The D got a few stops

[reedny]

Trill played. I saw a highlight where he was the blitzer that chased Finley out of the pocket, almost fell down as he rolled to his right, but was able to keep persuit.
Of course - Finley still connected on a big pass play to Harmon, because he did that all flipping game.

Exactly. As noted, we have some guys nicked up and Finley and Harmon are the class of the league - excellent. OTOH, we gave up chunk repeatedly because of separation and blown coverage (a frequent problem this season). Both Harmon and Finley had career highs against us. And we gave up 40+ points and 500+ yards. Fortunately for us, their running game was off, probably because their best backs are injured. Even with backups, they had no trouble moving through our D line on short yardage plays. Yes the D got some stops early and rose up again when it counted in the 4th. In between, we showed that we still have a lot of holes to plug and deficiencies to be exploited. Those pretending we're "good on D" are kidding themselves.

 

[GoSU96]

It is a good offense, but it was still their season high in points and total yards.

Would need to assess number of possessions in other games. The style of offense leads to stress on the defense.

Not to many possessions like the 14 play 6min drive that opened the 2nd half.

 

[Chip]

must be something on that side of the field 2 games in a row a dude catches a INT with green turf in front and falls down, cost one the game and could have hurt us too..

Cisco would have had an easy pick 6 in the opener as well, but the Western Michigan turf monster got him.

 

[PhatOrange]

Exactly. As noted, we have some guys nicked up and Finley and Harmon are the class of the league - excellent. OTOH, we gave up chunk repeatedly because of separation and blown coverage (a frequent problem this season). Both Harmon and Finley had career highs against us. And we gave up 40+ points and 500+ yards. Fortunately for us, their running game was off, probably because their best backs are injured. Even with backups, they had no trouble moving through our D line on short yardage plays. Yes the D got some stops early and rose up again when it counted in the 4th. In between, we showed that we still have a lot of holes to plug and deficiencies to be exploited. Those pretending we're "good on D" are kidding themselves.

I can only remember 2 maybe 3 blown overages. Otherwise Finley was money and the guys were making catches. They had a few where the coverage couldn't have been better but Finley either layed it in there or the WR made a heck of a catch.

They had to abandon their running game to keep pace with us.

Their defense had the same problems with us as we had with them. The beauty of having good offense.

 

[reedny]

I can only remember 2 maybe 3 blown overages. Otherwise Finley was money and the guys were making catches. They had a few where the coverage couldn't have been better but Finley either layed it in there or the WR made a heck of a catch.

They had to abandon their running game to keep pace with us.

Their defense had the same problems with us as we had with them. The beauty of having good offense.

Finley is money with the ball, and Harmon has "NFL" written all over him. All true. And I agree they couldn't run all that much being behind ... although they had no trouble keeping up with our pass defense. I'll give them some catches .. as you point out. A couple to Harmon were undefendable, and the one to the tight end was a thing of beauty (as was Dungey's pass to 82). But when both QB and WR each have career days and guys are getting easy separation with (on some plays) no one in the vicitinity ... I don't think anyone should be congratulating our D. I like our pass rush. And we have some talent coming up. But wow .. right now I'm holding my breath on every pass play against good ACC teams.

 

[PhatOrange]

Finley is money with the ball, and Harmon is a LOAD and a half to cover. All true. And I agree they couldn't run all that much being behind ... although they had no trouble keeping up the way we were unable to stop their passing attack. I'll give them some catches .. as you point out. The one to the tight end was a thing of beauty (as was Dungey's pass to 82). But when both QB and WR each have career days and guys are getting easy separation with (on some plays) no one in the vicitinity ... I don't think anyone should be congratulating our D. I like our pass rush. And we have some talent coming up. But wow .. right now I'm holding my breath on every pass play against good ACC teams.

Agreed but I just don't put too much stock into having a steel curtain defense in today's game. The offensive display was a thing of beauty. I loved it. The back and forth was great - it tired me out.

 

[reedny]

Agreed but I just don't put too much stock into having a steel curtain defense in today's game. The offensive display was a thing of beauty. I loved it. The back and forth was great - it tired me out.

No doubt. I've never had a 4 hour game go so fast. And my son got on ESPN2 with a shot of him in his SU football helmet (2:33 mark).