Three Games In, Syracuse Football Seems To Be On Track
by Sean Keeley on Sep 21, 2010 11:54 AM EDT
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PrintIf I told you before the season that Syracuse would be 2-1 going into the Colgate game, the defense would look stout, the offense was improving and the special teams was hodgepodge, you almost certainly would have told me, "Yep, sounds about right."
And here we are. Three weeks in and, as far as I can tell, right on track. There's still lots of work to be done for sure, we're not out of the woods just yet. But things look a million times better than they did two years ago, and even much better than they did last year (I have no idea what Dave's talking about).Doug Marrone isn't resting on his Akron & Maine-beating laurels for sure:
"The first two games we started off well, both offensively and defensively," Marrone said Monday, referring to the season-opening win at Akron and a loss at Washington. "I thought our defense did a good job with Maine, but offensively we didn't start as fast as we should have. That will be addressed. That's a concern. It's a little disappointing when you drop balls."
It's fair to say if he hasn't been a revelation, Ryan Nassib has at least been a welcome surprise. We expected him to grasp the offense and handle his business. I don't think anyone expected him to be able to put together good drives and throw a lot of TDs. That is, when he has protection.
Through three games, Nassib has carried the SU offense, thanks to a 148.27 passer rating and 691 yards with eight touchdowns and two interceptions. Saturday, Nassib went 19-for-28, throwing for 260 yards. Carter has struggled somewhat to start the season, averaging 82.3 yards per game. It’s a number down from Carter’s 110.25 yards per game he averaged over the course of SU’s final four games last season.
"It feels pretty good, especially with all the great quarterbacks that have come through here," Nassib said. "I am extremely humbled and grateful."
Soft spoken and carrying a big arm-cannon. All he needs is a walrus mustache and Teddy Roosevelt would be proud. And according to Marrone, "We've only touched the surface on how good he could be." That's exciting...
As for the task at hand, the FCS Colgate Red Raiders come to the Dome on Saturday. Doug Marrone, he of the belief that Syracuse has no right to look ahead of anyone, is impressed by what he sees over in Hamilton, NY.
"I can’t tell you how impressed I am with the coaching that goes on there, as far as schemes, systems, people attacking each other. It’s an unbelievable respect I have for coaches in that conference," Marrone told reporters during his weekly news conference in the football wing at Manley Field House.
"You can tell that their players know exactly what they need to do," he said. "There are some teams that you can get in certain formations and out-leverage. You can’t do that with this team, because it’s very well coached."
Doug says he plans on studying Colgate's system over the summer. Hopefully not until after he's taken Mrs. Marrone and the wee ones on a nice vacation. Perhaps Barbados? Guess it depends how much bowl money he brings in before then...
As for those Red Raiders, they come into the game 1-1. They opened the season with a 30-29 win over Monmouth, led by QB Greg Sullivan who threw for 180 yards and ran for 74 more and 2 TDs.They then followed that up by laying a big stinker against Furman, losing 45-15. Colgate’s Nate Eachus had 134 yards in that one, become the 15th Raiders running back to rush for 2,000 career yards.
The Raiders don't seem to have much of a passing game working for them this season, so they're going to have to try to out-grind the Orange. With our defensive line and linebackers, I just don't see that happened.
| Syracuse vs. Maine Football: Marrone's Monday Press Conference |
| Bud Poliquin: Orange against the Colgate Raiders |
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To say that we're "worse..."
…is frankly silly. But to say that we’re “about the same?” That I’ll buy, at least so far. We are getting better QB play this year, but our running game is stuck in low gear for some reason. The Washington game in hindsight looks bad, but maybe Nebraska is also just that good (in terms of how they crushed the Huskies – they ARE a top 10 team, after all).
Bottom line, we need to beat Colgate to get to 3-1…and you’re right Sean, that’s exactly where we thought we would be heading into this season. I think every Syracuse fan realizes that the real referendum on this year’s squad will be the Big East schedule.
