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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1144958, member: 289"] - A quote from Scott Shafer from his show on Thursday: “They talked about avoiding “turnovers, mistakes and self-inflicted wounds”. Coach: “Now there’s something for which we have real stats over several years. Of you are even in turnovers, you have an even chance to win. +1 and you are 50% more likely to win. +2 and you’ve got a hell of a chance to win.” In two weeks we’ve down two things that hardly ever happen: gain almost 600 yards and lose and be +4 in turnovers and lose. Whoop-de-do! - We are doing a lousy job of converting yards into points. We got 589 yards and 20 points vs. Maryland and 429 yards and 15 points against Notre Dame. As a rule of thumb I think you should approach scoring a point for every 10 yards of total offense, (the average scoring drive is probably around 60-70 yards). In two games we have over 1,000 yards of total offense and only 35 points. I checked out the top ten teams in total offense from the NCAA’s website and they averaged 538 yards and 42 points per game, 78% of that goal, (Baylor made it at 572 yards and 57 points a game). We are averaging a healthy 451 yards per game but only 25.5 points, (56.5%). These last two games it’s 34%, (35 points on 1017 yards). - A big part of it is our lack of the home run ball. Everett Golston threw that 72 yard pass and we got scared and laid off the receivers the rest of the game to “keep them in front of us”, (until Eskridge’s interception). Golston had 25 consecutive completions, one off the FBS record. We’ve done nothing to make the other teams respect our deep game so they can gang up on the run and short pass. That requires us to make 10-12 play drives against stiff opposition to score. - And that requires that we avoid errors that kill drives. We had 5 false starts in this game. - And it requires us to covert on third down. We are 7 for 29 (24%) in these two losses. We can be marching down the field but if they can get us into a third down situation, the drive stops. - And our placekicking continues to be a big problem. Ryan Norton just doesn’t have the timing down and Cole Murphy hits a low ball that can be blocked, as that extra point was. So finishing off drives is a problem for Syracuse. Lost of beautiful yards but too often, no points. - We had the illusion that we were a great running team for a nice week there. But too many plays got blown up by Notre Dame’s superb defense. And Hunt getting hurt didn’t help: those nifty, powerful runs he makes up the middle were missing from the offense. Still another appeal for a two back backfield: you get an extra blocker, some indecision in the defense about who has the ball and you quarterback doesn’t have to take a beating. And our personnel there is much better than our passing game personnel. Moore and Gulley, (the Hyphenated backfield!) would make a classic fullback-halfback combination. - Terrel Hunt has thrown 1 touchdown pass in four games. He’s on a pace for 3 on the season. That would be the lowest for an orange quarterback since 1982 when Todd Norley, Steve Peach and Greg Christodulu shared the positon and each had one TD pass. We went 2-9 that year. - Why is it that when a player is down on the field, it’s always our player? Ashton Broyld and Brisley Estime are our H-backs, which in this offense, makes them the leading receiver. Broyld is out for an unspecified time and they carried Estime off the field. Tight end Kendall Moore apparently had a concussion and who knows when he’ll be back. But George MacDonald still sees this as a short passing team where our players are going to “make them miss” and get big plays. - It was beautiful watching Notre Dame run their screens. They had actual blocking out front and the receiver had someplace to go. Maybe we could try that. - Oh, yeah, the officiating. The quick whistle on the fumble was tragic but understandable. The ref is anticipating a successful spike. He sees Golston’s arm go up and the ball go down so he blows the whistle. And the no call when Ismael was shoved out of bounds could be forgiven. Two guys are jousting and one has his back to you and goes out of bounds so you throw your hat down to indicate he’s no longer an eligible receiver. He was pushed but you didn’t see it, (and that far down the field you aren’t going to get any help from another ref). The one I can’t tolerate is the two lousy spots that Moore and then Hunt got when trying to make a third and then fourth and one. I’m not certain that either made it but I am certain they both pushed the ball closer to it than they got credit for. [/QUOTE]

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