So damn proud of this team...

[MadNY3]

That's a good point. Willing to bet this isn't a 10-point game in the Meadowlands.

But they make a helluva lot more money in the Meadowlands...and that $$$ can make up for the first three games where 40% of the seats+ were empty.

Love the Dome when there's a great atmosphere. Hope it is similar when the big ACC dogs come into the house in October.

 

[Scooch]

But they make a helluva lot more money in the Meadowlands...and that $$$ can make up for the first three games where 40% of the seats+ were empty. Love the Dome when there's a great atmosphere. Hope it is similar when the big ACC dogs come into the house in October.

IMHO, MetLife made sense when they originally did it, but doesn't now. Gotta build the fan base back, and long term the way to do that is by playing games in the Dome. I'm sure we turned some folks on (or back on) to SU football today. That doesn't happen in NJ. They're super convenient for me, but I'm done with them.

 

[Bortukal]

But they make a helluva lot more money in the Meadowlands...and that $$$ can make up for the first three games where 40% of the seats+ were empty.

Love the Dome when there's a great atmosphere. Hope it is similar when the big ACC dogs come into the house in October.

Not implying that the Meadowlands games were a bad thing.

Just saying that the result we saw today in the Dome probably doesn't happen at MetLife.

 

[nycfan]

Agreed. So proud of this team, and totally stoked for the rest of the season

Agree 1000%. Soooo stoked for rest of the season. I honestly can't remember feeling this good after a loss, EVER.

 

[CuseCPT]

Agreed, this may be the best I've ever felt about a loss.

 

[WickedOrange]

obviously a little tongue in cheek with my post. you of all people here should recognize that.

I don't think Long was really thinking about moving on, esp burning this year and would have to do the same unless he went way down in weight class.

If Long transfers it will make for a really awkward tattoo.

 

[Scooch]

The last two times I felt good after a loss were 2009 on the road at Penn State, and the 2012 opener against Northwestern. The former was because we played PSU really competitively and it was clear we had a competent, D1 head coach again. The latter was because we made a furious comeback and it was clear that we had the horses to have a good season.

But I feel better today tan either of those two times.

 

[Upstate]

I just can't help but think about the games we'd get blown out by a pretty good Pitt team or USF team 4-5 years ago. Shafer is stocking this cupboard and it's time to cook.

 

[FAL]

I just can't help but think about the games we'd get blown out by a pretty good Pitt team or USF team 4-5 years ago. Shafer is stocking this cupboard and it's time to cook.

I think his cupboard is what saves his coaching a$$. Man, it is stocked!

 

[K Otto XLIV]

The first half the D played well and the O struggled. The second half when the D struggled somehow the O stepped up and put up 21 points on LSU! Imagine if we had Dungey?

Couple plays I wish we had back:

-the sack avoiding pitch to Fournette. If that doesn't happen we might have led at the half. Hate that a fluke play killed us.

-several plays at the end of the half. We had 1:3o left from the 35 and 2 TOs. We needed to go faster. Also in here was another bad snap, which has hurt us a few times already this year. It looked like we had a trick play setup for a TD but the snap killed it. There was a WR open in the middle. Loved the fake FG call but we needed to stop the clock after. We lost 20 seconds. We needed to either call the TO or spike it. That cost us another 2 shots at a TD. And finally that missed FG. Ugh. Those 3 points would have kept us alive until the end.

-the deep ball that Whigham got beat on. It looked like he tried to purposely interfere with the WR, which would have been a great play. However he should have just tackled the guy before the ball got there. I will take 15 yards over 50 anyday. The right idea was there, he just missed getting it done.


I still think there are a lot of questions with the team which we won't know the answers until after USF. But there are a lot of positive signs. I really think we have a good shot at 5-1, assuming Dungey is back.

 

[rocfan44]

Never have I been more prouder of a losing effort than I am still tonight. This team could have given up and chalked this game up as a loss like many in this board were doing. They could have proved all the doubters in the media (yeah I'm taking about you Herbie!) right and just laid down and let LSU run up the score. But NO! They were not having it. The coaching staff in my opinion was top notch today. How smart was it for them to put in the wildcat this week. Something LSU could not have game planned for at all. If only that snap doesn't go bad! Lester called a hell of a game. Mahoney played better than anyone expected a walk on to play against LSU. Brisly is a beast and we can continue to expect great things from him. They hung with the big boys today and did not back down. That will only prove huge dividends when the FSU's and Clemsons come knocking on the door! This team has finally given us something to be excited about. Let's take this bye week and get healthy and go balls to the wall the rest of the year. I for one cannot wait!!! Let's go Orange!!

 

[jekelish]

If Long transfers it will make for a really awkward tattoo.

Hey, how many people wind up with tattoos they later regret?

It'd be a valuable lesson that many, many people have to learn.

 

[SWC75]

The score may not reflect it, but SU gave LSU all they could handle today. Just a whale of an effort. I'm more optimistic about the program than I've been in a long time.

Go Orange!

it was a very good college football game between two undefeated Power Five teams.

We excepted it to be the little brothers against the big brothers but it was competitive game.

Actually, with rare exceptions, (like 2013 at FSU), I think the differences between teams or conferences is somewhat over-stated. Rhode Island was not able to compete with us but it wasn't because they were an FCS team. It was because they were a bad FCS team. Central Michigan was a MAC team but they were certainly able to compete with us. LSU is an SEC contender and we're an ACC also-ran, (although that view may be upgraded), but we were able to compete with them.

