SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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- The term “well coached” gets thrown around a lot…well, by coaches. It’s obvious that what they admire the most is a team that avoids mistakes. We’ve had a lot of poorly coached teams that had double-figure penalty games, many of them concentration problems. In this game there were a total of nine penalties between the two teams for 80 yards. A couple of them were imp0rotant: a roughing the kicker penalty that continued Colgate’s first drive and a holding penalty that forced us into a field goal attempt instead of a fourth and short. But, despite being an opener, it was not a sloppy game. There was only one meaningless turnover very late in the game, long after it was already decided. We were watching two very well coached teams.
- The talk is, of course all about the offense but I was impressed with our defense. I was concerned on that first drive because we were already starting to blitz late in that drive, including on the touchdown, where we let Melville get loose and find Owen Rockett, (great name!) in the end zone. But instead of a desperation tactic, it turned out to be just a demonstration that you can blitz from this defense if you want to. This defense is all about keeping the play in front of you and then closing fast and our guys did it all game, After giving up 75 yards in that first drive and a half, the defense gave up only 68 yards the entire rest of the game. The defensive line, which seemed porous at first, became dominant and we forced 10 punts.
- I made particular note of the tackling after reading that article on Otto’s Grove. I thought it was excellent, except on one play where we missed two tackles – but a third guy didn’t miss and we still threw them for a loss. The point of tackling isn’t the make Sports Center. It’s to stop the forward progress of the ball-carrier, gain control over him and bring him to the ground. We did an excellent job of that all night and it was exciting to see, again after years of seeing missed tackles lead to big plays.
- Ah, yes the offense. it sure was fun to watch. And it didn’t have the ups and downs I anticipate din the first game. We moved the ball every time we got it and wound up with 554 yards and 25 first downs. We did things fast and if we didn’t have “swagger” and “arrogance” yet, (see the Dino Babers Show), we had two things that are more important: poise and efficiency. Eric Dungey ran the show like he’d been in this offense all his life and put up numbers we’ve never seen here: 34 of 40 for 355 yards and two scores.
- A very pleasant moment on a night of pleasant moments: Colgate punts to us with 1:18 in the half and I realize that we aren’t going to just run out the clock and be satisfied to lead at the half. We not only have a two minute offense but it’s our 60 minute offense. The best part is that Babers said in his press conference that “this is the slowest you will see us play”. It was fun to see a team play at a break-neck place, (and do it efficiently). The old days, epitomized by a sequence in a Rutgers game where we were in our two minute offense, (such as it was) and a ply went out of bound to stop the clock – then we had to call a time out to avoid a delay of game penalty – then we got a delay of game penalty because the coaches still couldn’t decide which play to call, are gone.
- Erv Phillips tied Art Monk’s record with 14 catches in one game, for 87 yards and a score but he didn’t have the game Amba Etta-Tawo had. AET ‘ first ever catch for Syracuse was a beauty, a 43 yard bomb that he caught as a defender was pulling one of his arms down. He was strong enough to secure the ball anyway. That made Sports Center’s top ten but wasn’t as good as a 40 yarder he had down the sideline in the third quarter in which he leapt for the ball, caught in his fingertips, flipped forward and somehow managed to tap the turf inbounds. I thought he’d caught it out of bounds, (it would still have been a tremendous catch, even if it hadn’t counted), and was amazed to see it declared a catch and even more amazed when it was upheld on the review, 9the only one of the game, by the way). But it was upheld and now that I’ve seen the replay on ESPN, it was, indeed a good catch. It doesn’t just belong in Sports Center’s top ten. It belonged on the ESPYs. He wound up with 12 catches for 210 yards and one score. The best part is that eh said after the game that this wasn’t the whole offense by any means. We’ve got a lot more weapons and a lot more plays we can use.
- Well, I guess Moe Neal is a running back after all. He went 49 yards the first time he touched the ball, (joining AET as one of two players to score on their first touch for Syracuse). He wound up our leading rusher with 68 yards in 9 carries, a 7.6 average.
- Cole Murphy had himself a day, making all four field goals and three extra points and booming his kickoffs, two of which were not returned. None of those that were made it past the 24 yard line.
- Sterling Hofrichter only punted three times but did it for an average of 45.3 yards. Riley Dixon couldn’t have done it better. Of course, on this team the real replacement for Dixon is Dino Babers, who went for it three times on fourth down and we made it each time. And Babers offense faced only those six fourth downs in the game.
- It was fun riding school buses back and forth to Manley. They actually have windows you can see out of. What an innovation!
- This will make watching 12+ hours of games tomorrow even more fun. I don't have to wish we were like the teams I'm watching.
