This whole defensive secondary and coaches need to go

[Dmcnabbrules]

A few time you saw glimpses of how the defense can work. Clayton and Black got penetration, Franklin is starting to look more comfortable. Really will take a little while for the secondary to have the understanding and communication necessary to play better. Problem IMO with cover two is it is very susceptible to vertical routes if you can't get enough pressure from the front four. Hard to as two freshmen and two sophomores to do that against s veteran line with multiple NFL caliber players. Season is going exactky like many people though it would. Move on and beat Wake, which won't be as easy this year, and team is still in a decent spot.

 

[HtownOrange]

I have been a Syracuse fan since I was a kid, around 35-40 years. I have seen the highs and seen the lows. I know I am impatient but HCDB has informed all of us fans that this is a complete overhaul and that the kids would need time to adjust to his schemes and that he would need some new players, too. Still, we see week to week improvements here and there.

Just 5-6 weeks ago, most fans on this site and nearly all commentators predicted that ND would circle this game as a win and Syracuse would circle it as a loss, no need to play the game. Our team, in just week five of the overhaul, could have won today with just a couple of plays working in our favor. HCDB out coached Kelly by a mile. Kelly has the elite recruits, they have been together for some time and they have been in the same system for some time. Our defense has been banged up pretty much, too. All things considered, if this game was played later this season or next year, I would have Syracuse winning outright. I'm no gambler, but I might even have bet on it.

Anyway, I think we have the foundations of a good team and a very good future.

 

[Macky44]

A few time you saw glimpses of how the defense can work. Clayton and Black got penetration, Franklin is starting to look more comfortable. Really will take a little while for the secondary to have the understanding and communication necessary to play better. Problem IMO with cover two is it is very susceptible to vertical routes if you can't get enough pressure from the front four. Hard to as two freshmen and two sophomores to do that against s veteran line with multiple NFL caliber players. Season is going exactky like many people though it would. Move on and beat Wake, which won't be as easy this year, and team is still in a decent spot.

Let's beat the team's we expected to beat, and show good progress on offense. We shouldn't be disappointed with where we are at currently. This team is always exciting.

 

[AZOrange]

This is like pointing out we need more points to win. The secondary is young and outmatched. We can only hope they improve.

 

[JLine]

Glad that most see things for what they are. The rest need to relax. It's very early in an extremely difficult rebuilding process. With radical changes in scheme on both sides of the ball. We are improving every game, even with talent that is lacking in depth, and experience. Some players that aren't really ACC level talent as well. Though, they are out there trying so we shouldn't bash them.

With all that, we still had a shot to beat Notre Dame. A few plays go a different way, and we have a completely different game. Mistakes, and miscommunications happen, but will be cleaned up to far less occurrences as time goes on.

The future is bright. I know people are sick of having to be patient, but this time it will actually be worth it when we are back in the top 25, and going to legitimate bowl games.

Just hope I'm around to see it, never know what can happen, but that's beside the point. We will be back, and this stretch of a terrible decade plus of football will just be a bad memory. We can laugh about it someday soon when the Dome is rocking again, and we're playing a big time game where we are both ranked.

 

[AZOrange]

A few time you saw glimpses of how the defense can work. Clayton and Black got penetration, Franklin is starting to look more comfortable. Really will take a little while for the secondary to have the understanding and communication necessary to play better. Problem IMO with cover two is it is very susceptible to vertical routes if you can't get enough pressure from the front four. Hard to ask two freshmen and two sophomores to do that against s veteran line with multiple NFL caliber players. Season is going exactky like many people though it would. Move on and beat Wake, which won't be as easy this year, and team is still in a decent spot.

The Dbs clearly struggle with the zone concept, when to release, cover over the top etc. it was clear on the td bomb that Kizer overthrew

 

[We Are Syracuse]

Uhhh I don't know how anyone can possibly say a positive thing about our defense after that game. The CBs are just simply not talented/athletic enough to play at this level. Can't tackle and over pursue in the run game, can't cover, mentally have lapses. Then add on the fact that Syracuse has literally zero pass rush and that is why everyone has career days on our defense. Pray we can get in some talent. I think Dino can. But the fact that we are playing a Tampa 2 with 5'8 corners makes zero and very little sense

 

[We Are Syracuse]

The Dbs clearly struggle with the zone concept, when to release, cover over the top etc. it was clear on the td bomb that Kizer overthrew

They are too small. We need to bring in bigger DBs for Ward's system which is what they are doing.

 

[AZOrange]

They are too small. We need to bring in bigger DBs for Ward's system which is what they are doing.

Yup

 

[Toga]

On the small victories front, Fredericks' first carry was on a trap play. It's the first one I remember seeing this year. Sure beat small guy dive.

 

[bcubs9497]

They are too small. We need to bring in bigger DBs for Ward's system which is what they are doing.

Actually, as it was pointed out to me a few weeks back, our DBs aren't any smaller than most other teams. Again, totally new system, new coaches. It takes time, certainly more time than some spring ball, and summer practice.

"Season and a half" apparently can't be over-stated.

 

[Chip]

uhhhh...pretty sure i just watched the game where Kizer sat in the pocket looking down receivers like he was playing QB at a 4th of July block party.

Yeah, that's what I saw too on passing plays. I almost wonder given our limitations if we should just dial up a lot more blitzes. What's the worst that can happen, we give up big play TDs? Anything but that!