"(BARF)" - Donovan McNabb, during his game winning drive against Virginia Tech in 1998
But to say that we’re "about the same?" That I’ll buy, at least so far.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. The Otto’s Army article wouldn’t seem ridiculous if he said Syracuse was at the same position they were last year, rather than worse.
But to say that we’re “about the same?” That I’ll buy, at least so far.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. The Otto’s Army article could be written exactly the same, except he could say Syracuse hasn’t gotten any better, rather than that they’re worse, and I think I’d have trouble arguing against it.
But I don’t think you can watch the first half of the Washington game and say this Syracuse team is worse than last year.
Exactly right
And uh…consider the first attempt ignored :)
"(BARF)" - Donovan McNabb, during his game winning drive against Virginia Tech in 1998
Running game is stuck
because the line is not pushing anybody anywhere. It’s not like Carter is ignoring gaping lanes to intentionally hit defenders (although that might be funny if it really happened). I knew the line would need time to gell, they have four new starters after all. In fact, before the season these two games seemed a perfect time to have the line grow together, but the Maine game was a piss-poor start. They couldn’t push that team if they were all sitting in grocery carts. I would dearly like to see an improved effort against Colgate, because although I am optimistic about our bowl chances after seeing the other crappy teams that co-inhabit this league, it isn’t going to happen if the line doesn’t improve.
"Stop the run to earn the right to rush the passer"- great philosophy from new SU DLine coach Jimmy Brumbaugh.
by bigbluethruandthru on Sep 21, 2010 12:14 PM EDT reply actions
O-line
Probably has the biggest upside to any unit on the team. They’ve got plenty of guys with the ability but are just lacking experience that comes with having a seasoned unit. Given their fitness and the comments from the SU D-line, my guess is that this unit by the end of the season will significantly better. I hope.
Opponents so far are also obviously stacking the box to inhibit the ground game. Thank GOD Ryan can throw and we have a couple guys who can get open.
GO ORANGE
by bloodyyank44 on Sep 21, 2010 12:25 PM EDT up reply actions
"Biggest upside"
another way of saying they have the farthest to go. AKA, the worst part of the team.
Go Orange(men)!
Correct
I was just trying to be nice/optimistic about it. But, yeah, I can’t disagree with you.
GO ORANGE
by bloodyyank44 on Sep 22, 2010 8:42 AM EDT up reply actions
Upon reflection
I really, really, wanted to torch Maine out of the gate, to show that we are better than we were last year at this point, and that we’re back to putting bad teams away early so we get in get the back-ups in and coast to victory. We’re not quite there yet, but, at least we were not behind at halftime this year. If nothing else, we did get our s*** together quicker in this one, which shows we are slightly ahead of where we were last year.
Also, this may be a stretch, though we struggled in the first half, at the end of the day we still smoked Maine. This shows me we have a lot more untapped potential which echoes what HCDM is saying. If SU can put together a full game, they’ll beat anyone on the schedule. It won’t happen every week, but it will happen sooner or later I believe. Take UW for example…had they played the rest of the game like they played the 1st Q, we’d have won easily. That’s how good this team could be.
GO ORANGE
Everyone is right
We have looked better this year.
However, beating Northwestern and going to OT with Minnesota is better than beating Akron and Maine.
At the same time, the NW win was also a bit of a sham because of the late turnover to put us in great field position.
As of that game, we really did not think we had a GREAT defense. Did we?
At the same time, games are won and lost by turnovers, so sucks to be Northwestern.
And Minnesota got a gift TD in the first minute.
But what is Akron.
On the other hand, if we had tackled better against UW, maybe that score looks a lot better than the Penn St. score from last year. FGs instead of TDs. 31-17 or something.
Or maybe UW played the game of the season in a must-win situation. If they lose to us, they could go 2-10 all year given the gauntlet they have to go through. Meanwhile, we wanted to win but did not HAVE TO in the sense of our entire season was riding on it.
