Post SU-NCSU thoughts | Syracusefan.com

Post SU-NCSU thoughts

orangepassion

Nunzio Prophet
Joined
Aug 14, 2011
Messages
10,174
Like
20,755
  • First of all, though the season isn't officially over yet, in honor of Senior day, thanks to all the Seniors who always represented the team and school with class and great effort. Hope to see many of them for another year
  • Like to start off positive-We were in this game to the end. The guys played hard and dare I say well at times
  • Congrats to Pena and the Special teams on the KO return for a TD
  • Am pleased we did some quicker developing passes, which enabled us to sustain some drives- slants, crossing patterns. Hope we continue to do so
  • Taj obviously had a big miss (seems like we say that after many games), but overall had a very good game.
  • We still need to either bring in or develop a big, strong WR to catch some tough contested throws. NC State had 3 of them where our guys were right there and they just outmuscled them. We need a Steve Ish-type to make some of these catches. Queeley is solid, but he's not making those types of catches and Taj isn't reliable enough, either.
  • I say it a lot, but I really like our young LB's-They have a ton of talent and should get better. Think we need to find a way to get 4 of them on the field more often, especially considering what we're losing at DB this season.
  • First time we saw our CB's get beaten like that, Garrett in particular. Should be a good learning experience for him
  • The Defense generally played very well on 1st and 2nd, but continues to struggle on 3rd down, particularly 3rd and long. The only times we stopped them there was when we brought extra pressure. It's uncanny how much we've been beaten there.
  • I'm surprised how little stunting we've had on Defense. If you're just going to do a 4-man rush, can just play 4 DL.
  • DL continued to get pushed around a lot.
  • It's not just the amount of penalties that are a killer, it's also the timing. We seem to always get them when we can least afford them. How many 3rd down stops have been wiped out this year by penalties? The penalty on the return that brought us back to the 10 yard line after Nykeim had a nice return. The 15 yarders. Just killers. And it seems to happen every game, though I do think this is our 1st game w/o a false start in forever, so there's that.
  • Rex made some nice throws, but really struggled with any pressure. Our guys look totally lost the few times our QB's get out of the pocket, either just standing still or running out of bounds taking themselves out of the play. I don't know if they think the QB is gonna run somewhere, but it's really strange. This has been happening for 2 years.
  • 3 yards total running-Not much needs to be added to that, but I will say it's not just the OL, the perimeter blocking has been terrible. Benson and the WR's really struggled (at best) or didn't look like they putting much effort (at worst) when we tried to run outside. There was one play to the outside where both Rex and Benson went to the outside like they were going to block and both got out of the way when the defenders came to tackle..and I've been a big Benson supporter. The short-yardage situations are embarrassing-Have we completed one 4th and 1 all year? And they're not even close, we almost always get tackled behind the LOS.
  • Would like to throw the backs a few short passes, which can be a like a run and give them a chance past the LOS. Not sure why we have forgotten about Lutz. He can and should have a role here.
  • These 3rd down passes 40 yards down the field continue to mystify me. You know the QB isn't going to have a ton of time to throw. The 1st drive of the game epitomized this-We had the ball on the opposing 38-yard line. This should be 4 down territory, especially for a team like us that struggles to score and has nothing to lose. If we even complete a 5-yard pass, we are in FG range, as well as a makeable 4th down. After a long pass out of bounds on 2nd and 10, we appear to send everyone deep before Rex forces a pass to a double-teamed Queeley that has no chance of being completed. We just throw away drives. Very frustrating.
  • Won't even touch the end of the game, but we have struggled in situational football for a long time. There seems to be little to no urgency in our 2-minute drill since at least last year.
  • Will be very interesting to see how Dino approaches the offseason. If he doesn't go all out to try to bring in immediate contributors on both sides of the LOS and QB, he can cry again next year about injuries, but it'll be on him. I really want to see him succeed. I hope he understands the urgency.
 
Last edited:
Great write-up as always. I often wonder if Dino and staff watch the game film to understand where improvement needs to happen for players and coaching? It's almost like Dino thinks everything with the coaching is perfect and there is no reason for change.
 
