans, which is comparable to what schools like Temple, Rutgers and UConn bring. Impressive for a small achool. Perhaps they should be considered as a possible replacement for Notre Dame. At one point, their fans chanted something but with their awful accents and nasal delivery, no one could understand what they were saying. Later, I was told that it was S-B-U! It is nice that they like St Bonaventure but someone should tell them to focus more on their team.

I believe there were definitely less than 25K in the Dome today. I think 20K is a pretty good estimate. Pretty shameful turnout by SU fans.

The SUMB, down to only 10 tubas with an FCS opponent, did a better job playing the national anthem this time, and played the plodding old drinking song about as well as is possible. At halftime, they did a classic song called La Virgen De La Macarena (I think that is the name). I associate it with bull fighting, seems to be played during bull fights a lot in movies I have seen. Anyway, it features a great trumpet solo and the SUMB has someone who played the hell out of it. Tremendous job. We have an Ashton Broyld on the football team and the band. I hope the person in the band is also a freshman.

Back to the game. Our section was pretty empty, a bunch of people were not there that normally are, but we were lucky enough to have CuseRegular and some of his posse join us and they helped us out a lot.

Regarding the game, the first played out for the game again carried the flag of the 10th Mountain Division. This division is based at Fort Drum and the SU football program has developed a close relationship with them. Good to see the respect the SU program shows to our military. It is a great story and hopefully it benefits both groups of young men.

Stony Brook has a big OL and some excellent RBs. They don't have a great set of WRs and their QB is not outstanding throwing the ball. SU opened in their base defense and played things straight up for the most part early in the game. SBU was able to move the ball on the ground with some success, in part because the SU DL was overly aggressive getting upfield and into the backfield and lost contain a lot. Our undersized LBs had some problems defending the run as well, especially Davis and Diabate. Go thought Vaughn should be playing more against a power run attack but it didn't happen. SBU rarely used more than 2 WRs, so the Okie was rarely used, and players like Eskridge and Lynch did not play much accordingly. This was, I think, good preparation for future games against run first power offenses like RU and UConn.

We made some adjustments with our DL and LBs, trying I think to get them to stay in place and making it harder for SBU RBs to get to the edge and cut back against the grain. We got burned a couple of times when our safeties got too aggressive on a rare long pass and on a sweep play to Maysonet that he made a remarkable play on, hurdling an SU defender and continuing on in full stride (this will surely be a Sports Center play of the day). Those long plays constituted much of what SBU was able to do on offense, and once SU made some adjustments, SBU was essentially shut down and shut out for the final 35 minutes of the game. I know SBU is only an FBS school and does not have the talent other schools we will play but I was encouraged by what the defense was able to do after the bad start.

Thought Reddish, Spruill and Thomas in particular had excellent games. Zian Jones is getting more playing time as in Welch, both look like specialists in running situations and both looked like they played pretty well. Anderson gets picked on in passing situations an alarming number of times but makes a lot of tackles and is very good against the run.

On offense, this was kind of a coming out game for Ashton Broyld, who has made some plays in the first 2 games but was featured quite a bit more today. Looks like they have scrubbed the WildCat offensive scheme Ashton was playing in early. He is now playing in the base offense. I continue to maintain he is an exceptional athlete who is destined to play in the NFL and is someone we need to have on the field as much as possible. He is really fun to watch, breaks ankles like no one we have had in many years, has power, great vision and instincts. The TD run he had was pretty special, was it not?

Gulley and Smith both also had their moments, as the SU OL did a fine job opening holes for the running game. SBU often rushed only 3 players, despite this we had some problems pass blocking. This need to be addressed. Continue to be very impressed with Hickey and Chibane, Mackey has raised his game considerably from last year and I like what I have seen from Foy and Trudo at RG. Alexander continues to struggle and is clearly the weak spot of our offense, thought at least for now, he continues to get the vast majority of the snaps at RT.

Nassib came out looked less than sharp again, as is his wont. It would be great if he would play better in the first quarter. Thought he ran the ball better than he has in the past but still needs work there. Threw the ball well for the most part, when he throws long, he has stopped the overthrows he was plagued with, now mostly underthrows these. His touch isn't great and sometimes he missed the deep guy on combo routes, getting locked in on the underneath route, but he throws the medium passes really well, and really hurt their zone coverages throwing to the sidelines over the linebacker and under the defensive back. No interceptions, no turnovers, thought he played quite well.

Sales remains his top target so far. He is doing a nice job taking advantage of being in single coverage against the weakest CB, had a really nice TD, his hands are excellent. Only negative I can say is that he is not a good blocker and his missed blocks and penalties for holding need to stop ASAP.
Lemon does not look 100% to me yet, probably because he has missed so much practice time. West looks good, has a real knack for getting yards after the catch. With Kobena out, Clark got a lot more reps and did a good job. Hopeful Flemming can get some snaps soon too so all the WRs can get some rest during the game.

They did not throw to the TE much today. I think Wales and Stevens each got at least one touch. We are using 3 WR sets with 1 TE almost every play now, and formations with 2 TEs in together are rarely used, so I think the catches for TEs might go down some this season.

