Tale of Two Tapes

[Oakland]

Stopped watching the game (taped) at 35-13 because of disgust, but mostly because I had to get ready for an engagement. Thought I'd quickly watch the end later but wasn't sure. Up to that point, it was mostly the same disappointing team of the last 10 years, however, I very much liked the faster paced offense.

As it always seems, SU plays better when I am not watching (just to prove this point, I completely missed the WV game last season). After I stopped watching, the team looked great the last 18 min of the game on both sides of the ball. Only a down on its luck program like SU could so thoroughly outplay (statistically) the other team and still lose.

If the question is: would I prefer a 13-10 win with the same crappy offense as the last 10 seasons or a 42-41 loss will much higher expectations, I'll take the higher expectations. I thought the team would be about 6-6, now I have hope they might do better.

Just a couple of things that others have not pointed out:

1) There were 5 -6 SU guys running to cut Marks off on his TD punt return. The last 2 guys were unlikely to make a play at the sideline and showed poor judgement in not containing the cut back. Maybe all the 3 heavies posts are correct, but those two guys allowed a 40 yd return to be a 82 yd touchdown.

2) The interception off of Sales bobble started with a poor shoe string throw by Nassib.

3) At 2.05 in the third qtr, an SU player, well after the whistle, and 5 feet out of bounds, gave the NW player a harmless little shove: no flag. It also looked like PTG got pushed just as he was OOB at the 7 min mark in the 4th qtr, also no flag.

4) Going for 2 pts at 39-35 is an interesting decision.

 

[Upstate]

PTG was also hit OOB, and much more blatantly than NW's QB, on SU's final drive.

 

[JoeSU]

.

4) Going for 2 pts at 39-35 is an interesting decision.

Seemed like a no-brainer to me One point does nothing for us. At least with a 6 pt lead it forced NW to have to kick the XP.

 

[Orangeman]

But if you don't get it, up Four, they need a TD anyway, and then you only get a tie with a FG answer. I can see the discussion.

 

[qdawgg]

Really there is no discussion on that one. It's the end of the game and NW is getting the ball back. You are up by 4, if you kick the extra point you are only up 5. Up 4 or 5 doesn't matter, NW has to score a TD in order to win. If you get the 2 point conversion you are up by 6 and NW has to score a TD but in order to win they have to make the extra point. This gives you a chance to block the kick. If you don't go for the 2 point conversion then NW could have scored and won w/o having to kick the extra point.

There is only one right call in that situation.

 

[CuseIsGodsTeam]

Stopped watching the game (taped) at 35-13 because of disgust, but mostly because I had to get ready for an engagement. Thought I'd quickly watch the end later but wasn't sure. Up to that point, it was mostly the same disappointing team of the last 10 years, however, I very much liked the faster paced offense.

As it always seems, SU plays better when I am not watching (just to prove this point, I completely missed the WV game last season). After I stopped watching, the team looked great the last 18 min of the game on both sides of the ball. Only a down on its luck program like SU could so thoroughly outplay (statistically) the other team and still lose.

If the question is: would I prefer a 13-10 win with the same crappy offense as the last 10 seasons or a 42-41 loss will much higher expectations, I'll take the higher expectations. I thought the team would be about 6-6, now I have hope they might do better.

Just a couple of things that others have not pointed out:

1) There were 5 -6 SU guys running to cut Marks off on his TD punt return. The last 2 guys were unlikely to make a play at the sideline and showed poor judgement in not containing the cut back. Maybe all the 3 heavies posts are correct, but those two guys allowed a 40 yd return to be a 82 yd touchdown.

2) The interception off of Sales bobble started with a poor shoe string throw by Nassib.

3) At 2.05 in the third qtr, an SU player, well after the whistle, and 5 feet out of bounds, gave the NW player a harmless little shove: no flag. It also looked like PTG got pushed just as he was OOB at the 7 min mark in the 4th qtr, also no flag.

4) Going for 2 pts at 39-35 is an interesting decision.

May I suggest DVRing the rest of the games.

You will be helping the football team and you won't have to watch commercials! Its a win win!