Syracuse Post Game

[RamblinRed]

That was a tough game to watch because it was clear that Syracuse was in control almost the whole game.

The score was closer than the game.
Syracuse's offense had 8 possessions where it was trying to score - it ended up with 4 TD's, 1 made 1FG, 1 blocked FG and 2 punts. So basically they got into scoring possession in 6 out of 8 possessions.
GT forced 2 punts and one was after Syracuse ran 6 plays and one was after 8 plays. If GT wasn't winning the field position battle significantly in the 2nd and 3rd quarters it could have been worse. (their avg starting position was their own 18 in the 2nd and their own 14 in the third).
Syracuse went for over 30 yards on every single offensive possession.
GT had 10 possessions where it was trying to score and ended up with 4 TDs, 1 missed FG, 4 punts, and a TO on downs (7 plays 21 yds).
GT was 2-2 on redzone possessions, Syracuse was 5-5.

That would have been an all time steal if tech had pulled it out, but it was probably better for the long term that GT lost. Hopefully it helps refocus the team.

If you had told me that GT would have 0 TO, a blocked FG, a blocked punt, and a successful onside kick I would have expected to win by double digits.
We also couldn't have asked King to play a better game than he did. Without King this is a blowout loss.

On offense our running game was putrid. The left side of the OL in particular was poor. It was clear all day long that GT was not going to be able to run the ball against Syracuse's front 7.
On defense, the performance against the run was fine, as it has been all season, but the pass defense was awful - primarily due to the front 7. After 3 games (1/4 of the season) the defense has 1 TO (a fumble recovery - the only fumble in 3 games) and 2 sacks. The defense looks completely unable to create any havoc plays and that likely puts a ceiling of 7-8 wins on this team.
Right now any team that has a good throwing QB who has receivers who can catch the ball consistently are going to cause GT's defense big problems.

It feels like the talent we lost in the portal on the DL was greater than the talent we brought in from the portal - at least from a pass defense standpoint. It also appears we do not have any LB's that can effectively cover pass plays.

At the end of the day I still think we will be 3-1 after next week - what I was hoping for before the season, but that L'ville game is looming large for how the season may go overall.
L'ville, Miami and UGA all look scary to me with what they may be able to do through the air against our D.

FWIW, I don't think it mattered at all whether GT took or declined the penalty. I think Syracuse would have converted in either case. GT had shown almost no ability to get defensive stops.

 

[eetech]

Key always bets on our team. I wouldn't expect him to change. He bet the D could get a stop on 3rd & 10.

I don’t agree with this logic. Betting on our team would also mean betting that the D could stop them from 2nd and 22. And their special teams would be kicking off from further behind with more pressure. And the highlight of our team the entire game was special teams. Taking the penalty is betting on your D and your special teams which was the only reason you’re not behind 20+ points.

Now I actually agree with the decision to decline the penalty but I disagree that either decision represents more of a bet on the team than the other.

 

[kg01]

The way you beat that when he’s in process of going for over 400 yards 8, 10, 12 yards a pop
is to blitz the crap out of him. He may still beat you but you can sure make him pay.,

Tenuta .. is that you?

Seriously though, what would we have to lose? At keast we would've made them think a little bit. As it was, ol' boy was in the pocket all day long. I couldn't tell if he was reading or writing War and Peace on most downs.

 

[apatriot1776]

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.

Not expecting a playoff team, but beating the unranked teams the rest of the way was a plenty reasonable hope considering it would have resulted in us going 6-6.

 

[MonroeJacket]

Looking at their schedule, I could see them going 11-1. My question, considering how their coach is acting, would you rather see them lose every game? Or get another shot at them in the ACC title game?

 

[roadkill]

That was a tough game to watch because it was clear that Syracuse was in control almost the whole game.

The score was closer than the game.
Syracuse's offense had 8 possessions where it was trying to score - it ended up with 4 TD's, 1 made 1FG, 1 blocked FG and 2 punts. So basically they got into scoring possession in 6 out of 8 possessions.
GT forced 2 punts and one was after Syracuse ran 6 plays and one was after 8 plays. If GT wasn't winning the field position battle significantly in the 2nd and 3rd quarters it could have been worse. (their avg starting position was their own 18 in the 2nd and their own 14 in the third).
Syracuse went for over 30 yards on every single offensive possession.
GT had 10 possessions where it was trying to score and ended up with 4 TDs, 1 missed FG, 4 punts, and a TO on downs (7 plays 21 yds).
GT was 2-2 on redzone possessions, Syracuse was 5-5.

