Syracuse students agree: Yeah we'll watch, but the CFP will be on the other TV.
Syracuse has one more game before the ACC really starts up. And Syracuse faces a familiar opponent in Greg Paulus, the now coach of Niagara. Unfortunately, much like Oklahoma - LSU in the football playoff, this one also probably won't be very close.
Niagara is an interesting team in that they are notable for being the shortest team collectively in America. They also are 2nd worst in the nation in offensive rebounding. Now, as we know Syracuse won't set the world on fire with their rebounding. However, just on size alone, and despite playing the 2-3 Zone, Syracuse should own the boards in this game, both in getting rebounds for transition points, but also on the offensive boards for 2nd chance points. Hughes should have another solid day, and the usual contribution from Dolezaj, Girard, and Boeheim will carry Syracuse to a solid win. Syracuse over Niagra by 23.
This game is an internet only affair on ACC Network Extra at 7:00pm. Since the first playoff game is well decided, this one will have my full attention. Both John and I are in the home offices. We'll see you out there. GO ORANGE.
Labels: Basketball, Greg Paulus, Preview
Unfortunately, Cam Dantley didn't make it into this game.
Editor’s Note: The following article is a weekly feature from Orange::44 correspondent John Brennan (twitter @jbren) that runs every Monday morning during the football season called Monday Morning Quarterback, assessing the quarterback situation of Syracuse football.
Welcome to the fourteenth and final edition of Monday Morning Quarterback for the 2009 season here at Orange::44.
Greg Paulus was the starting quarterback for Syracuse for the first eleven games. The twelfth, and final game, against UConn, would also belong to him. Paulus ended the season, and ended his career, with possibly his best game. Greg threw 24 of 32 for a whopping 296 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. He was also the team’s second leading rusher, with 28 yards.
Still, he was sharing snaps with Ryan Nassib. Stat-wise, Nassib had a pretty good game too, with 7 of 9 for 64 yards and a touchdown pass of his own. However, he also lost 19 yards on the ground. Throughout this game, it seemed pretty clear to me who the better quarterback was, and which QB would put this team in the best position to win the game. Unfortunately, the coaching staff still had “packages” for Nassib. More often than not, Nassib was in the game to hand off the ball, or to run an option play. The option was very ineffective in this one, including a decent pitch from Nassib to Delone Carter that was bobbled, recovered by UConn, and brought in for a defensive touchdown. While I applaud the coaches for digging the option out of the playbook and switching things up, it was pretty evident the past couple weeks that the QBs, the backs, and the line are not very comfortable with it.
In the absence of a superstar receiver, Greg and Ryan really got the ball to whomever they could. In total on Saturday, 10 different Orangemen had receptions. The most frequent targets were Alec Lemon and Marcus Sales (140 yards and 89 yards, respectively). To have a team that versatile really says something about how this team has evolved and how it has adjusted how it does things in the face of adversity (injuries, cry baby quitters, etc.). Lemon (freshman) and Sales (sophomore) are young, so if this game – and really, their level of play the past couple weeks – is any indication of what they could be capable of, then I think the receiving corps will be all right moving into the future. One more note about the receivers: Greg Paulus found Lavar Lobdell for a touchdown in the 4th quarter, for Lobdell’s first (and ultimately only) touchdown reception of his career. Paulus and Lobdell were teammates back at Christian Brothers Academy, and it seems fitting that they both end their college careers finally hooking up for a touchdown. Congratulations!
So the 2009 campaign is in the books. If you were to ask me, “John, do you think the Greg Paulus experiment was successful? Was it worth it?” well, then, I could have to answer each in the affirmative. Greg Paulus ends the year with the greatest number of completions in a season in Syracuse history, and the best completion percentage in a season in Syracuse history. He has, as Coach K said a few weeks back, left his DNA on this football program (CSI is checking it out with those special lights). He has been the leader of this team; he has shown a great work ethic; he has shared his knowledge with others. And he, along with Head Coach Doug Marrone, reinvigorated a dilapidated program. Now, sure, he wasn’t perfect. He threw an awful lot of picks, particularly given the situations. Better decision-making against Minnesota could have bumped that result into the Win column. And then what would the season have turned out to be? Would we have been waiting by our TVs to find out which bowl Syracuse would be going to? Who knows – this is the stuff of imagination. But let’s say Greg Paulus never comes to Syracuse. Let’s say Ryan Nassib, who was the main guy coming out of the Spring practices, is the 2009 Quarterback for Syracuse University. Would Syracuse have won four games? More? Less? Of course, we’ll never know, but I’ll offer my two cents. Less. Time and time again, Ryan Nassib proved to me that he cannot be the consistent, every-snap quarterback this team needs. He’s too inaccurate. That’s it and that’s all. Maybe this is something he can work on during the off-season and be better next year? I don’t know.
And that does bring us to next year. Who will be the face of the 2010 Orangemen? I guess by default, right now you have to say Ryan Nassib. But, as I’ve been hinting at for the past several weeks, you’ve got to believe Charley Loeb is in the mix. As a redshirt freshman next year, if he’s any good, he will have the opportunity to begin to build a mighty legacy at Syracuse. I think nearly every Syracuse fan finally believes this program is heading in the right direction. Charley Loeb could be the next piece to that puzzle.
The Weekly QB Watch
Based upon absolutely nothing except my gut feeling, the probability of starting the 2010 season is as follows:
Charley Loeb – 99%
Ryan Nassib – 0%
Other – 1%
Evidently, I don’t like Ryan Nassib.
Author’s note: This is the final Monday Morning Quarterback for the 2009 football season. It’s been fun. Thank you all for logging on each Monday morning (or whenever) to read me ramble on. I hope I will have the opportunity to bring the column back for the 2010 campaign. So, until spring practice, look for my other content here at Orange::44, and as always, GO ORANGE!
Labels: Greg Paulus, Monday Morning Quarterback, Syracuse Football
Are you sure we can't scrape up another season of eligibility somewhere?
Editor’s Note: The following article is a weekly feature from Orange::44 correspondent John Brennan (twitter @jbren) that runs every Monday morning called Monday Morning Quarterback, assessing the quarterback situation of Syracuse football.
Welcome to the thirteenth edition of Monday Morning Quarterback here at Orange::44.
In last week’s article, I described how it was time to get Ryan Nassib in the game, to start him, to get him a ton of reps. Head Coach Doug Marrone disagreed with me. And by the end of the first quarter Saturday against Rutgers, I, too, disagreed with me.
Greg Paulus started this game, and early on, was in a clear two-QB system with Nassib. They practically traded snaps. But it was clear to the 36k in attendance that Paulus was the better of the two. By the second half, we were wondering why they even put Nassib back in.
Paulus finished the day with a great stat line: 13 of 16 for 142 yards, a touchdown, and no interceptions. Nassib’s line is much more underwhelming: 4 of 6 for 69 yards. One of Nassib’s completions was a 21-yard pass to a wide open Marcus Sales just short of the end zone. It was a great catch because of what Sales had to do to catch it. As I have written in a previous article, Nassib tends to not throw the ball accurately; as if he’s purposely throwing to a spot 5 yards away from the receiver. Such was the case on the Sales reception; Nassib horrifically underthrew the ball so Sales had to come back a bit and dive for it. Due to the NCAA tackle rules, Sales’ contact with the ground meant he was down and couldn’t pick up additional yards after catch. A better thrown ball that didn’t require a diving catch, and Sales can easily walk into the end zone on this play.
