SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 34,058
- Like
- 65,784
- Here are at DEFCON 1. It feels like the Dino Babers Era just ended. John Wildhack won’t make a move until the season ends, (which seems likely to be the end of the regular season), but he sure will because this isn’t the image of an ‘ascendant program. The school has spent a lot of money on upgrading facilities, including the Dome and spinning our wheels after eight years isn’t going to do it. I like and admire Dino as the face of the program but in the end, you’ve got to win and we are not only losing, we seem to be getting father and farther from even competing. It doesn’t even matter what you want. What’s going to happen is going to happen.
- Somebody said that this is worse than the Greg Robinson Era. Overall it certainly isn’t but I looked through the old scores and this is the first time SU has ever lost three consecutive games by at least four touchdowns.
- Supposedly Virigina Tech was the first of five straight games against ‘beatable’ foes. We are the beatable foe and are looking a 4-8 after an 4-0 start.
- All units of a team are important but I’ve always felt that the most important are the offensive line and the defensive backfield. The O-line allows you to run plays as they were diagramed, sustain and finish drives. The D-backs prevent easy scores and make the other team earn it up front. Combined they allow you to keep games under control and stay in them. That’s where we are getting clobbered and why these games have seemed over before they started. Both units sustained losses early on: Kalan Ellis, Joe More and Dave Wohlabaugh got hurt on the O-line while Duce Chestnut and J’Had Carter opted for ‘greener’ pastures. But we’ve had 8 games to get their back-ups to mature and coordinate into strong units. Instead, they have fallen apart and, with them, the team as a whole.
- Garrett Shrader simply hasn’t been the same quarterback since he got speared by Clemson, (and they got away with it). That was clearly the turning point of the season.
- We’ve had 13 ‘takeovers’ (forced turnovers or takeaways, if you wish), this year: 11 in the first four games, 2 in the next four. I can’t count the number of dropped interceptions, fumbles we didn’t get plus the blocked punt that game the other team a bogus first down. These aren’t “breaks”. They are lost opportunities to turn games around.
- Fun with numbers: Tech came in with the #103 rushing defense in the country, giving up 172 yards per game. We rushed for zero yards in this game. UCLA leads the country with 69 yards per game. Tech had the #86 rushing attack with 140 yards per game. They rushed for 318 yards in this game. Air Force leads the country with 306 yards per game. They were leading the ACC with 22 sacks in 7 games. They now have 30 in 8. We had 20 sacks coming into this game and 22 coming out of it.
- When you play poorly, you get more injuries. The other team is hitting you. You aren’t hitting them. At best we got several more ‘owies’, totally negating any beneficial effects of the off week
- Somebody said that this is worse than the Greg Robinson Era. Overall it certainly isn’t but I looked through the old scores and this is the first time SU has ever lost three consecutive games by at least four touchdowns.
- Supposedly Virigina Tech was the first of five straight games against ‘beatable’ foes. We are the beatable foe and are looking a 4-8 after an 4-0 start.
- All units of a team are important but I’ve always felt that the most important are the offensive line and the defensive backfield. The O-line allows you to run plays as they were diagramed, sustain and finish drives. The D-backs prevent easy scores and make the other team earn it up front. Combined they allow you to keep games under control and stay in them. That’s where we are getting clobbered and why these games have seemed over before they started. Both units sustained losses early on: Kalan Ellis, Joe More and Dave Wohlabaugh got hurt on the O-line while Duce Chestnut and J’Had Carter opted for ‘greener’ pastures. But we’ve had 8 games to get their back-ups to mature and coordinate into strong units. Instead, they have fallen apart and, with them, the team as a whole.
- Garrett Shrader simply hasn’t been the same quarterback since he got speared by Clemson, (and they got away with it). That was clearly the turning point of the season.
- We’ve had 13 ‘takeovers’ (forced turnovers or takeaways, if you wish), this year: 11 in the first four games, 2 in the next four. I can’t count the number of dropped interceptions, fumbles we didn’t get plus the blocked punt that game the other team a bogus first down. These aren’t “breaks”. They are lost opportunities to turn games around.
- Fun with numbers: Tech came in with the #103 rushing defense in the country, giving up 172 yards per game. We rushed for zero yards in this game. UCLA leads the country with 69 yards per game. Tech had the #86 rushing attack with 140 yards per game. They rushed for 318 yards in this game. Air Force leads the country with 306 yards per game. They were leading the ACC with 22 sacks in 7 games. They now have 30 in 8. We had 20 sacks coming into this game and 22 coming out of it.
- When you play poorly, you get more injuries. The other team is hitting you. You aren’t hitting them. At best we got several more ‘owies’, totally negating any beneficial effects of the off week
