Syracuse Post Game

[stinger78]

Not every team rushes 3 lol it actually looks like he’s the spy on this particular play so his responsibility is King. If you aren’t blitzing you are in coverage. Thus dropping 8 what would you define him as doing if he’s not in coverage and not blitzing?

My issue is the term “dropping.” It makes it sound more than it is, though there were 8 not rushing the passer or gapping. LB almost always have short middle zone coverage on a passing down if they don’t have RB or TE responsibility, or are not blitzing. They park in the zone 5 yards deep and wait. To me that’s not “dropping” into coverage, which makes it sound more than it is but it’s a semantic issue. This is normal LB play for that down and distance.

If you’ll note in the video, the boundary OLB has RB responsibility and moves left leaving the other LB on an island as the slot makes his cut and King makes a great toss and hits him before the other LB can get there.

Looks to me they were running some kind of 3-3-5, playing cover 3 over their corners with a LB having RB responsibility.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Stop thinking binary, We could and probably have substantially improved the defense and we could still not be a good defense. The bar was so unbelievable low.

I think we are not a good defense, but we are also no longer a bad defense and that is a huge improvement

Thank you very much...what does thinking binary mean? Anyway, this defense is still bad against any quarterback behind a decent offensive line and good receivers to work with.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

The reality is, Syracuse made a few more plays than we did. If Birr makes the field goal, it's a tied game and we have hope for overtime. Syracuse faced a 3rd and long after we declined a big 15 yard penalty, and they converted.

Our defense played a lot better in the second half. However, if anyone has been paying attention, our LBs are a liability in space. A few of us mentioned that teams would start attacking the middle of the field if they were smart. We saw that. Efford is a great effort guy, and he's going to be a MONSTER against the run, but he doesn't have the coverage ability to defend in space...especially, if he gets stretched down the field. Tatum is a little better in space, but his positioning needs to improve. Key and Santucci need to figure something out because I expect other teams to attack GT the same way. Cuse's OC is a great offensive mind, and McCord is a VERY good QB. They knew exactly where to attack us.

I thought our offense played okay. Something was off...not sure if it was execution or play calling. Given how effective Haynes King was all game on the ground, I actually expected him to keep the ball on the 4th down try that failed. Ended up two defenders collapsed on our RB killed the play before it even had a chance. Our running was just not working...Haynes King accounted for more than half of the total rushing yardage, which was way below our season average.

Before the game, I said it was going to be a shootout. I just hoped we could get a few stops...which we did. Our offense just didn't keep pace with Syracuse's offense.

At the end of the day, the sign of a good team is making adjustments. We went into this game not really knowing what to expect given a new coach. I thought our coaches adjusted, and we had a good 2nd half on the defensive side of the ball. We held them to 10 points, but they ate up a bunch of yards when it mattered.

GT is still a good team. LOTS of chicken little GT fans screaming "The sky is falling". No, it's not. Syracuse may very well turn out to be a good team. Also, GT isn't talented enough to just go through the motions. I pointed out before the game that GT and Syracuse were just about equal in talent. GT fans have seen this before. We tend to do this to ourselves....win games we shouldn't, and lose games we shouldn't. That's the hump Key has to find a way to get our program over. IMO, I think we'll look back on this game at the end of the season as one of those we should have easily won. LOTS of games left. GT will still be in the ACC race all season.

As I said in another thread, there are very few teams you can point to in the ACC and say "that's not a bowl team." Look at Cal, they went to Auburn and won. There's not a single ACC team that GT can just show up and win against. It's going to be a battle all season for us. I hope the players take the 'Cuse game as a lesson.

On to the next one...

I don't consider myself "chicken little" It is not the sky that is falling it is a defense that gave up over 500 yards total offense to a team that struggled to beat Ohio.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

watching Kyle E on saturday I was reminded of another GT great...Ron Rogers. Seems like those two have very similar strengths and weaknesses. Again, not really a criticism as much as it is an observation. Rogers was/is highly thought by those of us who saw him play.

I thought he was tough as nails, could fill a hole with the best of them but was too slow. Effords is not great on pass coverage but he is faster than Ron was. Both were and are good players for Georgia Tech and we should be proud that they wore and wear the Gold and White. God bless them.

 

[slugboy]

This would have been worse at halftime, or the end of Q3

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Are we not pushing the ball downfield because Faulkner does not trust King...or because our receivers are not getting good separation?