That would have been an all time steal if tech had pulled it out, but it was probably better for the long term that GT lost. Hopefully it helps refocus the team.

If you had told me that GT would have 0 TO, a blocked FG, a blocked punt, and a successful onside kick I would have expected to win by double digits.
We also couldn't have asked King to play a better game than he did. Without King this is a blowout loss.

On offense our running game was putrid. The left side of the OL in particular was poor. It was clear all day long that GT was not going to be able to run the ball against Syracuse's front 7.
On defense, the performance against the run was fine, as it has been all season, but the pass defense was awful - primarily due to the front 7. After 3 games (1/4 of the season) the defense has 1 TO (a fumble recovery - the only fumble in 3 games) and 2 sacks. The defense looks completely unable to create any havoc plays and that likely puts a ceiling of 7-8 wins on this team.
Right now any team that has a good throwing QB who has receivers who can catch the ball consistently are going to cause GT's defense big problems.

It feels like the talent we lost in the portal on the DL was greater than the talent we brought in from the portal - at least from a pass defense standpoint. It also appears we do not have any LB's that can effectively cover pass plays.

At the end of the day I still think we will be 3-1 after next week - what I was hoping for before the season, but that L'ville game is looming large for how the season may go overall.
L'ville, Miami and UGA all look scary to me with what they may be able to do through the air against our D.

FWIW, I don't think it mattered at all whether GT took or declined the penalty. I think Syracuse would have converted in either case. GT had shown almost no ability to get defensive stops.

Thanks for the well-stated post supported by facts, per usual.

Agree that the Louisville, Miami, and uga games certainly look like probable losses, but I already had 4 games as very likely losses in my preseason forecast. We've already won one of them, and several teams we've yet to play look more vulnerable, with a 2-game sample size. It's still early enough to remain optimistic.

 

[stinger78]

Let’s not assume that we cannot improve. We can. Got to figure out how to get pressure on a QB though.

 

[stinger78]

There is one, but this conversation spills over everywhere.

We didn’t keep pace in the first half. The defense was on their heels in the first half, and blocked a field goal to keep us even. The defense needed a lifeline; instead, we punted after 3 downs. Then they scored a TD, and we punted. Then they scored a TD, then we scored a TD. We’re down 21-14, behind the 8-ball, but trying to hang in. We make them punt, make a great special teams play, then we miss a field goal.

That missed field goal at the end of the first half was huge. It was bigger than declining the penalty. Not getting a TD to go to halftime even was bad enough, but not having a chance to take the lead when we got the ball back was really bad.

We get the ball to start the third, and we go 3-and-out. They go up 10 on a FG. We waste the 3rd on offense.

Our next big (negative) play was losing 3 yards on 4th and 1.

We overcame all of that to claw within 3.

The big problem is we kept digging ourselves into a hole, and didn’t dig ourselves out until the 4th quarter. They had the ball for most of the game. It’s hard to say how much they choked off our air supply vs how much we did it to ourselves. We got chances and left them to fizzle.

They had 79 plays to our 65, even with us stealing a drive with an onside kick. We had defensive woes for sure, but had we just been consistent on offense, we’d have won anyway. It’s really hard to win when you’re behind and when you don’t have the ball in your hands often.

It’s a long way of saying, there are bunches of errors you can blame the loss on—why pick declining a penalty as THE error?


Final

	1	2	3	4	T
GT	7	7	0	14	28
SYR	7	14	3	7	31

View attachment 16822

View attachment 16821

We blew the 8 minutes around halftime. Had we played better to end the 2nd and start the 3rd, we might win. It cost us more than 3.

