Quick (not really) post SU-Rutgers thoughts

[orangepassion]

I might add some thoughts later after I watch the condensed game, but these are some of my thoughts

• Going this game, I told my Father, if Syracuse can just play it even on special teams, I feel very confident we win this game. That obviously didn't happen-You knew the blocked punt was coming (it was close to being 2 or 3 blocked punts), but adding on the shanked punt and missed FG hurt. However, what hurt just as much was how much field position we gave up on several punts letting the ball run 30 yards. It was bad enough to see us do it on one punt, but to continue the same mistake afterwards was disheartening. That's not even getting into several illegal formation penalties on the punts. Has anyone here seen any other team get these type of penalties game after game?
• The QB rotation was puzzling, to say the last. As soon as a QB started playing well, we'd switch to the other one. Why give Schrader his 1st drive deep in our territory? He started slow, but came on in that last drive. I agree with others I'd like to see more. I think Devito has played a little better this year, but he still seems to panic at times with the rush, particularly on 3rd and long, where he will usually throw uncatchable balls where he doesn't give the receivers a chance
• DIno/Gilbert did not help either QB with the play calling. Too many 3rd and 10's, which brings me to:
• The punt-What was nearly as bad as the punt was the play before the punt. At that point in the game, it is clearly 4 down territory. If you're not willing to go for it on 4th and 10, why a low-percentage long pass on 3rd and 10? A slant or a screen to get us 6 yards makes it a very makeable 4th down. I don't know how 25 yards of field position (after you've been conceding field positions on punts all game) is more important than possession of the ball with 8 minutes left in the game, which brings me to:
• Dino has forgotten what got him a P5 job and has gone from fearless to gutless as a playcaller. I remember him going for it on 4th down at his own 30 or so yard line as a HC at BG. Now he's punting it on the other side of the field, even late in games with nothing to lose. Then he's allowing short dumpoffs with less than 2 minutes left in the game down by 2 scores. The only time he tries a trick play or to block a punt in recent years is when we're up or down by 30 points when it has no effect on winning or losing. It seems like he's playing to keep the score close. I think the lack of courage is also manifest how rarely he lets a Freshman get on the field. Off the top of my head, Taj and Tucker are the only guys who have gotten significant snaps on Offense as Freshmen and Tucker was only after he had no choice. I refuse to believe that we don't have anyone more talented than Sharod Johnson in the WR corps, who hasn't shown much in 4 years as a receiver or blocker. Contrast this to Defense, where numerous guys have gotten on the field early and made significant contributions.
• Speaking of Defense, have to tip our hat to Tony White and the players. They were fierce and dominant. Schiano couldn't stop complimenting them.
• Mikel Jones is a stud-Best LB since...
• Okechuckwu and Black made some big plays and Bear contributed with a sack in limited playing time
• The tackling was excellent again from DL top DB
• I know Taj had the one big catch, but he also struggled with 2 drops and a fumble. Whether it was a fumble or not, you can't put it in the refs hands, which brings me to:
• Why are Big Ten refs refereeing an ACC-Big Ten game? That is the worst refereed game that I can remember with obviously the biggest contrast with how they allowed Schiano to pull them aside to curse them out for 5 minutes, while giving the 15-yard penalty for a 10 second conversation, which if you take Dino at his word, didn't even involve profanity.
• Tucker looked fairly good-I'm not sure why we forgot about him.
• Again, no TE targets. Why recruit fast TE's with good hands if you're not going to throw to them?

I don't think Dino should be let go at this point in the season, but he seems to be coaching with no urgency. Think it'll be very difficult not to consider Tony White as the successor if the Defense keeps playing like this. Other candidates have been successful, but he has been successful here and can also recruit and would think cost would be reasonable a a 1st-time HC. Still a short sample size, but will be interesting to see if the D can keep this up when the competition rises. Might add more after I watch the condensed game.