 

[OrangeDW]

Glad that most see things for what they are. The rest need to relax. It's very early in an extremely difficult rebuilding process. With radical changes in scheme on both sides of the ball. We are improving every game, even with talent that is lacking in depth, and experience. Some players that aren't really ACC level talent as well. Though, they are out there trying so we shouldn't bash them.

With all that, we still had a shot to beat Notre Dame. A few plays go a different way, and we have a completely different game. Mistakes, and miscommunications happen, but will be cleaned up to far less occurrences as time goes on.

The future is bright. I know people are sick of having to be patient, but this time it will actually be worth it when we are back in the top 25, and going to legitimate bowl games.

Just hope I'm around to see it, never know what can happen, but that's beside the point. We will be back, and this stretch of a terrible decade plus of football will just be a bad memory. We can laugh about it someday soon when the Dome is rocking again, and we're playing a big time game where we are both ranked.

Is Michigan in 1999 the last time we had a game at the Dome when both teams were ranked? I feel like 2001 Auburn was unranked but could be wrong.

Regardless, I really can't wait to have a big game like that again. Been way too long.

 

[Ish88888]

Our secondary are so undersized - when you get elite receiver talent with size/speed we struggle. Yes there were some blown coverages but there were also cases of guys in 1 v 1 just getting burned or out sized.

Calls for coaching changes at this point are just dumb for two reasons - 1) They AREN'T happening in year 1 and 2) We haven't seen this staff even coach with a full complement of their own players yet.

Its also scheme, sorry, where is the...bend but dont break? The 2 deep safeties over the top? Still see corners trailing in coverage just like when we used to blitz, but...um, we dont do that anymore, we send 3-4 everytime and our defensive is in one place and flat footed pre snap. We must be a pretty simple pre snap read for most qbs

 

[Cusefan78]

Uhhh I don't know how anyone can possibly say a positive thing about our defense after that game. The CBs are just simply not talented/athletic enough to play at this level. Can't tackle and over pursue in the run game, can't cover, mentally have lapses. Then add on the fact that Syracuse has literally zero pass rush and that is why everyone has career days on our defense. Pray we can get in some talent. I think Dino can. But the fact that we are playing a Tampa 2 with 5'8 corners makes zero and very little sense

What game did you watch. Defense had some big stops today. Best tackling day of the year by far. Red zone defense was great. Some big plays killed us. Every team we play will have career days due to the fact they'll see the ball twice as much as normal cause of how fast our offense is. You need to step back. This is week 5 of a 2-3 year rebuild.

 

[Ish88888]

I even thought that Notre Dames defense looked worse than ours, filled with 5 star talent. We had 3 or 4 big broken plays make us look bad...but they had trouble stopping everything.

Wow, orange glasses, they, like Louisville could have put up 70 on us if they didn't call off the dogs the last quarter and miss 3-5 big throws to WIDE open recievers. Unless we play a dinosaur offense like uconn, this defense will be historical bad. We hold the los on the run well, but refuse to blitz and we get torched

 

[KellySyracuse]

I WANT IT ALL AND I WANT IT RIGHT NOW

 

[Cusefan78]

I WANT IT ALL AND I WANT IT RIGHT NOW

Me too.

 

[OrangePA]

No secondary looks good when a QB is comfortable and has all day to throw. Front 4 ran into a brick wall today.

That said, we clearly have some miscommunication between the DBs on when there is help over the top and when there isn't.

I agree with this. We were manhandled by the ND OL today - Kizer had all day to throw. We are playing two true Frosh at DE. And we look like boys against men out there. On both sides of the ball.

But the one-play drives are killers.

I can see where a gambling defense like the Shafer defense can give up big plays with assignment breakdowns. I was under the impression that Dino's defense would limit breakdowns and quick scores.

So the defensive situation is very frustrating.

 

[AZOrange]

Its also scheme, sorry, where is the...bend but dont break? The 2 deep safeties over the top? Still see corners trailing in coverage just like when we used to blitz, but...um, we dont do that anymore, we send 3-4 everytime and our defensive is in one place and flat footed pre snap. We must be a pretty simple pre snap read for most qbs

The safeties are running with the wrong guys and offenses are running multiple seam routes to confuse them. For the most part we're playing hard so that's good. But the db effort on the first play was awful.

 

[Ish88888]

The Dbs clearly struggle with the zone concept, when to release, cover over the top etc. it was clear on the td bomb that Kizer overthrew

Its not all their fault. There is zero pressure up front. Yes, i get it , frosh bookends, then ok! Bring extra guys, go down fighting instead of passively getting torched!

 

[CuseCrew08]

Let's not forget they have two senior first round draft picks on their O-line.

 

[Scooch]

What game did you watch. Defense had some big stops today. Best tackling day of the year by far. Red zone defense was great. Some big plays killed us. Every team we play will have career days due to the fact they'll see the ball twice as much as normal cause of how fast our offense is. You need to step back. This is week 5 of a 2-3 year rebuild.

I agree with much of this except the "see the ball twice as much" part. TOP today was dead even before ND's last drive. The D didn't falter today because of the O's pace.

 

[AZOrange]

Its not all their fault. There is zero pressure up front. Yes, i get it , frosh bookends, then ok! Bring extra guys, go down fighting instead of passively getting torched!

Agree with pressure

 

[AZOrange]

Let's not forget they have two senior first round draft picks on their O-line.

Their oline hasn't been very good this year. Regardless of future prospects.