SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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- By far the biggest negative is that our All-American candidate at linebacker and spiritual leader of the defense Marlowe Wax, had to be helped off the field, was taken to the locker room and reappeared on crutches and in a boot. Coach Brown said that “he won’t be able to play for a few weeks”. I have a feeling we’ve seen the last of him in Syracuse, sadly.
- Competitively, the biggest negative was certainly our tackling, which was atrocious, not just in the first period as Coach Brown described in his press conference but the whole game. I realize the Bobcats are a strong mid-major, (I wouldn’t be surprised if they get 10 wins again) but giving up 255 yards rushing to a MAC team is very concerning. Fran said that it wasn’t scheme: it was just that we weren’t “being physical”. You don’t play football just with your arms and legs: you play it by hitting their torso with yours. You have to get under their pads. I did think that, in the replays, we were getting killed by cuts to the opposite direction against over-pursuing defenders. But here were also bad angles and arm tackles and guys getting knocked backwards. That’s not going to cut it in the ACC.
- That first quarter wasn’t DART. It was FART.
- Our running game was supposed to dominate behind our huge line but it never really happened. LeQuint Allen broke through for a 27 yard run in third quarter but other than that we had 99 yards on 29 carries, (3.4) while the Bobcats ran for 255 on 39 caries (6.5) That was not supposed to happen.
- We experimented with some running plays involving McCord, including an option. 5 carries -1 yard. No Bueno. Also, he’d not a roll-out QB. Throwing on the run is not his thing. Stay in the pocket – and protect him so he can do it.
- Justin Barron had a couple of bad penalties you wouldn’t expect from a 5th year player, including a late hit on a long play. Don Pherson on the post-game show, noted that when Marlowe Wax came out, it was up to Barron to keep track of where everyone was and he could be seen looking around to check on people -whether everyone was where they should be. He hadn’t had to do that before and it may have distracted him.
- I saw a play get stacked up in part because Oronde Gadsden tried to block a man by walking into him and pushing him away. Again that’s not being physical. And the NFL wants their receivers to block- especially if they weigh 236 pounds.
- Whither Dan Villari? Maybe we won’t see too much of him this year with all the new talent that has come in. Kid can ball, though.
- A caller to the post-game show complained about the officiating and Brian Higgins and Don McPherson mocked him, declaring it to be a ‘clean game’. What were they watching? 6 of the 7 penalties called were on us. Why can’t we get targeting calls when other teams get them against us? I saw two obvious holds on our defensive linemen that weren’t called. In both cases our guys were trying to pull away from guys who had their hands on them. The second one, the blocker had his arm around our guy. The first was in front of our goal line. I saw a flag and said “Finally a call on Ohio!”. The referee signed “Holding” and pointed in SU’s direction. He called defensive holding! The second time was on Anthony Tyus’ 46 yard fourth quarter TD. It happened right in front of section 116, where I now sit and the entire section stood up and pointed to the spot where it happened, to no avail.
- I hate the fact that kickoff returns are mostly a thing of the past. We’ve got maybe the fastest guy in the sport back there in Malachi James and he returned only half of the kickoffs. The Bobcats returned only one of seven kickoffs. It’s the most exciting play in the sport. ZZZZZ…
- You want two things out of every game: to win and to emerge from the game optimistic about getting some more wins. We’ll get more wins but tonight’s performance will be lucky to get us another 6-6 season. We’ll improve but my sense of optimism is on hold until I see those improvements. They may be hard to see against Georgia Tech.
- Competitively, the biggest negative was certainly our tackling, which was atrocious, not just in the first period as Coach Brown described in his press conference but the whole game. I realize the Bobcats are a strong mid-major, (I wouldn’t be surprised if they get 10 wins again) but giving up 255 yards rushing to a MAC team is very concerning. Fran said that it wasn’t scheme: it was just that we weren’t “being physical”. You don’t play football just with your arms and legs: you play it by hitting their torso with yours. You have to get under their pads. I did think that, in the replays, we were getting killed by cuts to the opposite direction against over-pursuing defenders. But here were also bad angles and arm tackles and guys getting knocked backwards. That’s not going to cut it in the ACC.
- That first quarter wasn’t DART. It was FART.
- Our running game was supposed to dominate behind our huge line but it never really happened. LeQuint Allen broke through for a 27 yard run in third quarter but other than that we had 99 yards on 29 carries, (3.4) while the Bobcats ran for 255 on 39 caries (6.5) That was not supposed to happen.
- We experimented with some running plays involving McCord, including an option. 5 carries -1 yard. No Bueno. Also, he’d not a roll-out QB. Throwing on the run is not his thing. Stay in the pocket – and protect him so he can do it.
- Justin Barron had a couple of bad penalties you wouldn’t expect from a 5th year player, including a late hit on a long play. Don Pherson on the post-game show, noted that when Marlowe Wax came out, it was up to Barron to keep track of where everyone was and he could be seen looking around to check on people -whether everyone was where they should be. He hadn’t had to do that before and it may have distracted him.
- I saw a play get stacked up in part because Oronde Gadsden tried to block a man by walking into him and pushing him away. Again that’s not being physical. And the NFL wants their receivers to block- especially if they weigh 236 pounds.
- Whither Dan Villari? Maybe we won’t see too much of him this year with all the new talent that has come in. Kid can ball, though.
- A caller to the post-game show complained about the officiating and Brian Higgins and Don McPherson mocked him, declaring it to be a ‘clean game’. What were they watching? 6 of the 7 penalties called were on us. Why can’t we get targeting calls when other teams get them against us? I saw two obvious holds on our defensive linemen that weren’t called. In both cases our guys were trying to pull away from guys who had their hands on them. The second one, the blocker had his arm around our guy. The first was in front of our goal line. I saw a flag and said “Finally a call on Ohio!”. The referee signed “Holding” and pointed in SU’s direction. He called defensive holding! The second time was on Anthony Tyus’ 46 yard fourth quarter TD. It happened right in front of section 116, where I now sit and the entire section stood up and pointed to the spot where it happened, to no avail.
- I hate the fact that kickoff returns are mostly a thing of the past. We’ve got maybe the fastest guy in the sport back there in Malachi James and he returned only half of the kickoffs. The Bobcats returned only one of seven kickoffs. It’s the most exciting play in the sport. ZZZZZ…
- You want two things out of every game: to win and to emerge from the game optimistic about getting some more wins. We’ll get more wins but tonight’s performance will be lucky to get us another 6-6 season. We’ll improve but my sense of optimism is on hold until I see those improvements. They may be hard to see against Georgia Tech.
