my two cents | Syracusefan.com

my two cents

kcsu

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This game will go down as one of the biggest disappointments of my SU fan history. It's up there with Gtown closing down Manley sad.

Syracuse went into Clemson with every intention of winning the game. We didn't come with our tails between our legs, and I knew from the player post and interviews that the team truly believed they could beat Clemson. I love the swagger and hope that it continues as confidence is everything in life and this team has it in spades.

The game came down to a few key things. First i believe that the Clemson staff did a heck of a job at half adjusting their D to take away Shrader. Not sure if they figured out that Tucker was hurt but they shut down Shader and that made all of the difference in the world. Going forward we are going to have to scheme around this as I'm sure every team going forward will key on him vs Tucker. As to Tucker his is hurt and has been hurt since the Ville game. I'd say he is 80% at best. He looks to be one good hit to his leg and gone for the rest of the year. Not sure if it's a deep bruise or ankle, maybe both, but his is really banged up. I hope that we use Allan against ND and others going forward as he is a stud and given the opportunity I believe will do well.

Refs, my two cents are that it was a penalty against our guy on the roughing call. My issue is that it was the same against them on Shrader. I felt that the PI was complete Bull. We had the kid blanketed with 3 and the coverage was solid and clean. You simply do not make that game changing call unless you are attempting to change the outcome of the game.

Dr. Bob was not on his game in the second half as he didn't adjust to them taking Shrader away. To me that was the chess match and we lost.

Other random points.

JW, please do everything in your power to keep coach White

Our O line did a heck of a job considering who they were up against.

Scap the Wes experiment at FB. He has more penalties than blocks. Let him focus on the OL

On the last play interception Shrader only looked at his first option.

Why not spike the ball prior to that throw.

The kid i believe it was jackson was WIDE open on that throw . Nobody within 10 yards of him but he was in the shadows and that coupled with Shrader locking in is the biggest miss of the season.

Next year we are going to be loaded at DL

The Dartmouth kid is a baller

Let's NIL some WRs from the Portal

ND is going to try and run the ball down our throats

Dino please realize that you arent Homer and that you are one of the worst ever at clock management. Please turn the TO power over to your OC and DC.

Next week is crucial. We need to put our foot on NDs throat and never step off the gas.

6-1 and couldn't be prouder of the team or sadder about yesterday.

Go Orange!!!
 
That’s a solid post. Would only add that for 3/4 of the game the Orange were clearly the better team on the field, and that felt different and really good. I was still worried about getting hit by a piano (and eventually it came) but I wasn’t as certain it was coming this time.
 
That’s a solid post. Would only add that for 3/4 of the game the Orange were clearly the better team on the field, and that felt different and really good. I was still worried about getting hit by a piano (and eventually it came) but I wasn’t as certain it was coming this time.
I have a hard time saying Cuse was “clearly” the better team. Clemson did go up and down the field against us. Ran way more plays but turned it over 4 times. They were about to punch it in at the end of the third. Did we match them for 3 quarters…..yes. Were we clearly the better team…not in my opinion. If Duce doesn’t punch that ball out from DJ inside the 5, that’s a 14 point turnaround in their favor. We had 40 yards of offense in the second half before that last drive when they sagged in to a prevent until we got down to the 30. They shut Cuse down in the second half. Props to our kids. Damn proud of them and we showed we are a big boy football team. But clearly better than Clemson…..I don’t see that.
 
That’s a solid post. Would only add that for 3/4 of the game the Orange were clearly the better team on the field, and that felt different and really good. I was still worried about getting hit by a piano (and eventually it came) but I wasn’t as certain it was coming this time.
One more point. Not sure why we didnt take more deep shots. Shrader had time.
 
The kid i believe it was jackson was WIDE open on that throw . Nobody within 10 yards of him but he was in the shadows and that coupled with Shrader locking in is the biggest miss of the season.
He was "open" after Schrader's windup and throw. CU's safety had that route covered.
Somewhat of an optical illusion on the replay.

Two straight week's our guys came out of halftime flat (I hate that term TBH) and with no adjustments.
Also the UVa game.
 
Every game left on our schedule is winnable. Having said that injuries will certainly effect our wins vs losses for the rest of this season!
Certainly no game the rest of the season will provide a bigger challenge than Clemson and we could have won that game had we not made serious lapses of focus by both staff and players!
 
