Wanted to post a few things positives I saw in your team

[irishredhomebrew]

What a close game! I wanted to post a few thoughts I had when watching your team play in person last night.
1. Your defense is much more physical than what we saw last year. Last year, the only really hard hit I remember from Syracuse was one put on Watkins by your middle linebacker on a pass play. Last night, your back seven was knocking the crap out of any running back that made it that far--turned one rb into a freaking ferris wheel.
2. Your O-line's discipline. I only remember one false start penalty, and it didn't seem to be created by the noise factor. To be honest, your O-line handled the noise better than any team in Death Valley since Fl St put the smack down on us last year.
3. Prince Tyson Gulley-last year I thought he was basically a reserve-level running back. He was a different cat last night. He consistently got positive yards, and ended up with at least a yard or two each time from "falling forward." He is better than anything we have this year. Props to him in his improvement.
4. Long-I think the QB you rolled with last night will end up being very good. He made some mistakes, but he also showed the ability to make to make good placement passes to his check-down options; he led his targets and they did not have to alter their stride. He also was pretty mobile during broken plays.

 

[PeteCalvin]

The problem with our team is all on the offensive side of the ball. Our defense has basically handed them games, like ND and last night, and said "go win it". And then the egg is laid. The D gets left with nothing for all their efforts. We have a long way to go on offense to compete and finish the big games like this.

Your defense is smothering and owned us in the trenches, at least for the little bit I saw. We definitely improved since our meeting last season, but we need major help on the offensive side.

By the way, can you explain why the fans were booing our players when they got hurt, particularly Estime who ended up leaving the sideline on crutches? Made me think of Philly fans.

 

[OrangeTarheel]

The speed of play by Clemson's offense was slower than last year, I think that makes an impact on physicality.

Long was/is/will be fine. Great coverage and little time for him to make decisions all night. Toward the end I felt like he was struggling with accuracy but it was a tough night. He'll learn and get better.

The booing our defense I understood (thinking it was a delaying tactic) but with our number of existing injuries, if anyone knew anything about our team they wouldn't be booing. Booing an offensive player going down? I don't get that at all.

 

[irishredhomebrew]

The problem with our team is all on the offensive side of the ball. Our defense has basically handed them games, like ND and last night, and said "go win it". And then the egg is laid. The D gets left with nothing for all their efforts. We have a long way to go on offense to compete and finish the big games like this.

Your defense is smothering and owned us in the trenches, at least for the little bit I saw. We definitely improved since our meeting last season, but we need major help on the offensive side.

By the way, can you explain why the fans were booing our players when they got hurt, particularly Estime who ended up leaving the sideline on crutches? Made me think of Philly fans.

Orange Tarheel pretty much nailed it in his reply.You could not see it on TV, but you had a DL go down (number13) after a 10 yard run to set up first and goal. He took a couple stpes toward the new line of scrimmage, looked to the sideline, went to the ground and grabbed his hammy. It looked like he flopped by getting the message from the sideline. We have had to deal with SEC teams faking injuries to slow down the HUNH, and that was basically the ONLY thing that we had working last night. After that, it looked like a couple of injuries, minor in nature, would occur when we got to the red zone.

As for Estime, I can't remember when he got hurt. If it happened close to the red zone, that would be why. It was looking like a pattern that when we got close to scoring, injuries would occur. Hate to hear that he is on crutches.

The booing of the offensive player being injured is just plain bad. Wish it hadn't happened. Pretty much exasperation and frustration combined with the earlier perceived fake injuries.

It is becoming a problem (both the flopping to slow down HUNH, and the resulting boos). Either the sport needs to get rid of HUNH, or something like increasing the number of plays that a person has to sit out after leaving the game with an injury needs to be instituted.

 

[orangejunkie]

Congrats to Clemson. Was really impressed with the huge level of fan enthusiasm and turnout That is a tough environment to play in. thought your defense was impressive, offense not so much. Based on commentators, looks like you really miss a play maker at QB. Hope he returns, as you will need him in playing top 20 opponents.

