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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1491451, member: 289"] - I said of last week’s game that it was “a loss with a smile painted on it”, meaning that it was a win on the scoreboard but not an encouraging game because after Dungey went down, we didn’t look like a football team that was going to beat many other teams. Winning isn’t everything . Optimism is what sports fans really want and we didn’t come out of that game with much optimism for this week. This week’s actual loss has a big grin on it because it gives us the feeling that we can now compete with anybody and that all the other games, including Clemson and Florida State, are on the table. Which game left you with the better feeling? Central Michigan or LSU? The difference is: optimism. - One thing injuries do for you: they force you to use a lot of people. You wind up with a lot of people who have seen game action and you get to see who you can rely on and who you can’t. You may find you’ve got several players who can play a key positon. All the chaos at quarterback the last two years have left us with an emerging star in Eric Dungey, a very solid back-up in Zack Mahoney who just threw three TD passes against the #8 team in the country, another guy who can play if they will ever let him in A. J. Long who threw 2 TD passes against the #1 team in the country last year and a fourth guy in Austin Wilson who a touchdown pass last week. - People were wondering if we could move the ball on this team- and keep it. We had 21 first downs to the Tigers 17 and controlled the ball for 30:08 minutes to 29.52. After converting only 2 of 17 third down situations the last two weeks against mediocre opposition, we converted 5 of 16 today and then 3 of 4 fourth downs, so effectively we were 8 of 16 while holding LSU to 3 of 10. And that was with a walk on who was running our scout team as a fifth-string quarterback when the season began. - Mahoney, after a shaky start, (he admitted he was nervous and was using footwork and a throwing motion from high school that they’d thought they’d managed to teach him not to use), Developed some confidence and ran the ball and passed it well, (except for those sinkers over the middle and the mortar shots on those long side line passes). He’s very quick on the option, making him an option for when we need him in the future. My proposal for a nickname, (I know they are calling him "Officer"). How about "The Owl", because when everybody heard his name, they said WHO? [IMG]http://funcrisp.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/6712836.jpg[/IMG] - This team has an amazing pair of stats, considering we’ve used 4 quarterbacks and two centers. We have 3 turnovers in four game, (vs. 8) and have been called for only 17 penalties, (vs. 30). Over the year’s we’ve come to expect that Syracuse would have to try to overcome numerous errors to win games but we’ve been avoiding them very well so far this season. - Our offense is going to take off like an airplane when Dungey and Erv Phillips get back. Put them with Ismael and Estime and the three-headed monster at tailback, (McFarlane, Morris and Fredericks), along with Dontae Strickland, who has now touched the ball 10 times and scored 3 touchdowns. I wanted to average 30 points a game or more because that what ti takes to beat an average team these days. We are averaging 32.75 and that’s going to go up, not down. - We came in with the #3 rushing defense in the country. They came in with the nation’s #1 rusher in Leonard Fournette. Something had to give. They both did. Our defense got gashed several times by Fournette and his big, strong line but we had a stretch in the second half where we slammed him back for -6, -2 and then -6 yards again. We had five other plays where he got 3 yards or less. The future Heisman winner will wake up with some bruises tomorrow morning. He knows he was in a game. - We also had a sack and would have another if Brandon Harris hadn’t had the presence of mind to flip the ball to Fournette, who was standing behind him as he was being sack for what could have bene a big loss but which turned into a 48 yard gain, setting up the visitor’s only score of the first half. - We didn’t dazzle but managed to ruin for a decent 141 yards. George Morris led the tailbacks with 37 yards in 7 carries. The kid ran hard with determination and he deserves more credit than we have been giving him. - Riley Dixon had another great day, punting for 45.6 yards per 5 attempts, popping it up or booming it as required, (although he out-kicked his coverage on one of those boomers). He also made a dramatic first down, leaping over a defender to get the final yards. - It had to happen. 6 minutes to go in the third quarter. His team down 3-17, playing against the team the team that gave the world the Honey Badger, THE SALT BADGER ROARED!!! (He also averaged 25 yards and 8 kick returns.) [IMG]http://alpinewildlifecontrol.com/sites/alpineanimalcontrol.com/files/badger4.png[/IMG] - LSU won't be in Blow-out Bowl IV ! 3-1 with 8 or 9 to go! LET’S GO ORANGE!!!! [/QUOTE]

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