Syracuse Post Game

[GT33]

Though not football. Bill Buckner received death threats after he missed a ground ball in the 1986 World Series. I guess all of his death threats came from people who played 1st base in the major leagues..

No, but a lot probably came from someone that caught a very slow ground ball and stepped on a bag.

 

[Thwg777]

I’m all for criticism.

Smug certainly over a judgment call is asinine is all I’m saying.

And your argument would be stronger if you were a coach, or baring that, you found a coach who felt as strongly as you and others that the call by Key was egregiously, disastrously wrong.

I suspect it was. But we all know what opinions are like.

Change any variable, not so much, e.g., we’re down 4-7 points, time is more important since we’d need the length of the field, or lessen the game time to one minute left vice two, decline the penalty since time is more precious.

I don’t have detailed analytics, but I’m not running a multimillion operation either. My entire point was to use them to aid in decision-making better. Something like, 3rd and 10, we get the call back A% of the time with B left on the clock and expect to score C points. Accept the penalty and it’s roughly 2nd and 23, we get the ball back D% of the time with E left on the clock and expect to score F points. I’m arguing AxC < DxF and don’t believe it’s close enough to be a judgment call.

 

[stinger78]

Look guys, I don’t think most folks are pi$$ed off here. It was a loss, and there are still a lot of wins in this group this season. It was not a BGSU or BC type loss from last year, but to a good team with a good game plan who had made some serious upgrades from last season. That is all.

That doesn’t mean we cannot share our thoughts on why we lost. That’s what a sports forum is for. Nobody’s pretending to be a coach, and that’s not a rereq for joining this board.

My main concern is this: For a second game in a row where we appeared slow along both lines. That concerns me as we face a lot of large, mobile lines this season.

Other than that, there are some decisions made yesterday that I didn’t understand. I am quite sure they had their reasons, and I would like to know them, but probably won’t.

 

[bobongo]

I’m not sure the reason, or whether it is justified, but these kids act like they’ve been on a treadmill too long. A bye week will serve them well. They played much faster and quicker than FSU. They’ve been a step slow ever since. Just telling you what I see.

I know what you're saying, but I can't believe it's a physical tiredness, unless their pregame prep needs tweaking. Or maybe it's something related to the mental aspect.
Or (my theory) is that FSU was slow and made us look fast. The 'Noles didn't look too swift against BC.

 

[grandpa jacket]

Please Post your meltdown comments in this thread.

I don't think that we need fire Santucci comments.

If we pull the miraculous come back, I'll delete the thread.

It is typical for a GT team to play bad as a favorite, it has always been that way.

 

[bobongo]

I suspect it was. But we all know what opinions are like.

Change any variable, not so much, e.g., we’re down 4-7 points, time is more important since we’d need the length of the field, or lessen the game time to one minute left vice two, decline the penalty since time is more precious.

I don’t have detailed analytics, but I’m not running a multimillion operation either. My entire point was to use them to aid in decision-making better. Something like, 3rd and 10, we get the call back A% of the time with B left on the clock and expect to score C points. Accept the penalty and it’s roughly 2nd and 23, we get the ball back D% of the time with E left on the clock and expect to score F points. I’m arguing AxC < DxF and don’t believe it’s close enough to be a judgment call.

There are calls every game where I can see it either way. This was one of them. If Key takes the penalty or not, I can see the rationale of both tactics.
And while analytics has its place, if a coach uses it to make all his decisions, perhaps we could save money by replacing him with an AI robot.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I know what you're saying, but I can't believe it's a physical tiredness, unless their pregame prep needs tweaking. Or maybe it's something related to the mental aspect.
Or (my theory) is that FSU was slow and made us look fast. The 'Noles didn't look too swift against BC.

Well, I appreciate what you are saying also, so I don’t want this to sound nit picky, but FSU looked slower against BC than they did against us. I hate that the game in Ireland has gotten tarnished by the aftermath. Both teams looked sharp, played fast and did not make mistakes. Neither team has looked the same since. If it were a case of neither team being that good you would not have seen one of the best football games that’s been played in college football this year.

There are probably multiple reasons why neither team has looked as good since but playing slower and sloppier in subsequent games is often a fatigue issue. Both teams should be over that by now but we’ll have to see in their next games. FSU is probably a head case if they don’t rebound. If we don’t rebound we clearly aren’t as good as we thought.

 

[GTRambler]

This was a turning point game. Our team will either get better, or it won’t.

 

[GT33]

This was a turning point game. Our team will either get better, or it won’t.

There's always the possibility they stay the same.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

There's always the possibility they stay the same.

He didn’t say they would get worse.

 

[Yaller Jacket]

1) many of us, including me, read too much into the Ohio game. Syracuse didn't play their best, and we were led to believe they couldn't stop the run. 2). We played without energy, and it resulted in poor blocking and tackling. 3). Teams are not X good. At the end of the year you can make a god guess, but the same team plays differently week to week. As 78 said, look at Notre dame. 4). We need to get an early lead and rest the starters next week 5). We nerd to start studying film and learn all we can about Louisville right now. 6). I think the silver lining is we learned we cannot win without total effort. I am as hurt and mad as everyone, but it seems to me a win over Louisville will make us forget yesterday.

