SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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- It’s very discouraging to go from 5-2 with five chances to clinch a bowl to 5-6 and trying to beat Pittsburgh for the first time in seven years on the road when they also need a win to clinch a bowl. And the games have had similar scores, like a recurring nightmare: 10-27, 21-28, 17-37, 13-30. We averaged 30 points a game in those first seven games: 15 since.
- Even in the first six games, before the West Virginia game, which now seems like a wet dream, we didn’t look like that much of a football team, rallying from 15 down vs. Wake Forest, (6-6: they just lost to Vandy 7-41), winning by a touchdown vs. Rhode Island, (3-8: Brown, Old Dominion and Towson beat them by more), a bad call gave us a win over Toledo, (8-4: a good win as they’ve lost only once since), and a three point win over a 2-10 Tulane team whose other losses were by an average of four touchdowns). We are just playing the same way against better teams and thus losing. It’s just not a very good football team.
- Brent Axe, in the post game show, suggested that this team has “chemistry” problems. He said that to say that Marrone has “lost” the team may be an overstatement but there’s been a fight in the locker room he knows about and apparently Philip Thomas’ problem had to do with getting along with teammates. Coach Marrone’s “leadership” program that he credited with the early wins seems to be having little impact.
- Marrone had never lost a game after a bye week. Another stat goes by the boards.
- Our line did a good job of run-blocking as we ran for 170 yards against a team that was giving up 92 a game. But they were horrendous in pass blocking. Nassib had no more than a second or two to get the ball off. It was mostly Chibane and Hay that seemed to be helping Ryan up and apologizing to him.
- Field position was big deficit for SU. Part of it was their punter, who boomed four punts for an average of 64 yards. Rene had to turn around and try to field them over his shoulder like Willie Mays, (probably not a good idea but he made every catch). Part of it was that they averaged 19 yards a punt return and 35 yards a kick-off return. Part of it is that we averaged -0.5 on punt returns, (see above) and 20 yards a kick-off return. In the Tulane game, Jeremiah Kobena broke a 79 yard kick-off return and then had a 47 yarder vs. West Virginia. Dorian Graham had a 98 yarder to the downs in the same game. We seemed to have a dynamite combination back there. Since then we’ve returned 20 kickoff for 389 yards, an average of 19 yards per kick-off. We’ve had one of more than 24 yards, (Kobena had a 37 yarder vs. Louisville). What usually happens is that the returner gets to the 145-20 yard line and hit’s a brick wall. Kobena got injured running right into about three guys. We can’t seem to open any kind of lane for them to run in at all. This is a major weapon we can’t get out of our holster and our offense needs all the help it can get.
- Alec Lemon after getting 18 catches for 336 yards in the last two games had 3 for 25 yards. He also had another drop in the end zone, one of about 6-7 drops in this game.
- Our defense is predicated on speed- getting to the ball and disrupting plays before they start. We got almost no pressure on the Cincinnati backfield and the first defender almost never made the tackle in this game. We never came close to causing a turnover. And this was with inexperienced quarterbacks filling in. If Zach Collaros had played in this game, we’d have lost by a minimum of five TDs.
- Even in the first six games, before the West Virginia game, which now seems like a wet dream, we didn’t look like that much of a football team, rallying from 15 down vs. Wake Forest, (6-6: they just lost to Vandy 7-41), winning by a touchdown vs. Rhode Island, (3-8: Brown, Old Dominion and Towson beat them by more), a bad call gave us a win over Toledo, (8-4: a good win as they’ve lost only once since), and a three point win over a 2-10 Tulane team whose other losses were by an average of four touchdowns). We are just playing the same way against better teams and thus losing. It’s just not a very good football team.
- Brent Axe, in the post game show, suggested that this team has “chemistry” problems. He said that to say that Marrone has “lost” the team may be an overstatement but there’s been a fight in the locker room he knows about and apparently Philip Thomas’ problem had to do with getting along with teammates. Coach Marrone’s “leadership” program that he credited with the early wins seems to be having little impact.
- Marrone had never lost a game after a bye week. Another stat goes by the boards.
- Our line did a good job of run-blocking as we ran for 170 yards against a team that was giving up 92 a game. But they were horrendous in pass blocking. Nassib had no more than a second or two to get the ball off. It was mostly Chibane and Hay that seemed to be helping Ryan up and apologizing to him.
- Field position was big deficit for SU. Part of it was their punter, who boomed four punts for an average of 64 yards. Rene had to turn around and try to field them over his shoulder like Willie Mays, (probably not a good idea but he made every catch). Part of it was that they averaged 19 yards a punt return and 35 yards a kick-off return. Part of it is that we averaged -0.5 on punt returns, (see above) and 20 yards a kick-off return. In the Tulane game, Jeremiah Kobena broke a 79 yard kick-off return and then had a 47 yarder vs. West Virginia. Dorian Graham had a 98 yarder to the downs in the same game. We seemed to have a dynamite combination back there. Since then we’ve returned 20 kickoff for 389 yards, an average of 19 yards per kick-off. We’ve had one of more than 24 yards, (Kobena had a 37 yarder vs. Louisville). What usually happens is that the returner gets to the 145-20 yard line and hit’s a brick wall. Kobena got injured running right into about three guys. We can’t seem to open any kind of lane for them to run in at all. This is a major weapon we can’t get out of our holster and our offense needs all the help it can get.
- Alec Lemon after getting 18 catches for 336 yards in the last two games had 3 for 25 yards. He also had another drop in the end zone, one of about 6-7 drops in this game.
- Our defense is predicated on speed- getting to the ball and disrupting plays before they start. We got almost no pressure on the Cincinnati backfield and the first defender almost never made the tackle in this game. We never came close to causing a turnover. And this was with inexperienced quarterbacks filling in. If Zach Collaros had played in this game, we’d have lost by a minimum of five TDs.