And really, this is the huge difference, execution-wise, between Nassib and Paulus. Nassib is just not accurate. This is okay when there are superstars as receivers, and the superstars can make the crappy QB look good. But Syracuse’s current receiving corps just isn’t the cream of the crop. They need a good QB to make the QB look good. Hopefully you follow the logic there.
So where does this lead us? One more game left in the 2009 campaign, against the hated UConn Huskies. While there aren’t must-win games anymore, how incredibly awesome did you feel at the end of that Rutgers game, coming away with a win? All other things aside, every Syracuse fan wants Doug Marrone & Co. to walk away from Rentschler Field with a W. That said, Greg Paulus will round out the schedule having started each Syracuse game this year. Why? Because Doug Marrone knew the whole time that even though Syracuse won’t win every game it plays, Greg Paulus gives the team the greatest chance of winning. Doug, I agree. Obviously Nassib will get his share of packages, but this is Greg Paulus’ team. I think there’s some bad blood between Marrone and Nassib. Or Nassib practices like he plays – inaccurately. God, I hope, for next year’s sake, that Charley Loeb is as good playing as he is good looking (according to some, I don’t know, I don’t judge those things).
The Weekly QB Watch
Going into the final game of the 2009 season, the probability of starting is as follows:
Greg Paulus – 100%
Ryan Nassib – 0%
Cam Dantley – 0%
Charley Loeb – 0%
Other – 0%
Welcome to the thirteenth edition of Monday Morning Quarterback here at Orange::44.
In last week’s article, I described how it was time to get Ryan Nassib in the game, to start him, to get him a ton of reps. Head Coach Doug Marrone disagreed with me. And by the end of the first quarter Saturday against Rutgers, I, too, disagreed with me.
Greg Paulus started this game, and early on, was in a clear two-QB system with Nassib. They practically traded snaps. But it was clear to the 36k in attendance that Paulus was the better of the two. By the second half, we were wondering why they even put Nassib back in.
Paulus finished the day with a great stat line: 13 of 16 for 142 yards, a touchdown, and no interceptions. Nassib’s line is much more underwhelming: 4 of 6 for 69 yards. One of Nassib’s completions was a 21-yard pass to a wide open Marcus Sales just short of the end zone. It was a great catch because of what Sales had to do to catch it. As I have written in a previous article, Nassib tends to not throw the ball accurately; as if he’s purposely throwing to a spot 5 yards away from the receiver. Such was the case on the Sales reception; Nassib horrifically underthrew the ball so Sales had to come back a bit and dive for it. Due to the NCAA tackle rules, Sales’ contact with the ground meant he was down and couldn’t pick up additional yards after catch. A better thrown ball that didn’t require a diving catch, and Sales can easily walk into the end zone on this play.
And really, this is the huge difference, execution-wise, between Nassib and Paulus. Nassib is just not accurate. This is okay when there are superstars as receivers, and the superstars can make the crappy QB look good. But Syracuse’s current receiving corps just isn’t the cream of the crop. They need a good QB to make the QB look good. Hopefully you follow the logic there.
So where does this lead us? One more game left in the 2009 campaign, against the hated UConn Huskies. While there aren’t must-win games anymore, how incredibly awesome did you feel at the end of that Rutgers game, coming away with a win? All other things aside, every Syracuse fan wants Doug Marrone & Co. to walk away from Rentschler Field with a W. That said, Greg Paulus will round out the schedule having started each Syracuse game this year. Why? Because Doug Marrone knew the whole time that even though Syracuse won’t win every game it plays, Greg Paulus gives the team the greatest chance of winning. Doug, I agree. Obviously Nassib will get his share of packages, but this is Greg Paulus’ team. I think there’s some bad blood between Marrone and Nassib. Or Nassib practices like he plays – inaccurately. God, I hope, for next year’s sake, that Charley Loeb is as good playing as he is good looking (according to some, I don’t know, I don’t judge those things).
The Weekly QB Watch
Going into the final game of the 2009 season, the probability of starting is as follows:
Greg Paulus – 100%
Ryan Nassib – 0%
Cam Dantley – 0%
Charley Loeb – 0%
Other – 0%
Labels: Greg Paulus, Monday Morning Quarterback, Syracuse Football
It's time for a change.
Editor’s Note: The following article is a weekly feature from Orange::44 correspondent John Brennan (twitter @jbren) that runs every Monday morning called Monday Morning Quarterback, assessing the quarterback situation of Syracuse football.
Welcome to the twelfth edition of Monday Morning Quarterback here at Orange::44. This will be short and painless, unlike the game against the Cardinals.
Syracuse will not be bowling this year. With a loss this past Saturday against the Louisville Cardinals, Syracuse clinched another losing season and knocked itself out of bowl contention. And what led to this loss? A lack of offense. Clearly, this team misses Mike Williams. With the rest of the receiving corps sucking a big one, Syracuse had to rely on running the ball.
Greg Paulus ended the game with a fantastic stat line: 12 of 16 for 89 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception. When I say fantastic, I obviously mean shitty. Not his fault, just nobody to throw to. Ryan Nassib, in the few snaps he received, didn’t do any better: 2 of 5 for 21 yards.
So what does this mean? It means that Doug Marrone still thinks Greg Paulus is the guy that can best lead this team to victory. Quite frankly, he might not even like Ryan Nassib. I think we’ll get a better idea of that in these final two games of the season.
Now that we’re not in “must win” mode, it’s the proverbial time to start thinking about next year. Obviously, Greg Paulus is not part of next year’s picture. And in the interests of having something to talk about, I’m gonna create a quarterback controversy right now: Charley Loeb vs. Ryan Nassib.
I think it’s time to give the ball to Ryan Nassib and give him the vast majority of the snaps. Whether he’s the guy next year or whether it’s Charley Loeb, Ryan needs to get as much experience as he can right now. Charley obviously won’t be getting that, due to the red shirt, but it’s important for Ryan to get more experience. Quite frankly, I’m really anxious to see Charley Loeb play, and I’m curious as to how he’s been looking in practice.
As for Greg Paulus: thanks. You brought a buzz to the program, overall had a pretty good year, and while they didn’t always translate into wins, you put up some decent numbers. But your time here is done. You knew this was only a one-year gig anyway, and now that Syracuse will be home for the holidays, we don’t *need* you to help us win. Because winning right now isn’t a priority (assuming it has been up until now). Help these kids learn the game, help them learn your leadership qualities. But I don’t think we need your services under center at this point.
The Weekly QB Watch
Going into the upcoming game against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, the probability of starting is as follows:
Ryan Nassib – 60%
Greg Paulus – 40%
Cam Dantley – 0%
Charley Loeb – 0%
Other – 0%
Welcome to the twelfth edition of Monday Morning Quarterback here at Orange::44. This will be short and painless, unlike the game against the Cardinals.
Syracuse will not be bowling this year. With a loss this past Saturday against the Louisville Cardinals, Syracuse clinched another losing season and knocked itself out of bowl contention. And what led to this loss? A lack of offense. Clearly, this team misses Mike Williams. With the rest of the receiving corps sucking a big one, Syracuse had to rely on running the ball.
Greg Paulus ended the game with a fantastic stat line: 12 of 16 for 89 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception. When I say fantastic, I obviously mean shitty. Not his fault, just nobody to throw to. Ryan Nassib, in the few snaps he received, didn’t do any better: 2 of 5 for 21 yards.
So what does this mean? It means that Doug Marrone still thinks Greg Paulus is the guy that can best lead this team to victory. Quite frankly, he might not even like Ryan Nassib. I think we’ll get a better idea of that in these final two games of the season.
