The Downside - Purdue | Syracusefan.com

The Downside - Purdue

SWC75

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- The game got off to an unpromising start as the previously laser-beam accurate Garrett Shrader threw the ball out of bounds while our receiver was breaking free down the sidelines. Then he threw high to an open Tucker on a pass across the middle. Both plays had touchdown potentially and the throws were not close. It looked like last November’s Shrader. This September’s Shrader wound up 13 for 29 after being 38 for 48 in the first two games.

- His still young receiving corps was part of the problem. They had trouble getting open and several of Garrett’s scrambles were “coverage scrambles” that weren’t going to win us this game. Then there were several bad drops. Damien Alford is, like Oronde Gadsen, a big receiver with speed and talent. He’s the one that caught the game winner at Virginia Tech last year. But he had a horrible drop on a big third down pass that cause Adam Terry, our radio color man, said “Syracuse’s receivers have got to stop playing like they want a flag more than they want to catch the ball. On that play (the defender) wanted to strip the ball more than Damien Alford wanted to catch it.” On the final drive, Alford made a great one-handed catch but the heel of his foot came down out of bounds. Terry said “A receiver needs to give himself space to make the catch and remain in bounds”. In his post-game presser, Dino Babers said Gadsden “finds a way to get his foot in bounds, whereas some people find out how to barely not get their feet in bounds.” He was clearly talking about Alford.

- The Boilermakers held Sean Tucker to 42 yards rushing in 18 carries, (2.3 yards per shot) and 23 yards on two catches. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t a factor because other plays worked because Purdue was so focused on stopping Sean but Tucker isn’t going to get to New York as a Heisman finalist if he ahs any more games like this. A lot of it was the failure of our line to open any kind of holes in the Purdue front. Before Shrader hit Isaiah Jones for our first TD, Tucker gained -1 yards in two carries after we had a 1st and goal from the 2. Images of the 2006 Iowa game invaded my mind.

- When you are facing a receiver the caliber of Charley Jones, you don’t have a lock-down cornerback. Garrett Williams is the beast we’ve got and he had his moments in his battles with Jones, (a battle that will be continued in the NFL), but, after we seemed to have gained control of the game with a 10 point lead with 8:08 left, Jones got behind our best guy for a 55 yard score and another 51 yard play that set up what turned out to be a failed field goal attempts. You can’t have plays like that and hold onto a 10 point fourth quarter lead and a we didn’t. Babers made an interesting comment in his presser: You will get no help playing cornerback at Syracuse”. He expects his cornerbacks to operate on an island, even if King Kong lives there.

- Other missed opportunities: In the first half, SU ran a trick play they had obviously worked on: an end-around leading to a reverse leading to a pass to Shrader. They executed it so well that either LeQuint Allen, who wound up with the ball or Shrader could have walked into the end zone. Except Allen air-mailed the ball 5 feet over Shrader’s head and out of bounds. Purdue scored to make it 6-3 but we blocked the extra point and Jason Simmons had the ball bounce into his arms and was off to the races. Except he was caught from behind trying to thread his way down the sideline. Credit to Purdue for having several players not give up on the play and run it down. Frustrated by the inability to create holes for Tucker inside and a few conventional sweeps that didn’t gain much, Anae went to a simply pitch-out play that proved wide-open the first time he used it. But Sean acted like a rookie receiver who didn’t make the catch because he was already thinking of where he was going to run before he secured the ball and dropped it. He was able to recover but it was a 9 yard loss. They went to the play one more time but Purdue was ready for it and it went nowhere. Then there was Andre Szmyt’s first miss of the season, a 41 yarder after he’d hit a 50 yarder.

- Let’s face it: Purdue handed us, not the game but the opportunity to win on a silver platter with their melt-down after they scored the go-head TD in the fourth. They had a hugely damaging 13 penalties for 138 yards and actually wound up kicking off form their own 10 yard line at a critical point in the game. But that obscured the fact that after going from 18 penalties in game one to 3 in game two, we had 9 also very damaging penalties for 74 yards.

