Some thoughts on Fran's debut

[money3189]

Yeah, I can see that. I’m not sure I was expecting a world-beating defense but that display of tackling (or lack thereof) was appalling. I’ve never been a big Barron fan but to see he, chestnut and Clark really struggling. MacDonald was brutal. We lost Wax. I just thought with all the talk of toughness this team would be a bit more effective in that area. Wasn’t thinking ‘85 Bears but that was … not awesome. Hopefully it improves as we move along.

I see more technique, run fit issues before anything else I think Fran was purposely being vague to the media. Yes they have to get tougher but I’ve seen players that are not the toughest play well because they know the proper reads and technique within the scheme.

 

[billsin01]

I see more technique, run fit issues before anything else I think Fran was purposely being vague to the media. Yes they have to get tougher but I’ve seen players that are not the toughest play well because they know the proper reads and technique within the scheme.

And speed. Players who are average in speed can look fast when they comfortable with the defense. That can work the opposite when it’s new as well.

 

[Atlcuse44]

One thing that bugged me about the Defensive Coaching staff was the lack of adjustments made at halftime. Now, I understand that you cant get players to tackle better over a halftime speech but I was expecting some scheme changes or something to slow down their rushing attack. We went into halftime with momentum. Then to start the 2nd half, we went 3 and out on offense and then Ohio marched down the field with ease and scored. Very dissapointing.

 

[Scooch]

I'm not a believer in the greatest improvement is between week 1 and week 2 theory, but I do believe in improvement over time.

The week 1 --> week 2 thing is a tired cliche that has never been proven by any shred of evidence. Makes me nuts.

 

[Scooch]

One thing that bugged me about the Defensive Coaching staff was the lack of adjustments made at halftime. Now, I understand that you cant get players to tackle better over a halftime speech but I was expecting some scheme changes or something to slow down their rushing attack. We went into halftime with momentum. Then to start the 2nd half, we went 3 and out on offense and then Ohio marched down the field with ease and scored. Very dissapointing.

Agreed. That's precisely what I had in mind when I noted last week that Robinson has never been the sole DC before. He's the guy who's gotta make those adjustments, and in week 1 there certainly weren't any results to show he did.

 

[PhatOrange]

Yeah, third-down defense should have been listed as a positive. that's a miss on my part. I guess your evaluation focuses more on the positives in our red zone defense. I tend to view that as a bit lucky. Like I thought Ohio did whatever they wanted between the 20s and then we managed to make some plays deep in our own end to force field goals and the one interception. If that's our style and we can pull it off consistently, I guess that's a good thing. I just worry a bit that that style is unsustainable against better competition.

The problem is that you said Fran is a first-time head coach. He looked like it.: ….Ohio coach ran circles around us. Got whatever they wanted offensively and battled defensively.

What? They didn’t actually do whatever they wanted to offensively and the 2nd part of your supporting opinion you say, Ohio “battled defensively.” Except we put up 480 and threw for 354 and 4 TDs. We ran circles around them from that standpoint.

Not one thing happened Saturday where I thought wow he looks like a rookie head coach. Game management, TO usage, the 2 minute drill etc. Went for it on 4th down for 7 when Dino would’ve trotted out the FG team, no false starts woohoo! The game plan ? Idk, one side of the ball was fantastic and the pass D was pretty good too.

Here’s something Fran implemented that I’ve never seen a Syracuse team do before (or any team for that matter), or maybe I don’t pay enough attention, but coming out of the halftime locker room they didn’t have the team milling around doing nothing like Ohio did. They ran the entire team through dynamic stretching. It was awesome and I personally loved it!

 

[money3189]

And speed. Players who are average in speed can look fast when they comfortable with the defense. That can work the opposite when it’s new as well.

Good point

 

[billsin01]

What dramatic turnaround, in particular on defense? It’s not like they’ve sucked the last three years, 67th, 21st, 18th in total defense. It’s been an 8 win team that was degraded by multiple injuries to key players each of those seasons.

As for last week there were 10 rushing plays of 10 or more yds for 206, the other 29 went for 49. They hit two big runs losing contain on the edge and cut back for 100. It wasn’t like we were getting run over like BC did to FSU last night. You don’t have 4 sacks/10 tackles for a loss and hold for 2 conversions for 11 attempts on 3rd getting dominated on the LoS. Ohio gave up 4 sacks on 24 called passes, by contrast SU 1 on 43.