"Middle 8" Plays	9	14
EPA	-3.34	0.87
EPA/play	-0.37	0.06
Passes	5 (56%)	10 (71%)
Rushes	4 (44%)	4 (29%)
Successful Passes (Rate)	1 (20%)	3 (30%)
Successful Rushes (Rate)	0 (0%)	1 (25%)

Drives	GT	Syracuse
Total	10	9
Avg Starting Field Position	Own 19	Own 38
Plays/Drive	8.35	9.76
Yards/Drive	48.45	55.73
Available Yards %	59%	89%

Turnovers	GT	Syracuse
Turnovers	0	0
Fumbles	0	0
Fumbles Lost	0	0
Fumbles Recovered	0	0
Interceptions	0	0
Turnover Margin	0	0
Expected Turnovers	0.7	1.3
Expected Turnover Margin	0.7	-0.7
Turnover Luck (pts)	-3.3	3.3

We threw away the possession right before the half going between the tackles and sideways. When it happened I had the feeling it would hurt in the end. It did.

 

[Mattmc10]

16 of McCord's 32 completions were for 10+ yards, and 7 of those were 20+ yards. I don't see any reason to think McCord is suddenly going to be scared having two downs to complete a pass or two he'd been completing all game.

He had zero passes in the second half for 20+ yards. He had 4 of 10 yards or more in the 2nd, the last one being the killer.

The defense wasn’t bad in the second half. Something changed at half time that slowed the pass game up but did open up our risk to their run game.

Everyone is talking about McCord having two chances to get it right, that’s my argument for taking the penalty. You give Tech two chances to make one play and get one stop. If Cuse burns us on a 20+ yard play in that situation they earned it.

 

[7979]

Looking at their schedule, I could see them going 11-1. My question, considering how their coach is acting, would you rather see them lose every game? Or get another shot at them in the ACC title game?

Lose every f***ing game.
Class-less bum ….

 

[roadkill]

He had zero passes in the second half for 20+ yards. He had 4 of 10 yards or more in the 2nd, the last one being the killer.

The defense wasn’t bad in the second half. Something changed at half time that slowed the pass game up but did open up our risk to their run game.

Everyone is talking about McCord having two chances to get it right, that’s my argument for taking the penalty. You give Tech two chances to make one play and get one stop. If Cuse burns us on a 20+ yard play in that situation they earned it.

How about if they burn us on two 10+ yard plays?

 

[Root4GT]

Not expecting a playoff team, but beating the unranked teams the rest of the way was a plenty reasonable hope considering it would have resulted in us going 6-6.

As much as this board complains about rankings it's simply absurd to say anything about a ranked team after 1 or 2 games.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I don't believe we do have the necessary personnel but maybe they will bounce back against Louisville. I just don't think a team with a porous defense can be labeled as being at a "higher level".

I don’t disagree but “higher level” just means higher than where we’ve been. In my opinion, a majority of the 165 teams in football have a “porous” defense. I don’t even think every team in the top 10 has an elite defense. For most teams it comes down to matchups and whether you can control the game offensively and on special teams. Anyway, we may have a really bad defense but it wouldn’t have to get too much better for us to get to a higher level provided our offense keeps producing. imho

 

[reckrider]

Honestly if that’s your argument, clock management on Madden is probably just as relevant as playing little league ball lol. The rules and clock work exactly the same. Why are so many of you afraid of criticism?

Criticism should be reserved for mistakes. I think we lost to a better team with a really good QB that played a great game. I don’t think our coaches made any glaring mistakes. They did a fantastic job of making the score close at the end. Our players didn’t give up. It seems like our less knowledgeable fans have a defeatist attitude every time we lose and need to blame someone, usually our coaches. It’s a game. Enjoy it. Leave the expert analysis to someone that knows what the heck they’re talking about.

 

[Root4GT]

That was a tough game to watch because it was clear that Syracuse was in control almost the whole game.

The score was closer than the game.
Syracuse's offense had 8 possessions where it was trying to score - it ended up with 4 TD's, 1 made 1FG, 1 blocked FG and 2 punts. So basically they got into scoring possession in 6 out of 8 possessions.
GT forced 2 punts and one was after Syracuse ran 6 plays and one was after 8 plays. If GT wasn't winning the field position battle significantly in the 2nd and 3rd quarters it could have been worse. (their avg starting position was their own 18 in the 2nd and their own 14 in the third).
Syracuse went for over 30 yards on every single offensive possession.
GT had 10 possessions where it was trying to score and ended up with 4 TDs, 1 missed FG, 4 punts, and a TO on downs (7 plays 21 yds).
GT was 2-2 on redzone possessions, Syracuse was 5-5.

