Syracuse - Miami (OH) Postgame Reactions OR That One Week Was a Lot of Fun, Huh Kids?
1 Comments Published on 10.01.2007 by Brian Harrison
Once agan O-Line, ARob is not a whore. Keep him off his back.Deciding I needed to see some friends, I drove the 45 minutes to Storrs, Connecticut. Yes, it is true, I who bleed orange just as much as anyone has friends at the U of Conn. While I have many reasons for having friends there (stop judging me Ben), I simply wanted to see some friends and have a fun weekend. Why am I telling you this? To provide context for how I saw the game Saturday. Because not only was I with UConn fans (they are 5-0 so it must be nice having a cupcake filled schedule), but I happened to watch USF beat WVU on Friday night, with a West (Fuckin’) Virginia fan. So really, no matter what happened Saturday, I would never feel as bad as that guy. Pretty awesome to at least have one of your rivals a little more down than you. To the report card we go.
Offense
C-
Our run game = might as well be handicapped children. Damn you Delone Carter. Andy threw a pretty good party (17/36, 236yds, 2 TD, 0 INT) but sadly the wide receivers were plagued with a little thing called the dropsies. After going balls out against Louisville, it is so disappointing to have Robinson at the mercy of a fickle receivers core. Mike Williams and Taj Smith appear to be the only playmakers in this department on a somewhat consistent basis. Nothing to special to report here though. The offensive line went back to being the offensive line for Syracuse, so clearly that went well. When the opposing team hands you a couple minutes in the forth and you just need a field goal to tie, it sucks that you cannot even move the sticks.
Defense
B-
For once, I think our defense played the majority of the game better than our offense. This was an evenly matched opponent and both teams were held scoreless in the first quarter. Joe 5 Fields had two interceptions, and A.J. Brown also had a pick. But, our run defense let us down as Miami running back Cory Jones ran for 125 yards and two touchdowns. Oh, by the way, he ran that on only 12 carries, the longest of which was 48 yards. Awesome job boys. Miami must have frothed at the mouth looking at Illinois game film.
Special Teams
C+
Max Suter could sadly not make my pants tight two weeks in a row. He did, however, on three returns, average 32 yards and his long was 42. Not bad work out there. Patrick “Fat Ass” Shadle missed a field goal, but it was from 50 plus yards so I guess you really cannot blame the kid too much there. He was 2/2 on his extra point tries. Rob “Heisman” Long had a pretty standard day. All in all, not that special, but not terrible either.
Coaching
C+
Pretty average here as well. It was tough to open the playbook when Andrew Robinson was being sacked. As the offensive line sucked, so did the game plan. While there was some adjusting in the second half, it still yielded little results.
GPA
C+ (2.3)
On a day that could have been a signal to all of Orange Nation that we were going to be alright, maybe win a few more games, we fell by three points to one of the easiest teams remaining on our schedule. I think it is safe to start singing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”. The bad news, our only games remaining that look “winnable” (that is in quotes because you never know when that team that played L’ville could show up again [damn them!]) are Buffalo, UConn, and Pittsburgh. The good news, this season we are 1-0 when playing ranked opponents that have lost the week before. Upset alert in the Rivalry Game versus West Virginia (wink!).
All is not lost. They certainly look like a better offense than what we saw in that Washington game at least. While much still remains to be desired, at least I do think we can win another game. I think we could manage to win more if we catch some breaks, make some big plays, and remember that L’ville game. So remember kids, before you go eating your "bits of glass muffin" you were saving for the Louisville loss, we could still win some ball games. We could still win all our conference games. We could still beat WVU and Rutgers. The top ten teams in the nation are falling apart, which gives hope to the rest of us.
Labels: Football
C+ for Greg that is a kind grade - then again you gotta give him credit for setting the bar so low we expect nothing