Sorry, meant dramatic turnaround in general. We've been irrelevant nationally for going on 25 years. Some solid seasons mixed in there, but even in those, we're not really in a national discussion in any meaningful way. So I wasn't speaking specifically defensively.

As for our defense, the third-down defense was great. We seemed to get much tougher in the red zone as well. So if it's bend but don't break and that's our system, then those are good signs. But, did you think we played well on that side of the ball?

Ohio opened with two drives that took up the entire first quarter -- 25 plays, 104 yards with both ending in our red zone. They then added a 7 play, 72-yard drive that took just 1:14 and would have ended the half were it not for Fran (intelligently) using our time outs.

In the second half they opened with a 5 play, 75-yard TD drive, had another that was 4 plays, 75 yards for a TD and their final two drives went for 7 plays, 60 yards ending in an pick at our own 25 and then put together an 11-play 60-yard drive that ended in our red zone again.

So six drives that reached the red zone, a seventh that ended at our 25. They had big plays and, as you mention, plenty of chunk plays. The piled up 430 yards of offense, won the time of possession battle and threw enough to keep us off-balance.

I mean, I don't know. If that doesn't cause any concern for you against a supposedly lesser opponent, I guess we just see the game differently.

 

[two3zone]

Agree with a lot of the original post, but do not think the Ohio coach coached circles around Fran Brown by any means. I thought there were far more head scratching decisions from the Ohio coach. You run it all the way down the field with ease, but then when you get to the red zone you do nothing but weird complex short passing plays that fail every time? If they run the ball more in the redzone they were looking at at least one more TD against us. Meanwhile Fran had some good clock management moments that our old coach regularly messed up. Using those timeouts late in the second quarter when they were in the red zone so we had time to score on our last possession is an excellent sign. Dino would have us going into half time with two time outs left and 7 less points on the board. It was his specialty. Fran Brown is already outperforming him in that area.

I think the Ohio coached exactly how Dino coaches. Hope to make some big plays and play it safe. When you're down, play to keep the score close instead of winning.

Nothing that coach did said "wow, what a great coaching move"

 

[billsin01]

The problem is that you said Fran is a first-time head coach. He looked like it.: ….Ohio coach ran circles around us. Got whatever they wanted offensively and battled defensively.

What? They didn’t actually do whatever they wanted to offensively and the 2nd part of your supporting opinion you say, Ohio “battled defensively.” Except we put up 480 and threw for 354 and 4 TDs. We ran circles around them from that standpoint.

Not one thing happened Saturday where I thought wow he looks like a rookie head coach. Game management, TO usage, the 2 minute drill etc. Went for it on 4th down for 7 when Dino would’ve trotted out the FG team, no false starts woohoo! The game plan ? Idk, one side of the ball was fantastic and the pass D was pretty good too.

Here’s something Fran implemented that I’ve never seen a Syracuse team do before (or any team for that matter), or maybe I don’t pay enough attention, but coming out of the halftime locker room they didn’t have the team milling around doing nothing like Ohio did. They ran the entire team through dynamic stretching. It was awesome and I personally loved it!

All fair points and I probably should have chosen my words more carefully. Perhaps calling it a 'first-year' coach thing is unfair. From my watch and re-watch, I thought the defense was brutal. We had nice plays at key moments -- I guess this could be the strategy? Ohio was in the red zone six times and had a seventh drive end at our 25. They didn't light it up passing the ball, but I thought they did enough with Parker Navarro and Coleman Owen (not exactly a Heisman duo) to keep us honest. Just thought we got outplayed on that side of the ball and I've read a ton of 'game plan was vanilla' and 'just need to clean a few things up' posts. I just don't see it that way. I'm concerned we have much larger concerns there.

But, to your point, Fran did a lot of good things as well and I did note that in the original post. I also noted that it's one game and we'll find out more with a larger sample size, obviously.

 

[billsin01]

I think the Ohio coached exactly how Dino coaches. Hope to make some big plays and play it safe. When you're down, play to keep the score close instead of winning.