Now that we’re not in “must win” mode, it’s the proverbial time to start thinking about next year. Obviously, Greg Paulus is not part of next year’s picture. And in the interests of having something to talk about, I’m gonna create a quarterback controversy right now: Charley Loeb vs. Ryan Nassib.
I think it’s time to give the ball to Ryan Nassib and give him the vast majority of the snaps. Whether he’s the guy next year or whether it’s Charley Loeb, Ryan needs to get as much experience as he can right now. Charley obviously won’t be getting that, due to the red shirt, but it’s important for Ryan to get more experience. Quite frankly, I’m really anxious to see Charley Loeb play, and I’m curious as to how he’s been looking in practice.
As for Greg Paulus: thanks. You brought a buzz to the program, overall had a pretty good year, and while they didn’t always translate into wins, you put up some decent numbers. But your time here is done. You knew this was only a one-year gig anyway, and now that Syracuse will be home for the holidays, we don’t *need* you to help us win. Because winning right now isn’t a priority (assuming it has been up until now). Help these kids learn the game, help them learn your leadership qualities. But I don’t think we need your services under center at this point.
The Weekly QB Watch
Going into the upcoming game against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, the probability of starting is as follows:
Ryan Nassib – 60%
Greg Paulus – 40%
Cam Dantley – 0%
Charley Loeb – 0%
Other – 0%
Labels: Greg Paulus, Monday Morning Quarterback, Syracuse Football
I do not have a man-crush on Greg Paulus. I swear!
Editor’s Note: The following article is a weekly feature from Orange::44 correspondent John Brennan (twitter @jbren) that runs every Monday morning called Monday Morning Quarterback, assessing the quarterback situation of Syracuse football.
Welcome to the eleventh edition of Monday Morning Quarterback here at Orange::44.
OK Haters, you’re not gonna like this article. So if you hate Greg Paulus, why don’t you just scroll down and check out that crying child. And don’t forget to notify your local police department of your recent change of address. You could pick up criminal charges for not notifying them.
Greg Paulus started this game against Pittsburgh. Ryan Nassib ended it. What happened in between was a shitshow. A drubbing. A show of less than mediocrity. After Doug Marrone’s impassioned defense of Greg Paulus last Monday, we knew that he’d be sticking by his guns and throwing Greg out there. Yet, there was that uncertainty in the air, with the sudden departure of Mike Williams from the team. How would the quarterbacks respond to having no star to throw to?
Well, the answer at first, much like in the game two weeks ago against Akron, was to let Delone Carter have a career day. And this was a solid strategy, as DC3 ran for big plays of 58 and 24 yards in the first quarter. Give him credit, he ended the day with 143 yards on 17 carries. However, Pitt was smart enough to pick up on this strategy, and made adjustments on their defense. As the game dragged on, the holes Carter saw early on filled up like a porn star at a gangbang. Syracuse, however, failed to really make any adjustments at all in this game.
Except for who was playing quarterback. For much of the first half, it seemed as though Paulus and Nassib were trading snaps. I didn’t keep a tally, but I think Paulus had slightly more snaps in the first half. I did, however, keep a tally in the second half. By my count, second half snaps were 25 to Ryan Nassib, and 18 to Greg Paulus. But up until that final drive by Nassib, in which Syracuse scored its only touchdown of the game, the snap count was pretty even.
So what happened for those snaps for each quarterback? For the game, Paulus was 12 of 18 for 120 yards and two interceptions; Ryan Nassib was 5 of 16 for 21 yards and 1 interception. There’s a lot to discuss there.
Completion percentage: Paulus 67%, Nassib 31%. As a percentage of the team’s total passing yards, Paulus had 85% while Nassib had 15%. Neither had a passing touchdown. Both had interceptions; Greg with two, Ryan with one. Quite frankly, none of the interceptions were the fault of either QB at the time. So while the INTs hurt the team given the situations at the time, I will call a mulligan on all of them for purposes of comparing the QBs today.
So the bottom line in looking at the quarterbacks is this: Greg Paulus played a better game. Go ahead, boo me. Boo him. Boo Doug Marrone. The stats don’t lie.
But evaluating a quarterback is much more than looking at stats. What kind of a presence does he have on the field? Were the incompletions his fault through missed throws, or were they just flat out dropped? Or did the receiver run the wrong route? With Greg Paulus, I thought his accuracy looked much better than Nassib’s in this game. Nassib seemed like he was consistently throwing 4-5 yards away from the intended receiver, if not just totally overthrowing the pass. At least most of the time when Paulus threw the ball, someone caught it (albeit not always an Orangeman). But Nassib was so consistently missing his targets, that I begin to wonder if it wasn’t the receivers’ faults? Did they not properly run their routes? Were they too caught up in the pass coverage to get in the proper position? I don’t know, because I wasn’t calling the plays; but I think the bottom line is that Nassib wasn’t able to adjust to what he was seeing in front of him before he threw the ball. I’d like to give Paulus the leg-up in this area, but we’ve seen the number of bad decisions he’s made this year. So. Yeah.
Speaking of calling the plays: I’m getting really frustrated with the game SU calls on offense. Those of us who suffered through the later Pasqualoni years with the “run, run, pass, punt” scheme thought we knew frustration. Now here we are seeing play-calling that is just way too conservative, way too ineffective, and way too illogical. To be fair, I know this team is decimated at virtually every position. And the coaches have to call plays that best suits the talent on the field. OK. I get that. But running a 6-yard slant on 3rd down when you need 7 for the first down; running up the middle at the end of the half when you could just take a bomb at the end zone and see what sticks. I just don’t get it sometimes. That’s not a talent issue. That’s a coaching issue. Alabama and Texas don’t get to the top of the BCS by playing conservatively. You can be a little conservative once you get there, but not when you’re dead last in the Big East. Take a chance. Ask the cute girl to the prom. Jeez.
Well, I don’t know where this team goes from here. With three games left, and three more wins needed to quality for a post-season bowl game, I guess it’s fair to call the remainder of the schedule “must-wins.” And to that end, harking back to what Doug Marrone says every week about his personnel, he plays the students who are best suited to win the game for the team. So, who are these students? More importantly for purposes of this article, who is that quarterback?
My money is on Greg Paulus. He starts on Saturday at Louisville. Since the pre-season, I think we’ve all pretty much pegged this Louisville game as a win. Due in large part to the fact that Syracuse simply has had Louisville’s number the past few seasons. But not overlooking the fact that the Cardinals are just that bad. Bad enough to lose against a Syracuse team looking for some direction. Greg Paulus has proven himself a winner, and his performance against a really tough Pittsburgh team I think reinforces that. Ryan Nassib needs to spend all week getting some chemistry with the receivers. You’d really think this receiving corps would step up, with each receiver having an opportunity to take that star power that once belonged to Mike Williams. Nobody took that opportunity against Pittsburgh; and if nobody steps up against Louisville, they might as well just phone it in the rest of the season. Like the Pitt game, I expect Nassib to get a large number of snaps, especially if the game gets out of hand (either way) or if Paulus shits in a can again. But right now, I am as confident in Paulus as Doug Marrone is, for him to be the quarterback that can best put this team in a position to win.
The Weekly QB Watch
Going into the upcoming game against the Louisville Cardinals, the probability of starting is as follows:
Greg Paulus – 90%
Ryan Nassib – 10%
Cam Dantley – 0%
Charley Loeb – 0%
Other – 0%
Don’t wanna waste his red shirt, but I kinda wanna see Charley Loeb out there. Maybe next year.
