sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Sorry this is late, just got home.
Arrived at the tailgate around 9:10 AM. The lots are close to the stadium. I ended up parking about a 5 minute walk from the stadium. Cost was $15 but it was very convenient. Based on who was in the parking lots, it was clear Syracuse was going to have a strong presence at the game.
Props to SUBarney for doing a terrific job cooking up breakfast for everyone. Excellent breakfast egg and sausage sandwiches...he said the secret was a special kind of pork only available in the Philadelphia area. Whatever it was, it was great. Thanks again. Good to see Lurker Ray and Lurker Carol, OrangeBuddha, nycfan and his dad, some of the player parents, etc. We have a nice crew that makes the pre and post game discussions almost as good as the games. The conversations centered on the conference realignment situation and the bowl scenarios for SU. We were hopeful for a positive result on both counts.
A woman with SU gear on in the group next to ours fell and hit her head. She cut her forehead pretty good but looked okay as the medics took her to the hospital. Hope she is okay.
Couldn't tell for sure sitting at the 40 yard line on the Syracuse side lower level but it looked like we had at least as many fans as they did. Our fans sounded a lot louder than theirs did. Really good turnout for the SU players from the area. Justin Pugh brought a crew of about 250 friends and relatives to watch what might have been his last regular season game as an Orangeman. More on that later.
I am a fan of the Linc. Pretty intimate stadium given its capacity. High walls enclose it nicely and do a good job keeping the players and fans out of the wind. Not that it was needed today...just a great day for football. Sunny, little wind and the temperature at gametime was about 60. I would guess there were 13K-15K in the seats. Almost none of the vendor stands were open so if you wanted food, you probably had to wait. The lines at halftime were huge. Not good.
The Game
Obviously, this team is not going to be remembered for its mistake free qualities. The early fumbles put us in a big hole, but the defense did a decent job in the red zone and with this team, the offense can strike so quickly, it seems no deficit is too big to overcome and that was the case again today. If it wasn't for the turnovers, it was the penalties, most of which were unforced. Or more dropped passes, missed blocking assignments, if it were possible to screw something up, we seemed to find a way to do it.
Thought Temple tried to take away the deep passing game and was willing to let SU throw the ball underneath and pound away with its power running game. That slowed things down to some degree but the DL was overmatched, and resistance was futile. We probably used 12 DL in our rotation during the game. They rarely subbed their DL and they clearly were worn down in the 2nd half. You need quality depth at DL to stop a good offense. Might be able to get away with little depth here against MAC teams but not in a BCS conference.
Was really impressive with the frosh outside linebacker for Temple, Tyler Matakevich. He was all over the field, dominated the game for Temple. Going to be a great one. I believe he is originally from Connecticut and went to Milford last year. We missed out on a good one there. 7 was a good coverage corner too. #7 is Zamel Johnson is from Staten Island. Damn, he would have helped us too.
Nassib seemed to rush things a bit...his timing was off. Temple put some decent pressure on him at times, sure that contributed. Didn't have a great throwing game but he made some money throws when he needed to. I think he also had a streak of games where at least one TD throw was dropped was also broken, which I guess is a good thing.
Glad Jerome Smith got to 1000 yards. He was clearly messed up, had no explosion or acceleration, credit to him for getting the job done anyway. Tough kid. Hope he will be healthy for the bowl game. Glad Alec got 1000 yards. I think you can make an argument that his catch of a hospital ball around the 5 yard line late in the 1st half that ended up being the key play in a TD drive, was the biggest play of the game. If he has a big bowl game, he might break the SU record for most receiving yards in a season (Marvin set it in 1995 with 1131).
You can argue successfully that the season turned when Pugh returned to the lineup from his injury but the other change that was made around then, where Foy was replaced by Trudo at RG, was also really important. Foy did not do a bad job, but Trudo is a really physical, nasty kid out there, and I think his playing style has influenced the rest of the line to some extent. He is a fun player to watch...I recommend focusing on him for a few plays if you see the team play in person. He is an angry man out there. Thought our OL physically dominated the Temple DL in the second half. Just flat out whipped them. I really like the physical side this team has. We need to keep this, I know this is what Doug has wanted and it is great to finally see it in evidence on a consistent and successful basis.
Rolling a fresh AAM out there in the second half almost seemed unfair. He continues to emerge as the season has progressed. We have a major logjam at RB for next season. Everyone is coming back, along with Ashton, Morris and McFarlane. Someone (Ashton?) has to move. A very unfamiliar and very good situation to have to deal with.
