The Downside (Central Michigan)

[SWC75]

- Central Michigan found out that mediocre teams ten to follow upsides with downsides. They don’t have the talent to achieve consistency. Will we find that out next week?


- The game continued a trend from last year: mediocre opposition becomes less than that when key offensive players become unavailable to them. The Chippewas were missing their top running back, Thomas Rawls and their top receiver, Titus Davis. Could they have made up 37 points? Probably not. But let’s not pretend our defense has turned into the Steel Curtain just because we shut down a crippled team.


- The decision making was still kind of a head scratcher. Why did we throw to Adonis Ameen-Moore, a guy who’s never caught a pass, on third down? Why didn’t we just take a knee at the end of the half, rather than running plays from a pistol formation, getting a penalty and finally having to wedge it in front of the goal line just to end the half? Why did Terrel Hunt go all the way in a 40-3 game? Don’t we want to develop Austin Wilson as a reliable back-up and eventual successor? Hunt runs the ball and took a pretty big hit on that last possession, so he’s vulnerable. If we don’t want to throw out the playbook when Wilson does have to come in, why aren’t we playing him at the end of routs?


- We dominated but we didn’t show the explosiveness a really good team needs. The longest play was by “The Tank”, Moore and it didn’t go all the way because he didn’t have the speed to take it all the way. Then there was the third down play where Hunt went deep to either Ashton Broyld or Jarrod West, both of them 220 pounders. It was a good throw but neither could get to it. We have some guys who could have gotten to that ball. Why weren’t we throwing to them?

- Eleven guys caught Terrell Hunt's passes. The elading receiver was Ashton broyd, with 4 carches, (he's still never scored. When Hunt has a true go-to receiver, or a couple of them as Nassib had in 2012, he won't be throwing to 11 guys. Cooper Rush of CMU also completed passes to 11 guys and he lost by 37 points.


- Where is the “hurry up” offense? We got off 79 plays in 33:22 time of possession. That’s 25.34 seconds per play or one play every 2.37 seconds. CMU got off 68 plays in 26:38, giving them 23.50/2.55SU’s stated goal is 18 seconds per play or 3.33 plays per minute. It isn’t how many plays you get off. It’s how many successful plays. Fortunately, we had plenty of them. If the Chips got tired, they got tired of getting knocked on their butts.


- The uniforms are OK, I guess. They just didn’t look like Syracuse. Then we threw a bubble screen and I knew it was us. Our sideways plays didn’t accomplish much. But when we went north-south, we got things done.


- How bad is Purdue?

 

[timkay99]

Why did Terrel Hunt go all the way in a 40-3 game? Don’t we want to develop Austin Wilson as a reliable back-up and eventual successor? Hunt runs the ball and took a pretty big hit on that last possession, so he’s vulnerable. If we don’t want to throw out the playbook when Wilson does have to come in, why aren’t we playing him at the end of routs?

We need Hunt sharp and if we pulled him after the 3rd quarter, we would be going into the Maryland game with our starting QB having played 5 quarters in 3 weeks.

Hunt had to play the full game today no matter what the score was.

 

[SWC75]

We need Hunt sharp and if we pulled him after the 3rd quarter, we would be going into the Maryland game with our starting QB having played 5 quarters in 3 weeks.

Hunt had to play the full game today no matter what the score was.

I don't think not playing in the last drive or two would have made any difference next week. if he had gotten injure don that hard hit late, we'd all be singing a different tune.

 

[CanadianSU]

Boooooo!!!!

 

[timkay99]

I don't think not playing in the last drive or two would have made any difference next week. if he had gotten injure don that hard hit late, we'd all be singing a different tune.

Would one drive in garbage time have made much of a difference for Wilson?

I just think Hunt needed to play a full game and I think you saw some different play calls in the 4th just so that Hunt could see them live as well.

 

[SWC75]

Would one drive in garbage time have made much of a difference for Wilson?

