SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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- I got to the game and found my section had a number of Clemson fans in it. I like Clemson fans and there was no problem getting along with them. The problem I had with it is that each one presumably represented a Syracuse fan who had sold his ticket to an opposing fan prior to one of the most anticipated games in years. the team needed all the support we can give them.
- The game was underway a few minutes when I looked at the “game stats” board and saw some numbers that obviously had nothing to do with this game. We had 518 yards total offense to 413, 326 yards rushing to 203, Moe Neal had rushed for 159 yards and 2TDs on just 8 carries, etc. I’d bought this year’s media Guide before the game and so I pulled it out and determined that those were the stats from last year’s Louisville game- our last home game before this. Nobody had bothered to reset the numbers for this game. Just another example of how this University can screw things up sometimes. Actually, it turned out I liked those numbers than the actual ones that were compiled in the game. I wish they’d left them up there.
- Those stats, in the end showed 187 yards vs. 612, the second straight week we’ve given up over 600 yards. We got out-passed 172-391 and out-run 15-221 and eventually out-scored 6-41. There’s no spinning that. We’d hoped this season to be a team that could challenge Clemson for the ACC title and maybe go beyond that. The last two games have shown that those ambitions were not just too optimistic: they were ridiculous.
- We have many problems but the big one is that we can’t protect Tommy DeVito. His ‘pocket’ is a shooting gallery. With Servias having to play center, Carlos Vettrorello and Ryan Alexander are exposed as revolving doors. If this isn’t resolved this season, we probably won’t even get a winning record or another bowl game, which we need to keep the recruiting momentum going. Wasn’t Qadir White supposed to be something special? Maybe Matthew Bergeron could help out. Something good has to happen here if the season is going to amount to anything.
- Tommy DeVito can throw a pretty pass when he gets the protection he needs but he’s lacking in other key areas at this point in his career. His pocket awareness is poor, as is his scrambling ability and the ability to see the field and throw on the run. A lot of this is instinctive. Tommy can throw the ball better than Eric Dungey but Eric was a better a quarterback than Tommy is at a similar point in his career. In fact, he was better from the moment he took over from Terrel Hunt. Players develop on different schedules so tommy may blossom as a star in the future but he isn’t as far along as I had hoped at this and that makes me wonder how good he can be.
- We had a real chance to make a game of this when we got the amazing interception from Chris Fredrick and Tommy gave the ball right back to Clemson. He was scrambling and threw the ball into coverage for an easy pick. They said on the radio that the defender had fallen down, Tommy didn’t see him and he got up right into the path of the ball. Then Antwan Cordy, our 6 year senior took the wrong angle on a sideline play and allowed Arami Rogers to go 87 yards for a touchdown.
- Then we got another pick from Trill Williams, who ran it to the 2 yards line. What followed brought back memories of that dreadful Iowa game from the G-Rob Era where we couldn’t get it in in four plays. Lawrence than ran for 25 yards and passed for 48 and they got a field goal. The game ceased to be competitive after that.
- If you are going to knock off a #1 rated team, you have avoid mistakes and you’ve got to take advent age of every opportunity. On our first possession, Taj Harris, who has been a major disappointment after a promising freshman year, dropped a pass that would have gotten us a first down and maybe a lot more. Later Trishton Jackson had a touchdown on a long pass got through his hands and had another long pass bounce off them. The touchdown would have been negated by a penalty but the point remains the same.
- You are also not going to beat Clemson when you commit 9 penalties for 85 yards – plus the yards gained on the plays that were negated.
- I think we abandoned the running game, which had some initial success, too early. Passing as often as we did when we couldn’t protect Tommy played into Clemson’s hands. His greatest success was when we went play-action, which depends on the running game. He also had a couple of good plays passing the halfback in the flat. Adam terry, doing the color on the radio, noted that Clemson started cheating up to cover that and that Jackson would be open beyond the back as a result. But we didn’t take advantage of it.
- The game was underway a few minutes when I looked at the “game stats” board and saw some numbers that obviously had nothing to do with this game. We had 518 yards total offense to 413, 326 yards rushing to 203, Moe Neal had rushed for 159 yards and 2TDs on just 8 carries, etc. I’d bought this year’s media Guide before the game and so I pulled it out and determined that those were the stats from last year’s Louisville game- our last home game before this. Nobody had bothered to reset the numbers for this game. Just another example of how this University can screw things up sometimes. Actually, it turned out I liked those numbers than the actual ones that were compiled in the game. I wish they’d left them up there.
- Those stats, in the end showed 187 yards vs. 612, the second straight week we’ve given up over 600 yards. We got out-passed 172-391 and out-run 15-221 and eventually out-scored 6-41. There’s no spinning that. We’d hoped this season to be a team that could challenge Clemson for the ACC title and maybe go beyond that. The last two games have shown that those ambitions were not just too optimistic: they were ridiculous.
- We have many problems but the big one is that we can’t protect Tommy DeVito. His ‘pocket’ is a shooting gallery. With Servias having to play center, Carlos Vettrorello and Ryan Alexander are exposed as revolving doors. If this isn’t resolved this season, we probably won’t even get a winning record or another bowl game, which we need to keep the recruiting momentum going. Wasn’t Qadir White supposed to be something special? Maybe Matthew Bergeron could help out. Something good has to happen here if the season is going to amount to anything.
- Tommy DeVito can throw a pretty pass when he gets the protection he needs but he’s lacking in other key areas at this point in his career. His pocket awareness is poor, as is his scrambling ability and the ability to see the field and throw on the run. A lot of this is instinctive. Tommy can throw the ball better than Eric Dungey but Eric was a better a quarterback than Tommy is at a similar point in his career. In fact, he was better from the moment he took over from Terrel Hunt. Players develop on different schedules so tommy may blossom as a star in the future but he isn’t as far along as I had hoped at this and that makes me wonder how good he can be.
- We had a real chance to make a game of this when we got the amazing interception from Chris Fredrick and Tommy gave the ball right back to Clemson. He was scrambling and threw the ball into coverage for an easy pick. They said on the radio that the defender had fallen down, Tommy didn’t see him and he got up right into the path of the ball. Then Antwan Cordy, our 6 year senior took the wrong angle on a sideline play and allowed Arami Rogers to go 87 yards for a touchdown.
- Then we got another pick from Trill Williams, who ran it to the 2 yards line. What followed brought back memories of that dreadful Iowa game from the G-Rob Era where we couldn’t get it in in four plays. Lawrence than ran for 25 yards and passed for 48 and they got a field goal. The game ceased to be competitive after that.
- If you are going to knock off a #1 rated team, you have avoid mistakes and you’ve got to take advent age of every opportunity. On our first possession, Taj Harris, who has been a major disappointment after a promising freshman year, dropped a pass that would have gotten us a first down and maybe a lot more. Later Trishton Jackson had a touchdown on a long pass got through his hands and had another long pass bounce off them. The touchdown would have been negated by a penalty but the point remains the same.
- You are also not going to beat Clemson when you commit 9 penalties for 85 yards – plus the yards gained on the plays that were negated.
- I think we abandoned the running game, which had some initial success, too early. Passing as often as we did when we couldn’t protect Tommy played into Clemson’s hands. His greatest success was when we went play-action, which depends on the running game. He also had a couple of good plays passing the halfback in the flat. Adam terry, doing the color on the radio, noted that Clemson started cheating up to cover that and that Jackson would be open beyond the back as a result. But we didn’t take advantage of it.
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