On defense, Harris was obviously a problem early, as was a really emotional Temple OL hyped up for senior day and their pseudo bowl game. You can play on emotion for only so long, and the couple of plays they had they hurt us were negated by some adjustments Shafer put in (I think he had linebackers and linemen shoot the gaps and get in the backfield, so Harris started getting tackled as he was getting the ball). To their credit, the Owls adjusted and started to rely on their QB, Juice, to run the ball. Big kid with some athletic ability and strength, I think he ended up hurting us on the ground more than Harris did. Also hurt us with his passing, even though I question if he can throw the ball 30 yards in the air. His throwing was more of a shot put motion. Strange to see punt like hang time on his throws but some of them were pretty accurate, and we were willing to let him beat us deep to take away Harris.
Zian Jones got more PT today than I think he got the first 11 games combined. I suspect it was because he is good against the run...Bromley and Crume seemed healthy. After a rough start, he made a bunch of good plays.
Anyway, was disappointed in the poor play of the defense early. We shouldn't have been surprised by them featuring Harris. We seem to start off badly on defense almost every game. Props to the staff for making adjustments...the second half was a different story. Juice having to throw the ball in passing situations is the perfect recipe for interceptions, isn't it?
Lyn got off to a bad start but caught a couple of balloons from Juice, was solid late. Thought Reddish was very good, really nice strip on the sideline, anticipates on screens well, smart player who just needs to get stronger. He is the real deal. Anderson continues to finish the season strong after a bad start. We got some good pressure on Juice at times, good to see Eskridge, who has been inconsistent, make a big play with the blitz sack.
On special teams, Fisher has really reduced the time he takes to get rid of the ball and it paid off today on the play Temple was called for roughing the kicker. He also had a really bad start to the season but has come on gangbusters since then. Getting good hang time consistently and is kicking to the sidelines well too. Makes it really hard to get a good return on him. Have we have a fumbled punt return recovered by the coverage team 3 of the past 4 games now? I think so (UC, USF and Temple).
We are going to miss Dan Vaughn, who must have been disappointed to not be in the rotation at linebacker but has had a terrific year on the coverage teams. Coker is also great, with Reddish right behind him. Our coverage units are the best they have been in years. Good to see what happens with good coaching and good talent on these units.
Krautman seems to get one chance a game these days and keeps making it, which works for me. I wonder what is going on with Norton, who seems to have lost significant yardage on his kickoffs late in the season. I suspect he is injured or has a tired leg, something that I think is pretty common for young kickers not used to the amount of kicking required at this level of football. Desir continues to do a good job at PR...was conservative today but given the situation, the sun and wind, I was fine with it.
This was it. Our last game in the Big East. I loved the conference. It had warts, there were a lot of problems, but it was our conference, the teams in it did a lot of great things and if things were just a little different, it could have been a legitimate power conference. I think it has been better than the ACC almost every year. We should have taken from the ACC rather than the other way around. Damn.
The situation with Pugh is this: he is going to talk with DM after the season about his future. That is going to be the big determining factor in what happens. His best friends on the team are Chibane and Lemon, he has been with team for 4 years, they are long time roomies and since they will be gone, it makes it a lot less attractive for him to stay on. I think it is unlikely but there are a lot of quality OTs in the draft and that might be enough to push him into the 3rd or 4th round.
Justin is a little undersized to be an OT in the NFL. DM uses him in what I think is a unique way. He loves to pull him and have him lead plays going in the opposite direction, which is more of a guard thing to do than an OT thing to do. He is really quick and agile and I think his biggest strengths are his ability to pull and his pass blocking ability. So he will probably have to switch OG. The biggest pros toward staying another year are 1) he has a chance to get bigger and stronger, maybe big enough to play OT and 2) he has a chance to really prove to the evaluators he is 10o% healthy and ready to go (the shoulder is fine). I hope he comes back but he has been a great player for us and I have no hard feelings if he goes.
After the game, I went to Pat's for a cheesesteak. It is only about 2.5 miles from the stadium so I thought it would be an easy in and out operation. No. Pat's is in a neighborhood with narrow streets and little parking. Very slow going in or out. The line there was huge. I ended up waiting 50 minutes to get my order. The sandwich was good, but nothing great. Tourist trap, overrated, won't do it again. I recommend the London Broil sandwich at 2nd North Deli instead. Shorter wait, more pleasant staff, better product, lower price. Game, set, match 2nd North Deli. Try it, you will like it.
For the record, it was 261 miles from my house to the stadium. I got there in 3 hours and 50 minutes. Easy drive, one turn to get on 476 from 81 and another to get to 76. When you get off 76, you are maybe a mile from the stadium. The only team in the old Big East that convenient was UConn...East Hartford is about 3.5 hours away for a determined driver. Given the nice tailgate setup, the easy drive and the ready access to quality seats, I am hopeful we schedule them OOC in the future. Would much rather play them in a home and home than say, Central Michigan or Ball State. Our fans can get to the game pretty easily and the away game would be played in a key recruiting area for us. Given we will be playing in the ACC, it makes more sense than ever to play some OOC games in key recruiting areas. Just my opinion...