Nothing that coach did said "wow, what a great coaching move"

Tyus is pretty legit, I think. But I thought what he got out of Navarro and Owen -- pretty much the sum total of their passing game -- was pretty impressive.

 

[cayugacuse]

Fran was composed and stood his ground. Perfection?? Never seen it anywhere, anytime. Great start against a quality program. Dam I can't wait for Ga Tech.

 

[Cuseregular]

What dramatic turnaround, in particular on defense? It’s not like they’ve sucked the last three years, 67th, 21st, 18th in total defense. It’s been an 8 win team that was degraded by multiple injuries to key players each of those seasons.

As for last week there were 10 rushing plays of 10 or more yds for 206, the other 29 went for 49. They hit two big runs losing contain on the edge and cut back for 100. It wasn’t like we were getting run over like BC did to FSU last night. You don’t have 4 sacks/10 tackles for a loss and hold for 2 conversions for 11 attempts on 3rd getting dominated on the LoS. Ohio gave up 4 sacks on 24 called passes, by contrast SU 1 on 43.

thank you, God bless ya!

 

[Cusester]

After what was by all accounts a brutally tough camp, I wonder if Fran gave them enough time off to get their legs back. They looked like a tired team.

 

[baggerbob]

The Ohio game plan was to run the clock down and try to stay close. They never really tried to win the game.

 

[PhatOrange]

All fair points and I probably should have chosen my words more carefully. Perhaps calling it a 'first-year' coach thing is unfair. From my watch and re-watch, I thought the defense was brutal. We had nice plays at key moments -- I guess this could be the strategy? Ohio was in the red zone six times and had a seventh drive end at our 25. They didn't light it up passing the ball, but I thought they did enough with Parker Navarro and Coleman Owen (not exactly a Heisman duo) to keep us honest. Just thought we got outplayed on that side of the ball and I've read a ton of 'game plan was vanilla' and 'just need to clean a few things up' posts. I just don't see it that way. I'm concerned we have much larger concerns there.

But, to your point, Fran did a lot of good things as well and I did note that in the original post. I also noted that it's one game and we'll find out more with a larger sample size, obviously.

There’s definitely some cause for concern on the defense (tackling is fixable), and losing Wax compounds it but if the other team struggles to stop us from scoring then I can live with it.

My only quibble was saying he looked like a first time head coach in his first game. He looked anything but. He’ll make mistakes, everyone does, but that was a pretty good first time out.

 

[Chip]

There’s definitely some cause for concern on the defense (tackling is fixable), and losing Wax compounds it but if the other team struggles to stop us from scoring then I can live with it.

My only quibble was saying he looked like a first time head coach in his first game. He looked anything but. He’ll make mistakes, everyone does, but that was a pretty good first time out.

I thought it was interesting that Fran said he lost his cool a couple of times and will work on that.

There was the obvious verbal headset undressing of someone after the long TD run.

And after the holding call/non hands to the face call that negated the 46 yard pass, the get back coach was told that his services were not needed at the moment.

I didn't think they were a big deal, but sounds like he did.

Everything about the end of the half was refreshing for a first time head coach.

 

[FrancoPizza]

Yep, it was the first big run of the 2nd half. Couldn't believe he ran right back into traffic.

Reminds me of a straight ahead runner we had under Dungey. Can’t remember his name.

 

[billsin01]

I thought it was interesting that Fran said he lost his cool a couple of times and will work on that.

There was the obvious verbal headset undressing of someone after the long TD run.

And after the holding call/non hands to the face call that negated the 46 yard pass, the get back coach was told that his services were not needed at the moment.

I didn't think they were a big deal, but sounds like he did.

Everything about the end of the half was refreshing for a first time head coach.

That hold vs. hands to the face was a rough one.

 

[PhatOrange]

I thought it was interesting that Fran said he lost his cool a couple of times and will work on that.

There was the obvious verbal headset undressing of someone after the long TD run.

And after the holding call/non hands to the face call that negated the 46 yard pass, the get back coach was told that his services were not needed at the moment.

I didn't think they were a big deal, but sounds like he did.

Everything about the end of the half was refreshing for a first time head coach.