I just think Hunt needed to play a full game and I think you saw some different play calls in the 4th just so that Hunt could see them live as well.

I think one drive in garbage time would have made more difference for Wilson than it would for Hunt.

 

[SUskibum]

I can see the argument for sitting or playing hunt in Q4 but given that he didnt finish the game in any of our blowouts early last year (when he had very little overall experience) it was a bit confusing that he played the last quarter today. In addition, I thought wilson would have given them confidence that he could at least execute the offense based on last game. Either way I'm fine with it, just confused with the contradiction

 

[tipphill]

i am concerned that we go to hunt to often for the run, he will not be able to that against faster teams --he does not have the speed. we need to reaally work on our red zone offense it seems weak

 

[SmilinBob]

My feelings are keep Hunt safe and Wilson should have been out there for that last series. Big picture stuff but I do understand why they wanted him out there to get more reps.

 

[CuseOnly]

- Central Michigan found out that mediocre teams ten to follow upsides with downsides. They don’t have the talent to achieve consistency. Will we find that out next week?


- The game continued a trend from last year: mediocre opposition becomes less than that when key offensive players become unavailable to them. The Chippewas were missing their top running back, Thomas Rawls and their top receiver, Titus Davis. Could they have made up 37 points? Probably not. But let’s not pretend our defense has turned into the Steel Curtain just because we shut down a crippled team.


- The decision making was still kind of a head scratcher. Why did we throw to Adonis Ameen-Moore, a guy who’s never caught a pass, on third down? Why didn’t we just take a knee at the end of the half, rather than running plays from a pistol formation, getting a penalty and finally having to wedge it in front of the goal line just to end the half? Why did Terrel Hunt go all the way in a 40-3 game? Don’t we want to develop Austin Wilson as a reliable back-up and eventual successor? Hunt runs the ball and took a pretty big hit on that last possession, so he’s vulnerable. If we don’t want to throw out the playbook when Wilson does have to come in, why aren’t we playing him at the end of routs?


- We dominated but we didn’t show the explosiveness a really good team needs. The longest play was by “The Tank”, Moore and it didn’t go all the way because he didn’t have the speed to take it all the way. Then there was the third down play where Hunt went deep to either Ashton Broyld or Jarrod West, both of them 220 pounders. It was a good throw but neither could get to it. We have some guys who could have gotten to that ball. Why weren’t we throwing to them?

- Eleven guys caught Terrell Hunt's passes. The elading receiver was Ashton broyd, with 4 carches, (he's still never scored. When Hunt has a true go-to receiver, or a couple of them as Nassib had in 2012, he won't be throwing to 11 guys. Cooper Rush of CMU also completed passes to 11 guys and he lost by 37 points.


- Where is the “hurry up” offense? We got off 79 plays in 33:22 time of possession. That’s 25.34 seconds per play or one play every 2.37 seconds. CMU got off 68 plays in 26:38, giving them 23.50/2.55SU’s stated goal is 18 seconds per play or 3.33 plays per minute. It isn’t how many plays you get off. It’s how many successful plays. Fortunately, we had plenty of them. If the Chips got tired, they got tired of getting knocked on their butts.


- The uniforms are OK, I guess. They just didn’t look like Syracuse. Then we threw a bubble screen and I knew it was us. Our sideways plays didn’t accomplish much. But when we went north-south, we got things done.


- How bad is Purdue?

With regard to the hurry up - We were way ahead and late in the game started huddling and running the clock out from most of the 4th quarter. W normally snap the ball way earlier in the clock, towards the end we were snapping the ball with 3-7 seconds on it. Also, keep in mind that 6 of their plays were punts and one was a fumble for a touchdown.

 

[orangencpolice]

i am concerned that we go to hunt to often for the run, he will not be able to that against faster teams --he does not have the speed. we need to reaally work on our red zone offense it seems weak

You are correct. It was successful and looked good against CMU, but could lead to disaster if relied upon too often against a team like Clemson or FSU. Not trying to be a sour grape but we do need to polish up our offense. Hunt needs to make better decisions also. An example is when he started running and then threw a pass to Gulley at last minute. Plays like that could be crucial down the road. I expected that from him last year with it being his first year. I want to see and hear about him being mentioned on Sunday morning on ESPN College Football Update in the coming weeks.

