SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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- Brian Higgins and I just agreed that Dino’s epitaph, if there is to be one is “intriguing and baffling”. Dino and his staff may pull this thing out of the file by completely redesigning his offense to try to win the games needed for a bowl with a crippled team and make it but then he does strange things like Having walk-on Luke McPhail make his college football debut with an interception rather than having ex-cornerback Dan Villari or 4 star recruit Braden Davis, who had already played in the game make that pass. It baffles me that with a record of no starting SU quarterback making it through the season uninjured since 2012 that no effort is made to develop two four-star QBs into adequate back-ups: you know they are going to have to play. Etc., etc. etc.
- To win this game we had to avoid penalties and we didn’t. We had to take advantage of all our scoring opportunities and we didn’t. We had to avoid special teams errors and we didn’t. We had to keep Tech’s fast players in front of us and we didn’t.
- This game became entirely too chippy and it was disappointing to see SU players lose their poise at the end. Dino and his coaches have to control that. And they didn’t.
- We deferred to the second half and then fumbled the second half kickoff and gave up an immediate score. That summarizes a lot.
- The most under-rated thing in football is wide receiver blocking. It can make the difference between a 10 yard gain and a 50 yard game. When your offense is reduced to nothing but incremental gains, it becomes even more vital. It was remarkably good vs. Pitt and remarkably bad tonight, including on those bubble screens where the bubble popped.
- I really thought the staff could cook up a couple plays where we threw the ball downfield to receivers who should be wide-open because Tech would be filling up the box. Nope. Dan Villari was perfect: 14 for 14. For 59 yards and nothing close to a TD. Our longest pass play was for 12 yards. With Davis’ sole pass for -6 yards, we now have 105 yards passing in three games, all of which we could have won with any kind of passing attack.
- The refs were also intriguing and baffling. One of them stood in front of LeQuint Allen being clobbered at last a yard out of bounds in the end zone and elected to do nothing, possibly because Umari Hatcher had already committed two fouls on the same play, (why not go for the hat trick?). I don’t know what targeting is anymore. And why were the refs so anxious for the first half to continue when we were going to take a knee anyway?
- Brady Denaburg has now missed 6 of 16 field goals, which would be so b ad 50 years ago but isn’t good enough these days. And we’ve now botched two extra points and missed a third. These things lose close games, as they did tonight.
- Our long pass defense has been a problem all season and it continues to be. I dream of the days of Andre Cisco, Trill Williams, Iffy Melifonwu and Garrett Williams. I have to because they aren’t here anymore.
- To win this game we had to avoid penalties and we didn’t. We had to take advantage of all our scoring opportunities and we didn’t. We had to avoid special teams errors and we didn’t. We had to keep Tech’s fast players in front of us and we didn’t.
- This game became entirely too chippy and it was disappointing to see SU players lose their poise at the end. Dino and his coaches have to control that. And they didn’t.
- We deferred to the second half and then fumbled the second half kickoff and gave up an immediate score. That summarizes a lot.
- The most under-rated thing in football is wide receiver blocking. It can make the difference between a 10 yard gain and a 50 yard game. When your offense is reduced to nothing but incremental gains, it becomes even more vital. It was remarkably good vs. Pitt and remarkably bad tonight, including on those bubble screens where the bubble popped.
- I really thought the staff could cook up a couple plays where we threw the ball downfield to receivers who should be wide-open because Tech would be filling up the box. Nope. Dan Villari was perfect: 14 for 14. For 59 yards and nothing close to a TD. Our longest pass play was for 12 yards. With Davis’ sole pass for -6 yards, we now have 105 yards passing in three games, all of which we could have won with any kind of passing attack.
- The refs were also intriguing and baffling. One of them stood in front of LeQuint Allen being clobbered at last a yard out of bounds in the end zone and elected to do nothing, possibly because Umari Hatcher had already committed two fouls on the same play, (why not go for the hat trick?). I don’t know what targeting is anymore. And why were the refs so anxious for the first half to continue when we were going to take a knee anyway?
- Brady Denaburg has now missed 6 of 16 field goals, which would be so b ad 50 years ago but isn’t good enough these days. And we’ve now botched two extra points and missed a third. These things lose close games, as they did tonight.
- Our long pass defense has been a problem all season and it continues to be. I dream of the days of Andre Cisco, Trill Williams, Iffy Melifonwu and Garrett Williams. I have to because they aren’t here anymore.
