Ohio Postgame Discussion...

[rrlbees]

Well at least you don’t define the 11 completions as deep throws . That’s a solid starting point lol.

Taj was overthrown in the end zone too, but can’t remember how deep a throw that was.

If you don’t think after this game stronger teams aren’t going to game plan for us by stacking the box and making Tommy throw deep I don’t know what to tell you. And if we only have one deep threat that’s a problem, whether he’s overthrown or not.

the deep ball has always been Tommy’s strength IMO.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

My fear next week is Schiano is going to put 7-8 in the box, rush 5-6, and pressure TD into poor decisions while containing the run game.

Shrader needs to play next week

That is exactly what he will do

 

[wooddoc]

Good win.

 

[GoSU96]

My definition of a deep ball is clearly different than yours.

15 yard slants are not deep throws. Feel free to point out to me where he connected on one that was actually in the air for 25-30 yards.

Did you actually watch the game or are you just reading a box score?

Are you actually judging his capabilities based on this single game?

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

One thing that leaves me weary is the size. We looked smaller than a MAC team. .

I was at the game. Disagree with you here. Our OLine dwarfed their defensive front.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I think if you can beat a team by simply over powering them then that’s the easiest way to win a game and minimize mistakes. That is what Syracuse should do versus Ohio and exactly what they did. No need to get cute and the O line needed the confidence boost. Won’t be that easy next week. But solid first effort, nothing fancy or mind blowing. We new tucker was really good

 

[OrangeTarheel]

Reminds me of Coach P days when we just wore down lesser opponents with the run game. Nice to see. Ohio kept the ball for 11 minutes in the first quarter and looked competent in their running game with Tuggle and some of their longer passes. Good early test for our defense.

Unnecessary roughing penalties? Against Ohio U? Gotta curtail those. That said, Sean Tucker got a penalty for going after a defenders knees while blocking and I thought defenders are gonna see that on tape and maybe back off a bit when they see him coming.

Other teams will need to game plan for Tucker and I’m not sure it will help them. He’s a beast. Yes best since Reyes and I’m beginning to think best I’ve seen (Joe Morris was before I watched SU football) In orange.

Tommy had time to throw out there, that’s what needEd to happen. The way Tommy plays minimizes turnovers and keeps us in games. That’s a good floor. With a competent oline I think we’ll see more of his ceiling.

Good win. Beat Rutgers and it’ll look like we’re running down hill by the end of the month.

 

[OrangeFoo]

I was happy just to see a competent, workman like performance over a solid opponent, on the road in the first game of the season. There was no stupid 5 people go into motion, reliance on gimmick plays, 5 false starts in a row… you know all that bad news bears stuff from previous years. We just line it up and overwhelmed the other guys and it was a thing of beauty.

In my opinion, this was the first game since Babers got here that we saw his offense… the Baylor spread relied on the run setting up the pass and that’s exactly what we saw yesterday. This was the best run blocking of the Babers era and it only took, what, six years?

It was also well conceived play calling, very few head scratching plays, plays sequenced well together… all things that one can do when they have a competent oline and a run game. Well done to the team

The D was very solid against a really good RB… still has issues with losing coverage in the middle of the field however. We also have no idea how we will look against a more complex offense since Ohio didn’t have a running qb.

That’s a minor quibble tho… we will be undefeated after Labor Day and I’ll take it.

 

[gmoney44]

Well at least you don’t define the 11 completions as deep throws . That’s a solid starting point lol.

Taj was overthrown in the end zone too, but can’t remember how deep a throw that was.

If you don’t think after this game stronger teams aren’t going to game plan for us by stacking the box and making Tommy throw deep I don’t know what to tell you. And if we only have one deep threat that’s a problem, whether he’s overthrown or not.

At least now they have to stack the box to stop the run and blitz to get pressure. Last year our opponents could do both in their base defense and dump everyone in coverage. Meanwhile we had to keep everyone and their brother in to block when we passed.

I have faith TD can hit some deep passes. Hopefully it’s enough to keep them honest. He look good running the ball and hit a few nice slants when the safeties cheated up. I’m still not sold on TD on 3rd or 4th and long.

