Syracuse opens at +21 at Clemson

[RandomGuy]

"SOMEBODY IN VEGAS TOLD THEM THEY WERE GONNA WIN BY 20 TO 23 POINTS."

-Dino Babers, 2016, in the locker room after the Virginia Tech victory

Like times 10,000

I had to watch it, again.

 

[SmilinBob]

How will the young guys do on the biggest stage of their lives? 2 years ago it was loud and that was for a big underdog, Saturday it will be even louder and faster. Curious to see how the nerves go in the beginning and how soon the SU youngsters will respond and settle down.

 

[Crusty]

if the game was at night we would get killed, a noon start gives us a chance

2014 was a night game and we lost 16-6. Was a one score game until late.
AJ Long was QB. Had a great tailgate and good Cuse group.

 

[UnknownOrange]

Like times 10,000

I had to watch it, again.

If you watch the clemson extended cut there's a clip of Sean Riley paying homage to Dino "They thought they were gonna come in here, and have an easy game! No! Let's GO!"

 

[MadNY3]

Time to shock college football again.

Well we know what the focus of Dino’s pre-game speech will be.

“They think we are a fluke. That we haven’t done nothing. That last year didn’t happen. They expect you to lose by not one, not two, but three touchdowns...”

 

[Orangello]

Our D gives up too many big plays IMHO. This is our Achilles heel. Clemson has elite speed at WR. Not a good match up.

 

[Eric15]

They haven’t beating us in nearly 2 YEARS

LOL thats a very dramatic way of saying "SU won the last game."

 

[Trueblue25]

Game starts off with a Cordy acrobatic pick that we hear all about in practice but never see. Dungey walks out to the right side of the 50 and no force on the field will stop him.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Our D gives up too many big plays IMHO. This is our Achilles heel. Clemson has elite speed at WR. Not a good match up.

Big plays will be the biggest concern followed closely behind by our secondary especially if were down Foster and or Cordy. Run d continues to be pretty good but I am hoping we have been saving some stuff on O and D for this type of game as the D looked bad at times against Uconn and got bailed out on that fumble on the first drive. That said this is a house money game, coming off a loss to us last year there is zero chance this team won't be out for blood and Dabo will have them prepared. If we can avoid major injuries and play a tough relatively close game I will feel great at 4-1 going into several games where our opponents have major ?.

 

[PhatOrange]

Our D gives up too many big plays IMHO. This is our Achilles heel. Clemson has elite speed at WR. Not a good match up.

I think it's more about the offense. Our #1 WR's are so pedestrian, they can't get open or catch. This is our achilles heal imo. So great they're awesome blockers. Maybe they can block for the running game because we have to be able to run the ball without getting Dungey killed.

If we can outscore everybody we don't have to worry about giving up points.

 

[JeremyCuse]

I think it's more about the offense. Our #1 WR's are so pedestrian, they can't get open or catch. This is our achilles heal imo. So great they're awesome blockers. Maybe they can block for the running game because we have to be able to run the ball without getting Dungey killed.

If we can outscore everybody we don't have to worry about giving up points.

It was good to see Harris and Sharrod-Johnson out there on Sat getting extend PT. Custis was quiet and I believe again dropped a pass and Butler was pretty much MIA again from a receiving standpoint so getting these young guys up to speed is huge. Its to bad about Hendrix you wonder if he could have seen some time at the outside WR spot.

 

[Alsacs]

It was good to see Harris and Sharrod-Johnson out there on Sat getting extend PT. Custis was quiet and I believe again dropped a pass and Butler was pretty much MIA again from a receiving standpoint so getting these young guys up to speed is huge. Its to bad about Hendrix you wonder if he could have seen some time at the outside WR spot.

Clemson will try a couple of long passes but they are going to dink and dunk us to death.
Our CBs are going to give huge cushions. They did last year. We kept everything in the air in front of us last year and they had Deon Cain.
I am more worried about Travis Etienne and Tavien Feaster.
They each torched us on the ground last year.
I would gameplan to slow them down.
Let Clemson move the ball and hope to contain in the red zone.