I agree with most of the OP. Only a couple of quibbles. Why do people think Allen is a stud? Maybe he will be, but so far I have seen nothing to suggest he currently is. I don't necessarily agree that Anae was outcoached. With Tucker hurt we lose 1/3 of our playmakers. We just don't have other options to prevent defenses from being able to focus on Shrader and Gadsden. We need to find another WR and/or need one of the backup RBs to step up. I'd be surprised if either of those happen this year.
 
It boggles my mind that we don't roll Shrader out a la FSU last year. That gives him a better shot at taking off on runs instead of being confined to the pocket.
I've heard some analysts in the past say that rollouts negate the QBs ability to throw to the half of the field he's rolling away from. It seems like with a QB like Shrader though, that may be a good trade off.
 
I've heard some analysts in the past say that rollouts negate the QBs ability to throw to the half of the field he's rolling away from. It seems like with a QB like Shrader though, that may be a good trade off.
Gatorade player of the year in NJ, looked great in the spring game. Beat out a very good player for the second spot, size speed and vision. I just think he needs some reps
 
One more point. Not sure why we didnt take more deep shots. Shrader had time.
I didn't see Shrader with time in the second half. Seemed like he was under pressure on virtually every snap. It wasn't until they rushed three in the last minute or so that he had some time. Even then they were in his face on the last play.
I thought I saw 2 players open. One had a couple of steps on his man on the lefts side heading towards the corner and another (the oneI think you are referring to) with absolutely no one within what looked like 15 yards.

I put that on the wasted 25 seconds Dino threw away. If we had that extra time we might have spiked it and been more organized.

Would be remiss not to add that at least we tried b to get it to our playmaker.
 
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It boggles my mind that we don't roll Shrader out a la FSU last year. That gives him a better shot at taking off on runs instead of being confined to the pocket.
It also boggles my mind that he doesn't roll out on his own more often. It's like he has no internal clock. There are plays where he's got plenty of time, nobody is open, and he turns into a statue. If he rolled out, good things would happen - he might be able to run for positive yards, and he might force DBs to choose between stepping up to stop his scramble or staying in coverage. Especially against zone.

The other thing that boggles my mind is that he doesn't throw it away under pressure, like ever.
 
Gatorade player of the year in NJ, looked great in the spring game. Beat out a very good player for the second spot, size speed and vision. I just think he needs some reps
I don't know that the high school accolades matter much once you step on campus. Wasn't Chase Brice the #1 ranked QB coming out of high school? We don't know if Allen beat out Price because he's that good or because Price has been disappointing? All we know about either player is that they looked good against lesser competition, one high school, the other lower level college.

I know it sounds like I'm down on both of them. I'm really not. I hope they both end up good enough to be great for us. All I'm saying is that the coaches have not seen them do enough in practice to trust them and all of the fans speaking as if they're already studs have yet to see them do anything of note in a Syracuse uniform. We're calling them great before having any actual evidence of it.
 
I don't know that the high school accolades matter much once you step on campus. Wasn't Chase Brice the #1 ranked QB coming out of high school? We don't know if Allen beat out Price because he's that good or because Price has been disappointing? All we know about either player is that they looked good against lesser competition, one high school, the other lower level college.

I know it sounds like I'm down on both of them. I'm really not. I hope they both end up good enough to be great for us. All I'm saying is that the coaches have not seen them do enough in practice to trust them and all of the fans speaking as if they're already studs have yet to see them do anything of note in a Syracuse uniform. We're calling them great before having any actual evidence of it.
I don't know if he is great or not. What I do know is that Tucker was also buried on the bench based on the coach's assessment of his talent. Injuries gave him a chance. If not, he might not have ever played a down for us and Allen has much better ratings coming out of HS than Tucker had, and Price ran for a ton of yards against real competition. I say give them a series or two. Heck, we got beat yesterday by a true frosh.
 
Guarantee the sideline scouts from Clemson saw Tucker was ailing and because of that took their chance at keying in on GS. Dabo said before half time that they had to do a better job defending GS. They did that. They brought pressure nearly the entire second half so their secondary could drop into coverage. They made adjustments and we didn't. It was truly disappointing because the Clemson offense was stuck in neutral for three quarters.
 