That would have been an all time steal if tech had pulled it out, but it was probably better for the long term that GT lost. Hopefully it helps refocus the team.

If you had told me that GT would have 0 TO, a blocked FG, a blocked punt, and a successful onside kick I would have expected to win by double digits.
We also couldn't have asked King to play a better game than he did. Without King this is a blowout loss.

On offense our running game was putrid. The left side of the OL in particular was poor. It was clear all day long that GT was not going to be able to run the ball against Syracuse's front 7.
On defense, the performance against the run was fine, as it has been all season, but the pass defense was awful - primarily due to the front 7. After 3 games (1/4 of the season) the defense has 1 TO (a fumble recovery - the only fumble in 3 games) and 2 sacks. The defense looks completely unable to create any havoc plays and that likely puts a ceiling of 7-8 wins on this team.
Right now any team that has a good throwing QB who has receivers who can catch the ball consistently are going to cause GT's defense big problems.

It feels like the talent we lost in the portal on the DL was greater than the talent we brought in from the portal - at least from a pass defense standpoint. It also appears we do not have any LB's that can effectively cover pass plays.

At the end of the day I still think we will be 3-1 after next week - what I was hoping for before the season, but that L'ville game is looming large for how the season may go overall.
L'ville, Miami and UGA all look scary to me with what they may be able to do through the air against our D.

FWIW, I don't think it mattered at all whether GT took or declined the penalty. I think Syracuse would have converted in either case. GT had shown almost no ability to get defensive stops.

Well said. I agree with this 100%

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Looking at their schedule, I could see them going 11-1. My question, considering how their coach is acting, would you rather see them lose every game? Or get another shot at them in the ACC title game?

I would love another shot at them. We certainly would have enough tape on them and I believe our OC and DC would scheme well a second time around.

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

Criticism should be reserved for mistakes. I think we lost to a better team with a really good QB that played a great game. I don’t think our coaches made any glaring mistakes. They did a fantastic job of making the score close at the end. Our players didn’t give up. It seems like our less knowledgeable fans have a defeatist attitude every time we lose and need to blame someone, usually our coaches. It’s a game. Enjoy it. Leave the expert analysis to someone that knows what the heck they’re talking about.

In my opinion, the defeatist attitude is saying “great job, we just weren’t good enough!” which is what your post is implying. Many of us actually believe we could have won that game and lost due to mistakes. Hence, the criticism. Again, the analysis is part of enjoying it. If we didn’t enjoy the whole experience of all of this, why would we waste our time discussing how it could have gone better? As I already said, this is a major part of being a sports fan.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

I don’t disagree but “higher level” just means higher than where we’ve been. In my opinion, a majority of the 165 teams in football have a “porous” defense. I don’t even think every team in the top 10 has an elite defense. For most teams it comes down to matchups and whether you can control the game offensively and on special teams. Anyway, we may have a really bad defense but it wouldn’t have to get too much better for us to get to a higher level provided our offense keeps producing. imho

No, I take "higher level" to be well within the top 25. In other words elite factory powerhouses looking to make the playoffs and the factory wannabes. We are a long way from those lofty standards. A long way. The offense is capable but not elite. Special teams are capable but not elite. Defense is putrid. Offensive line has been a disappointment

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

He completed a lot of passes under pressure. Stood cool and got rid of it in the nick of time. I do agree we should have applied more pressure though, at all costs. But there's hardly any strong indication it would have worked.

Sure he was cool, he had a clean pocket for most of the game as we were apparently in a soft zone. 2nd and 22 I would have brought the house and see just how cool he was then.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Looking at first half vs 2nd half we played better D

True. It could not have been worse. The Orange was on pace to get just over 600 yards total offense at half time and finished with over 500 instead. They were up by 17 early in the fourth quarter and damn near gave that game away to a wholly undeserving Tech team. It would have served them right to have Effords get his mitts on that dumb middle screen pass or for the 3rd and 10 pass to be incomplete. Either of those things happen I would be willing to bet that Tech steals a win.