No spinning this

[rrlbees]

what some call negativity MOST call reality!

so it's even. we got lucky vs wake because of injury and rutgers got lucky vs su because of injury. still 4-2.

 

[Stern]

so it's even. we got lucky vs wake because of injury and rutgers got lucky vs su because of injury. still 4-2.

We got lucky vs Toledo cause the refs missed the extra point. We have had more than 1 lucky game. I mean come on!

 

[rrlbees]

We got lucky vs Toledo cause the refs missed the extra point. We have had more than 1 lucky game. I mean come on!

And like was said after the Toledo game, if it was called right there is no guarantee that we would have lost. Even Marrone said he would have been more aggressive on defense with a 2 point lead.

 

[Stern]

And like was said after the Toledo game, if it was called right there is no guarantee that we would have lost. Even Marrone said he would have been more aggressive on defense with a 2 point lead.

Spin this anyway you want, lets man up and just admit SU has been really really lucky this year on more than one occasion which has led to them having 4 wins and even a chance of getting to a bowl. Trying to spin this otherwise is foolish.

SU has gotten some gifts this year. Take them, but acknowledge they have been gifts! Lets not spin this into SU being some great 4-2 team

 

[orange79]

We got lucky vs Toledo cause the refs missed the extra point. We have had more than 1 lucky game. I mean come on!

^ ^ ^ 1/1000th full glass guy ^ ^ ^

 

[MartyCuse]

Thank you... that would have been my response.

The STARTING QB for Wake Forest led them to 1 score in the 2nd half through 19 minutes (out of 30)... they kicked a FG one play after he left the game. He played a fine game and was making some good plays... but he was also playing against a banged up secondary (which no one seems to mention or remember) for most of the game (Rishard Anderson, Phillip Thomas, Olando Fisher, and Shamarko Thomas were all out for parts of this game due to injury).

But, yes, the loss of Tanner Price was the ONLY reason lowly Syracuse was able to win the game. Whoa is us... we're not worthy to win any of these games... Good thing all of these teams just rolled over for Syracuse this year because they feel bad for Syracuse... otherwise, Syracuse would be 0-6 and hanging their heads in shame.

I don't understand why some of you can't just give Syracuse credit for things they've accomplished. Syracuse outscored Wake Forest 29-9 in the 2nd half and OT. Isn't that worth something? They put up 33 points on Toledo (who only gave up 27 to Ohio State the week before). Syracuse scored 37 points against Tulane (who gives up an average of 35.8 points per game against FBS competition this season so far)... what was an acceptable amount of points for the fanbase? 45? 55? 65?

The team has "won ugly" this year so far... I get it. But, I get so tired of all the negativity of the fanbase expressed relentlessly on this forum. Syracuse has issues and weaknesses, but so does almost every other team in the country. Syracuse has been good enough to fight their way to 4-2, and given the weakness of the Big East, they have a great opportunity to win some games in the second half of the season. Just about all I hear on this site is constant whining about how "lucky" we've been, how we don't deserve to have the wins we have, how we have no talent, and how poorly we recruit, and on, and on, and on. Yes, this is a message board and people are going to debate topics... but it's very frustrating to hear constant negativity from a significant portion of the SYRACUSE fanbase regarding our team. I, for one, am happy that Syracuse has navigated the first 6 games and managed 4 victories. There are definitely plenty of areas for improvement, but I'm looking forward to seeing how the second half of the season plays out.

Well said Thank you for taking the time to write this... Now lets drag Otto out here so Stern can piss on him and we can all have a good night. (except Otto of course)

 

[Millhouse]

Some of the responses in this thread are so stupid. No one is using the transitive property to try to make any Slippery Rock type claims. The point is that Tulane really sucks and we just snuck by them. No one is pointing this out to argue that Army or UTEP is better than SU. No one cares if they are.