- Looking at the schedule we need to get used to wild games because there’s several teams comparable to Purdue coming up. And if a game is wild, who knows what the results can be?
 
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Game was what we thought it was going to be...a litmus test of where we are. Think we learned DL may be better than thought, OL may be proving they aren't, secondary while good may be a tad hyped, and game management is improved by miles. Effective if not traditional pretty QB play dealing with young receivers, and an LB corp that stones you. I'll ride with that
 
Don’t understand why we were throwing the ball late in the game with a lead? Run the ball, run the clock down
Gotta agree that late 3 and out was a head scratcher.. especially with Tucker in the backfield
 
I was troubled by our OL. We couldn’t run. And not just against Purdue but dating back to UConn. We shouldn have run at will against them. Shrader also didn’t have a ton of time to throw.
 
I was troubled by our OL. We couldn’t run. And not just against Purdue but dating back to UConn. We shouldn have run at will against them. Shrader also didn’t have a ton of time to throw.

IMO we miss Rhino. We ran it better last year and in limited time this year when he played.

IMO the OL has been the worst group on O by far this year. Against Louisville the blocking was decent enough but the penalties ruined that. Against UConn we couldn't run and there was plenty of QB pressure. The running game failed vs Purdue. Pass blocking I think Purdue wanted to keep a pocket to contain Shrader. So that limits pressure a bit.

I know people are saying teams are keying on Tucker, but wasn't that also the case last year?
 
Don’t understand why we were throwing the ball late in the game with a lead? Run the ball, run the clock down
That was the only drive that I thought was horribly managed. We did all the "right" things necessary to set up Purdue. It felt like the drive took up about 15 seconds of game clock.
 
IMO we miss Rhino. We ran it better last year and in limited time this year when he played.

IMO the OL has been the worst group on O by far this year. Against Louisville the blocking was decent enough but the penalties ruined that. Against UConn we couldn't run and there was plenty of QB pressure. The running game failed vs Purdue. Pass blocking I think Purdue wanted to keep a pocket to contain Shrader. So that limits pressure a bit.

I know people are saying teams are keying on Tucker, but wasn't that also the case last year?
This ^^^
Rhino's loss is most evident in the run game. Sean is getting keyed on and we're not punishing other defenses enough to make em pay. We'll get by against certain teams, but when we hit the meat of our schedule, its gonna hurt us much much more.
 
Don’t understand why we were throwing the ball late in the game with a lead? Run the ball, run the clock down

Gotta agree that late 3 and out was a head scratcher.. especially with Tucker in the backfield

That first down loss really screwed the pouch.

As we got the ball I said to the people around me that we shouldn't get too conservative. We needed to get a first down or two to be able t0 to run out the clock. Purdue still had a time out left. After the sack, that was no longer an option. The second play needed to be a run to get them to use the last time out and the third down play a run to get the clock moving.

I don't think Coach Smith would have liked what we did.

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As we got the ball I said to the people around me that we shouldn't get too conservative. We needed to get a first down or two to be able t0 to run out the clock. Purdue still had a time out left. After the sack, that was no longer an option. The second play needed to be a run to get them to use the last time out and the third down play a run to get the clock moving.

I don't think Coach Smith would have liked what we did.

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If ya think about it if we did run the ball that would have eaten up part of the clock and we wouldn’t have :12 seconds to win the game
 
This ^^^
Rhino's loss is most evident in the run game. Sean is getting keyed on and we're not punishing other defenses enough to make em pay. We'll get by against certain teams, but when we hit the meat of our schedule, its gonna hurt us much much more.
Losing our center from last year seems to be the problem. Vet should be at RT, and someone else at center. The current 5 starters aren't very good, that needs to be fixed.
 
If ya think about it if we did run the ball that would have eaten up part of the clock and we wouldn’t have :12 seconds to win the game

Your priority in that situation is to run the clock, not plan for your next possession after the other team scores. That would be three-D chess.

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