Welcome to the eleventh edition of Monday Morning Quarterback here at Orange::44.
OK Haters, you’re not gonna like this article. So if you hate Greg Paulus, why don’t you just scroll down and check out that crying child. And don’t forget to notify your local police department of your recent change of address. You could pick up criminal charges for not notifying them.
Greg Paulus started this game against Pittsburgh. Ryan Nassib ended it. What happened in between was a shitshow. A drubbing. A show of less than mediocrity. After Doug Marrone’s impassioned defense of Greg Paulus last Monday, we knew that he’d be sticking by his guns and throwing Greg out there. Yet, there was that uncertainty in the air, with the sudden departure of Mike Williams from the team. How would the quarterbacks respond to having no star to throw to?
Well, the answer at first, much like in the game two weeks ago against Akron, was to let Delone Carter have a career day. And this was a solid strategy, as DC3 ran for big plays of 58 and 24 yards in the first quarter. Give him credit, he ended the day with 143 yards on 17 carries. However, Pitt was smart enough to pick up on this strategy, and made adjustments on their defense. As the game dragged on, the holes Carter saw early on filled up like a porn star at a gangbang. Syracuse, however, failed to really make any adjustments at all in this game.
Except for who was playing quarterback. For much of the first half, it seemed as though Paulus and Nassib were trading snaps. I didn’t keep a tally, but I think Paulus had slightly more snaps in the first half. I did, however, keep a tally in the second half. By my count, second half snaps were 25 to Ryan Nassib, and 18 to Greg Paulus. But up until that final drive by Nassib, in which Syracuse scored its only touchdown of the game, the snap count was pretty even.
So what happened for those snaps for each quarterback? For the game, Paulus was 12 of 18 for 120 yards and two interceptions; Ryan Nassib was 5 of 16 for 21 yards and 1 interception. There’s a lot to discuss there.
Completion percentage: Paulus 67%, Nassib 31%. As a percentage of the team’s total passing yards, Paulus had 85% while Nassib had 15%. Neither had a passing touchdown. Both had interceptions; Greg with two, Ryan with one. Quite frankly, none of the interceptions were the fault of either QB at the time. So while the INTs hurt the team given the situations at the time, I will call a mulligan on all of them for purposes of comparing the QBs today.
So the bottom line in looking at the quarterbacks is this: Greg Paulus played a better game. Go ahead, boo me. Boo him. Boo Doug Marrone. The stats don’t lie.
But evaluating a quarterback is much more than looking at stats. What kind of a presence does he have on the field? Were the incompletions his fault through missed throws, or were they just flat out dropped? Or did the receiver run the wrong route? With Greg Paulus, I thought his accuracy looked much better than Nassib’s in this game. Nassib seemed like he was consistently throwing 4-5 yards away from the intended receiver, if not just totally overthrowing the pass. At least most of the time when Paulus threw the ball, someone caught it (albeit not always an Orangeman). But Nassib was so consistently missing his targets, that I begin to wonder if it wasn’t the receivers’ faults? Did they not properly run their routes? Were they too caught up in the pass coverage to get in the proper position? I don’t know, because I wasn’t calling the plays; but I think the bottom line is that Nassib wasn’t able to adjust to what he was seeing in front of him before he threw the ball. I’d like to give Paulus the leg-up in this area, but we’ve seen the number of bad decisions he’s made this year. So. Yeah.
Speaking of calling the plays: I’m getting really frustrated with the game SU calls on offense. Those of us who suffered through the later Pasqualoni years with the “run, run, pass, punt” scheme thought we knew frustration. Now here we are seeing play-calling that is just way too conservative, way too ineffective, and way too illogical. To be fair, I know this team is decimated at virtually every position. And the coaches have to call plays that best suits the talent on the field. OK. I get that. But running a 6-yard slant on 3rd down when you need 7 for the first down; running up the middle at the end of the half when you could just take a bomb at the end zone and see what sticks. I just don’t get it sometimes. That’s not a talent issue. That’s a coaching issue. Alabama and Texas don’t get to the top of the BCS by playing conservatively. You can be a little conservative once you get there, but not when you’re dead last in the Big East. Take a chance. Ask the cute girl to the prom. Jeez.
Well, I don’t know where this team goes from here. With three games left, and three more wins needed to quality for a post-season bowl game, I guess it’s fair to call the remainder of the schedule “must-wins.” And to that end, harking back to what Doug Marrone says every week about his personnel, he plays the students who are best suited to win the game for the team. So, who are these students? More importantly for purposes of this article, who is that quarterback?
My money is on Greg Paulus. He starts on Saturday at Louisville. Since the pre-season, I think we’ve all pretty much pegged this Louisville game as a win. Due in large part to the fact that Syracuse simply has had Louisville’s number the past few seasons. But not overlooking the fact that the Cardinals are just that bad. Bad enough to lose against a Syracuse team looking for some direction. Greg Paulus has proven himself a winner, and his performance against a really tough Pittsburgh team I think reinforces that. Ryan Nassib needs to spend all week getting some chemistry with the receivers. You’d really think this receiving corps would step up, with each receiver having an opportunity to take that star power that once belonged to Mike Williams. Nobody took that opportunity against Pittsburgh; and if nobody steps up against Louisville, they might as well just phone it in the rest of the season. Like the Pitt game, I expect Nassib to get a large number of snaps, especially if the game gets out of hand (either way) or if Paulus shits in a can again. But right now, I am as confident in Paulus as Doug Marrone is, for him to be the quarterback that can best put this team in a position to win.
The Weekly QB Watch
Going into the upcoming game against the Louisville Cardinals, the probability of starting is as follows:
Greg Paulus – 90%
Ryan Nassib – 10%
Cam Dantley – 0%
Charley Loeb – 0%
Other – 0%
Don’t wanna waste his red shirt, but I kinda wanna see Charley Loeb out there. Maybe next year.
Labels: Greg Paulus, Monday Morning Quarterback, Syracuse Football
"Greg Paulus is on pace for 6 yards passing." Tweet by me at 1:06PM on Saturday.Editor’s Note: The following article is a weekly feature from Orange::44 correspondent John Brennan (twitter @jbren) that runs every Monday morning called Monday Morning Quarterback, assessing the quarterback situation of Syracuse football.
Welcome to the seventh edition of Monday Morning Quarterback here at Orange::44.
If “Ernie Davis Legends Field” is meant to honor mostly Ernie Davis, but also all Syracuse football legends, surely Greg Paulus was not playing his way onto that list. The kid just seemed like he had zero confidence in this game, and the play calling from the sideline seemed to reflect the same nonconfidence. I may have just made that word up, but my wordsmithing is still more effort than we saw from Greg this week.
Paulus finished five of nine for 30 yards and an interception before being pulled from the game during halftime. Clearly the worst game of his short career. For a kid who either didn’t have the confidence going into the game, or who lost it all by throwing a stupid interception on Syracuse’s first drive, the stars were just not aligned for Paulus. Or, they were, but in a bad way. At any rate, this first drive of Syracuse was actually the most productive of the game for Paulus, who had brought the team down the field 34 yards before tossing it up. So maybe he did have some confidence going in; but it was surely lost with the INT. Paulus’ remaining drives in the half were 3 plays for 6 yards, 3 plays for 6 yards, 3 plays for -7 yards, 4 plays for 17 yards, and 3 plays for 3 yards. For those counting at home, that’s four 3-and-out’s.
