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Ugh. Needed two days to even recover emotionally to where I could write this. There was some brief talk about what a comp loss might be to this. Credit to my younger son, but the answer is the ‘09 loss relatively early in the season at Pitt. We were underdogs, we played absolutely great and we were up 27-14 in the 4th quarter. And then Pitt went on back to back long, time consuming TD drives, with a 3 and out for us in between. Their offense never overwhelmed us — we “contained” all the way down the field, but star TB Dion Lewis and his teammates kept converting 3rd down after 3rd down, and when the game ended we had lost 28-27. That’s the best comp loss, although I doubt the “odds” that we’d end up on top were never quite as high as they were on Saturday. Anyway, let’s do offense, defense and specials, and then I’ll conclude with WTF happened.
Let’s start with defense. For 53 minutes, it was a really terrific. Remember, we came into the season needing to replace TEN defensive starters with little idea about how good we might be, and the effort against Central was fine but it didn’t show as much. Well, Saturday did. The run defense was beyond exceptional, so much so that for most of the game the Orange simply gave up even trying. We generated a consistent pass rush with sacks and deflected balls. And, while we certainly gave up some passing yardage (which will happen when a team throws every down), going into the last 7 minutes we had only give up 9 points, 3 of which were on the long snapper and not the D. And then, on a 4th and 4 from the middle of the field, everything fell apart. I wish I knew what Cam Chadwick was thinking on that play when he stopped running with the WR with the ball in the air. He was with the WR, where a perfectly thrown ball might have been a catch but for a 20 yard gain. Did he think he was supposed to have help deep (but why would he stop running anyway once the ball was thrown deep)? Did he slip? Did he misread the ball? What happened. And was the bad angle that Mills took (because Mills was unworldly the whole game but for that play) because he thought Chadwick thought the ball was under thrown? Because from that moment on, the D looked lost. Whether they ran out of gas, whether Syracuse played with confidence, the D’s performance ended with that one play. (I’m not excusing that — just noting it).
The offense, even building a 17-6 lead, was never great. But it was o.k. Great execution of a trick play. No turnovers. And enough success to allow the D to win us the game. BUT, after the first drive of the second half it just stopped. The OL, particularly, started getting overwhelmed, both on passes and runs, and we gave up chance after chance after chance to put the game away. I don’t think it was mostly JF. He was who he was — solid but not great, and he escaped pass rushes that could have brought him down many times. But people didn’t make plays. Honing dropped a wide open easy catch that could have been the difference between winning and losing. Porter, who may have had his best game as a Husky, made a nice run with a swing pass on third and long and softly ran out of bounds two yards short of the sticks without putting his shoulder down and trying to get a first down out of it. Penalties. Just not enough execution. And, while the defense played much better than I would have anticipated, I thought our offense could do better than it did. At least maintain the way it played for 35 minutes for the rest of the game.
Special teams, but for, was great. But we either need to change long snappers or get Christinat a hypnotist, because this time his unforced error may have cost us a huge game. But solid kicking and punting and no coverage issues. And, as I said in another thread, I admire Jackson Harper’s guts and desire to make a play, but before he coughs up a punt that should have been fair caught, he needs to better understand when one doesn’t have a chance to make a play.
O.K., so what happened at the end? In the aftermath of such an unbelievably horrid loss, I wanted to blame the offensive play calling for being too conservative, but after reviewing the play by play I don’t think that’s fair. If you want to blame the coaches, wonder if that attitude that came from them was wrong — that they were signaling that with ten minutes left all we had to do was not make big mistakes and the players grabbed that attitude. Or ask if Sammis couldn’t have found one or two more plays where something worked. But to be fair, mostly we lost that game because the players, who executed so well for 53 minutes, couldn’t execute. The long TD catch that changed the game and momentum wasn’t on the coaches. Two defenders were there to make a play and blew it. The coaches didn’t make Honig drop the ball, or JF miss an open receiver in the first half, or get penalized, or Porter not fighting for a first down. The players, who were more than good enough for 53 minutes, stopped being good enough. That’s why we lost. If the coaches want to really reexamine something fundamental, I do think the staff has shown a tendency to stop playing hard a little too early in what appear to be easy wins. And as an independent in our slot, every game you lose (or win) can’t be undone, like in basketball where one regular season loss may be of no long term consequence. But good came from the loss to Pitt in ‘09, as it was Marcus Easlely’s break out game and for the rest of the year with his presence our offense became as explosive as any time since Dan O moved on. So on to Delaware. We will be substantial favorites the next two weeks, before heading to Buffalo.