Several of those 3rd downs their QB did a good job of moving around the pocket to buy time. Had he been a statue like we are used to seeing from our starting QB, those would not have been converted. It is amazing how poor our QB play has been the last 22 games.
 
Really good writeup. The situational awareness piece is scary. Makes me think about Dinos comments that first year players are like deer in headlights (paraphrasing here). Are our players really that nervous on the field? Why?

There is a lot fixable here but it is a lot to fix in areas where we have questions about the competency of coaches. Oline and OC. That’s concerning. Even if oline improves there’s penalties or play calling or WR blocking or talent level that could be an issue - and more. Seems daunting.
 
Personally I was lost as to why NC State just didn't keep pounding us on the ground. I know they have good WR's but their QB was hit or miss and they seemed to be able to put any RB in and pound us.
 
Great write-up as always. I often wonder if Dino and staff watch the game film to understand where improvement needs to happen for players and coaching? It's almost like Dino thinks everything with the coaching is perfect and there is no reason for change.

Good gravy this is a bad post.

They breakdown the tape just like every D1 staff in the country, usually by Sun they are going over it with the player groups.

I don't think there's any evidence that Dino thinks what you assert here. He fired a bunch of coaches last offseason, that would assume he didn't think it was "perfect"
 
Personally I was lost as to why NC State just didn't keep pounding us on the ground. I know they have good WR's but their QB was hit or miss and they seemed to be able to put any RB in and pound us.

They had 30 yards rushing in the first half. They didn't try it because it wasn't working
 
Good gravy this is a bad post.

They breakdown the tape just like every D1 staff in the country, usually by Sun they are going over it with the player groups.

I don't think there's any evidence that Dino thinks what you assert here. He fired a bunch of coaches last offseason, that would assume he didn't think it was "perfect"
Maybe it is him and his scheme that is not perfect
 
They had 30 yards rushing in the first half. They didn't try it because it wasn't working
2 sacks that cost them close to 25 and the 20 yard loss on the play that was a fumble skewed that. They were running the ball effectively all day.
 
Maybe it is him and his scheme that is not perfect

That's quite different than your original post.

I agree that the scheme is not perfect, nor is Dino. You were claiming he didn't look at tape (absurd) or thought everything was perfect which is also a bad take.
 
2 sacks that cost them close to 25 and the 20 yard loss on the play that was a fumble skewed that. They were running the ball effectively all day.

Nope. Rewatch.

They were bad on offense for long stretches. They eventually leaned into the area vacated by our two NFL opt-outs and attacked by throwing the ball to the slot WRs.

I wan't impressed with their O. As is the story all year, a better offense gets us a win.
 
That's quite different than your original post.

I agree that the scheme is not perfect, nor is Dino. You were claiming he didn't look at tape (absurd) or thought everything was perfect which is also a bad take.
Of course I know he watches tape. I was being facetious. I my point is that nothing seems to change from week to week with the play calling, mental mistakes (players & coaches), etc...
Next time I will include pictures so that it is more direct to your liking. I understand that you are the one that knows all here and that you will let everybody know when they are wrong.
 
Of course I know he watches tape. I was being facetious. I my point is that nothing seems to change from week to week with the play calling, mental mistakes (players & coaches), etc...
Next time I will include pictures so that it is more direct to your liking. I understand that you are the one that knows all here and that you will let everybody know when they are wrong.

The reason I took exception is that it irks me when people put that kind of stuff out into the drinking water. It's needlessly negative.

I don't think I know everything and admit when I'm wrong, which is more than most.
 
After watching some more while Treadmilling-Part deux
  • Didn't realize how good Taj was this game. I knew that he had 13 catches, but I didn't realize how many 1st downs he got us, often with some YAC when it didn't appear to be there. I'd say the majority of his catches were big 1st downs or a TD. The drop hurt, but he more than made up for it this game
  • Tackling has been much better the last 1-2 games
  • Thompson-Bishop with an excellent block on the KO return for a TD
  • I don't like to complain about refs, but I don't think we got one close call all game. This includes penalties, as well as ball placement.
 