As I alluded to earlier, I think that the play calling significantly changed as well. It seemed like Syracuse was a run-first team. Now granted, DC3 et al are good backs; I agree we should be a run-first team. Those “legends” we honored with big block letters at mid-field are mostly running backs, let’s be honest. But let’s also be honest about the ineffectiveness of the offensive line. They’re too inexperienced (and, frankly, to sucky) to allow Syracuse to be a run-first team. And with the relative success Greg Paulus has had up until Saturday’s game, clearly I think Syracuse had established itself as a pass-first team. But that playbook went out the window.
Doug Marrone, being the realist he is, knew he had to make some halftime adjustments. Of course, I would hope anyone would see that when you go into the half down 27-0. Thus, Ryan Nassib got the call up to start the second half at quarterback, and the job for the rest of the game was his to lose. Nassib put up decent numbers: 7 of 16 for 120 yards and 2 touchdowns, including an awesome 50-yard TD pass to Mike Williams on what I believe was a play fake. I dunno, I was only half paying attention to the second half, because I had gotten it in my head that it was all junk time. Plus I really wanted a nap. More on that later. What I did pay attention to, however, was one thing I liked about Nassib and one thing I hate about the receivers. Strong throws, and dropsies, respectively. If we can get the O-line to hold strong, the receivers to run their routes and not slather up with butter, and Nassib to continue to fire those balls across the field, then I see bright things for the future. But that’s a lot of ifs.
So, bottom line is that Syracuse lost 34-13. However, Syracuse won the 2nd half, so that was nice. Too bad that counts for Jack. But, does Nassib’s insertion into the game for the entire second half create that dreaded 11-letter c-word? With quarterback in front of it? If you said concussion, you’re wrong. That’s 10 letters. If you said constipation, maybe you’re right but I have no way of confirming that (plus it’s 12 letters). I’m talking about a quarterback controversy.
I guess when I first started the MMQB, I did so with the assumption that Greg Paulus would not be the hands-down unanimous pick for QB for the entire season. Even if his performance level remained high, you knew at some point Ryan Nassib (or someone else for that matter) would work their way into the conversation, even if only for the simple reason that next year, there is no Greg Paulus. Next year is Ryan Nassib or Charley Loeb or whomever else may come along. Hell, we could get another point guard, right? The fact of the matter is that if I’m Doug Marrone, I’ve got to get somebody else some meaningful game experience under center.
And now might be the best time to do it. All joking aside, the calendar for this Saturday says “Bye,” and we all know this isn’t a real team, so we get the week off. Syracuse then returns to action on October 24 against Akron in the Dome @ Ernie Davis Legends Field (now required nomenclature when mentioning football at the Dome). In theory Akron should be a winnable game. Doug Marrone has already announced that Greg Paulus will start that game. Fine. So be it. But you’ve got to think that he’s on a very short leash. Because quite frankly, I think we should spook the Cincinnati Bearcats on Halloween by starting Ryan Nassib. Honestly, Cincy’s playing fantastic football right now, and not even the brightest Syracuse optimist should think there’s a realistic shot at an Orange victory on October 31. So why not let Nassib start that game? It gives him the confidence of starting, the experience of playing in a big game against a big name opponent, and the determination to go out there and just play because, hey, you’ve got nothing to lose.
And that’s not to take anything away from Greg Paulus. I would want Greg to get a lot of snaps in that game. He shouldn’t be thrown to the sidelines and forgotten, just because we want to start planning for next year. Oh jeez, there I go. “Next year” is rearing its ugly head. Come on, John, we’re halfway through the season! And we don’t have a head coach who thinks about next year; he thinks about what it will take to win this week. Or next week if we have a bye. But who’s to say that Ryan Nassib isn’t the right choice to lead Syracuse to victory against the Bearcats?
Or maybe I’m still just getting ahead of myself. The next game, after the bye week, is the Akron Zips. Greg Paulus will start that game. This much has been confirmed. But know this: Ryan Nassib will play in that game. A lot, probably. And I’ll be OK with that. I’ll be great with a Syracuse win, no matter who starts or who gets more snaps or who plays the entire second half.
The Weekly QB Watch
Going into the upcoming game against the Byeweek Bungalows, the probability of starting is as follows:
Greg Paulus – 0%
Ryan Nassib – 0%
Cam Dantley – 0%
Charley Loeb – 0%
Other – 0%
Obviously all zeroes with no game to start. Check back next week for a look ahead to the game against the Akron Zips.
As a side note to all this quarterback controversy, did anyone catch Cam Dantley and Andrew Robinson on Syracuse Sidelines this past week? They were putting on the happy faces about their new lives not being the starting quarterback this season, but you could tell, they wanted to be out there in Greg’s shoes. But good job of foreshadowing, Time Warner Cable Sports!
Welcome to the seventh edition of Monday Morning Quarterback here at Orange::44.
If “Ernie Davis Legends Field” is meant to honor mostly Ernie Davis, but also all Syracuse football legends, surely Greg Paulus was not playing his way onto that list. The kid just seemed like he had zero confidence in this game, and the play calling from the sideline seemed to reflect the same nonconfidence. I may have just made that word up, but my wordsmithing is still more effort than we saw from Greg this week.
Paulus finished five of nine for 30 yards and an interception before being pulled from the game during halftime. Clearly the worst game of his short career. For a kid who either didn’t have the confidence going into the game, or who lost it all by throwing a stupid interception on Syracuse’s first drive, the stars were just not aligned for Paulus. Or, they were, but in a bad way. At any rate, this first drive of Syracuse was actually the most productive of the game for Paulus, who had brought the team down the field 34 yards before tossing it up. So maybe he did have some confidence going in; but it was surely lost with the INT. Paulus’ remaining drives in the half were 3 plays for 6 yards, 3 plays for 6 yards, 3 plays for -7 yards, 4 plays for 17 yards, and 3 plays for 3 yards. For those counting at home, that’s four 3-and-out’s.
As I alluded to earlier, I think that the play calling significantly changed as well. It seemed like Syracuse was a run-first team. Now granted, DC3 et al are good backs; I agree we should be a run-first team. Those “legends” we honored with big block letters at mid-field are mostly running backs, let’s be honest. But let’s also be honest about the ineffectiveness of the offensive line. They’re too inexperienced (and, frankly, to sucky) to allow Syracuse to be a run-first team. And with the relative success Greg Paulus has had up until Saturday’s game, clearly I think Syracuse had established itself as a pass-first team. But that playbook went out the window.
Doug Marrone, being the realist he is, knew he had to make some halftime adjustments. Of course, I would hope anyone would see that when you go into the half down 27-0. Thus, Ryan Nassib got the call up to start the second half at quarterback, and the job for the rest of the game was his to lose. Nassib put up decent numbers: 7 of 16 for 120 yards and 2 touchdowns, including an awesome 50-yard TD pass to Mike Williams on what I believe was a play fake. I dunno, I was only half paying attention to the second half, because I had gotten it in my head that it was all junk time. Plus I really wanted a nap. More on that later. What I did pay attention to, however, was one thing I liked about Nassib and one thing I hate about the receivers. Strong throws, and dropsies, respectively. If we can get the O-line to hold strong, the receivers to run their routes and not slather up with butter, and Nassib to continue to fire those balls across the field, then I see bright things for the future. But that’s a lot of ifs.
So, bottom line is that Syracuse lost 34-13. However, Syracuse won the 2nd half, so that was nice. Too bad that counts for Jack. But, does Nassib’s insertion into the game for the entire second half create that dreaded 11-letter c-word? With quarterback in front of it? If you said concussion, you’re wrong. That’s 10 letters. If you said constipation, maybe you’re right but I have no way of confirming that (plus it’s 12 letters). I’m talking about a quarterback controversy.