Arrived at the tailgate around 9:10 AM. The lots are close to the stadium. I ended up parking about a 5 minute walk from the stadium. Cost was $15 but it was very convenient. Based on who was in the parking lots, it was clear Syracuse was going to have a strong presence at the game.
Props to SUBarney for doing a terrific job cooking up breakfast for everyone. Excellent breakfast egg and sausage sandwiches...he said the secret was a special kind of pork only available in the Philadelphia area. Whatever it was, it was great. Thanks again. Good to see Lurker Ray and Lurker Carol, OrangeBuddha, nycfan and his dad, some of the player parents, etc. We have a nice crew that makes the pre and post game discussions almost as good as the games. The conversations centered on the conference realignment situation and the bowl scenarios for SU. We were hopeful for a positive result on both counts.
A woman with SU gear on in the group next to ours fell and hit her head. She cut her forehead pretty good but looked okay as the medics took her to the hospital. Hope she is okay.
Couldn't tell for sure sitting at the 40 yard line on the Syracuse side lower level but it looked like we had at least as many fans as they did. Our fans sounded a lot louder than theirs did. Really good turnout for the SU players from the area. Justin Pugh brought a crew of about 250 friends and relatives to watch what might have been his last regular season game as an Orangeman. More on that later.
I am a fan of the Linc. Pretty intimate stadium given its capacity. High walls enclose it nicely and do a good job keeping the players and fans out of the wind. Not that it was needed today...just a great day for football. Sunny, little wind and the temperature at gametime was about 60. I would guess there were 13K-15K in the seats. Almost none of the vendor stands were open so if you wanted food, you probably had to wait. The lines at halftime were huge. Not good.
The Game
Obviously, this team is not going to be remembered for its mistake free qualities. The early fumbles put us in a big hole, but the defense did a decent job in the red zone and with this team, the offense can strike so quickly, it seems no deficit is too big to overcome and that was the case again today. If it wasn't for the turnovers, it was the penalties, most of which were unforced. Or more dropped passes, missed blocking assignments, if it were possible to screw something up, we seemed to find a way to do it.
Thought Temple tried to take away the deep passing game and was willing to let SU throw the ball underneath and pound away with its power running game. That slowed things down to some degree but the DL was overmatched, and resistance was futile. We probably used 12 DL in our rotation during the game. They rarely subbed their DL and they clearly were worn down in the 2nd half. You need quality depth at DL to stop a good offense. Might be able to get away with little depth here against MAC teams but not in a BCS conference.
Was really impressive with the frosh outside linebacker for Temple, Tyler Matakevich. He was all over the field, dominated the game for Temple. Going to be a great one. I believe he is originally from Connecticut and went to Milford last year. We missed out on a good one there. 7 was a good coverage corner too. #7 is Zamel Johnson is from Staten Island. Damn, he would have helped us too.
Nassib seemed to rush things a bit...his timing was off. Temple put some decent pressure on him at times, sure that contributed. Didn't have a great throwing game but he made some money throws when he needed to. I think he also had a streak of games where at least one TD throw was dropped was also broken, which I guess is a good thing.
Glad Jerome Smith got to 1000 yards. He was clearly messed up, had no explosion or acceleration, credit to him for getting the job done anyway. Tough kid. Hope he will be healthy for the bowl game. Glad Alec got 1000 yards. I think you can make an argument that his catch of a hospital ball around the 5 yard line late in the 1st half that ended up being the key play in a TD drive, was the biggest play of the game. If he has a big bowl game, he might break the SU record for most receiving yards in a season (Marvin set it in 1995 with 1131).
You can argue successfully that the season turned when Pugh returned to the lineup from his injury but the other change that was made around then, where Foy was replaced by Trudo at RG, was also really important. Foy did not do a bad job, but Trudo is a really physical, nasty kid out there, and I think his playing style has influenced the rest of the line to some extent. He is a fun player to watch...I recommend focusing on him for a few plays if you see the team play in person. He is an angry man out there. Thought our OL physically dominated the Temple DL in the second half. Just flat out whipped them. I really like the physical side this team has. We need to keep this, I know this is what Doug has wanted and it is great to finally see it in evidence on a consistent and successful basis.
Rolling a fresh AAM out there in the second half almost seemed unfair. He continues to emerge as the season has progressed. We have a major logjam at RB for next season. Everyone is coming back, along with Ashton, Morris and McFarlane. Someone (Ashton?) has to move. A very unfamiliar and very good situation to have to deal with.
