SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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- The last three days have been like a visit to Laurence Olivier when you have three cavities.
- It’s been quite a season for SU and it’s not over but it was an illusion to think we could compete with a playoff team. We have some players who are up to that but not enough of them. Yes, we beat Clemson last year in the Dome when they didn’t think we could compete with them and almost did it this year down there in the week when they changed quarterbacks. But I suspect if we played them again now the result would be very similar to today’s. This might change over the next couple of years but we aren’t there yet.
- We would have had to play a perfect game to have a chance to beat Notre Dame but it was clear early that we weren’t ready to do so. We have an opportunity to alibi this by saying that we lost our starting quarterback early but we should not use it. We were already down 0-13 and lucky to be that close. There’s good Dungey and bad Dungey and Eric was out there long enough to make it clear that this was a bad Dungey day. His first pass was batted down. His next two were thrown into triple coverage and the second was intercepted. It seemed as if he was unable to see the defenders. Either that or he’d decided he was going to throw the ball to one player at one spot, no matter what. We were better off getting him out of there.
- Tommy DeVito immediately three deep and probably would have had a TD if Nykeim Johnson wasn’t interfered with. After that he either threw short or got sacked as the Notre Dame defensive line overwhelmed our offensive line. Oh, there were a couple of shots down the sideline to Taj Harris, who was being covered by ND’s best defensive back, Julian Love. One got intercepted because DeVito did what Dungey has so often done: he threw the ball to the inside of the receiver, allowing a safety to come over and grab it, instead of the outside, where only Harris would have had a shot at it.
- We should have come out running the ball. People think of us as a passing team but this season we’ve actually been better at running the football. In this game, we ran it very well between the tackles. Dungey might have had more success with the option run off hand-off to Neal and Strickland. Then he could have passed when the Irish defense was back on its heels. We had actually begun to do this with success when he got hurt.
- It was mentioned in the chat room that paying a zone defense against the most accurate quarterback in the country was a bad idea and I agree. Ian book just picked us apart in the first half with 18 for 29 for 253 yards. We did manage to hold them to a couple of field goals and get an end zone pick when Book fell down while throwing the ball but it appeared we just couldn’t stop this team, which negated an advantage we’d had all season: field position. One drive began on the ND 5 and ended with a field goal from the SU 12.
- But that advantage we thought we would have in special teams didn’t evidence itself must to begin with. Sterling Hofrichter only punted for 38 yards a shot and only got to kick off twice, once when the game was about to end. We lined up for a couple of field goals to get Andre Szmyt a couple of chip shots as he chases the national record. He missed one and almost missed the second. It seemed to symbolize the day.
- It’s been quite a season for SU and it’s not over but it was an illusion to think we could compete with a playoff team. We have some players who are up to that but not enough of them. Yes, we beat Clemson last year in the Dome when they didn’t think we could compete with them and almost did it this year down there in the week when they changed quarterbacks. But I suspect if we played them again now the result would be very similar to today’s. This might change over the next couple of years but we aren’t there yet.
- We would have had to play a perfect game to have a chance to beat Notre Dame but it was clear early that we weren’t ready to do so. We have an opportunity to alibi this by saying that we lost our starting quarterback early but we should not use it. We were already down 0-13 and lucky to be that close. There’s good Dungey and bad Dungey and Eric was out there long enough to make it clear that this was a bad Dungey day. His first pass was batted down. His next two were thrown into triple coverage and the second was intercepted. It seemed as if he was unable to see the defenders. Either that or he’d decided he was going to throw the ball to one player at one spot, no matter what. We were better off getting him out of there.
- Tommy DeVito immediately three deep and probably would have had a TD if Nykeim Johnson wasn’t interfered with. After that he either threw short or got sacked as the Notre Dame defensive line overwhelmed our offensive line. Oh, there were a couple of shots down the sideline to Taj Harris, who was being covered by ND’s best defensive back, Julian Love. One got intercepted because DeVito did what Dungey has so often done: he threw the ball to the inside of the receiver, allowing a safety to come over and grab it, instead of the outside, where only Harris would have had a shot at it.
- We should have come out running the ball. People think of us as a passing team but this season we’ve actually been better at running the football. In this game, we ran it very well between the tackles. Dungey might have had more success with the option run off hand-off to Neal and Strickland. Then he could have passed when the Irish defense was back on its heels. We had actually begun to do this with success when he got hurt.
- It was mentioned in the chat room that paying a zone defense against the most accurate quarterback in the country was a bad idea and I agree. Ian book just picked us apart in the first half with 18 for 29 for 253 yards. We did manage to hold them to a couple of field goals and get an end zone pick when Book fell down while throwing the ball but it appeared we just couldn’t stop this team, which negated an advantage we’d had all season: field position. One drive began on the ND 5 and ended with a field goal from the SU 12.
- But that advantage we thought we would have in special teams didn’t evidence itself must to begin with. Sterling Hofrichter only punted for 38 yards a shot and only got to kick off twice, once when the game was about to end. We lined up for a couple of field goals to get Andre Szmyt a couple of chip shots as he chases the national record. He missed one and almost missed the second. It seemed to symbolize the day.
