Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1538976, member: 289"] - We’ve fallen and we can’t get up. [MEDIA=youtube]v1WMQYd6IwE[/MEDIA] - “Good teams improve as the season goes along.” We seem to be coming apart. We are looking at a second straight 3-9 record: that’s after 2-0 and 3-0 starts. After the 2-0 start last year, Scott Shafer was 9-7 as a head coach. Since then he’s 4-15. - Everybody gets well against us. South Florida was 1-3 and beat us by three touchdowns. Virginia was also 1-3 and came back from ten points down to beat us in OT. Florida State seemed vulnerable with 6 players out and beat us by 24 points. Louisville had been 0-3 and then 2-4. They won their last two games over BC and Wake Forest by a total of 37-33 while gaining a total of 672 yards in those games. Against us, they gained 579 yards and scored 41 points and we again lost by 24 points. Clemson isn’t sick. - To me our defensive problems are based on youth and a lack of talent in the backfield, not coaching. This is the same coaching staff, (Shafer, Bullough, Reed) were all here last year when we have the #27 overall defense and the #29 pass defense. The coaches didn’t suddenly become incompetent. The players changed. But I would like to know why our guys never look back for the ball. - What really concerns me is Tim Lester’s offense. We have no power running game but begin each down sequence with a run up the middle, (that gets squelched) anyway. We are terrible in short yardage and around the goal line. And when we pass, it’s always to the sideline, except for a few short shots to a tight end over the middle. The defense doesn’t have to cover much of the field because we aren’t going there. And don’t get me started on the near-side option. - I think I heard that your chances of winning go down by something like 25% with each turnover. Louisville, with 4 turnovers, should have been down to zero. But we gave them 3 turnovers back and surrendered those 579 yards and got blown out anyway. - Supposedly their offensive line was a shambles, just like ours last year. They didn’t look to bad today, did they? - They averaged 10.3 yards per pass. We averaged 5.3. They averaged 15.1 yards per catch. We averaged 9.7. They were getting the ball down the field. We were not. - We had 18 yards rushing in the second half. They had 150 after we were ahead in that stat at halftime, 75-67. Having three starters out from a defense that wasn’t very good to begin with wasn’t helpful. We couldn’t rotate people and our defense sagged as the game went along. - Our offense was 115th in the country with 337 yards per game. They got 286 yards in this one, so that ranking will go down. - For the second straight game the opposition used a quarterback other than the one we thought they would use and he had a huge game. Kyle Bolin was 24/35 for 362 yards and 3TDs after Sean McGuire was 23/35 for 348 and 3TDs, (almost identical numbers) last week. I guess we’re not able to prepare for more than one quarterback at a time. Or maybe the other coaching - Shafer on why Dungey was still in the game, (from Syracuse.com): "The reason I kept Eric in the game is because we were still fighting to get down the field," Shafer said, "to see if we could get a couple more touchdowns and try to make it a great comeback-type situation." When we were down 10-41 with a little over 5 minutes to go in the game. - Lester on why Dungey was still in the game: “Lester said he kept Dungey in the previous possession to give him a chance to carry some momentum into next week. He was ready to pull Dungey after SU punted, but U of L returned Alphonso Carter muffed the punt and sophomore walk-on Zack Mahoney wasn't done warming up.” If you are planning to replace your quarterback for the next possession, why not get your back-up warmed up right now? - These guys need to get their stories straight. Many of the complaints about Shafer and his staff are about what they say about the games, not just what happened in them. When the answers seem weak it’s bad enough. When they don’t even agree with each other, it’s worse. - The “dream” of becoming the third ever SU team to score at least 20 points in every regular season game, (with 1959 and 1987) died today. Not that you noticed. - I feel like I’m being slow-roasted on a spit. So many starts and stops in the rebuilding of the program. What did we do to deserve this? But imagine how the players feel. Chris Gedney told Matt Park that you try after each game to build your enthusiasm back up. But when you’re on a losing streak, it gets harder each time. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?