 

[ElwoodJBlues]

The good:

• Tucker is a great feature back
• OL made some huge strides from last year
• Mang is an animal out there. Saw a couple of plays in the 4th where LBs and DBs took themselves out of the play by turning away from the ball so Mang didn’t engage them.
• Teams are going to have a tough time throwing the ball on the outside with our CBs

The bad:

• Tommy still doesn’t go through his reads. He still narrows in on his primary read. He missed Queeley beating his man a couple of times.
• The DL needs to get more push. They did a poor job in obvious passing situations. Duce saved them a couple of times with stellar play.
• I know it’s against Ohio, but the passing game was very predictable. In the red zone, it seemed like it was “let’s hope someone makes a play and defender loses their man”. Would like to see Gilbert involve one of the bigger WRs or TEs in a one on one.

Random thoughts:

• Interested to see what had to be taken out of the playbook because of Elmore’s absence.
• Would like to see a package with Pena and Lutz together. Getting one of them in space with the ball would be nice to see.
• Teams seem intent on running between the tackles against the 3-3-5. It’s confusing to me that teams don’t try more jet sweeps or counters to get running backs in open space against DBs.
• I’m not as big of a “we need to see Shrader” person as others. That being said, I think he’ll be necessary against more athletic teams who can get more push against the OL.
• It was really comforting to see the depth at the RB position. Tucker is going to be the guy, but the guys behind him all have a different set of skills that are a nice compliment to Tucker.

Beat Rutgers!

 

[orangeinohio]

If the whole QB thing doesn't work out, we can become the new Boston College.
Tucker is the new AJ Dillon.

yay.

 

[corpjet]

So I realize it's a MAC team and MAC records don't correlate with P5 but new coach aside, that Ohio team has played in a bowl game 8 out of the last 9 seasons ( didn't count their 3 game season last year). They have plenty of P5 scalps over the years too.

We went in and overpowered them on the line of scrimmage and shut them down in the RedZone. We did so leaving a lot of meat on the bone too.

It's a quality win for sure. Next week we find out where we truly stand.

….speaking of their line of scrimmage, their LT was massive, I mean Fuccilo HUUUUGEEEEEEE

 

[JRHEETER]

My thoughts on Tommy after this game is that he did okay.

He wasn’t great but he wasn’t bad at all. We won this game on the back of Tucker and it should have been obvious that’s who the won game for us on offense.

I really wanted to see Shrader more when our offense feel into a rut for a few possessions and it felt and looked like last season. Wondering if Dino is saving him for later games or if he’s 100% in on TD. Will be interesting to follow in the next couple games.

Taj is….interesting. Watching him on the sidelines is interesting. At multiple times I saw him by himself on the sideline just burst out straight laughing. Like bent over laughing. Talking to no one, with no one around. He also really enjoyed talking to a couple of the female bobcat fans.

With that being said about Taj and talking to the bobcat fans….that seems to be a team problem. Happened several times DURING the game players were responding and talking to fans that were right behind the bench. I feel this is an issue that Dino needs to correct before heading to more hostile environments

Overall, happy to leave Athens with a win. We will need to play far better than we did last night to beat Rutgers

 

[qdawgg]

Adams sat out last year. He has to earn his way back into the rotation.

I get that, I have no problem with him earning his way back. That’s not what my comment was about though

 

[TheCusian]

Yeah my only point was that we have to have a functional, over the top deep passing game or else we will be vulnerable to stronger teams stacking the box. We out muscled Ohio in the run game without it but there will be opponents that we have to keep honest by throwing down field successfully.

And I get some goofy Ra Ra don’t criticize Tommy fanboy response because he threw for 7 first downs. That’s great and I’m happy he was very accurate in the short game, and he ran the ball effectively, but we did not show in this game we have a capable long game.

We will need that against Rutgers and other higher quality opponents.

We’ve seen him hit those deep balls a lot. I have zero concern.

 

[sufandu]

I am excited for what GS can do, I hope we see more of him. He just should hold off on the last second laterals, Dino did not look pleased

I thought that pitch was fine. It wasn't with a bunch of defenders around. Those are the kinds of improvisational plays that drive defenders nuts. They think they've contained the play by making sure the QB keeps it and keeping everyone covered, then he finds a way to get a few yards out of it when they expected no gain or a loss. Alabama's QB did the exact same thing against Miami.

 

[sufandu]

It’s not that I don’t think Lutz is good...just not sold that he’s better than Adams.