 

[SmilinBob]

I'm concerned about the lack of success throwing the ball downfield. Good teams will press and blitz and take away the short throws.

Another downside I saw was receiver spacing. Too often two guys were near each other thus making it difficult to get the ball. This is what I love about the Baylor offense...they space so incredibly well. I don't know if the players screwing up or the system but this HAS to be fixed.

 

[Upstate]

I'm concerned about the lack of success throwing the ball downfield. Good teams will press and blitz and take away the short throws.

I'm with you on this, and even though TH looked good on his one really deep throw, they should take one shot per quarter at least.

 

[Toga]

I'm concerned about the lack of success throwing the ball downfield. Good teams will press and blitz and take away the short throws.

Another downside I saw was receiver spacing. Too often two guys were near each other thus making it difficult to get the ball. This is what I love about the Baylor offense...they space so incredibly well. I don't know if the players screwing up or the system but this HAS to be fixed.

On a deep ball at the goal line we had two receivers next to each other.

 

[SmilinBob]

On a deep ball at the goal line we had two receivers next to each other.

That drove me crazy when I saw that and that was one of the times I was referring too. Mistake or design? I hope mistake.

 

[SmilinBob]

I'm with you on this, and even though TH looked good on his one really deep throw, they should take one shot per quarter at least.

Agree with the shots downfield but within the context of a reason or look they get. I'd love to see a practice and see who on this team can make that catch...to run and get to the ball thrown long.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

I was fine with Hunt playing the whole game. Wilson got more experience in the first game than anyone expected. So overall after 2 games, Hunt 's got 5 plus quarters under his belt and Wilson has 2 plus. If this was later in the season, I'd expect Wilson to have been in there. The play calling at the end of the half was bizarre. It's ok to go under center, really. They could also do this more often at the other goal line as well. Ameen Moore getting caught was more a product of conditioning than his overall speed. Once he got by the last guy, he was really huffing and puffing. He looked like he wasn't going to make it regardless of getting tackled or not.

 

[CuseOnly]

I'm concerned about the lack of success throwing the ball downfield. Good teams will press and blitz and take away the short throws.

Another downside I saw was receiver spacing. Too often two guys were near each other thus making it difficult to get the ball. This is what I love about the Baylor offense...they space so incredibly well. I don't know if the players screwing up or the system but this HAS to be fixed.

Press coverage and Blitzing is a dangerous game. That is one of the reasons for the bubble screens. You have 1 WR on the line ready to Block the Corner pressing them. If the receiver off the line on the bubble beats his man, it's off to the races.

That is what keeps defenses honest. They seem to not be willing to let our receivers beat them on the bubble and are content with getting beat with inside rushes and slants.

 

[CuseOnly]

Agree with the shots downfield but within the context of a reason or look they get. I'd love to see a practice and see who on this team can make that catch...to run and get to the ball thrown long.

Ishmail, West, Broyld and Cornelius.

 

[SmilinBob]

Press coverage and Blitzing is a dangerous game. That is one of the reasons for the bubble screens. You have 1 WR on the line ready to Block the Corner pressing them. If the receiver off the line on the bubble beats his man, it's off to the races.

That is what keeps defenses honest. They seem to not be willing to let our receivers beat them on the bubble and are content with getting beat with inside rushes and slants.

True but you have to be able to hide it better or convert to burn them. Hopefully what you wrote will happen if teams press/blitz I still haven't seen it yet to be effective enough to counter act that type of defense. Also, release of the RB/dump pass or quick TE up the middle to the open slot.

 

[SmilinBob]

Ishmail, West, Broyld and Cornelius.

I see them as hooks more than hook and go guys.