EZCUSE ANALYSIS

I came real close to being angry at the refs last night. But we just need to play smarter. Yeah, Chandler Jones was victimized. But I saw some holds by us that were ignored too. And the two holds they called on USF when they were prepared to score a TD were huge.
Meanwhile, we are dangerously close to getting roughing the passer penalties on too many plays. I have seen that for several weeks now. Playing with fire. At the end of the season, we’ll add it up and be hard pressed to complain. Given that we are leaving the Big East, it is amazing that we are not getting screwed much worse. It is what it is.

That first paragraph made me sick to my stomach. So. Many. Losing. Streaks. Ughh.

This was brought up in the game thread last night, but is there any way our offense can run the spread? I’m sick of this pro-set/ WCO. It works in the NFL, b/c the players are significantly better. But this offense is ill-suited to our players. Consequently, we have become the Redskins. Little offensive inspiration (possibly) run by someone who thinks himself as a football genius. I don’t think Hack should be fired just yet, but maybe its time for him to run a new style. I’d much rather see the spread or option read offense. Oh well.

At least basketball season is upon us.

The Dome was quiet last night. The crowd wanted to be loud, but every single time they started to get into the game, every single time the offense had a nice drive or the defense made a big stop, we surrendered whatever little amount of momentum we had built.

1. Trailing 3-0, we make a huge 3rd and short stop in our red zone. Crowd goes nuts. Then USF goes for it on 4th and 2, picks up the 1st down and scores two plays later.
2. We finally put together a nice drive and make it 10-7. Two plays later USF scores and it’s 17-7.
3. We put together another solid drive, get into the red zone, Nassib zings a pass at (the shellshocked?) Dorian Grahm and the ball goes off his hands in the end zone. We settle for the FG. 17-10 with 1:21 left in the first half.
4. USF drives down the field and kicks a FG as the 1st half ends, 20-10.
5. After our defense finally puts together a solid quarter and holds USF to a FG in the 3rd, we make a long drive into the red zone and have 1st and goal from the 7 at the start of the 4th quarter. Bailey picks up 5 yards on 1st down. Then we go right back to him and lose yards. Then Stevens drops a very catchable ball in the end zone. Then we go for it on 4th down and fail to get the TD. Felt like the game was over here, but…
6. Our defense holds USF, we get the ball back, drive into the red zone and then Alec Lemon drops a very catchable TD pass. We end up turning the ball over on downs again.

I’m sure there were plenty of other instances of momentum-killing plays or series, but those 6 stand out in my mind. A couple other things I noticed last night. As much grief as Hackett gets from Syracuse fans, some of it well-deserved, much of this game was lost because players simply failed to execute. Three dropped TD passes are not on Hackett. Also, USF stacked the box with their safeties, put lots of pressure on Nassib, doubled Provo, and basically dared our WR’s to beat their man coverage… and they couldn’t! When our best running play is Nassib scrambling because the pocket collapses and our WR’s aren’t quick enough to beat their corners before Nassib has a lineman in his face, an offensive coordinator is pretty limited in what he can call. Now, I’m not excusing Hackett, I thought his first quarter play-calling was atrocious, as was has very predictable decision to run Bailey up the middle on 2nd and goal from the 1 at the start of the 4th quarter, but let’s not kid ourselves and suggest that this team, with this personnel, would be remarkably better with a better offensive coordinator.

that we would be 5-5 with 2 weeks to go, including a loss to USF, I’d say “That seems about right”.

We have 2 weeks to prepare for Cincinnati. The last time we came out of a bye week against a ranked opponent, we shellacked West Virginia.

Hopefully this staff can use the extra time to put together a brilliant game plan, the players will be fired up, the fans will be fired up, and we can get one more win to become bowl eligible.

Marrone seems pissed.

http://suathletics.syr.edu/

I love it.

 a couple of observations: Nassib played a fairly good game, considering he was running for his life on almost every play. I don’t care if we had The best college QB on the planet back there, what can be expected when he has 3 receivers he can trust, and 1 is out (another lower body injury on Van Chew), one was double covered (although Provo did manage a few nice catches) and the third drops passes at the most critical time (yes, Lemon did fairly well otherwise); Graham is officially totally ineffective, the other TE’s have wooden hands and West seems to be MIA.

I love Marrone as the dedicated, no-nonsense, stop-the-bleeding HD coach that was needed to rescue this program from the depths of despair we had experienced in the not-so-distant past. I don’t think he’ll ever be the guy to take us to the next level. Even if he was somehow able to get better talent, I don’t think he’ll ever change his business-as-usual attitude. You gotta wonder what he’ll do with the QBs he’s got on the bench and those he recruited. Most of these guys are dual-threat types better suited to option or some other form of scheme than the pro-style\WCO… will he try to mold them into pure drop back passers or will he suddenly switch to something that suits their natural skills? Even if wants to become more flexible, can he (and Hackett) make that kind of transition? I just can’t see it.. he’s just too rigid and narrow-minded and Hackett has not shown he can be creative. The college football game is constantly evolving… Marrone is a freaken iceburg!!

…a constant has emerged. As far as I’m concerned, this team can’t rely on the defense or special teams. At all. The defense has showed up for most of a game twice this season: Rutgers (loss) and WVU (win). They can be relied on to stop teams from time to time, but forget about an entire game. Not with their tackling and secondary woes.

Same for special teams. I can think of one game where they actually functioned and that was WVU. Otherwise, they’ve been a constant disaster throughout the season.

So as far as I’m concerned, it’s up to the offense to show up for the last two games. If they can do so, then they go to a bowl game. If not, then this team does not make it to a bowl (I still feel that this team needs to win 7 games to go to a bowl).

In their five wins this season, the offense has scored 30 or more points in four of them. The anomaly was Rhode Island, where they had 21.

In their five losses, they’ve scored less than 20 points in four of them. The anomaly was Connecticut, where they scored (oddly enough) 21.

So, if this team scores at least three touchdowns in a game, they have a chance to win. If they score more than that, they have a much greater chance to win.

So there you have it: the offense needs to pick up the slack. It’s as simple as that.

http://blog.syracuse.com/orangefootball/2011/11/syracuse_university_football_t_114.html

How many weeks are we going to go with “tire the defensive line” as our offensive game plan? We are WAY overthinking things. Our opponents probably smirk when they see us wasting plays.

I agree with the season-long ‘offense is predictable’ sentiment, and want to point out that it’s deeper than just the play calling. Wasted a beautiful afternoon and way too much cash the other weekend at Louisville, only to see that our upcoming plays could be predicted entirely by the substitutions after the prior play. In come two receivers: Cuse passes. In comes an extra RB: Cuse runs up the gut. Absolutely zero deception in the plan, allowing the D to anticipate every single play, even the rare ‘unexpected’ ones. And anticipation is all the opponent has needed of late, given the lack of a ‘Plan B’ when plays fall apart.
I like the kids, I admire their effort – but we gotta give ’em some ammunition before they hit the field.

SU is really missing Sales this year.

His trial is over, his punishment is served, why wasn’t he back at practice weeks ago? Seriously……….the offense needs him bad.

BTW, counted 8 straight runs to open game. 7 of those were within the tackles. I was literally throwing objects around the house in frustration. One of the least imaginative offenses I have seen.