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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 36942, member: 289"] - Clearly Doug Marrone is worried about the psychological aftermath of “giving away” a game to Rutgers. He warned his team “Don’t let one loss lead to another.” This team is at an emotional crossroads. Which direction will we go? - Remember what it was like playing Temple at the Vet? An empty stadium. No passion. No energy. Both teams seemed to be sleep walking. With a crowd of 20,000 in a place that seats 70,000 and into which the Carrier Dome could fit, this will be like a game played in a graveyard. And this isn’t “Remember the Titans”. - Yeah, Toledo has been blown out in it’s last two games. When’s the last time we blew anybody out? Our last eight wins have been by 4, 5, 24, 3, 2, 7, 7 and 3 points. The 24 pointer was aided by 3 turnovers that led to scores. Questionable officiating aided two more wins. Two were in overtime and one was against an FCS team. Fans want two things: the joy, (and relief), of winning and a sense of optimism that we are going to win the next one. SU’s wins have not produced that sense of optimism. - A big reason for that is the lack of big plays. We don’t throw deep effectively. We have a running back who can go the distance but nothing that would set him up to do that. We don’t get long kickoff or punt returns. We just got our first defensive touchdown in five years. We have to use 10-12 play drives to score, which requires we play mistake free-football. - And we don’t do that. Despite Marrone’s emphasis on “discipline and structure” his teams seem to make a lot of mistakes. We had 5 turnovers, three blocked kicks and gave up 5 first downs on penalties vs. Rutgers. That was hardly typical but there are problems in every game, including ill-timed penalties and dropped passes. Those things help keep underdogs in games. - Our special teams are basically killing us now, giving up long returns, having kicks blocked, missing kicks. Then there’s the choice of punters: Shane Raupers, who kicks the ball low and short or Jonathan Fisher who kicks it high and far- but slowly. - You’ve got to love a running back named Orleans Darkwa, especially playing for Tulane. He’s a good one. - So is Trent Mackey, probably as good a linebacker as we’ll see all year. - Van Chew…where are you? [/QUOTE]

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