 

[orange79]

Orange Tarheel pretty much nailed it in his reply.You could not see it on TV, but you had a DL go down (number13) after a 10 yard run to set up first and goal. He took a couple stpes toward the new line of scrimmage, looked to the sideline, went to the ground and grabbed his hammy. It looked like he flopped by getting the message from the sideline. We have had to deal with SEC teams faking injuries to slow down the HUNH, and that was basically the ONLY thing that we had working last night. After that, it looked like a couple of injuries, minor in nature, would occur when we got to the red zone.

As for Estime, I can't remember when he got hurt. If it happened close to the red zone, that would be why. It was looking like a pattern that when we got close to scoring, injuries would occur. Hate to hear that he is on crutches.

The booing of the offensive player being injured is just plain bad. Wish it hadn't happened. Pretty much exasperation and frustration combined with the earlier perceived fake injuries.

It is becoming a problem (both the flopping to slow down HUNH, and the resulting boos). Either the sport needs to get rid of HUNH, or something like increasing the number of plays that a person has to sit out after leaving the game with an injury needs to be instituted.

Makes no difference if you have had the slow-down happen to you. Hickey gets hurt and spends the rest of the first half in the locker room. Nice 'fake' injury. Another player who was booed off the field traveled home in a brace/cast. Another nice 'fake' injury. Total lack of class. Not saying it's every fan, but it was more than just a few in Death Valley last night. You want to boo pro players for doing that? Knock yourselves out.

You. Don't. Boo. Injured. Players.

 

[irishredhomebrew]

Makes no difference if you have had the slow-down happen to you. Hickey gets hurt and spends the rest of the first half in the locker room. Nice 'fake' injury. Another player who was booed off the field traveled home in a brace/cast. Another nice 'fake' injury. Total lack of class. Not saying it's every fan, but it was more than just a few in Death Valley last night. You want to boo pro players for doing that? Knock yourselves out.

You. Don't. Boo. Injured. Players.

Hickey never got booed.
Number 13 flopped and came back in on the next series. Hell, he was on the sideline dancing the next play after his flop which was the fumbled option play.

 

[PeteCalvin]

Orange Tarheel pretty much nailed it in his reply.You could not see it on TV, but you had a DL go down (number13) after a 10 yard run to set up first and goal. He took a couple stpes toward the new line of scrimmage, looked to the sideline, went to the ground and grabbed his hammy. It looked like he flopped by getting the message from the sideline. We have had to deal with SEC teams faking injuries to slow down the HUNH, and that was basically the ONLY thing that we had working last night. After that, it looked like a couple of injuries, minor in nature, would occur when we got to the red zone.

As for Estime, I can't remember when he got hurt. If it happened close to the red zone, that would be why. It was looking like a pattern that when we got close to scoring, injuries would occur. Hate to hear that he is on crutches.

The booing of the offensive player being injured is just plain bad. Wish it hadn't happened. Pretty much exasperation and frustration combined with the earlier perceived fake injuries.

It is becoming a problem (both the flopping to slow down HUNH, and the resulting boos). Either the sport needs to get rid of HUNH, or something like increasing the number of plays that a person has to sit out after leaving the game with an injury needs to be instituted.

I recall hearing somewhere that there's a rule coaches have been utilizing more lately regarding in game injuries. The way the rule is written it's better for the player to actually go down than try to walk off the field. Typically, players want to walk off, but the coaches have to tell them to sit. I'm not so sure it's a blatant delay of game tactic, but more of a player safety issue. Does anyone know more about this. I could swear that Shaffer addressed a question on it at one time.

 

[Longtimesu]

So now we have flopping in football? Give me a break. I watch lots of college fb games, never heard or seen flopping before in any of those games. Clemson fans have now taken flopping to a new "low" level.

 

[DownTheField]

Hickey never got booed.
Number 13 flopped and came back in on the next series. Hell, he was on the sideline dancing the next play after his flop which was the fumbled option play.

Have you ever had a cramp in your leg? It sucks. I've seen guys on the ground screaming in pain from cramps and after getting stretched out, they're on the field two plays later. You may say that it's no coincidence that it happened when you started to go uptempo and I don't disagree. Lining up play after play with no rest is going to lead to guys cramping up. Apparently the fans that were booing are both mind readers and doctors and could tell that he was faking it. Also, I have no doubt that the coaches were telling him to drop. Why let Clemson run a play with one of our linemen trying to limp off the field in pain?

