SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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- In one of my favorite movies, “Gypsy”, Natalie Wood plays a mousy young girl living in the shadow of her glamorous stage star sister. When he sister runs off with a boyfriend, Mama Rose tells her other daughter that she’s going to make her a star. Gypsy is dubious but does what her mother wants. They do up her hair, give her a make-up job and dress her in a slinky blue dress. The girl looks in the mirror and says “ Mama….I’m beautiful”. She then matures into a confident performer and becomes a big star. I’m hoping that the SU team looked at the West Virginia game and realized what they could be if they approached each game as if it was the West Virginia game, with the same level of focus and intensity and with the realization that if they do what the coaches ask of them, they can accomplish great things.
- I also hope the coaches saw what this team can accomplish when it uses all it’s weapons, the whole playbook and the entire field. We can’t just rely on Antwon Bailey to supply the entire running game. We need more than just slants and quick outs to have a passing game. We’ve actually got lots of potential weapons on offense and are hard to stop if the defense realizes they’ve got to cover all of them.
- One of those weapons is Dorian Graham, who is establishing himself as the most remarkable player on the team. He’s a dynamite kick returner. His 98 yard kick-off return to answer a West Virginia score was probably the biggest play of the game. He’s a terrific gunner on the kicks, although the staff is taking him off of kick-off coverage because they want to use him more and more as a receiver.(We should be fielding all that many kick-offs against Louisville. He’s got the strength to break through press coverage, (which Louisville uses) at the line of scrimmage and the speed to beat the defense down the field. His catches so far have been primarily on possession routes. He’s just beginning to break out as a star- the sort of all-purpose weapon we’ve seen on other teams but now we’ve got one. He’s going to become more and more of a force. (I’d love to see what he could with punt returns.) In a game like the Louisville game, a long kick return or pass play could make all the difference and this guy can get us one.
- Chandler Jones played like an uncaged animal last week. I wonder if he’s thinking of going to the pros early. If so he only has a few more games to show off what he can do. I’ll never forget the play where he reached over the tackle to bring down the quarterback with one arm. Expect another big game here. I like the fact that Coach Marrone underscored the importance of the other players on the front seven maintaining their lanes so that Geno Smith had no place to go. Chandler is going to be chasing Mr. Bridgewater around and it’s important he have no place to go, either.
- Louisville has really struggled on offense, even firing their co-ordinator. 4/5 of that line that crushed us last year are gone. They are #100 in the country in yards gained, a G-Robesque number. Wright leads in rushing with only 284 yards, (Bailey has 698 for us). Bridgewater, for all his talent, has only 5TD passes vs. 6 interceptions. (Ryan Nassib is 15/4). The Cardinals, with so little offense, have very little margin for error. If they lose the turnover battle or give up a score on defense or special teams, that could be enough to beat them right there.
- They’ve beaten Murray State, Kentucky and Rutgers by a total of 21 points and lost to Florida International and Marshall. This is a very beatable team. We never used to be afraid of teams like this. Why should we now?
5-2 with five to do
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
- I also hope the coaches saw what this team can accomplish when it uses all it’s weapons, the whole playbook and the entire field. We can’t just rely on Antwon Bailey to supply the entire running game. We need more than just slants and quick outs to have a passing game. We’ve actually got lots of potential weapons on offense and are hard to stop if the defense realizes they’ve got to cover all of them.
- One of those weapons is Dorian Graham, who is establishing himself as the most remarkable player on the team. He’s a dynamite kick returner. His 98 yard kick-off return to answer a West Virginia score was probably the biggest play of the game. He’s a terrific gunner on the kicks, although the staff is taking him off of kick-off coverage because they want to use him more and more as a receiver.(We should be fielding all that many kick-offs against Louisville. He’s got the strength to break through press coverage, (which Louisville uses) at the line of scrimmage and the speed to beat the defense down the field. His catches so far have been primarily on possession routes. He’s just beginning to break out as a star- the sort of all-purpose weapon we’ve seen on other teams but now we’ve got one. He’s going to become more and more of a force. (I’d love to see what he could with punt returns.) In a game like the Louisville game, a long kick return or pass play could make all the difference and this guy can get us one.
- Chandler Jones played like an uncaged animal last week. I wonder if he’s thinking of going to the pros early. If so he only has a few more games to show off what he can do. I’ll never forget the play where he reached over the tackle to bring down the quarterback with one arm. Expect another big game here. I like the fact that Coach Marrone underscored the importance of the other players on the front seven maintaining their lanes so that Geno Smith had no place to go. Chandler is going to be chasing Mr. Bridgewater around and it’s important he have no place to go, either.
- Louisville has really struggled on offense, even firing their co-ordinator. 4/5 of that line that crushed us last year are gone. They are #100 in the country in yards gained, a G-Robesque number. Wright leads in rushing with only 284 yards, (Bailey has 698 for us). Bridgewater, for all his talent, has only 5TD passes vs. 6 interceptions. (Ryan Nassib is 15/4). The Cardinals, with so little offense, have very little margin for error. If they lose the turnover battle or give up a score on defense or special teams, that could be enough to beat them right there.
- They’ve beaten Murray State, Kentucky and Rutgers by a total of 21 points and lost to Florida International and Marshall. This is a very beatable team. We never used to be afraid of teams like this. Why should we now?
5-2 with five to do
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