On defense, Harris was obviously a problem early, as was a really emotional Temple OL hyped up for senior day and their pseudo bowl game. You can play on emotion for only so long, and the couple of plays they had they hurt us were negated by some adjustments Shafer put in (I think he had linebackers and linemen shoot the gaps and get in the backfield, so Harris started getting tackled as he was getting the ball). To their credit, the Owls adjusted and started to rely on their QB, Juice, to run the ball. Big kid with some athletic ability and strength, I think he ended up hurting us on the ground more than Harris did. Also hurt us with his passing, even though I question if he can throw the ball 30 yards in the air. His throwing was more of a shot put motion. Strange to see punt like hang time on his throws but some of them were pretty accurate, and we were willing to let him beat us deep to take away Harris.
Zian Jones got more PT today than I think he got the first 11 games combined. I suspect it was because he is good against the run...Bromley and Crume seemed healthy. After a rough start, he made a bunch of good plays.
Anyway, was disappointed in the poor play of the defense early. We shouldn't have been surprised by them featuring Harris. We seem to start off badly on defense almost every game. Props to the staff for making adjustments...the second half was a different story. Juice having to throw the ball in passing situations is the perfect recipe for interceptions, isn't it?
Lyn got off to a bad start but caught a couple of balloons from Juice, was solid late. Thought Reddish was very good, really nice strip on the sideline, anticipates on screens well, smart player who just needs to get stronger. He is the real deal. Anderson continues to finish the season strong after a bad start. We got some good pressure on Juice at times, good to see Eskridge, who has been inconsistent, make a big play with the blitz sack.
On special teams, Fisher has really reduced the time he takes to get rid of the ball and it paid off today on the play Temple was called for roughing the kicker. He also had a really bad start to the season but has come on gangbusters since then. Getting good hang time consistently and is kicking to the sidelines well too. Makes it really hard to get a good return on him. Have we have a fumbled punt return recovered by the coverage team 3 of the past 4 games now? I think so (UC, USF and Temple).
We are going to miss Dan Vaughn, who must have been disappointed to not be in the rotation at linebacker but has had a terrific year on the coverage teams. Coker is also great, with Reddish right behind him. Our coverage units are the best they have been in years. Good to see what happens with good coaching and good talent on these units.
Krautman seems to get one chance a game these days and keeps making it, which works for me. I wonder what is going on with Norton, who seems to have lost significant yardage on his kickoffs late in the season. I suspect he is injured or has a tired leg, something that I think is pretty common for young kickers not used to the amount of kicking required at this level of football. Desir continues to do a good job at PR...was conservative today but given the situation, the sun and wind, I was fine with it.
This was it. Our last game in the Big East. I loved the conference. It had warts, there were a lot of problems, but it was our conference, the teams in it did a lot of great things and if things were just a little different, it could have been a legitimate power conference. I think it has been better than the ACC almost every year. We should have taken from the ACC rather than the other way around. Damn.
The situation with Pugh is this: he is going to talk with DM after the season about his future. That is going to be the big determining factor in what happens. His best friends on the team are Chibane and Lemon, he has been with team for 4 years, they are long time roomies and since they will be gone, it makes it a lot less attractive for him to stay on. I think it is unlikely but there are a lot of quality OTs in the draft and that might be enough to push him into the 3rd or 4th round.
Justin is a little undersized to be an OT in the NFL. DM uses him in what I think is a unique way. He loves to pull him and have him lead plays going in the opposite direction, which is more of a guard thing to do than an OT thing to do. He is really quick and agile and I think his biggest strengths are his ability to pull and his pass blocking ability. So he will probably have to switch OG. The biggest pros toward staying another year are 1) he has a chance to get bigger and stronger, maybe big enough to play OT and 2) he has a chance to really prove to the evaluators he is 10o% healthy and ready to go (the shoulder is fine). I hope he comes back but he has been a great player for us and I have no hard feelings if he goes.
After the game, I went to Pat's for a cheesesteak. It is only about 2.5 miles from the stadium so I thought it would be an easy in and out operation. No. Pat's is in a neighborhood with narrow streets and little parking. Very slow going in or out. The line there was huge. I ended up waiting 50 minutes to get my order. The sandwich was good, but nothing great. Tourist trap, overrated, won't do it again. I recommend the London Broil sandwich at 2nd North Deli instead. Shorter wait, more pleasant staff, better product, lower price. Game, set, match 2nd North Deli. Try it, you will like it.
For the record, it was 261 miles from my house to the stadium. I got there in 3 hours and 50 minutes. Easy drive, one turn to get on 476 from 81 and another to get to 76. When you get off 76, you are maybe a mile from the stadium. The only team in the old Big East that convenient was UConn...East Hartford is about 3.5 hours away for a determined driver. Given the nice tailgate setup, the easy drive and the ready access to quality seats, I am hopeful we schedule them OOC in the future. Would much rather play them in a home and home than say, Central Michigan or Ball State. Our fans can get to the game pretty easily and the away game would be played in a key recruiting area for us. Given we will be playing in the ACC, it makes more sense than ever to play some OOC games in key recruiting areas. Just my opinion...