 

[OburgOrange]

Zero TE throws
Zero TD passes in 2 games

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I might add some thoughts later after I watch the condensed game, but these are some of my thoughts

• Going this game, I told my Father, if Syracuse can just play it even on special teams, I feel very confident we win this game. That obviously didn't happen-You knew the blocked punt was coming (it was close to being 2 or 3 blocked punts), but adding on the shanked punt and missed FG hurt. However, what hurt just as much was how much field position we gave up on several punts letting the ball run 30 yards. It was bad enough to see us do it on one punt, but to continue the same mistake afterwards was disheartening. That's not even getting into several illegal formation penalties on the punts. Has anyone here seen any other team get these type of penalties game after game?
• The QB rotation was puzzling, to say the last. As soon as a QB started playing well, we'd switch to the other one. Why give Schrader his 1st drive deep in our territory? He started slow, but came on in that last drive. I agree with others I'd like to see more. I think Devito has played a little better this year, but he still seems to panic at times with the rush, particularly on 3rd and long, where he will usually throw uncatchable balls where he doesn't give the receivers a chance
• DIno/Gilbert did not help either QB with the play calling. Too many 3rd and 10's, which brings me to:
• The punt-What was nearly as bad as the punt was the play before the punt. At that point in the game, it is clearly 4 down territory. If you're not willing to go for it on 4th and 10, why a low-percentage long pass on 3rd and 10? A slant or a screen to get us 6 yards makes it a very makeable 4th down. I don't know how 25 yards of field position (after you've been conceding field positions on punts all game) is more important than possession of the ball with 8 minutes left in the game, which brings me to:
• Dino has forgotten what got him a P5 job and has gone from fearless to gutless as a playcaller. I remember him going for it on 4th down at his own 30 or so yard line as a HC at BG. Now he's punting it on the other side of the field, even late in games with nothing to lose. Then he's allowing short dumpoffs with less than 2 minutes left in the game down by 2 scores. The only time he tries a trick play or to block a punt in recent years is when we're up or down by 30 points when it has no effect on winning or losing. It seems like he's playing to keep the score close. I think the lack of courage is also manifest how rarely he lets a Freshman get on the field. Off the top of my head, Taj and Tucker are the only guys who have gotten significant snaps on Offense as Freshmen and Tucker was only after he had no choice. I refuse to believe that we don't have anyone more talented than Sharod Johnson in the WR corps, who hasn't shown much in 4 years as a receiver or blocker. Contrast this to Defense, where numerous guys have gotten on the field early and made significant contributions.
• Speaking of Defense, have to tip our hat to Tony White and the players. They were fierce and dominant. Schiano couldn't stop complimenting them.
• Mikel Jones is a stud-Best LB since...
• Okechuckwu and Black made some big plays and Bear contributed with a sack in limited playing time
• The tackling was excellent again from DL top DB
• I know Taj had the one big catch, but he also struggled with 2 drops and a fumble. Whether it was a fumble or not, you can't put it in the refs hands, which brings me to:
• Why are Big Ten refs refereeing an ACC-Big Ten game? That is the worst refereed game that I can remember with obviously the biggest contrast with how they allowed Schiano to pull them aside to curse them out for 5 minutes, while giving the 15-yard penalty for a 10 second conversation, which if you take Dino at his word, didn't even involve profanity.
• Tucker looked fairly good-I'm not sure why we forgot about him.
• Again, no TE targets. Why recruit fast TE's with good hands if you're not going to throw to them?

I don't think Dino should be let go at this point in the season, but he seems to be coaching with no urgency. Think it'll be very difficult not to consider Tony White as the successor if the Defense keeps playing like this. Other candidates have been successful, but he has been successful here and can also recruit and would think cost would be reasonable a a 1st-time HC. Still a short sample size, but will be interesting to see if the D can keep this up when the competition rises. Might add more after I watch the condensed game.

The visiting team almost always brings their conference's refs.

 

[OburgOrange]

Zero TE throws
Zero TD passes in 2 games

I guess the TE recruit who transferred wasn’t wrong

 

[orangepassion]

The visiting team almost always brings their conference's refs.

It makes no sense. Why not have a group from a different conference that doesn't have a skin in the game? It was the most lopsided referred every game that I can ever remember seeing after Schiano said to the refs clearly "make it right". They made it more than right for him, starting with the ridiculous call on Babers. I look forward to the investigation.

 

[JRHEETER]

Fire Dino and hire Tony White right now, no matter what we aren’t winning more than 2-3 games

At least the defense literally brings it every week.

Dino allowed his punt team to get multiple illegal formation calls, absolutely inexcusable in my opinion.

Then he quit. He literally quit on the game.

He needs to be let go, he has NO passion for Syracuse and winning here.

 

[McNabb2Brominski]

I’m kinda lost on the infatuation with wanting Tony White be HC. Good coordinators does not always equal good HC. Greg Robinson and Scott Shafer were excellent D coordinators and we know how that turned out.

