The Downside - the Pinstripe Bowl

[SWC75]

- This should have been a victory and probably a decisive one. We didn’t make an unusual number of mistakes but we made some big ones at the wrong time. Garrett Shrader had LeQuint Allen for a score late in the first half but threw low and a little short, costing us a score. Then the threw the pick six that prevented us from taking control of the game and gave it back to the Gophers in the third quarter. Those two plays were enough to reverse the result if they’d gone our way. Garrett was highly productive with 330 yards passing and 54 rushing, (including 2 TDs), but his throwing was rather erratic.

- Special teams was supposed to be fixed by the acquisition of Bob Ligashesky but our punting is almost as bad as it was last year and Dino made it clear that we will have another punter next year, (perhaps the transfer from Missouri). Bob’s unit gave up the big kickoff return that resulted in the score that put Minny up 15 points. And Andre Szmyt’s fabulous career has come to an end. His replacement, (probably the kick-off guy, Brady Denaburg), will have big shoes to fill.

- It’s embarrassing that we were the most penalized team in the country this season. We had 105 for 772 in the regular season. That’s an average of 9 for 64 yards, (the yardage is kind of low because more of them were 5 yarders, which are actually less forgivable than the 10 and 15 yarders, because they are mental, rather than physical errors. Today we had ‘only’ 6 for 42 yards but one of them was the unsportsmanlike conduct call that allowed Minnesotans to retain the ball and run out the clock at the end of the game, which many have commented was a poetic ending to a season full of penalties, mistakes, injuries and other frustrations that prevented us from continuing the momentum of the fabulous 6-0 start.

 

[anomander]

- This should have been a victory and probably a decisive one. We didn’t make an unusual number of mistakes but we made some big ones at the wrong time. Garrett Shrader had LeQuint Allen for a score late in the first half but threw low and a little short, costing us a score. Then the threw the pick six that prevented us from taking control of the game and gave it back to the Gophers in the third quarter. Those two plays were enough to reverse the result if they’d gone our way. Garrett was highly productive with 330 yards passing and 54 rushing, (including 2 TDs), but his throwing was rather erratic.

- Special teams was supposed to be fixed by the acquisition of Bob Ligashesky but our punting is almost as bad as it was last year and Dino made it clear that we will have another punter next year, (perhaps the transfer from Missouri). Bob’s unit gave up the big kickoff return that resulted in the score that put Minny up 15 points. And Andre Szmyt’s fabulous career has come to an end. His replacement, (probably the kick-off guy, Brady Denaburg), will have big shoes to fill.

- It’s embarrassing that we were the most penalized team in the country this season. We had 105 for 772 in the regular season. That’s an average of 9 for 64 yards, (the yardage is kind of low because more of them were 5 yarders, which are actually less forgivable than the 10 and 15 yarders, because they are mental, rather than physical errors. Today we had ‘only’ 6 for 42 yards but one of them was the unsportsmanlike conduct call that allowed Minnesotans to retain the ball and run out the clock at the end of the game, which many have commented was a poetic ending to a season full of penalties, mistakes, injuries and other frustrations that prevented us from continuing the momentum of the fabulous 6-0 start.

Re: The penalty situation was downright embarrassing . For a school like Syracuse to have so many before the whistle false start, illegal procedure, formation penalties are unforgivable. Most of them ended up being drive killers. When you’re a school like Syracuse who is really fighting for every yard you can get it’s insanely frustrating hearing how casual Dino is about them. He usually comments those type of things happen during games. I don’t know if that’s just what he tells the media and gets after the guys in practice, but since it never seemed to improve I will go with the former. You watch all these other high level teams with top of the food chain coaches and you never see 4,5,6 false starts in a game. That’s really unheard of. This hidden yardage I’m sure could have cost us a game or 2 and I know it probably sounds like a broken record , but I would make it a focus in the offseason. The weirdest thing is a lot of these came at home when their isn’t a noise issue. You’re going to get a holding penalty, or some type of in game penalty, it’s these before the ball penalties we just cannot have anymore.