Good question but as someone else noted, throwing deep into 8 man coverage is not going to work most of the time. What is disappointing is that we could not run the ball against a 3 man line and they managed to put a little pressure on Haynes. IIWII

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

We've pretty much beat this post to death haven't we? Everybody has diagnosed the D the O, the coaching, etc as nauseum. LOL

Gee 57, don't you know by now that beating a post to death is what we do around here?

 

[slugboy]

Good question but as someone else noted, throwing deep into 8 man coverage is not going to work most of the time. What is disappointing is that we could not run the ball against a 3 man line and they managed to put a little pressure on Haynes. IIWII

Players can get open against a 3 man rush, if you stone those three guys. We didn’t.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

This would have been worse at halftime, or the end of Q3

We got beat pretty bad statistically but came within a missed field goal and a 3rd and 10 stop of winning a game we did not deserve to win. So, it looked bad until the fourth quarter.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Players can get open against a 3 man rush, if you stone those three guys. We didn’t.

Stinger posted that he thought it was some kind of 3-3-5 with three safeties in a cover 3 with a linebacker on the running back. Don't know but it worked in denying Tech the deep pass for a while.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

I hope you are 100% correct with this post, but I want us to focus on VMI as if they are our equal and not have a Citadel repeat. Just win this game and move on.

I understand your caution but they are nowhere near as good as The Citadel was that year. I go to church with a fellow who is a VMI alumnus and he said that recruiting gets harder and harder with each passing year. They do have a quarterback who is accurate given time but the offensive line is just too undersized. They blitz a lot on defense, a whole lot, like every other play.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

All I'm saying is Kyle isn't missed as much as the original post my have implied? Is it wrong?

Well, maybe not but I miss him. Last year it seemed as though he made plays of one kind or another in every game (an exaggeration to be sure) but still he played hard and we would be better with him.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

I saw Ron play. I thought he was every bit as good as Brooking was...he just didn't have the speed and athleticism Brooking did. I thought Ron was great at processing, and getting off blocks...better than Brooking, but the NFL covets speed and athleticism. They were such a great LB duo.

You nailed it. A fine player for us along with Brooking who was an unusually gifted athlete for the position.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

S

Based on the game flow, what makes you think they would have had an incompletion? An incompletion still makes it 3rd and 22. They already completed a 3rd & 15 and other 3rd and long.

But let’s use your first idea, if you get that same incompletion on 3rd & 10 as you did on 2nd & 22, you now setting up a punt return to start the game tying/winning drive.

I much rather 1 opportunity to get off the field than 2

Posted just like the old linebacker you once were.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Kyle had one good game last year. Your memory is distorted.

He made plays in just about every game. That is not saying much but at least he made his presence felt.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

One other thing GT fans are forgetting is that the defense is still playing under a new system. We were learning under fire against Syracuse...there's no way our team can replicate what Syracuse has on offense, which is why our second half defense was much better than the first half.

As we get more game time, our defense will have gone through a myriad of situations, and our communication and ability to process as a group will get better.

The second half of the season for our defense will look much better than the first half. Which is what we want given the quality of teams on the back half of our schedule.

I pray that you are correct, otherwise it could get ugly really fast as this team's schedule is back loaded pretty good.

 

[stech81]

Players can get open against a 3 man rush, if you stone those three guys. We didn’t.

You want me to bring some pot next time and get their 3 man to smoke it?

 

[awbuzz]

IMO the key issue here is that Syracuse seemed to know EXACTLY which downs were passes vs runs. I want to see some more tendency breaker play calls.

... Maybe, just maybe, not saying they did, but maybe they were tapped into our headset when we called plays...

 

[bhoffman123]

... Maybe, just maybe, not saying they did, but maybe they were tapped into our headset when we called plays...

In the stadium I thought it was interesting. We were signaling in defensive plays with boards and signals. Syracuse was signalling in also but has the curtains raised in front of the coaches to block the view of the signalers from the coaches box. Tech couldn't do that because we were on the other side of the field. Clear view of the signals from the coaches box.
I was wondering during the game if they had cracked our signals. They seemed to have 8 back during the pass plays and everyone in the box during running plays.

 

[roadkill]

We were signaling in defensive plays with boards and signals

Helmet comms not working?