All the transitive knuckleheads can never complain about a bad loss because the only way to tell if you just lost to a bad team is to (gasp) look at their results against other teams

I'm glad the Tulane game wasn't a bad loss.

 

[fanfanclubclub]

Great post. I keep looking for the "lucky wins" column on the stat sheet, but can't find it. The team can get better, yes. There's no reason to diminish what has been accomplished.

Check out football outsiders, or any other advanced statistical football professionals. They all keep track of close wins, and wins where the other team had more yards. These types of weak wins have a way, way lower predictive value for future success than blow outs against good competition.

Recruits keep track of these things too. Poll voters do too. Prospective posters, prospective fans, media, etc. . .

In modern football, where only BCS bowls really matter, and FCS and non-AQ victories are available to meet the 6-win quota: how you win actually can matter more than whether you go 7-5 or 8-4. To recruits, fans, polls, bowl committees, tv execs, conference officials, etc.

Observing the close and somewhat flukey nature of some of our wins is perfectly appropriate when appreciating what has been accomplished this season.

 

[rrlbees]

Spin this anyway you want, lets man up and just admit SU has been really really lucky this year on more than one occasion which has led to them having 4 wins and even a chance of getting to a bowl. Trying to spin this otherwise is foolish.

SU has gotten some gifts this year. Take them, but acknowledge they have been gifts! Lets not spin this into SU being some great 4-2 team

and for every gift there has been bad luck too.

 

[Stern]

and for every gift there has been bad luck too.

but it hasn't been equal.

Not even close

 

[rrlbees]

but it hasn't been equal.

Not even close

1-1

 

[DNABB5]

Jesus Stern, I don't think anyone here would argue that Syracuse has not had some good luck, But we've had plenty bad too. Do you not remember how many secondary players went down? Or the fact that we haven't had Chandler since he fell on Tanner Price?

Like Hemingway said, you make your own luck.

Also, that Tulane game, there really was a blase' feeling from the sidelines after 31-14. We were not really in danger of losing, that is the feeling I (and Beardman) had.

 

[SoBeCuse]

That is a cop-out excuse! Especially with THIS YEARS SU team. SU has played poor in every game this year. This "playing down" to the competition is a nice sound-bite to say to your friends at the bar or at the office, but its total BS on every level.

What game has SU played "up" in to give us the other side? And don't say USC because Syracuse did not play well vs USC.

I think SU played about as well as they could've played in LA. They also pulled off a lucky gimmick play. OLine probably played one of their best games that day.

 

[bevosu]

The only transitory analysis that I'm REALLY interested in at this point is this.

Greg Robinson had a 10-37 overall record. 3-25 in the Big East

Doug Marrone 16-15 overall. 5-10 in the Big East..and 1-0 in bowls.

Yes we're lucky..lucky to have Marrone and lucky to be rid of GRob.

 

[SWC75]

I would like to win without luck for a change. If you're really good you can elimnate luck form the equation, or at least minimize it.

 

[Cuse4Life]

this is why they play the game and not on paper people

 

[wfschrec]

and for every gift there has been bad luck too.

Bees you might as well give up on this one ... I mean its not like SU had points pretty much taken away in the Toledo game on a blown PI call in the endzone that would have made all that XP stuff moot. Or the fact that you can play the critical injury impacts the outcome game ... like Chandler not being there for Rutgers and insisting the outcome wouldn't have been different as of course they do with the Tanner Price injury ... which oh by the way happened in the 4th quarter and they had only put up 9 points after half at that point and were not moving the ball as effectively as they did in the first half even with Price out there. Or the fact that the SU offense was able to get it done after several key adjustments in the second half of that game.

We just have a very negative portion of the fanbase that will continue to argue over a point no one here is trying to make. The irony is no one said we are a great team and we acknowledge that we have had our fair share of breaks but we have had our fair share of things go against us. I'm just glad Stern is keeping track of all this so we know what a failure our season is.

