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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 825950, member: 289"] - It didn’t come back to haunt us but I did get that chilly feeling down the stretch thinking of those first two trips to the red zone where we came up with zilch. The obvious culprit was Ryan Norton, who missed a chip shot field goal on the first, which caused Shafer to go for 2 on the second. But I have to blame George McDonald, whose play calling at that point was disastrous. The first time we kept stubbornly throwing that timing patter to the corner of the end zone. That play is like a quarterback draw: it’s either there or it isn’t. And if it’s not there, you have nothing. On the second one we ran the ball on third and fourth down and got stuffed. Plays near the goal line need options: multiple guys to throw to, multiple holes to hit. If we score in those two situations, it’s a totally different game. We could have been up 35-7 in the second quarter! - But Jerome Smith has no option. He’s a downfield runner. He can take it the distance but he can’t beat people to the sideline. Several times in this game he tried to bounce it outside and couldn’t find his way to the edge. He’s much better off taking what he can get. If it opens up for him, fine. If not, fall forward. - We gave up 157 yards in three plays: 55 on a pass to a 237 pound tight end who Brandon Reddish allowed to get separation on him, 52 on a pass to their #1 guy, Alex Amidon and a 54 yard run by their quarterback, Chase Rettig, whose season rushing total prior to this game was -5. When you focus on stopping the run as much as we did, replacing a D-back with a fourth linebacker, you are going to give up some play. But you’re not looking to give up 50+ yard plays. - On Andre Williams’ touchdown run, (one of only four gains he had on the day), our defense was not ready for the play. Players just made it onto the field and were not yet set in their positions. No excuse for that. It’s not like BC does a lot of different things so there should be confusion on our side about personnel or scheme. - What was with those quirky kickoffs? Norton was obviously told to squib it or whatever that was. BC got the ball past their 25 every time. - It’s illustrative of the kind of season we have had that when SU was lining up to kick the 34th point, Matt Park was saying.“ There are two things we don’t want. We don’t want a miss and we don’t want it blocked and returned for 2 points.” The only time I can recall that we’ve given up 2 points on a conversion was against Pitt in 1990, when we wound up in a 20-20. (I seem to recall that that was the first time anybody had ever scored on that rule, which was new at the time.) [/QUOTE]

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