Syracuse Post Game

[Root4GT]

This is what hurts. Many of us expected we had turned the corner where we win the games we “should” win. This is one of those games - we are just not at the point where we can expect to beat every non-ranked opponent.

That many on this board actually believed GT was near a CFP team this year amazes me.

We have some very good players but we are really lacking essential difference makers on the Defensive Line. When you watch the elite teams their DLs are far superior to anything we have on the DL. Our guys on the DL are not bad players, rather they simply cannot win one on one battles enough to make our defense formidable. That's what most college DLs are like. The elite teams like UGA simply dominate with 4 DLs and then take everything else away with fast athletic players behind the DL.

 

[takethepoints]

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.

Me either. One thing = we held their rush on King better then they held Tech's on McCord. It was the run blocking that was the problem. They were predicting run downs pretty well and they really negated the screen passes. Tech has lived on getting Rutherford and Singleton out to the flanks in single coverage. The Orange D smelled that out pretty easily yesterday. I htink the suggestion that our coordinator self-scout is a good one and they'll be doing it a lot this week, I'm guessing.

 

[Eli]

No not luck in one sense-- but its something you sure aren't going TO COUNT ON to win a game every week.--if fact we only have had 2 blocked kicks in a game 11 times in history I believe I heard

But there is a stat like this for just about anything…Before Haynes King we didn’t have a QB throw 20 passing touchdowns since 2006. Va. Tech during the Beamer years relied very heavily on special teams play. Now I understand your point but I would not consider it “luck”

 

[leatherneckjacket]

Me either. One thing = we held their rush on King better then they held Tech's on McCord. It was the run blocking that was the problem. They were predicting run downs pretty well and they really negated the screen passes. Tech has lived on getting Rutherford and Singleton out to the flanks in single coverage. The Orange D smelled that out pretty easily yesterday. I htink the suggestion that our coordinator self-scout is a good one and they'll be doing it a lot this week, I'm guessing.

To be fair, we held their rush because they only rushed 3 many times. When they blitzed, they got to King. When we blitzed, we rarely got to McCod in the first three quarters. I do wish King held the ball longer to let our receivers try to get open and perhaps ran a few times to make them pay when they were only rushing 3. I think King's internal clock got the best of him when he threw the ball when he had more time.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Assuming we best VMI the Louisville game will show us whether or not we have solved some matchup problems or whether we just don’t have the personnel this year to compete at a higher level.

 

[LongforDodd]

Nah no comeback today. We haven’t hidden what we want to do which is run the ball. Syracuse sold out all game to stop it and our O-line decided to not give a crap at all today. Combine that with a defense that was fine giving up seam shots and 8 yard curls all game and you get your butt handed to you. No sense publicly screaming about being a physical football team when you don’t back it up on the field. Physical is fine and good, but Xs and Os matter too and that’s what we were shown today. It’s exactly what Fran Brown said he was going to do and his team did it. Credit to them for backing their coach because our players sure didn’t rise up to the challenge.

This isn’t a Syracuse problem, this has been a whole year problem. FSU gave us false hope, Ga. State gave us the warning, Syracuse exposed us. We aren’t tough, we aren’t physical, we just expected to win because we were 2-0. I hope this week of practice beats the crap out of everybody that wears pads because they need it.

It’ll be a 6-6 or 7-5 year like we figured it would be heading into the season. We will be 3-1 after next week, then the real season starts. We will probably start alternating wins and losses until November. We just don’t have the guys yet. It’s coming, we want to be excited, we want to feel like we can beat any team on the schedule, but we aren’t there yet. We are going to get gut punched for a few more years. We are going to be the less physical team for a few more years. It’s coming, but it’s still at least 2 more years away. Unfortunately, Haynes King won’t be the QB to lead a 10-11 win Tech team, but he’s helping lay the foundation.

Nothing more to say than this.

 

[Thwg777]

That many on this board actually believed GT was near a CFP team this year amazes me.

Speaking for myself at least, there’s a fine line between thinking we’re a CFP team versus just being sick of mediocrity. It’s been about a decade since I had confidence we could consistently defeat lesser conference foes.

We were 3-0 all time against Cuse, destroying them under Gailey and Johnson, before Goof took the helm.

Mediocrity during the Gailey years was passable at times since we could tune into the likes of Florida, Auburn, or Vandy beating u(sic)ga. Our fall into the cellar coincided at the worst time possible relative to them.

 

[Sean311]

More evidence that McCord is really good and Syracuse played virtually perfect. Moving on, we’ll be fine. Rally behind the team and cheer louder than you did before. This team is still special. It’s not how you start it’s how you finish. Big season and all of the team goals are ahead of them.

 

[Buzztheirazz]

Another terrible coaching decision. With all 3 timeouts, we should have accepted the penalty. Yes it’d give them another down but less likely to pick up a first down.

This is what I was coming to post. Would’ve been 2nd and 20ish. They would’ve had to pass so incomplete would’ve saved time or call a TO. Just outcoached all game honestly.