 

[Stern]

I would like to win without luck for a change. If you're really good you can elimnate luck form the equation, or at least minimize it.

according to some here we haven't been lucky at all...lol lol

And we have had more bad luck than good luck...which is even a funnier statement. Marrone has some around here drinking the KOOL-AID

 

[suloyalfan]

but it hasn't been equal.

Not even close

I'm not going to go back through every game and itemize the "luck" on each side, but just looking at the first half of the first game against Wake Forest... WFU fumbled twice in the first half and recovered it both times. After recovering the fumbles, they went on to score 10 points combined on those drives. Was that not "bad luck" for Syracuse or only was it just lowly Syracuse failing to make a play in those instances?

A 10 point swing would have been pretty huge in the game, and that's not even counting the points Syracuse could have scored off those turnovers.

But, you're right... "luck" has only been on Syracuse's side this year... the opponents haven't had any good breaks.

 

[rrlbees]

according to some here we haven't been lucky at all...lol lol

And we have had more bad luck than good luck...which is even a funnier statement. Marrone has some around here drinking the KOOL-AID

What you don't get, or don't want to get, is that yea, SU has had some breaks but so have the other teams. You ant to mock folks for not accounting for the Wake QB being hurt (whose offense hadn't done much in the 2nd half anyways and the guy doesn't play defense) but you don't want to account for playing Rutgers without arguably our 2 best (or 2 of 3) defensive players. You want to account for the blown call with the missed extra point, but you don't want to account for the equally obvious blown call on the PI in the end zone. The list goes on and on but it is all reality, not kool aid. There is not one person here that has said we haven't caught some breaks. But there are a few that seem to think we have gotten all the breaks, which is flat out wrong.

 

[Millhouse]

What you don't get, or don't want to get, is that yea, SU has had some breaks but so have the other teams. You ant to mock folks for not accounting for the Wake QB being hurt (whose offense hadn't done much in the 2nd half anyways and the guy doesn't play defense) but you don't want to account for playing Rutgers without arguably our 2 best (or 2 of 3) defensive players. You want to account for the blown call with the missed extra point, but you don't want to account for the equally obvious blown call on the PI in the end zone. The list goes on and on but it is all reality, not kool aid. There is not one person here that has said we haven't caught some breaks. But there are a few that seem to think we have gotten all the breaks, which is flat out wrong.

our record is great in close games the last couple years. to me that probably implies breaks have gone our way. it also implies grit, toughness and composure. but i still think it's both.

 

[rrlbees]

our record is great in close games the last couple years. to me that probably implies breaks have gone our way. it also implies grit, toughness and composure. but i still think it's both.

completely agree but with 2 comments. one, sometimes a team makes their own breaks and two, what many seem focused on are breaks su cant have an impct on such as injuries and bad calls, thus the use of the word "lucky".

 

[SWC75]

Army and UTEP didn't need to be lucky. That's the real point here.

 

[alphaorange]

Army and UTEP didn't need to be lucky. That's the real point here.

This all very overblown. Winning fugly is a great characteristic of a very young team. This team seems to play to the level of its competition, which is generally a trait of very young teams. The fact that they manage to win a fair amount of the games is a good thing, not a bad thing.

 

[cuseincincy]

This all very overblown. Winning fugly is a great characteristic of a very young team. This team seems to play to the level of its competition, which is generally a trait of very young teams. The fact that they manage to win a fair amount of the games is a good thing, not a bad thing.

Wasting your breath (or at least your typing time) on some here. I'm happpy as heck that SU is 4-2 and won some close games, as I'm sure you are. We're SU fans after all. But there is a definite lack of "killer instinct" with this program and it bit us against Rutgers and almost bit us several other times. I must also point out that HCDM is 5-10 against the BE. Considering the state of the conference the past few years that aint great, or even good. Going .500 in this conference this year is not grounds for celebration no matter how bad we were under GRob. Should be an interesting remainder of the season.