Of course, Kansas lost to an FCS team, beat ranked Ga Tech, and lost to So Miss. Try figuring out what the hell that team is? How will they figure out in 2011 where they stack up compared to this year.
All I know is this. I don’t think our team is “better” this year. I think out team may be “better situated” to win games though. If that makes us “worse,” so be it. But if we can scrape together a 6 win season somehow or even the 7 necessary to qualify for a bowl, it will be a success all the same.
And really
People get WAY too caught up in expectations.
College teams are far more emotional. Look at the Rutgers game last year. Were we better than Rutgers? Yes and no. That game meant more for us than it did for them. Our emotion ran high and carried us. Their confidence eroded and destroyed them. In the end, we get a W.
Some games you start fast and lose it (us against UW, Maine against us). Some games you start slow and gain it (UW against us, us against Maine).
Some weeks, great teams play down to their competition. A mediocre team like ours certainly gets the same “pass” for starting slow against Maine.
This week we play Colgate. The ideal situation is to start strong, sustain it to get the second string in there, and survive without injuries. Next to that is starting strong or finishing strong and getting the W (without injuries). Next to that is just getting the W somehow, someway (without injuries).
You can’t get to 11-1 if you are 2-2. Get the win. Hope for the style points. Pray that nobody on either team gets hurt.
And only after that worry about Game 5.
Minnesota and NW
I think our team this year wins both of those games. Thats just pure speculation though. To get any kind of frame of reference, I think you have to look at the common opponents from last season with Akron and Maine. SU looked much better versus Akron on the road when compared to how they looked at the Dome last year. Akron may be a terrible team this year, but its not like that team last year was any good at all either. I think you have to assume Maine is about the same team as they were last year all things considered. In the end, Syracuse still struggled early in both games, but got its act together a lot quicker this year. Thats a definite sign of improvement – they’ve done a much better job this season of putting away a couple of inferior teams.
GO ORANGE
by bloodyyank44 on Sep 21, 2010 1:11 PM EDT up reply actions
Running v. Passing
The major reason Ryan is able to put up such fantastic numbers (besides him being a damn good QB) is that every team we’ve played thus far has stacked 8 or even 9 in the box. Delone hasn’t played well and he’s not seeing the holes, and our O-Line has been suspect, but blocking 9 with 7 is not in any way a simple task.
But now, Ryan, Chew, Lemon and Provo have proved that they can move the ball really well, and I think we’re going to be seeing more six and seven fronts, or Big East teams are going to get torched because our O-Line and passing game is only going to improve. Delone and Ant are going to get their touches and I suspect that we’ll see the running attack return to form as the season progresses, and with it, a much more balanced offense.
Syracuse '12
I hope so
It seems like every team that analyzed us last year, and all the hype our run game has gotten, they’ve tried to shut us down that way. Now that its flip flopped Im sure BE coaches are going to be left guessing, just how you want it. So yeah, I think Delone and Antwon are in for some bigger runs, but seriously the game has been stacked in the WRs deck so far with the stacked box, which is awesome cause its been fun to watch them.
My bet: Delone finally puts in a nice 20-40 yard run in against Colgate and easily breaks 100.
I don't think Delone hasn't played well
I think he’s played as well as he good. He’s not missing hole, there haven’t been any. But you are right, a big reason has been the oppositions gameplanning around stopping him and Ant.
"Stop the run to earn the right to rush the passer"- great philosophy from new SU DLine coach Jimmy Brumbaugh.
by bigbluethruandthru on Sep 21, 2010 9:59 PM EDT up reply actions
* as well as he could
"Stop the run to earn the right to rush the passer"- great philosophy from new SU DLine coach Jimmy Brumbaugh.
by bigbluethruandthru on Sep 21, 2010 10:00 PM EDT up reply actions
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