It seems pretty clear Babers is making Howard and Adams earn their carries back. He's rewarding two guys that were thrown into the fire last year when neither thought they'd get a carry. Tucker proved he's the real deal right away. I agree that both Adams and Howard are the more talented runners than Lutz. I expect that as the season wears on and the carries become more valuable, any that don't go to Tucker will slowly shift away from Lutz and go to one of those two guys.

 

[sufandu]

Lot of WR’s on the roster...any Estime types that can occasionally get behind a defense and not get caught?

We had a guy get behind the defense once that was overthrown.

 

[Alsacs]

We looked like a P5 college football team.
That can’t be said enough.
Of course we can get better in areas but after last year.
This game was huge just for that.

Last year we lose this game.
If the OL can get push the pressure on the passing game won’t be huge.
2013 team just used power running and won 6 games.
That is all I want this year.
Get a bowl season as I like Dino and want him here but he needs to produce.

Deep passes are cool but we don’t need them. If we can run the ball and pass it outside and move the chains just do what works.

 

[TheCusian]

It seems pretty clear Babers is making Howard and Adams earn their carries back. He's rewarding two guys that were thrown into the fire last year when neither thought they'd get a carry. Tucker proved he's the real deal right away. I agree that both Adams and Howard are the more talented runners than Lutz. I expect that as the season wears on and the carries become more valuable, any that don't go to Tucker will slowly shift away from Lutz and go to one of those two guys.

I’m partial to thinking that’s true of Howard/Adams too, but Lutz has a 80+ yarder vs ND and his TD run tonight was special too. Both runs were vs a tired D, but it’s not nothing.

 

[baggerbob]

Mang did a great job filling in. Surprisingly Tisdale grades out as a better run blocker than Dakota.

 

[Geode]

Unnecessary roughing penalties? Against Ohio U? Gotta curtail those. That said, Sean Tucker got a penalty for going after a defenders knees while blocking and I thought defenders are gonna see that on tape and maybe back off a bit when they see him coming.

If by knees you mean waist, then, ok. Tucker did not tackle that guy at the knees on that penalty. He started at the waist, made contact at the waist and went down to the knees. That was a very poor and head scratching penalty IMO.

 

[Sudano]

Biggest jump in play is between game 1 and game 2;

For both teams

 

[All4SU]

Yeah my only point was that we have to have a functional, over the top deep passing game or else we will be vulnerable to stronger teams stacking the box. We out muscled Ohio in the run game without it but there will be opponents that we have to keep honest by throwing down field successfully.

And I get some goofy Ra Ra don’t criticize Tommy fanboy response because he threw for 7 first downs. That’s great and I’m happy he was very accurate in the short game, and he ran the ball effectively, but we did not show in this game we have a capable long game.

We will need that against Rutgers and other higher quality opponents.

It’s funny, of all the criticisms of TD on this board, I would not expect one to be that he can’t throw the deep ball. I mean, it’s probably what he does best. Of course we have to get the offense in sync, and see if we’ve got the WRs to go out and get deep balls , or an OL that can protect long enough for those plays to develop. But I have absolutely no lack of confidence in TD’s ability to drop the ball in on long throws.

 

[Timonen]

Competent is fine vs Ohio. It won’t be enough against better teams… we need a QB that can burn defenses for selling out. I didn’t see anything from tommy to suggest he’s added a new dimension to his repertoire. If all we’re asking our qb to do is handoff 90% of the time then Garret should be in a clear rotation to see what he can do. Unfortunately at SU, we need more than a game manager to raise the ceiling for the program. Tommy raises the floor with his experience but not sure 5-6 wins is the floor… which is what Dino needs to keep his job.

that being said, we’re sorely missing a Custis/Ishmael type at receiver to complement Taj. That was my biggest disappointment tonight to see nothing from this group. Hope it was just a case of vanilla.

It feels like we’re moving the goalposts a bit. Many were worried about hanging with Ohio and we controlled the game. Maybe it’s a product of field position or offensive efficiency but there weren’t many chances for longer plays. Everything tommy was given he at least did moderately well. I might give him an “incomplete” but wouldn’t take last night as a definite need to switch qb plans. Garrett with the same calls is probably a step back.

expanding the play calls is what I’m looking for and I’ve gotta think that’s gonna happen.