 

[orlandoorange]

I’m kinda lost on the infatuation with wanting Tony White be HC. Good coordinators does not always equal good HC. Greg Robinson and Scott Shafer were excellent D coordinators and we know how that turned out.

Agreed. The one thing you can say about him though is that his players are disciplined and fundamentally sound. That is/has been lacking on the rest of the team for some time, since before Dino.

I've been a fan since the 70s and I can't recall a time where we've tackled this well. It's pretty impressive.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I’m kinda lost on the infatuation with wanting Tony White be HC. Good coordinators does not always equal good HC. Greg Robinson and Scott Shafer were excellent D coordinators and we know how that turned out.

It's a fair point. Also important to remember that when a guy goes from a coordinator to a head coach, the unit they coordinated changes a bit under whoever the coordinator they hire ends up being. We definitely saw that with Shafer too.

 

[orangepassion]

I’m kinda lost on the infatuation with wanting Tony White be HC. Good coordinators does not always equal good HC. Greg Robinson and Scott Shafer were excellent D coordinators and we know how that turned out.

I hear you, but nothing short of a guy like Saban or Urban Meyer is a guarantee. I thought Dino Babers, who had HC experience and success would be a slam dunk and was so excited when he came here. You have to look at each situation on an individual basis. White has several positives in his favor, which I'll go into more in depth later in the season if the current trend continues. But short version, has had tremendous success in a short sample at SU (I'd say better than Shafer), would likely be able to retain many key coaches/players/recruits, is a very good recruiter (again at SU, not at Alabama, where anyone could recruit), and should be reasonably priced as a 1st time HC, which could be very important if you have to pay millions of dollars to Dino to not coach. I still want to see a larger body of work from him, but don't forget-Dabo wasn't even a coordinator when he got the HC job at Clemson.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Maybe it’s not possible to get it done. I’m not happy with what Dino is doing, but I don’t think we can get anyone better and definitely not with his experience. I’m done with season tickets with another coaching change. It will be the sixth coach in less than twenty years. I’m tired of hearing you have to let the new coach bring in his own players. Does that mean we have to wait until 2025 to field a winning team? It’s getting old and I’m getting older too.

 

[the villager]

Talk about old! I am old ,the offense is terrible and I may not be here in 2025. So how about hiring one of these offensive experts not currently coaching as a special assistant to Coach Babers today. We have the players and a couple games to try to get it right before the tough games.

 

[DCUNITED13]

I believe hiring someone who is not a HC now is a mistake. Marrone was an exception.

By the way if we go 3-1 into our 1st ACC game, what is the conversation then? I want to see games 1-4 before making a judgement.

TD is coming off an injury, but I did not see him improving in his progression of WR's. Number of times a receiver was open and he hits double coverage or is too late to see the opening to begin with. Schrader has an NFL arm. Now he needs reps as a starter.

I'll reserve judgement after the 4th game.

 

[orangepassion]

I skimmed through the game again and wanted to add a couple of points

• Thought Roscoe was very good-He is a very good athlete for his size
• Can't give enough credit to our Defense for their perseverance with so many short field, due to our ST's getting dominated and some phantom penalties
• Thought the play calling was better than last year, except for 3rd and long and the last drive of the game. We need to have a checkdown on these 3rd and longs to spread the field and in case the line doesn't hold. A 6-yard pass can often lead to a 1st down with a little YAC. I couldn't believe the lack of urgency on the last drive, where it was the opposite-not enough guys going deep. We were down 2 scores with no timeouts and little time and we're playing like we're trying to run the clock out.
• The only OL who was manhandled at times was Tisdale-The other pressures were mostly Vet and Servais not reacting quick enough to stunts. Tucker also struggled in pass blocking-Think Lutz is a good guy to have in for 3rd and long with his solid blocking.
• Thought Devito had some nice plays-We had too many drops when we couldn't afford it. A lot of what-ifs and things that were just a bit off this game. I think if we play Rutgers 10 times (with refs who Schiano hasn't intimidated), we win at least 8 of 10. So many questionable calls
• Call me delusional, but I'm optimistic we can win a few more games this year. This is a better team than last year. Getting Davis back will be a big help. Need to let Schrader start and give him a full half and see what he can do. Would also like to see what some of the young receivers can do.