 

[yeti92]

I want to know why our DBs are not being coached to play the ball? Interceptions are huge to momentum and we aren't even trying to get them.

 

[Root4GT]

I think we all underestimated Cuse and overestimated GT. Maybe we aren't quite ready for the CFP.

Not all. Some of us expected McCord to pick our defense apart just like he did. Our defense still has the same problem it has had, it cannot generate a pass rush without blitzing multiple players. Against good experienced QBs with good receivers that is a major problem. We will see similar problems against Louisville who has a 6th year starting QB in a very good offensive system. Somehow the Defensive staff needs to get the DL to actually find a pass rush. I am not sure it is possible with our roster.

 

[Root4GT]

There are calls every game where I can see it either way. This was one of them. If Key takes the penalty or not, I can see the rationale of both tactics.
And while analytics has its place, if a coach uses it to make all his decisions, perhaps we could save money by replacing him with an AI robot.

Yea, if we get a stop that 3rd down it was a good decision. If we take the penalty and they run more clock and still get the 1st down it was a bad decision. For fans, results often determine their view on a good or bad decision. That was a toss up decision. I would have taken the penalty but it was not that significant a decision.

 

[57jacket]

All of our upcoming opponents are going to throw the ball. Better get ready.

 

[AugustaSwarm]

I would love to hit the powerball but that ain't happening either

It's one game. Yes, it raises some serious questions about things that we thought we knew about this team, but that's why they play on the field instead of on paper. The overreactions are killing me.

We were dominated for 3.5 quarters, but managed to fight our way back to a 3 point game. We ran into a buzzsaw - a QB and a 'Cuse defense that was going to prove that they could stop the run. Despite that, it was a 3 point game and we had our chance to get the ball back with 90 seconds to go.

We responded very well, IMO. In the recent past, this game would have been a blowout loss for us. But our team bowed up and fought back.

 

[GTJake]

It seems what we wanted vs what we are happen to be 2 different things. We're likely a 30-40ish team at the end of the season. Up from 50, not quite 20.

This is exactly right in my opinion, but what else do you expect from a fanbase that's been in college football purgatory for a while ... we shouldn't expect to make the CFP overnight but we do need to keep trending up.

 

[stinger 1957]

I have read only about half the postings so hope I'm not duplicating here but it looks to me like our offense is not going to what is open and available, we just keep running our same stuff we always run when they had figured out how to stop that. Understand I don't know a lot about it.
I have no idea if our new DC is good or not, think we badly need to get better players on defense before we know that answer and that seems to be coming, so recruit baby recruit. Lot of opportunity at GT.
Run the bawl is ok until they load up to stop it then you better do something else, you have a QB that should be able to do just that IMO.

 

[CEB]

There are calls every game where I can see it either way. This was one of them. If Key takes the penalty or not, I can see the rationale of both tactics.
And while analytics has its place, if a coach uses it to make all his decisions, perhaps we could save money by replacing him with an AI robot.

This is where I am too. We can analytic it to death and still be wrong in the moment.
Honestly, I think it’s a coin flip decision and the bottom line is you need a stop regardless.

Refuse penalty: Given how long we had been on the field defensively, making one play seemed like a good call to me. It had the added benefit of saving a time out and / or some clock. It was also 3rd and 10… not like they had a layup. Not to mention, if you give up the first down you still have all three TO and over two minutes left. There was another realistic shot at a stop (which we blew on a missed tackle). If they convert after accepting the penalty and burning the TO, you are toast.

Take penalty: yes, it probably forces them to become vanilla but they get two chances to pick up chunk yardage (which they ultimately did anyway). Also a chance that they take a shot on 2nd and we give it right back on a penalty.

Hot take: I think the decision was virtually irrelevant. We’re only analyzing because of a failure to execute defensively.

Other thoughts…
Middle 8: was a strength the first two games and we completely blew opportunities yesterday. We didn’t lose on the scoreboard but we squandered a great special teams play at the end of the half. I’m not sure what confusion we had on 2nd down after the short run by singleton but we wasted over 20 seconds of clock. I don’t fault being a little conservative on play calling, but we had two time outs and weren’t getting set. We really put all of our eggs in the long FG basket.
Then we follow that up with a 3 and out to start the third, and another short possession after the D got a rare stop. That was the difference in the game right there.

Toughness: everyone still focused on physical toughness. Not the problem yesterday. Mental toughness was lacking most of the day. Timing off, unforced errors, poor decisions… the good news? The fourth quarter. We found a little fire that had been lacking all day. It’s funny how “breaks” fall your way when you’re playing fast and confident. For 3 quarters, all of those breaks went to the Orange.

 

[GTJake]

All of our upcoming opponents are going to throw the ball. Better get ready.

No doubt about it, the Miami QB looks really scary ...