Yep ….When you’re a hyper intense coach who is vocal you can lose yourself in those situations. Hot heads. It was good to hear upon self reflection he said he needed to work on his composure. He recognized it and admitted it; pretty transparent. Losing it on officials is one thing but if you lose it on your own people/players then you’ll lose them.

 

[FrancoPizza]

The week 1 --> week 2 thing is a tired cliche that has never been proven by any shred of evidence. Makes me nuts.

Was about to say that earlier. Never seen it either in my decades of watching games.

 

[shu 49]

So I want to preface this by saying the odds that Fran was going to be able to come in and turn around in an instant a program that has been largely floundering for going on 25 years now were always extremely small. He is going to need some time. The big portal wins and exciting commits aside, this is still a remarkably tough task. Competing -- truly competing in a meaningful way -- against the big boys of college football still feels, to me at least, like threading an incredibly small needle. But the excitement has certainly been a breath of fresh air.

Having said that -- Week 1 of the Fran era was a heavy dose of reality ... at least as I saw it. I'll start with the positives because I think there were plenty. But the negatives were super concerning and, unless we see a massive jump defensively in the next few weeks, the thoughts of this team being an 8-, 9-, or 10-win team and making the playoff seem really remote.

The positives:

• McCord was as advertised: McCord probably got a bit lucky with a couple bounces that could have been picks, but the kid made a bunch of throws we haven't seen here in a long time. He makes good decisions generally and appeared to have a nice grasp of what we were trying to accomplish. His back-shoulder throw to Pena was a thing of beauty. Best thing he did, IMO, was on the deep balls, his receivers had a chance to make plays. Haynes and Meeks both make big plays in large part because McCord kept the ball in field of play and put it where they at least had a chance. The pick on the throw to Hatcher wasn't ideal but Hatcher played that as if he didn't know the ball was even thrown in his direction. I won't say it was a poor effort, per se, but he made zero play on that ball. The worst thing other than his first throw, was that McCord was a little late and a little behind on some throws. That feels like something that will get better as he gets more comfortable with the scheme and the personnel. All in all, fun to watch.
  
  
• The offensive design was impressive: There were a few plays in that game where I raised an eyebrow at the design of the play. The back-shoulder throw to Pena was a beautiful design and there were plenty of others. Would love to see Villari get involved a bit, but for a transition to pro style offense, that was an impressive debut against a team that may have been a bit deficient in talent and size, but was well-coached and ready to play.
  
  
• OG is a stud and we have some weapons: OG is an NFL guy. I mean, that analysis doesn't make me a genius -- pretty sure everyone here sees that. But he is a monster physically and makes it look really easy. The RBs were good, the TEs were good (and probably can be even better) and the new blood at WR looks solid. Should be a fun group of skill guys.
  
  
• Specials were fine: Not sure there was anything super exciting here, though i thought Stonehouse was good punting the ball. But otherwise, it was an OK debut, not sloppy and hopefully our improved talent will show up in the return game eventually.
  
  
• OL was better as the game went on: Not sure I'm in love with this group, but for Week 1, it was fine. First quarter was rough but they were better in pass protection as the game went along and we started to see some holes for allen.
  
  
• A win is better than a loss: We've seen smaller schools take down bigger schools early in the season over and over again for a while now. Ohio was well-coached and ready to play and we won the game. That's better than losing ... and I'm not being snarky. It just is nice to get the win and hopefully we can build on the good things and fix the bad.

The negatives:

• The most impressive defensive player on the field was the 180-pound Ohio safety: I thought Diggs had a handful of really nice moments and Barnes made a couple nice plays on the ball. My issue is that was about as much positive as I could say about our defensive performance. That may be a bit of an exaggeration -- we got nice penetration up the middle on the ball that was tipped and picked late and we had a bunch of tackles for loss -- but watching that Ohio kid fly around, take perfect angles and blow up ball carrier after ball carrier was stunning compared to watching our guys on their heels, constantly taking terrible angles was painful.
  
  
• Wax's injury is really, really bad news: I feel for any kid -- our team or the other -- that suffers a bad injury. But in this case, from a football standpoint, we lost our best tackler and most dynamic physical player other than maybe Diggs. And we lose him from a defense that didn't look dynamic to begin with. I thought Sparrow got held on the option play that went for a touchdown (thought Chesnut took a brutal angle on that) but the Heard/Sparrow combo has huge shoes to fill.
  