I guess when I first started the MMQB, I did so with the assumption that Greg Paulus would not be the hands-down unanimous pick for QB for the entire season. Even if his performance level remained high, you knew at some point Ryan Nassib (or someone else for that matter) would work their way into the conversation, even if only for the simple reason that next year, there is no Greg Paulus. Next year is Ryan Nassib or Charley Loeb or whomever else may come along. Hell, we could get another point guard, right? The fact of the matter is that if I’m Doug Marrone, I’ve got to get somebody else some meaningful game experience under center.
And now might be the best time to do it. All joking aside, the calendar for this Saturday says “Bye,” and we all know this isn’t a real team, so we get the week off. Syracuse then returns to action on October 24 against Akron in the Dome @ Ernie Davis Legends Field (now required nomenclature when mentioning football at the Dome). In theory Akron should be a winnable game. Doug Marrone has already announced that Greg Paulus will start that game. Fine. So be it. But you’ve got to think that he’s on a very short leash. Because quite frankly, I think we should spook the Cincinnati Bearcats on Halloween by starting Ryan Nassib. Honestly, Cincy’s playing fantastic football right now, and not even the brightest Syracuse optimist should think there’s a realistic shot at an Orange victory on October 31. So why not let Nassib start that game? It gives him the confidence of starting, the experience of playing in a big game against a big name opponent, and the determination to go out there and just play because, hey, you’ve got nothing to lose.
And that’s not to take anything away from Greg Paulus. I would want Greg to get a lot of snaps in that game. He shouldn’t be thrown to the sidelines and forgotten, just because we want to start planning for next year. Oh jeez, there I go. “Next year” is rearing its ugly head. Come on, John, we’re halfway through the season! And we don’t have a head coach who thinks about next year; he thinks about what it will take to win this week. Or next week if we have a bye. But who’s to say that Ryan Nassib isn’t the right choice to lead Syracuse to victory against the Bearcats?
Or maybe I’m still just getting ahead of myself. The next game, after the bye week, is the Akron Zips. Greg Paulus will start that game. This much has been confirmed. But know this: Ryan Nassib will play in that game. A lot, probably. And I’ll be OK with that. I’ll be great with a Syracuse win, no matter who starts or who gets more snaps or who plays the entire second half.
The Weekly QB Watch
Going into the upcoming game against the Byeweek Bungalows, the probability of starting is as follows:
Greg Paulus – 0%
Ryan Nassib – 0%
Cam Dantley – 0%
Charley Loeb – 0%
Other – 0%
Obviously all zeroes with no game to start. Check back next week for a look ahead to the game against the Akron Zips.
As a side note to all this quarterback controversy, did anyone catch Cam Dantley and Andrew Robinson on Syracuse Sidelines this past week? They were putting on the happy faces about their new lives not being the starting quarterback this season, but you could tell, they wanted to be out there in Greg’s shoes. But good job of foreshadowing, Time Warner Cable Sports!
Labels: Greg Paulus, Monday Morning Quarterback, Ryan Nassib, Syracuse Football
Greg Paulus is doing just a fine job, thanks.
Editor’s Note: The following article is a new weekly feature from Orange::44 correspondent John Brennan (twitter @jbren) that will run every Monday morning called Monday Morning Quarterback, assessing the quarterback situation of the Syracuse football team on a week by week basis.
Welcome to the fifth edition of Monday Morning Quarterback here at Orange::44. This last Saturday’s game against UMaine was nothing short of boring, with flashes of OhMyGodAreWeLosingToMaine? As such, this MMQB will be short, to the point, and probably not worth a read. But if you stick with it—like those who stuck with the game Saturday night (all nearly 4 hours of it)—then God Bless You.
Despite the team’s overall lack of anything worth noting, especially during the first half of the game, Greg Paulus put together a nice little game for himself in his fourth ever start as a quarterback. On the day, he connected on 21 of 28 attempts for 270 yards and 2 touchdowns. Much of those yards, especially the longer completions, came in the second half. Despite Delone Carter’s monster game (TD-wise, not yards-wise) Syracuse was not running the ball well. Especially in the first half. Sadly it took until halftime for Syracuse to make the proper adjustments on offense, but that’s probably a coaching problem rather than a QB problem.
Here’s a couple of great stats: Greg Paulus was not sacked and not intercepted this entire game. Here’s a horrible stat: Syracuse was 1 for 8 on third downs.
Way too many times in this game, Paulus would lead the team down the field, stringing together some completions and some nice runs, and then get just outside the red zone (or maybe not even that close) and sputter. The team walked away with 3-points a couple times, which was nice. Looking at the stats, Syracuse only punted 3 times, which I find appalling, but I guess it is what it is. Maybe because the game was so long, it just seemed like we saw Rob Long punt more.
In Stallion news, we saw the offense run it a few times with Ryan Nassib. Interestingly enough, we also saw Greg Paulus in during the Stallion. Personally I think this is the last piece of the puzzle in terms of being able to use the Stallion to its maximum. Opposing defenses won’t know exactly what to expect, no matter who comes out with a hand towel hanging from his waist. This could come in extremely useful for the upcoming Big East slate.
Looking ahead to this week’s matchup against the South Florida Bulls, Greg Paulus gets to see his first Big East action. He’ll really have to step up his game, not necessarily stat-wise (though 400 yards and 5 TDs would be nice), but from a team leader point of view. If he can keep his poise and confidence on the field, I hope it’ll rub off on his teammates and Syracuse can stay competitive in this one. With Syracuse being a perennial doormat lately, and USF increasingly getting better (and with USF coming off a huge win at Florida State last week), it’s quite possible that this is USF’s trap game. Syracuse can be competitive if it believes it can win.
The Weekly QB Watch
Going into the upcoming game against the South Florida Bulls, the probability of starting is as follows:
Greg Paulus – 100%
Ryan Nassib – 0%
Cam Dantley – 0%
Charley Loeb – 0%
Other – 0%
Greg Paulus will need to give me a reason otherwise.
Welcome to the fifth edition of Monday Morning Quarterback here at Orange::44. This last Saturday’s game against UMaine was nothing short of boring, with flashes of OhMyGodAreWeLosingToMaine? As such, this MMQB will be short, to the point, and probably not worth a read. But if you stick with it—like those who stuck with the game Saturday night (all nearly 4 hours of it)—then God Bless You.
Despite the team’s overall lack of anything worth noting, especially during the first half of the game, Greg Paulus put together a nice little game for himself in his fourth ever start as a quarterback. On the day, he connected on 21 of 28 attempts for 270 yards and 2 touchdowns. Much of those yards, especially the longer completions, came in the second half. Despite Delone Carter’s monster game (TD-wise, not yards-wise) Syracuse was not running the ball well. Especially in the first half. Sadly it took until halftime for Syracuse to make the proper adjustments on offense, but that’s probably a coaching problem rather than a QB problem.
Here’s a couple of great stats: Greg Paulus was not sacked and not intercepted this entire game. Here’s a horrible stat: Syracuse was 1 for 8 on third downs.
Way too many times in this game, Paulus would lead the team down the field, stringing together some completions and some nice runs, and then get just outside the red zone (or maybe not even that close) and sputter. The team walked away with 3-points a couple times, which was nice. Looking at the stats, Syracuse only punted 3 times, which I find appalling, but I guess it is what it is. Maybe because the game was so long, it just seemed like we saw Rob Long punt more.