For the first time in a long time, we were defended with a defense designed to take away our passing offense (no 8 men in the box, yea!). SBU had 2 LBs and 5 DBs in for most plays, and they zoned us with that personnel package, doing a nice job of taking our receivers out of the game. We tried to attack this package with passes anyway and didn't have success doing it. Really took until after halftime before we were able to beat this, and it happened by running the ball. Once we got them into a traditional 3 LB, 4 DB package, we could do whatever we wanted running or passing the ball and the game was essentially over.

Good to see the staff able to make adjustments on offense and defense to stop the SeaHorses, or whatever they are called, though we could have adjusted quicker.

Disturbing to see SBU completely outplay SU in the punting game. Their punter really did a nice job kicking the ball. We again had some problems punting, but it was not as bad as it has been. At least our coverage team was not burned for a TD today. The KOR coverage team had a fine game, aided greatly by the high, low hang time KOs of Ryan Norton. Rene got hurt (we weren't sure if it was a shoulder, arm or concussion injury), and Desir did a nice job filling in for him at PR. He looks like he might break a big return soon. Rene was filling in for injured KR specialist Kobena and made a bone headed decision to catch a KO on the sideline that was clearly headed OB. Looks like Gulley will serve as the primary KOR guy with Kobena and Rene out. Fisher was okay, Dixon continues to punt in coffin corner situations and he continues to struggle at this.

I loved the drive to score a TD in the middle of the 4th quarter that made the game a 2 possession game and ended the upset hopes of the SeaSpills or whatever they are called. Really nice play calling and execution. I think it is the start of the turnaround for the season and the future of the program.

Perhaps I am naive, perhaps I am insane, but I think this team can get 6 wins this year and go from there. The Ashton Coming Out game will always be remembered fondly by me because it was the first time Broyld made a big impact. I think we are going to see a lot more of this young man in the future and I look forward to seeing a lot of defenders get their ankles broken and their bodies bowled over by the phemenon that is Ashton Broyld.

The game next week is an important one. If we can beat Minnesota, we have 2 weeks to prepare and get healthy for Pitt and if we can beat them, things get really interesting. I had a long and spirited discussion with some esteemed board members regarding what this team is capable of. I remain optimistic we can get to 6 wins in the regular season. Next week will be a key one if we are to accomplish this goal. I wish Minneapolis was a little closer to Syracuse than it is...

Good stuff as always.

SB did a great job crossing them up early.

 

[retro44]

Thanks for the analysis, Tom. One correction--on TV they said that SBU has 25K students, more than SU, so they are not small.

wikpedia says they have 138,600 alumni

 

[Fjoinkay]

Great post! I agree with your assessment of the defense and the offense. I really like that you point to the many positives to be taken away from this game.

And even though I am a huge Marrone supporter I want to go against the grain a bit here and say that I am disappointed in the lack of urgency and the sloppy play I saw at times yesterday.

Was the emphasis in the first half really the run? Once it was clear SB was playing coverage is it necessary to wait until half time to make adjustments against SB? I ask these questions because this game in my mind was an excellent opportunity to play younger players and inexperienced players late especially at the QB position. Most likely the staff sees it differently, but I feel very nervous about the lack of run at QB by anyone but Nassib for almost 3 years.

Shafer explained why he waited until half time to make adjustments. Of the 2 big plays the defense gave up the only one that bothered me was the long run and that was because Wilkes made a sloppy attempt and missed a tackle in a disturbing fashion. He hit the SB ball carrier but he made no attempt to tackle him, and when the SB ball carrier didn't go down Wilkes was out of the play and that was all she wrote. I see that often and not just from Wilkes, but when a safety makes a choice like that the consequences are usually much more severe. Right now too often I see 11 individuals on defense instead of a cohesive group playing for each other by taking care of their own business every play.

Otherwise, I was encouraged by the way the defense handled it's business especially in the second half. I see a lot of potential on defense, but someone needs to set up and become the leader. The 2010 unit probably wasn't any more talented than 2012 as a group, but the 2010 unit was stacked with leadership and character and guys who were sick and tired of losing and who played like they were on a mission even while the offense struggled. Right now too often I see 11 individuals instead of a cohesive group where everyone is playing for each other and the team by taking care of his own business on every play with focused urgency.

 

[sufandu]

They had been perfect in the redzone this year until yesterday. I think part of it was using those two close in opportunties as a challenge to the OL.

I can't wait till Pugh gets back.

I very much agree those were challenges to the OL. I just wish they had risen to the challenge. I'm fine with running the spread and throwing (or running for that matter) from inside the 5, but I think the inability to be physical in a short yardage situation will bite us at some point. I hope I'm wrong. I also can't wait for Pugh's return.

 

[GoSU96]

I very much agree those were challenges to the OL. I just wish they had risen to the challenge. I'm fine with running the spread and throwing (or running for that matter) from inside the 5, but I think the inability to be physical in a short yardage situation will bite us at some point. I hope I'm wrong. I also can't wait for Pugh's return.

Marrone wants a team that can spread it out and protect 40 plus throws a game and also be physical, run inside and be an excellent short yardage team.

 

[sufandu]

Marrone wants a team that can spread it out and protect 40 plus throws a game and also be physical, run inside and be an excellent short yardage team.

Absolutely. So far, the short yardage part is the one missing. Hopefully Pugh's return will help that.