  • First of all, though the season isn't officially over yet, in honor of Senior day, thanks to all the Seniors who always represented the team and school with class and great effort. Hope to see many of them for another year
  • Like to start off positive-We were in this game to the end. The guys played hard and dare I say well at times
  • Congrats to Pena and the Special teams on the KO return for a TD
  • Am pleased we did some quicker developing passes, which enabled us to sustain some drives- slants, crossing patterns. Hope we continue to do so
  • Taj obviously had a big miss (seems like we say that after many games), but overall had a very good game.
  • We still need to either bring in or develop a big, strong WR to catch some tough contested throws. NC State had 3 of them where our guys were right there and they just outmuscled them. We need a Steve Ish-type to make some of these catches. Queeley is solid, but he's not making those types of catches and Taj isn't reliable enough, either.
  • I say it a lot, but I really like our young LB's-They have a ton of talent and should get better. Think we need to find a way to get 4 of them on the field more often, especially considering what we're losing at DB this season.
  • First time we saw our CB's get beaten like that, Garrett in particular. Should be a good learning experience for him
  • The Defense generally played very well on 1st and 2nd, but continues to struggle on 3rd down, particularly 3rd and long. The only times we stopped them there was when we brought extra pressure. It's uncanny how much we've been beaten there.
  • I'm surprised how little stunting we've had on Defense. If you're just going to do a 4-man rush, can just play 4 DL.
  • DL continued to get pushed around a lot.
  • It's not just the amount of penalties that are a killer, it's also the timing. We seem to always get them when we can least afford them. How many 3rd down stops have been wiped out this year by penalties? The penalty on the return that brought us back to the 10 yard line after Nykeim had a nice return. The 15 yarders. Just killers. And it seems to happen every game, though I do think this is our 1st game w/o a false start in forever, so there's that.
  • Rex made some nice throws, but really struggled with any pressure. Our guys look totally lost the few times our QB's get out of the pocket, either just standing still or running out of bounds taking themselves out of the play. I don't know if they think the QB is gonna run somewhere, but it's really strange. This has been happening for 2 years.
  • 3 yards total running-Not much needs to be added to that, but I will say it's not just the OL, the perimeter blocking has been terrible. Benson and the WR's really struggled (at best) or didn't look like they putting much effort (at worst) when we tried to run outside. There was one play to the outside where both Rex and Benson went to the outside like they were going to block and both got out of the way when the defenders came to tackle..and I've been a big Benson supporter. The short-yardage situations are embarrassing-Have we completed one 4th and 1 all year? And they're not even close, we almost always get tackled behind the LOS.
  • Would like to throw the backs a few short passes, which can be a like a run and give them a chance past the LOS. Not sure why we have forgotten about Lutz. He can and should have a role here.
  • These 3rd down passes 40 yards down the field continue to mystify me. You know the QB isn't going to have a ton of time to throw. The 1st drive of the game epitomized this-We had the ball on the opposing 38-yard line. This should be 4 down territory, especially for a team like us that struggles to score and has nothing to lose. If we even complete a 5-yard pass, we are in FG range, as well as a makeable 4th down. After a long pass out of bounds on 2nd and 10, we appear to send everyone deep before Rex forces a pass to a double-teamed Queeley that has no chance of being completed. We just throw away drives. Very frustrating.
  • Won't even touch the end of the game, but we have struggled in situational football for a long time. There seems to be little to no urgency in our 2-minute drill since at least last year.
  • Will be very interesting to see how Dino approaches the offseason. If he doesn't go all out to try to bring in immediate contributors on both sides of the LOS and QB, he can cry again next year about injuries, but it'll be on him. I really want to see him succeed. I hope he understands the urgency.
Culpeper throws a decent long ball relative to every other throw he makes. Low percentage, sure, but compared to what? Hoping he marches us?
 
Culpeper throws a decent long ball relative to every other throw he makes. Low percentage, sure, but compared to what? Hoping he marches us?
The crossing patterns that were successful all game.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
167,131
Messages
4,681,851
Members
5,900
Latest member
DizzyNY

Online statistics

Members online
324
Guests online
2,279
Total visitors
2,603


Top Bottom