The Downside (SU-UNC) | Syracusefan.com

The Downside (SU-UNC)

SWC75

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- Watching this game must have been kind of like what it was to watch SU play Colgate during the HooDoo. We had opportunities but failed to take adventage of them. The same could be said for UNC but eventually they got their offense going and won going away. Imagine this being the big game of the year and seeing this happen 13 times in a row.

- We had 30 first down plays. Amazingly, 16 of them were passes but we completed only 6 of them for 71 yards. DeVito ran for 15 on one and we had a false start on another. 25 were hand-offs which produced 25 yards. Jawhar Jordan, 5-9 172, carried on 8 of those and all were between the tackles. He got 13 yards. He’s a quick guy with moves who needs space. Dino said referred to, (Gayle Sayers), saying that all he needed was 16 inches, (actually 18). Dino hoped for 24 but there were very few inches for Jordan to try to squeeze through. If you are going to run between the tackles, you really need a bigger, stronger guy – like Markenzie Pierre 5-11 216. Unfortunately Markenzie didn’t do a lot better with 12 yards on 4 first down carries and whiffed on a key blitz pick-up in the second half. I actually thought that the run-pass ratio on first down was more severe than that. I decided to look at the first play of each drive, aside from the penalty. We had 12 opening plays and ran the ball up the middle 9 times, gaining 19 yards. One of 3 passes was good for 14 yards. So we gave it to the running backs 40% of the time on first down but 75% of the time on the first play of a drive.

- Taj Harris was 6-2 175 last year and people were complaining that he was not strong enough. For this year he built himself down to 164 pounds. That may be a reason why he keeps getting forced to the sideline and then pushed over it when the ball gets there. We need guys who can stand their ground and win the battle for the ball. The play down the middle of the field where the ball seemed to bounce off his helmet was not really his fault- the defender got his hand in there, although it was hard to see in live action. But the early play where DeVito threw a beautiful spiral down the sideline and Harris never got there because he broke off his route was ugly.

- When you’ve had trouble getting on the field you need to show the coach that you don’t belong on the sidelines, you need to catch touchdown passes that float right into your hands, Sharod Johnson!

- Our tight ends are arguably our most proven receivers but neither caught a pass in this game. I counted one time each when Hackett or Benson were targeted, (which doesn’t mean there couldn’t have bene more). Other than the long one to Harris early that got batted away, I didn’t see many passes over the middle from us but plenty of them from Carolina. I still remember Ryan Nassib, Alec Lemon and Marcus Sales killing teams over the middle. But instead of throwing to 230 pounder over the middle we prefer to throw to 164 pounders along the sidelines.

- Tommy DeVito was sacked another 7 times. he’s pretty good at picking a spot to run up the middle and get yards and he didn’t get much help form his line but he still didn’t show real scrambling ability or the ability to make a play on the run. When he’s flushed form the pocket, he’s either going to run out of bounds or throw it there. That’s probably why he’s gone 201 passes without an interception but he’s just not a playmaker when the plays break down.

- Automatic Andre Szmyt wasn’t. It would have nice to at least have a lead.

- That strange 4th and 1 play in the early going bothers me. At that stage, you want points and that would have been a chip shot field goal. I noticed that the TV had that play as a first down play and it wasn’t. Were the refs and thus the coaches confused?

- That play and several others in the early going involved some kind of deception by SU that didn’t come close to working. It’s as if they knew our playbook and signals.

- I know the defense was tired and that the physical training going into this game was limited but the performance of the defense down the stretch was disappointing after they’d looked so good for most of the game. We had guys in position to make tackles by they took bad angles, over-committed or just let the guy go. The body language after the plays didn’t look good. There was more spirit on the last possession, (against back-ups), so maybe somebody talked to the players on the sidelines.

- When players have to tuck their shoulder pads back into their uniforms that means they got held and we were doing it all day. Adam Terry said he saw more holds in this game that Bryant McKinney had against Dwight Freeney in that 2001 Miami game.

- UNC was 5-18 in 2017-18. Mack Brown comes back and they go 7-6 and are expected to be among the top three teams in the conference. Dino Babers has been here for 4+ years and was 10-3 in 2018 and here we are wishing he we had a team like theirs.
 
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