In Stallion news, we saw the offense run it a few times with Ryan Nassib. Interestingly enough, we also saw Greg Paulus in during the Stallion. Personally I think this is the last piece of the puzzle in terms of being able to use the Stallion to its maximum. Opposing defenses won’t know exactly what to expect, no matter who comes out with a hand towel hanging from his waist. This could come in extremely useful for the upcoming Big East slate.
Looking ahead to this week’s matchup against the South Florida Bulls, Greg Paulus gets to see his first Big East action. He’ll really have to step up his game, not necessarily stat-wise (though 400 yards and 5 TDs would be nice), but from a team leader point of view. If he can keep his poise and confidence on the field, I hope it’ll rub off on his teammates and Syracuse can stay competitive in this one. With Syracuse being a perennial doormat lately, and USF increasingly getting better (and with USF coming off a huge win at Florida State last week), it’s quite possible that this is USF’s trap game. Syracuse can be competitive if it believes it can win.
The Weekly QB Watch
Going into the upcoming game against the South Florida Bulls, the probability of starting is as follows:
Greg Paulus – 100%
Ryan Nassib – 0%
Cam Dantley – 0%
Charley Loeb – 0%
Other – 0%
Greg Paulus will need to give me a reason otherwise.
Labels: Greg Paulus, Monday Morning Quarterback
Greg, Greg, He's Our Man, If He Can't Do It...Editor’s Note: The following article is a new weekly feature from Orange::44 correspondent John Brennan (twitter @jbren) that will run every Monday morning called Monday Morning Quarterback, assessing the quarterback situation of the Syracuse football team on a week by week basis.
Welcome to the fourth edition of Monday Morning Quarterback here at Orange::44. For the first time in the Doug Marrone Era, and the first time this season, Syracuse has won a football game! Saturday night’s thriller at the Carrier Dome ended with an Orange victory, 37-34. And clearly, starting quarterback Greg Paulus had a lot to do with it. Let’s dive right in, shall we?
The game began with Syracuse winning the toss and electing to receive. Paulus led the offense down the field, but a failure to convert on a crucial third down (more on this epidemic later) forced the Orangemen to kick a field goal. Obviously, 3 points on your opening drive is better than none. But even better than that, Northwestern fumbles the ball on their opening snap, and Syracuse recovers deep in Wildcat territory. Greg Paulus picks up his first rushing touchdown, and Syracuse is up 10-0. Just like that.
Later on in the first quarter, Paulus executes a flawless throw deep downfield to Mike Williams, who decided to act like a real receiver and not only catch a ball thrown right at him, but run it in for a 66-yard touchdown. Syracuse up 17-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Those are some of the big highlights. I’m sure you watched the game, so I won’t go through all of them. Greg Paulus went on to finish the day 24 of 35 for a whopping 346 yards, two touchdowns plus the one he ran in himself, and one interception. Clearly the best game of his short college career. Absent from the game was Ryan Nassib in any sort of traditional quarterback role – in fact, we never saw the Wildc---I mean the Stallion—until the third quarter. And a few snaps of it was all we would see. Fact is, Paulus was just too damn effective Saturday night for the coaches to want to mix things up. The old “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” theory.
That said, there were still some concerning aspects to this offense. Another game, and another futile showing on third down situations: two of twelve. Anyone who has watched this team over the past several years knows that third down inefficiency has plagued the program. Is there a quick fix? Obviously not, otherwise Doug Marrone & Co. would have found it by now. But I challenge Greg Paulus and his offense to improve on this stat throughout the season. There’s a dozen Insomnia Cookies in it for him.
Many of you may question the wisdom of Greg Paulus throwing for the end zone with 9 seconds left in the first half after a Northwestern turnover. I myself thought the situation was very clear: you’re in field goal range but there’s 9 seconds left and you’ve got a time out, so you take a shot at the end zone, and if that doesn’t work out, you get 3 and go into halftime with your head held high. The fact that Paulus threw an INT doesn’t change that philosophy, even with 20/20 hindsight. That’s gotta be the strategy 100 times out of 100. OK, maybe a situation might change that, but in this situation, that’s what you do. Greg, you’ll get no flack from me for that INT.
Sadly throughout this game, Syracuse was one bad snap away from total disaster. Jim McKenzie just for some reason wasn’t getting it done. I mean, the guy’s a biochem major, a Member of the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll every semester, 2007 and 2008 BIG EAST All-Academic Team selection – so I’ve got a lot of respect for him. And to have overcome the initial bad snap against Minnesota two weeks ago and perform as well as he has says something about his determination. That said, he was awful in this game. And I think he’d probably tell you that. I gotta tip my hat to Paulus for sticking with it and minimizing the damage. I believe it was the opening drive for Syracuse, third down, and Paulus takes a bad snap from McKenzie that rolls 10-15 yards backwards. Paulus runs back, scoops it up, rolls left and then throws it away. Smart for a couple reasons: it saved a potential turnover, and it kept field position in field goal range, which was the end result of that drive. So kudos to Greg on that. Some of the other bad snaps unfortunately did result in sacks or fumbles. I wouldn’t say I’m worried about this situation, but I’m concerned. And I’m sure the coaching staff is concerned, and McKenzie is concerned, and Paulus is concerned. Concern can lead to correction, and that’s what I want. They’ll be hard at work on this, I’m sure.
Looking ahead to this week’s match-up against the Maine Black Bears, clearly Greg Paulus is our guy. He’ll start the game, he’ll finish the game, and he’ll take a majority of the snaps in between. Short of an epic collapse, look for Paulus to put up similar offensive numbers. Not that the numbers are offensive—they’re actually quite pleasant—but you know what I mean. Maine just isn’t on the same level as Syracuse (no, really, like they’re even classified differently!) so I anticipate Paulus just picking apart the secondary (much the same way opposing teams do to Syracuse).
The Weekly QB Watch
Going into the upcoming game against the Maine Black Bears, the probability of starting is as follows:
Greg Paulus – 100%
Ryan Nassib – 0%
Cam Dantley – 0%
Charley Loeb – 0%
Other – 0%
Back to the original all or nothing numbers. Come on, tell me I’m wrong.
Welcome to the fourth edition of Monday Morning Quarterback here at Orange::44. For the first time in the Doug Marrone Era, and the first time this season, Syracuse has won a football game! Saturday night’s thriller at the Carrier Dome ended with an Orange victory, 37-34. And clearly, starting quarterback Greg Paulus had a lot to do with it. Let’s dive right in, shall we?
The game began with Syracuse winning the toss and electing to receive. Paulus led the offense down the field, but a failure to convert on a crucial third down (more on this epidemic later) forced the Orangemen to kick a field goal. Obviously, 3 points on your opening drive is better than none. But even better than that, Northwestern fumbles the ball on their opening snap, and Syracuse recovers deep in Wildcat territory. Greg Paulus picks up his first rushing touchdown, and Syracuse is up 10-0. Just like that.
Later on in the first quarter, Paulus executes a flawless throw deep downfield to Mike Williams, who decided to act like a real receiver and not only catch a ball thrown right at him, but run it in for a 66-yard touchdown. Syracuse up 17-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Those are some of the big highlights. I’m sure you watched the game, so I won’t go through all of them. Greg Paulus went on to finish the day 24 of 35 for a whopping 346 yards, two touchdowns plus the one he ran in himself, and one interception. Clearly the best game of his short college career. Absent from the game was Ryan Nassib in any sort of traditional quarterback role – in fact, we never saw the Wildc---I mean the Stallion—until the third quarter. And a few snaps of it was all we would see. Fact is, Paulus was just too damn effective Saturday night for the coaches to want to mix things up. The old “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” theory.
