SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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- I had a feeling that we’d make a comeback after the bye week, the staff changes and a chance for the team to catch its breath and regain some perspective. But I never expected a 49-6 romp in a game where we were 10 point underdogs. Who the heck were these guys?
- Matt Park said this shouldn’t be looked as a referendum on fired defensive coordinator Brian Ward. OK, let’s make it a tribute to Steve Stanard and really the whole staff and roster. They obviously took full advent age of the two weeks off to rebuild this team in terms of line-up and scheme to some extent but also mentally and emotionally and they were a totally different team than we’ve seen all year. Also, I think they were just sick of losing and decided to a man it was time to do something about it. Duke never had a chance.
- Our first two possessions were things of beauty. We had the win and moved down the field like the wind, scoring in four plays the first time and in 9 the second. 174 yards and two TDs in two possessions. Then we seemed to lose momentum with the long period the injured Duke player was on the field and we lost the win in the second quarter and didn’t have it in the third quarter either. The defense dominated there. But in the fourth quarter we didn’t even need the win to add on a couple more scores with the best running game we’ve had all season. We rushed for 286 yards.
- But it was the defense that carried the team. This was the defense people were talking about in practice last summer. They were aggressive but they stayed in their lanes and the defensive backs didn’t bite on anything and they controlled the Duke offense the whole game, breaking it open with three straight takeaways to open the second half, followed by stuffing a fourth down attempt, which basically is a takeaway, too. A 14-0 game turned into a 35-6 and we never looked back.
- We had only four penalties for 39 yards. One was a celebration penalty. If you are getting celebration penalties, you’re having a good game. All those illegal procedure penalties that put us in so many holes were largely gone. , another sign of the reset of the team’s mental attitude.
- Suddenly Carlos Vetterollo was our center. I kept waiting for the inevitable bad snap with a new center. It finally came in the second half but it didn’t turn out to matter. He did a good job as did the entire line with Airon Servais at tackle. Maybe this should have been the line-up all along?
- We had two 100 yard rushers: Moe Neal and Jarveon Howard both had 155, in 17 and 9 carries, respectively. And Little Jawhar Jordan isn’t just quick- he powered into the end zone like Howard’s mini-me.
- Triston Jackson caught only two early passes but they were for 68 yards and a score. Luke Benson got some late action and responded with 2 catches for 28 yards and another score. He’s going to be quite a weapon in the future.
- McKinley Williams “The bear” was back and he took up enough double-teams for Alton Robinson and Kendall Coleman to have the kind of game we expected from them this year. The team Kept Harris in the pocket and sacked him 4 times and had 8 tackles for a loss. They also tipped a couple of passes and forced a fumble.
- Now the pilot light is back on and we can dream of making something of this season. Louisville and Wake Forest, who got destroyed today by Clemson, are both very beatable and if we can beat them and win a bowl game, we’ll have our second straight winning season. Sometimes all you need is to win and everything looks different.
4-6 and 2+ to do (I can still put that '+' on there)
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
- Matt Park said this shouldn’t be looked as a referendum on fired defensive coordinator Brian Ward. OK, let’s make it a tribute to Steve Stanard and really the whole staff and roster. They obviously took full advent age of the two weeks off to rebuild this team in terms of line-up and scheme to some extent but also mentally and emotionally and they were a totally different team than we’ve seen all year. Also, I think they were just sick of losing and decided to a man it was time to do something about it. Duke never had a chance.
- Our first two possessions were things of beauty. We had the win and moved down the field like the wind, scoring in four plays the first time and in 9 the second. 174 yards and two TDs in two possessions. Then we seemed to lose momentum with the long period the injured Duke player was on the field and we lost the win in the second quarter and didn’t have it in the third quarter either. The defense dominated there. But in the fourth quarter we didn’t even need the win to add on a couple more scores with the best running game we’ve had all season. We rushed for 286 yards.
- But it was the defense that carried the team. This was the defense people were talking about in practice last summer. They were aggressive but they stayed in their lanes and the defensive backs didn’t bite on anything and they controlled the Duke offense the whole game, breaking it open with three straight takeaways to open the second half, followed by stuffing a fourth down attempt, which basically is a takeaway, too. A 14-0 game turned into a 35-6 and we never looked back.
- We had only four penalties for 39 yards. One was a celebration penalty. If you are getting celebration penalties, you’re having a good game. All those illegal procedure penalties that put us in so many holes were largely gone. , another sign of the reset of the team’s mental attitude.
- Suddenly Carlos Vetterollo was our center. I kept waiting for the inevitable bad snap with a new center. It finally came in the second half but it didn’t turn out to matter. He did a good job as did the entire line with Airon Servais at tackle. Maybe this should have been the line-up all along?
- We had two 100 yard rushers: Moe Neal and Jarveon Howard both had 155, in 17 and 9 carries, respectively. And Little Jawhar Jordan isn’t just quick- he powered into the end zone like Howard’s mini-me.
- Triston Jackson caught only two early passes but they were for 68 yards and a score. Luke Benson got some late action and responded with 2 catches for 28 yards and another score. He’s going to be quite a weapon in the future.
- McKinley Williams “The bear” was back and he took up enough double-teams for Alton Robinson and Kendall Coleman to have the kind of game we expected from them this year. The team Kept Harris in the pocket and sacked him 4 times and had 8 tackles for a loss. They also tipped a couple of passes and forced a fumble.
- Now the pilot light is back on and we can dream of making something of this season. Louisville and Wake Forest, who got destroyed today by Clemson, are both very beatable and if we can beat them and win a bowl game, we’ll have our second straight winning season. Sometimes all you need is to win and everything looks different.
4-6 and 2+ to do (I can still put that '+' on there)
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
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