  
• Tackling was bizarrely bad: I've seen a lot of posts about 'cleaning things up' and 'making adjustments' ... I don't know. We just did not look ready to play defensively (or offensively, in the first quarter). Navarro/Owen/Tyus got every single thing we wanted and we got beat in the trenches more often than we won. Many of the big plays were a result of awful angles and absolutely zero solid tackling. I'm sure there are things that will be cleaned up and adjustments that will be made -- but I'm not so sure this defense doesn't have a lot of work to do on the basic fundamentals of tackling. I also though they played really, really slow. A well-coached team can make players look a step or two faster. We looked soft and slow. I'd be lying if I wasn't concerned about what that says about Fran/Robinson thus far.
  
  
• Fran is a first-time head coach. He looked like it.: As I said, gotta give Fran time, but man, that Ohio coach ran circles around us. Got whatever they wanted offensively and battled defensively. The way they turned Diggs' aggressiveness and pressure against us -- and Diggs still made his fair share of plays -- was a thing of beauty. Fran will only get better but this was a rocky start.
  
  
• Allen is not great in open space: This is a nit pick and I love a physical runner who is looking to turn upfield. Allen is also great catching the ball, which should be a good weapon for us. But he's not quite the home run threat his physical attributes suggest he should be. He has nice moves to get to space at the line of scrimmage, but downfield, he tends to put his head down and seek out contact. Would love to see him bounce out side at times. Again, nit pick. He played well, but something to watch for.

All in all, good to get the win. But this team has a TON of work to do if it has ideas of competing for 8 wins, let alone a playoff.

That long run he had with 8 blocking, my son said he should have bounced left outside but he did what u said and tucked it up. Would been a score maybe.

 

[UpstateSM]

It didn't end up hurting us because of a great playcall and ball by McCord but the only objectively -EV game management I remember was he wasted a few too many valuable seconds before calling a timeout after first down when Ohio was first and goal at the end of the first half. You see plenty of guys not call a timeout there at all so happy that he got there and didn't take too long to do so. Don't see him making the same mistake very many times if ever again.

 

[Crusty]

The problem is that you said Fran is a first-time head coach. He looked like it.: ….Ohio coach ran circles around us. Got whatever they wanted offensively and battled defensively.

What? They didn’t actually do whatever they wanted to offensively and the 2nd part of your supporting opinion you say, Ohio “battled defensively.” Except we put up 480 and threw for 354 and 4 TDs. We ran circles around them from that standpoint.

Not one thing happened Saturday where I thought wow he looks like a rookie head coach. Game management, TO usage, the 2 minute drill etc. Went for it on 4th down for 7 when Dino would’ve trotted out the FG team, no false starts woohoo! The game plan ? Idk, one side of the ball was fantastic and the pass D was pretty good too.

Here’s something Fran implemented that I’ve never seen a Syracuse team do before (or any team for that matter), or maybe I don’t pay enough attention, but coming out of the halftime locker room they didn’t have the team milling around doing nothing like Ohio did. They ran the entire team through dynamic stretching. It was awesome and I personally loved it!

Amen.

 

[Crusty]

What dramatic turnaround, in particular on defense? It’s not like they’ve sucked the last three years, 67th, 21st, 18th in total defense. It’s been an 8 win team that was degraded by multiple injuries to key players each of those seasons.

As for last week there were 10 rushing plays of 10 or more yds for 206, the other 29 went for 49. They hit two big runs losing contain on the edge and cut back for 100. It wasn’t like we were getting run over like BC did to FSU last night. You don’t have 4 sacks/10 tackles for a loss and hold for 2 conversions for 11 attempts on 3rd getting dominated on the LoS. Ohio gave up 4 sacks on 24 called passes, by contrast SU 1 on 43.

Exactly. Was a strange defensive performance. Played great in the red zone and for the most part, except when Diggs got too far in the backfield and they ran by him for big gains, did a good job between the 20's. Feels worse than it was.
I thought Diggs was great with 4 TFL and a sack. He's a handful.
I expect big improvement this week.