- We’re getting tons of play on Sports Center tonight. One of the anchors is an SU guy who is obviously excited about the team. They’ve showed the highlights several times. They also interviewed the Dungy brothers. It’s all good, baby!
- Tell everyone you know that we have a team worth seeing this year. They deserve a full house next week and in the months and years to come. This is what we’ve waited for all this time.
1-0 with 11+ to go
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
- The talk is, of course all about the offense but I was impressed with our defense. I was concerned on that first drive because we were already starting to blitz late in that drive, including on the touchdown, where we let Melville get loose and find Owen Rockett, (great name!) in the end zone. But instead of a desperation tactic, it turned out to be just a demonstration that you can blitz from this defense if you want to. This defense is all about keeping the play in front of you and then closing fast and our guys did it all game, After giving up 75 yards in that first drive and a half, the defense gave up only 68 yards the entire rest of the game. The defensive line, which seemed porous at first, became dominant and we forced 10 punts.
- I made particular note of the tackling after reading that article on Otto’s Grove. I thought it was excellent, except on one play where we missed two tackles – but a third guy didn’t miss and we still threw them for a loss. The point of tackling isn’t the make Sports Center. It’s to stop the forward progress of the ball-carrier, gain control over him and bring him to the ground. We did an excellent job of that all night and it was exciting to see, again after years of seeing missed tackles lead to big plays.
- Ah, yes the offense. it sure was fun to watch. And it didn’t have the ups and downs I anticipate din the first game. We moved the ball every time we got it and wound up with 554 yards and 25 first downs. We did things fast and if we didn’t have “swagger” and “arrogance” yet, (see the Dino Babers Show), we had two things that are more important: poise and efficiency. Eric Dungey ran the show like he’d been in this offense all his life and put up numbers we’ve never seen here: 34 of 40 for 355 yards and two scores.
- A very pleasant moment on a night of pleasant moments: Colgate punts to us with 1:18 in the half and I realize that we aren’t going to just run out the clock and be satisfied to lead at the half. We not only have a two minute offense but it’s our 60 minute offense. The best part is that Babers said in his press conference that “this is the slowest you will see us play”. It was fun to see a team play at a break-neck place, (and do it efficiently). The old days, epitomized by a sequence in a Rutgers game where we were in our two minute offense, (such as it was) and a ply went out of bound to stop the clock – then we had to call a time out to avoid a delay of game penalty – then we got a delay of game penalty because the coaches still couldn’t decide which play to call, are gone.
- Erv Phillips tied Art Monk’s record with 14 catches in one game, for 87 yards and a score but he didn’t have the game Amba Etta-Tawo had. AET ‘ first ever catch for Syracuse was a beauty, a 43 yard bomb that he caught as a defender was pulling one of his arms down. He was strong enough to secure the ball anyway. That made Sports Center’s top ten but wasn’t as good as a 40 yarder he had down the sideline in the third quarter in which he leapt for the ball, caught in his fingertips, flipped forward and somehow managed to tap the turf inbounds. I thought he’d caught it out of bounds, (it would still have been a tremendous catch, even if it hadn’t counted), and was amazed to see it declared a catch and even more amazed when it was upheld on the review, 9the only one of the game, by the way). But it was upheld and now that I’ve seen the replay on ESPN, it was, indeed a good catch. It doesn’t just belong in Sports Center’s top ten. It belonged on the ESPYs. He wound up with 12 catches for 210 yards and one score. The best part is that eh said after the game that this wasn’t the whole offense by any means. We’ve got a lot more weapons and a lot more plays we can use.
- Well, I guess Moe Neal is a running back after all. He went 49 yards the first time he touched the ball, (joining AET as one of two players to score on their first touch for Syracuse). He wound up our leading rusher with 68 yards in 9 carries, a 7.6 average.
- Cole Murphy had himself a day, making all four field goals and three extra points and booming his kickoffs, two of which were not returned. None of those that were made it past the 24 yard line.
- Sterling Hofrichter only punted three times but did it for an average of 45.3 yards. Riley Dixon couldn’t have done it better. Of course, on this team the real replacement for Dixon is Dino Babers, who went for it three times on fourth down and we made it each time. And Babers offense faced only those six fourth downs in the game.
- It was fun riding school buses back and forth to Manley. They actually have windows you can see out of. What an innovation!
- This will make watching 12+ hours of games tomorrow even more fun. I don't have to wish we were like the teams I'm watching.
- We’re getting tons of play on Sports Center tonight. One of the anchors is an SU guy who is obviously excited about the team. They’ve showed the highlights several times. They also interviewed the Dungy brothers. It’s all good, baby!
- Tell everyone you know that we have a team worth seeing this year. They deserve a full house next week and in the months and years to come. This is what we’ve waited for all this time.
1-0 with 11+ to go
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