 

[CUTater]

Clemson will try a couple of long passes but they are going to dink and dunk us to death.
Our CBs are going to give huge cushions. They did last year. We kept everything in the air in front of us last year and they had Deon Cain.
I am more worried about Travis Etienne and Tavien Feaster.
They each torched us on the ground last year.
I would gameplan to slow them down.
Let Clemson move the ball and hope to contain in the red zone.

The Clemson offense this year is way better than what we had last year. Etienne is awesome, I think he's over 10 ypc the last two games. WRs are a major improvement and I think they may be the best WR corps in CFB.

The defense is worse. Safeties are average and have zero depth behind them. LBs bring the wood but have looked slow.

 

[TigerTown]

You didn't score 40 on FSU...but you think you will @ Clemson?
Mmmmmmkayyyyyyyy.

 

[PhatOrange]

It was good to see Harris and Sharrod-Johnson out there on Sat getting extend PT. Custis was quiet and I believe again dropped a pass and Butler was pretty much MIA again from a receiving standpoint so getting these young guys up to speed is huge. Its to bad about Hendrix you wonder if he could have seen some time at the outside WR spot.

Yeah. I'd move Harris into the #1 spot. Kid is smooth and more reliable. I'd wish they'd throw a deep ball up to him or Johnson instead of Custis. Might as well see if they can catch it.

Harris to me looks like one of those wideouts you'd see running around Miss St or some other 2nd tier SEC school.

 

[Louie and Bouie]

Moneyline is almost up to +1000. That's a real big number.

 

[Orangello]

It was good to see Harris and Sharrod-Johnson out there on Sat getting extend PT. Custis was quiet and I believe again dropped a pass and Butler was pretty much MIA again from a receiving standpoint so getting these young guys up to speed is huge. Its to bad about Hendrix you wonder if he could have seen some time at the outside WR spot.

Yes Custis dropped another that looked like a sure TD.

 

[Alsacs]

You didn't score 40 on FSU...but you think you will @ Clemson?
Mmmmmmkayyyyyyyy.

We aren’t scoring 50 on you guys but if you watched the Florida State game or really any game we have played we have left 10-14 points easily in every game we have played.
Our best WR has dropped an easy long TD the last 2 weeks. They were easy catches just dropped. Plus we have too many red zone stalls and not converting TDs we should. Against Florida State we played horrible on offense and scored 30. More than Virginia Tech FWIW.

If we played well we hang 50 on Florida State. By well I mean how we played against Clemson last year.

We can and will likely score in the 20s on you guys but that won’t be enough.

 

[TigerTown]

Also - there is a very real possibility your guys will be looking ahead to the Pitt game in 2 weeks.

 

[PhatOrange]

You didn't score 40 on FSU...but you think you will @ Clemson?
Mmmmmmkayyyyyyyy.

while you're patting yourself on the back you played furman, ga southern and a REALLY bad georgia tech team. jury is still out on you. you certainly haven't looked elite. that said i think you cover because your D steps up.

 

[TigerTown]

Pat on back? To suggest our D is better than FSU?

 

[CUTater]

while you're patting yourself on the back you played furman, ga southern and a REALLY bad georgia tech team. jury is still out on you. you certainly haven't looked elite. that said i think you cover because your D steps up.

Schedule definitely hasn't been a gauntlet, but it's always going to be a mistake to judge a Clemson team by performance against cupcake opponents. Coach Swinney makes it a point to play everyone with a jersey in those games, and he starts rotating early. Those games are treated like scrimmages.

 

[orangecuse]

One thing for certain that Clemson will cover...it's how significant the gap is in their superior unis to ours. Their unis are what ours should be, detailed like a fine 'Vette. All the right color on color combos, the lettering, the numbers, piping, etc. Excellence for sure. Meanwhile, our blue pants we wore on Sat against UConn has black on the sides. Not only is it barely visible, it's black. Makes no frigging sense.

 

[Nahson]

Also - there is a very real possibility your guys will be looking ahead to the Pitt game in 2 weeks.

There is zero chance we are looking past Clemson lol

 

[LAOrange]

I'm seeing this game way differently than most. I think we're better in three areas. Special Teams, our OL is better than their OL, and our offensive system is better than theirs. Lots of ifs, but if we punch them in the mouth quickly (Riley?), and recognize that their Linebackers are hurt or out, we can outscore them.
Also, their QB situation doesn't help their team.