And one last thought. What Fran Brown does with his team after he beats us is up to Fran Brown. Was it showboating? Sure. But if you think he’s a bad winner your solution is to not lose to him.
Let’s start with defense. For 53 minutes, it was a really terrific. Remember, we came into the season needing to replace TEN defensive starters with little idea about how good we might be, and the effort against Central was fine but it didn’t show as much. Well, Saturday did. The run defense was beyond exceptional, so much so that for most of the game the Orange simply gave up even trying. We generated a consistent pass rush with sacks and deflected balls. And, while we certainly gave up some passing yardage (which will happen when a team throws every down), going into the last 7 minutes we had only give up 9 points, 3 of which were on the long snapper and not the D. And then, on a 4th and 4 from the middle of the field, everything fell apart. I wish I knew what Cam Chadwick was thinking on that play when he stopped running with the WR with the ball in the air. He was with the WR, where a perfectly thrown ball might have been a catch but for a 20 yard gain. Did he think he was supposed to have help deep (but why would he stop running anyway once the ball was thrown deep)? Did he slip? Did he misread the ball? What happened. And was the bad angle that Mills took (because Mills was unworldly the whole game but for that play) because he thought Chadwick thought the ball was under thrown? Because from that moment on, the D looked lost. Whether they ran out of gas, whether Syracuse played with confidence, the D’s performance ended with that one play. (I’m not excusing that — just noting it).
The offense, even building a 17-6 lead, was never great. But it was o.k. Great execution of a trick play. No turnovers. And enough success to allow the D to win us the game. BUT, after the first drive of the second half it just stopped. The OL, particularly, started getting overwhelmed, both on passes and runs, and we gave up chance after chance after chance to put the game away. I don’t think it was mostly JF. He was who he was — solid but not great, and he escaped pass rushes that could have brought him down many times. But people didn’t make plays. Honing dropped a wide open easy catch that could have been the difference between winning and losing. Porter, who may have had his best game as a Husky, made a nice run with a swing pass on third and long and softly ran out of bounds two yards short of the sticks without putting his shoulder down and trying to get a first down out of it. Penalties. Just not enough execution. And, while the defense played much better than I would have anticipated, I thought our offense could do better than it did. At least maintain the way it played for 35 minutes for the rest of the game.
Special teams, but for, was great. But we either need to change long snappers or get Christinat a hypnotist, because this time his unforced error may have cost us a huge game. But solid kicking and punting and no coverage issues. And, as I said in another thread, I admire Jackson Harper’s guts and desire to make a play, but before he coughs up a punt that should have been fair caught, he needs to better understand when one doesn’t have a chance to make a play.
O.K., so what happened at the end? In the aftermath of such an unbelievably horrid loss, I wanted to blame the offensive play calling for being too conservative, but after reviewing the play by play I don’t think that’s fair. If you want to blame the coaches, wonder if that attitude that came from them was wrong — that they were signaling that with ten minutes left all we had to do was not make big mistakes and the players grabbed that attitude. Or ask if Sammis couldn’t have found one or two more plays where something worked. But to be fair, mostly we lost that game because the players, who executed so well for 53 minutes, couldn’t execute. The long TD catch that changed the game and momentum wasn’t on the coaches. Two defenders were there to make a play and blew it. The coaches didn’t make Honig drop the ball, or JF miss an open receiver in the first half, or get penalized, or Porter not fighting for a first down. The players, who were more than good enough for 53 minutes, stopped being good enough. That’s why we lost. If the coaches want to really reexamine something fundamental, I do think the staff has shown a tendency to stop playing hard a little too early in what appear to be easy wins. And as an independent in our slot, every game you lose (or win) can’t be undone, like in basketball where one regular season loss may be of no long term consequence. But good came from the loss to Pitt in ‘09, as it was Marcus Easlely’s break out game and for the rest of the year with his presence our offense became as explosive as any time since Dan O moved on. So on to Delaware. We will be substantial favorites the next two weeks, before heading to Buffalo.
And one last thought. What Fran Brown does with his team after he beats us is up to Fran Brown. Was it showboating? Sure. But if you think he’s a bad winner your solution is to not lose to him.
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