No answer to them rushing 3. Got blown up inside all game long. Couldn’t run the ball.

 

[LargeFO]

So I didn’t realize Brown was such a drama queen. Dude seems to have some small man’s syndrome.

 

[tmhunter52]

After our football program was destroyed by the former coach, and after many in our fanbase left or just lost interest, Key and Batt have had a dual mission: Build a football team that can, and does win, and regain the confidence of a skeptical fanbase, former and current. A win against Syracuse would have gone a long way to help both causes. I hope the loss doesn’t set back both causes, but laying an egg at Syracuse, snatching away a long absent Top 25 rating after a single week, may be difficult to overcome this season.

 

[Eli]

So I didn’t realize Brown was such a drama queen. Dude seems to have some small man’s syndrome.

It’s like he is doing his best Deion impersonation making everything personal.

 

[iceeater1969]

It’s like he is doing his best Deion impersonation making everything personal.

You tube postgame shows he is a " i personally talk up " my best players with specifics and humor. He was very complementary of gt, key, king, and our effort. I found it refreshing that he doesn't use coach speak.

 

[gte447f]

This is what I was coming to post. Would’ve been 2nd and 20ish. They would’ve had to pass so incomplete would’ve saved time or call a TO. Just outcoached all game honestly.

No answer to them rushing 3. Got blown up inside all game long. Couldn’t run the ball.

You’re a little late to the party on the 2nd and 20 vs 3rd and 10 equals dumb coaching hot take. Thats been pretty much the main theme of the discussion in here so far, and it’s certainly not an open and shut case in your favor.

 

[GT33]

How many Fire Marcus Freeman threads are up

That was a dumb promotion/hire. Handwriting is on the wall. Domers are on track to take 3-1/2 years to figure it out just like another team I know.

 

[iceeater1969]

Pointing to all the bad above has been natural.

Pointing to good going foward.
Our defense showed scrappiness at end when ghe coaches moved the lb and db closer to los.

At end of game we almost had another Miami. Efford was close to getting a fumble recovery right at thier goal line.

 

[stinger78]

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.

I don’t even know that I would use the term “dominated.” Cuse was dinking and dunking their way up the field and every possession in the first half, but one, led to a score or a missed FG. Still, we missed a FG at the half that would have made it a 4 point game, but we remained 7 points down at the half. That’s not domination in my book.

In the 3rd, Cuse kicked a FG to make it a 10-point game (the only score in the 3rd). That qtr they ran 18 plays for 108 yards (6 ypp) and scored those 3 points. That’s two stops for our D while our O did little and didn’t score (15 plays for 45 yards across 3 possessions). Still, a 10-point game. That’s not domination in my book.

We then gave up the 4th qtr TD drive that made it a 17-point game. But we came right back and scored 2 straight TDs, 21 plays for 131 yards (6.1 ypp), to bring it to a 3-point game. That’s not domination in my book.

Yes, they controlled the ball 3/4 of the game, but only put up 24 points. That’s control, not domination. It was a game the whole way.

Just my $.02 worth.

 

[ramblineck]

Although frustrating to watch, I was expecting our defense to surrender points and yards yesterday. They made mistakes, but I was not overly shocked by Syracuse scoring 31. Our defense also got a couple of stops in the second half to help us to get back in the game. despite having been on the field a lot.

What did surprise me was how much our offense seemed “off”. How did Syracuse shut down our run game, and yet we couldn’t make them pay through the air with any consistency?
I suppose the all-22 film might reveal more, but were our receivers unable to get open? Were we that predictable? This is the most worrisome issue going forward as far as I’m concerned.

Yeah these are my thoughts to a T as well. I’m not surprised by our defense. We just don’t have the playmakers on the defensive line IIWII

My main area of concern is our offense. How did we manage only 2 TDs in the first 3 quarters. We seemed to run inside zone every other play and it wasn’t working. The passing game missed some chances and made some plays but was overly lackluster. Why not get more outside runs or qb runs going? I’m sure someone smarter than me will let figure it out

 

[georgytech]

After our football program was destroyed by the former coach, and after many in our fanbase left or just lost interest, Key and Batt have had a dual mission: Build a football team that can, and does win, and regain the confidence of a skeptical fanbase, former and current. A win against Syracuse would have gone a long way to help both causes. I hope the loss doesn’t set back both causes, but laying an egg at Syracuse, snatching away a long absent Top 25 rating after a single week, may be difficult to overcome this season.

I don't think we " laid an egg "yesterday, we lost by 3 on the road to a pretty good offensive team that we should be giving them their credit as they played hard too. This team will be OK as I see at least 7 or 8 wins this year. Just like all teams we have a few things to clean up.

 

[leatherneckjacket]

So I didn’t realize Brown was such a drama queen. Dude seems to have some small man’s syndrome.

His desire to internalize innocuous comments from others and not only make it all about himself, but also display fake outrage over nothing, is both bizarre and stupid.