I met a lot of great Clemson fans at the game last year and have seen some great ones on syracusefan.com this year. I would almost guarantee that the fans trying to justify the booing are the ones that were complaining about Shafer and the classless Yankees last year. It's not even worth arguing with those idiots. It's like trying to have a reasonable discussion with a West Virginia fan.

 

[OrangeDW]

Orange Tarheel pretty much nailed it in his reply.You could not see it on TV, but you had a DL go down (number13) after a 10 yard run to set up first and goal. He took a couple stpes toward the new line of scrimmage, looked to the sideline, went to the ground and grabbed his hammy. It looked like he flopped by getting the message from the sideline. We have had to deal with SEC teams faking injuries to slow down the HUNH, and that was basically the ONLY thing that we had working last night. After that, it looked like a couple of injuries, minor in nature, would occur when we got to the red zone.

As for Estime, I can't remember when he got hurt. If it happened close to the red zone, that would be why. It was looking like a pattern that when we got close to scoring, injuries would occur. Hate to hear that he is on crutches.

The booing of the offensive player being injured is just plain bad. Wish it hadn't happened. Pretty much exasperation and frustration combined with the earlier perceived fake injuries.

It is becoming a problem (both the flopping to slow down HUNH, and the resulting boos). Either the sport needs to get rid of HUNH, or something like increasing the number of plays that a person has to sit out after leaving the game with an injury needs to be instituted.

Your offense scored 16 points despite having incredible field position all night. I highly doubt that our defense was flopping and faking injuries to slow down the crappy offense that they were smacking around the field all night.

 

[CousinClem]

So now we have flopping in football? Give me a break. I watch lots of college fb games, never heard or seen flopping before in any of those games. Clemson fans have now taken flopping to a new "low" level.

If you have never seen one watch this... LSU had at least 12 injuries on our last two drives in the bowl game. I think what got some of the fans started last night was it seemed that all the injuries were when the offense had a good play and then tried to rush the next snap.

I don't condone the boos because you can't know the player isn't injured. I can say that our opponents seem to suffer injuries at about 6 to 1 over our players. Maybe we play to rough?

 

[Jamesvillecuse]

well maybe you should take a look at our injury list we seem to lose multiple players every game. I think we had at least 8 to 10 players out for last night. I think injuries are up do to all the hurry up spread offenses out there and teams not able to substitute players. I could see your argument if this was last year but your offense is not as fast or potent as last year.

 

[orange79]

Hickey never got booed.
Number 13 flopped and came back in on the next series. Hell, he was on the sideline dancing the next play after his flop which was the fumbled option play.

Fair enough. Let's talk about both times Eskridge was down and helped off the field.

 

[CuseOnly]

Fair enough. Let's talk about both times Eskridge was down and helped off the field.

If Clemson watched an SU game before yesterday, Eskridge goes down an average of 3 times a game. Last night was only 2 times, so he was way below his average of 3 times being carried off the field and returning.

What really burned my ass was Dabo on the sideline complaining to the ref about the injuries. Classless from the shepherd and the sheep.

 

[jekelish]

As for Estime, I can't remember when he got hurt. If it happened close to the red zone, that would be why. It was looking like a pattern that when we got close to scoring, injuries would occur. Hate to hear that he is on crutches.

Dude is a wide receiver. He got hurt, and got booed, when WE HAD THE BALL. We weren't stalling Clemson at all, obviously, because again - WE HAD THE BALL. That was as bizarre as it was classless.

 

[orange79]

As for Estime, I can't remember when he got hurt. If it happened close to the red zone, that would be why. It was looking like a pattern that when we got close to scoring, injuries would occur. Hate to hear that he is on crutches.

Dude is a wide receiver. He got hurt, and got booed, when WE HAD THE BALL. We weren't stalling Clemson at all, obviously, because again - WE HAD THE BALL. That was as bizarre as it was classless.

Mob mentaility