 

[RF2044]

Remember a couple of years ago when we had difficulty competing against P5 teams, in terms of general athleticism, size, and speed?

This coaching staff has us moving in the right direction in terms of the roster talent. I think it is still fair to question Shafer as a game coach. BUT he seems to be getting better, and I think pretty clearly Lester has the chops to be a high major OC.

Great to see. Syracuse football is back.

 

[Toga]

I just can't help but think about the games we'd get blown out by a pretty good Pitt team or USF team 4-5 years ago. Shafer is stocking this cupboard and it's time to cook.

 

[hungrychuck]

Remember a couple of years ago when we had difficulty competing against P5 teams, in terms of general athleticism, size, and speed?

This coaching staff has us moving in the right direction in terms of the roster talent. I think it is still fair to question Shafer as a game coach. BUT he seems to be getting better, and I think pretty clearly Lester has the chops to be a high major OC.

Great to see. Syracuse football is back.

Agree completely with this sentence.

Do think this has been incremental, starting with Doug. But compared to Greg, not a really high hurdle.

Not quite sure we're back yet. We have a start.

It will be very interesting to have Eric back and know we have a workable backup in Zack.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

No. He played about as good as you could have hoped for today but he's still a walk-on QB. Props to him but this fight was all the more impressive having him as our starter.

Well, he was recruited and offered a place on the team, so he is a bit different than a normal walk on.

 

[K Otto XLIV]

Remember a couple of years ago when we had difficulty competing against P5 teams, in terms of general athleticism, size, and speed?

This coaching staff has us moving in the right direction in terms of the roster talent. I think it is still fair to question Shafer as a game coach. BUT he seems to be getting better, and I think pretty clearly Lester has the chops to be a high major OC.

Great to see. Syracuse football is back.

I do think we have a size issue but that isn't a big deal and seems to be part of Shafer's strategy. Our D is undersized but is fast and flies around. They fit our system well so it doesn't matter. Our O skill guys are small but that is fine because of how we use them. I prefer this strategy vs Marrone's. Wasn't the story that he didn't want Estime because of his size?

Syracuse is the type of school that needs to recruit good college players and not guys with NFL measurables. Those types of kids are recruited by the big boys and we will never out recruit those schools in that regard. There are plenty of very good college players who slip through the cracks because of their size. We need to get those kids. Look at what RichRod did at WV. He was there 7 years and they had some very good teams. Only 4 of his players ended up being drafted in the first 3 rounds of the draft.

 

[Ottoble]

Unbelievably proud of our guys.

Anyone who left the game early should be banned from the Dome for life. These guys earned fans and (some of) the fans abandoned them.

This... that team played their heart out and was about 3 plays from an upset (missed FG in 2nd qtr, punt return for TD, fluke sack pitch for 50yds) you stay till the end and support this team!

 

[PAcuse]

The kids and the coaches all played with everything they had. This might have been one of the best coached games we've seen in awhile. The pure excitement the kids had on touchdowns was great to see. The biggest thing I saw was anytime a player game off after a miss another player stepped and had a talk with them be it Hunt in Mahoney's ear or even when Murphy missed his FG before half I believe it was Trudo talked to him and picked him up. We have some great leaders on this team.

 

[SUskibum]

I do think we have a size issue but that isn't a big deal and seems to be part of Shafer's strategy. Our D is undersized but is fast and flies around. They fit our system well so it doesn't matter. .

This is a similar strategy to the old Dungy Buccaneer defenses that were top 5 every year. Also one I like very much... Fast, aggressive, havoc inducing.

 

[Ottoble]

The kids and the coaches all played with everything they had. This might have been one of the best coached games we've seen in awhile. The pure excitement the kids had on touchdowns was great to see. The biggest thing I saw was anytime a player game off after a miss another player stepped and had a talk with them be it Hunt in Mahoney's ear or even when Murphy missed his FG before half I believe it was Trudo talked to him and picked him up. We have some great leaders on this team.

We have recruited lots of high school team captians over the past few years I thought that seemed smart.

 

[Crusty]

Unbelievably proud of our guys.

Anyone who left the game early should be banned from the Dome for life. These guys earned fans and (some of) the fans abandoned them.

Wait a minute, you were not even there.

 

[AirForceOrange]

Mahoney on patrol
Making his first career start for Syracuse, former walk-on Zack Mahoney threw three touchdowns against LSU on Saturday. How big an accomplishment is that? In the past decade, only six other quarterbacks have had a three-touchdown game against the Tigers: AJ McCarron, Aaron Murray, Ryan Mallett, T.J. Yates, John Parker Wilson and Andre Woodson. Three of them are on NFL rosters right now.
In fact, since 2010, only six ACC QBs have thrown three touchdowns in a game against any SEC team. In the last decade, only two have done it against a ranked SEC foe.

From: http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/id/86102/week-4-by-the-numbers-hokies-defense-gets-burned-again

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some data to show how well our 5th string, walk-on QB performed on Saturday...

 

[orange79]

Wait a minute, you were not even there.

To be fair, a lot of us weren't there, for one reason or another. All I can say is, if I am at a game, I never leave until the clock hits 0:00. I have watched a lot of blowouts (both for and against us) and have never left. Ever.

It's not unfair to criticize those who try to beat the traffic (whether you were there or not), but it's their choice. Never understood it, though...