Guarantee the sideline scouts from Clemson saw Tucker was ailing and because of that took their chance at keying in on GS. Dabo said before half time that they had to do a better job defending GS. They did that. They brought pressure nearly the entire second half so their secondary could drop into coverage. They made adjustments and we didn't. It was truly disappointing because the Clemson offense was stuck in neutral for three quarters.
We ran a lame horse
 
We ran a lame horse
I think it's indicative of the lack of trust with Allen and Price. They are refusing to let Tucker heal. Maybe it's something they feel won't get worse but will require substantial time to heal or surgery so they just keep rolling with him?
 
I think it's indicative of the lack of trust with Allen and Price. They are refusing to let Tucker heal. Maybe it's something they feel won't get worse but will require substantial time to heal or surgery so they just keep rolling with him?
I dont know but its a shame he isnt himself as if he were we would have walked over Clemson yesterday
 
I agree with most of the OP. Only a couple of quibbles. Why do people think Allen is a stud? Maybe he will be, but so far I have seen nothing to suggest he currently is. I don't necessarily agree that Anae was outcoached. With Tucker hurt we lose 1/3 of our playmakers. We just don't have other options to prevent defenses from being able to focus on Shrader and Gadsden. We need to find another WR and/or need one of the backup RBs to step up. I'd be surprised if either of those happen this year.
For the life of me, I don't know why syracuse didn't try to grab Colby Young 6'6 WIDE RECEIVER ,from Binghamton NY. He starts for Miami and is kicking ass 3 touchdown the last 2 games...
 
One more point. Not sure why we didnt take more deep shots. Shrader had time.
It boggles my mind that we don't roll Shrader out a la FSU last year. That gives him a better shot at taking off on runs instead of being confined to the pocket.

There were times that it looked like our OL was doing a great job protecting GS. Look again and you might see the scheme was designed to keep GS in the pocket. Rather than working to get upfield and attacking the QB, the DL takes a passive approach cutting off running lanes and keeping the QB in the pocket. We used to call this a “buzz” technique; hands on your OL and eyes on the QB. Take away his escape routes while squeezing the pocket. Also allows the DL to jump and knock down passes. Did Clemson DL block 3 passes yesterday?

Behind this some good man coverage and combo coverages (brackets and or man/zone combinations).

What happened in the second half? Clemson sent their future NFL DL to attack and we struggled to protect while Clemson used spies on GS and ST at different times (mix it up). Play man on most of our receivers or TE’s and bracket or double cover a threat like OG (don’t treat him like a TE).

Man to man, Clemson has better athletes.
- Their DL is better than our OL
- LB’s are good enough athletes and big enough to spy on GS and ST.
- DB’s were able to cover our WRs in man or zone combinations; our WRs had difficulty getting separation on crossing routes.

Expect to see similar defensive schemes as the season progresses until we develop a counter attack.
 
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I don't know if he is great or not. What I do know is that Tucker was also buried on the bench based on the coach's assessment of his talent. Injuries gave him a chance.
Part of it was protecting a young RB behind a patch work line and part of it was getting him familiar with the protections. They didnt want to get Devito killed. TD almost opted out. I can say some of this stuff now that he's gone.
 
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I don't know if he is great or not. What I do know is that Tucker was also buried on the bench based on the coach's assessment of his talent. Injuries gave him a chance. If not, he might not have ever played a down for us and Allen has much better ratings coming out of HS than Tucker had, and Price ran for a ton of yards against real competition. I say give them a series or two. Heck, we got beat yesterday by a true frosh.
Again, I don't care about the high school ratings. It doesn't matter that he was ranked higher than Tucker. A lot of guys were ranked higher than Tucker that he has outplayed.

They have given Allen a carry here and there. I would love to know what their reasoning is for not giving them more run. It's a different offensve staff than the one that had Tucker behind veterans, so I don't know if that's a apples to apples comparison how the staffs decide who to play.
 
One more point. Not sure why we didnt take more deep shots. Shrader had time.
On the plays Shrader had time, I think we often had extra guys in pass protection while they were dropping 7 into coverage. They were doubling our best WR and the other guys weren't getting open deep.
 
For the life of me, I don't know why syracuse didn't try to grab Colby Young 6'6 WIDE RECEIVER ,from Binghamton NY. He starts for Miami and is kicking ass 3 touchdown the last 2 games...
I don't follow recruiting close enough to know, did have any interest in us? We may have wanted him, but if the feelings weren't mutual, it wouldn't have mattered.
 

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