That said, there were still some concerning aspects to this offense. Another game, and another futile showing on third down situations: two of twelve. Anyone who has watched this team over the past several years knows that third down inefficiency has plagued the program. Is there a quick fix? Obviously not, otherwise Doug Marrone & Co. would have found it by now. But I challenge Greg Paulus and his offense to improve on this stat throughout the season. There’s a dozen Insomnia Cookies in it for him.
Many of you may question the wisdom of Greg Paulus throwing for the end zone with 9 seconds left in the first half after a Northwestern turnover. I myself thought the situation was very clear: you’re in field goal range but there’s 9 seconds left and you’ve got a time out, so you take a shot at the end zone, and if that doesn’t work out, you get 3 and go into halftime with your head held high. The fact that Paulus threw an INT doesn’t change that philosophy, even with 20/20 hindsight. That’s gotta be the strategy 100 times out of 100. OK, maybe a situation might change that, but in this situation, that’s what you do. Greg, you’ll get no flack from me for that INT.
Sadly throughout this game, Syracuse was one bad snap away from total disaster. Jim McKenzie just for some reason wasn’t getting it done. I mean, the guy’s a biochem major, a Member of the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll every semester, 2007 and 2008 BIG EAST All-Academic Team selection – so I’ve got a lot of respect for him. And to have overcome the initial bad snap against Minnesota two weeks ago and perform as well as he has says something about his determination. That said, he was awful in this game. And I think he’d probably tell you that. I gotta tip my hat to Paulus for sticking with it and minimizing the damage. I believe it was the opening drive for Syracuse, third down, and Paulus takes a bad snap from McKenzie that rolls 10-15 yards backwards. Paulus runs back, scoops it up, rolls left and then throws it away. Smart for a couple reasons: it saved a potential turnover, and it kept field position in field goal range, which was the end result of that drive. So kudos to Greg on that. Some of the other bad snaps unfortunately did result in sacks or fumbles. I wouldn’t say I’m worried about this situation, but I’m concerned. And I’m sure the coaching staff is concerned, and McKenzie is concerned, and Paulus is concerned. Concern can lead to correction, and that’s what I want. They’ll be hard at work on this, I’m sure.
Looking ahead to this week’s match-up against the Maine Black Bears, clearly Greg Paulus is our guy. He’ll start the game, he’ll finish the game, and he’ll take a majority of the snaps in between. Short of an epic collapse, look for Paulus to put up similar offensive numbers. Not that the numbers are offensive—they’re actually quite pleasant—but you know what I mean. Maine just isn’t on the same level as Syracuse (no, really, like they’re even classified differently!) so I anticipate Paulus just picking apart the secondary (much the same way opposing teams do to Syracuse).
The Weekly QB Watch
Going into the upcoming game against the Maine Black Bears, the probability of starting is as follows:
Greg Paulus – 100%
Ryan Nassib – 0%
Cam Dantley – 0%
Charley Loeb – 0%
Other – 0%
Back to the original all or nothing numbers. Come on, tell me I’m wrong.
Labels: Greg Paulus, Monday Morning Quarterback, Syracuse Football
At Syracuse, two is better than oneEditor’s Note: The following article is a new weekly feature from Orange::44 correspondent John Brennan (twitter @jbren) that will run every Monday morning called Monday Morning Quarterback, assessing the quarterback situation of the Syracuse football team on a week by week basis.
Author's note: Please excuse the Tuesday evening posting of this article. I originally posted it Monday morning, but because of my ineptitude, I messed up the entire blog. I promise, it will never happen again. "Blog editing" was not a topic on the bar exam.
Welcome to the third edition of Monday Morning Quarterback here at Orange::44. While Syracuse never really did find that “positive taste in their mouth” this weekend, we must understand the past to improve the future. That said, let us look back on the two-headed monster that led the Syracuse offense to a 28-7 loss to the Nittany Lions.
From the very get-go, Greg Paulus and the Syracuse offense just had nothing of substance going. SU’s opening drive, which would prove to be the only possession of the first quarter, ended on a sack and subsequent punt. I was really worried that time of possession would kill the Orange, and we really wouldn’t get an opportunity to see what they could do against the Penn State defense.
The second quarter brought more opportunities to flash, and more dim lights (if we wanna run with this analogy). We saw Ryan Nassib’s insertion into the lineup not just for the Stallion, but also for some real time as the quarterback. In fact, he actually has a stat line for this game: 4 of 5 for 30 yards, 0 TDs and 0 INTs. Quite frankly, not a horrible line given his limited action. The highlight was probably his first completion, a 19-yard pass to one-time QB Cody Catalina. More on Nassib in a moment.
In the dwindling moments of the first half, I was itching for Syracuse to put some points on the board. Even a 3-spot would be fine for me. And as luck would have it, Kevyn Scott intercepts a PSU pass and earns Syracuse possession at their own 31 yard line with 3:57 to go and one time out remaining. Paulus is effective at moving the ball down the field, but horrible with the clock management. They were just playing with no urgency, no aggressiveness. It was almost like a “whatever happens, happens” attitude. Read: not a good way to win a football game. In the end, the best Paulus could do was set the team up for a 51-yard field goal attempt, which of course was unsuccessful. Syracuse went into the half scoreless.
The third quarter featured a great drive down the field led by Greg Paulus, starting at the Syracuse 41. In a mostly passing series, Syracuse got as close as the Penn State 5 yard line, setting up a 4th and goal situation. Paulus finds Mike Williams wide open in the end zone, fires a perfect pass right at him, and… Williams drops it. Quite frankly, a turning point in the game, because had that pass been caught, Syracuse is only down 21-7 and has some great momentum after basically steaming through the PSU defense on that drive. The next series, Syracuse surely would have had the confidence to go out there and do it again, and the defense was playing strong enough at this point where another possession could have advanced Syracuse to 21-14. But, this was not to be. The pass was dropped, and Penn State took over on downs.
Syracuse’s lone score came after a Penn State fumble in the 4th quarter with Greg Paulus hooking up with Donte Davis for a 16 yard touchdown pass. Paulus would finish the day 14 of 20 for 105 yards, one TD and 2 INTs. These stats were down a little bit from last week, but honestly I think we all expected that, against a great Penn State team. Stat-wise, I grade Paulus on par with where he was last week: pretty good, but still lots of room for improvement. And I’m not by any means down on him – he’s doing well. Again, he really should have had a few more completions, but for the dropsies of the receivers. Where I dock him points, however, is his decisionmaking. Paulus made some horrible throws into tough coverage, which ended in interceptions. He also, at least at one point while being pressured, turned his back on his rushers (which inevitably ended in a massive sack). And of course, as mentioned above, the clock management leaves much to be desired. I certainly hope that Paulus is taking all that in as learning experiences, so that he can improve upon those intangibles and not make those mistakes in the future.
Much more so than in the Minnesota game last week, this matchup featured a “two headed monster” at QB, with Ryan Nassib seeing much more action. While it would only be for a play or two at a time, rather than an entire series, Nassib showed poise on the field. Last week when we saw Nassib on the field, we knew we’d be getting the Stallion. This week he was more than just the Stallion decoy; he was a QB. Of course, the argument can be made that the rotation of QBs from play to play disrupts the rhythm of the offense; and maybe so. But I take Doug Marrone at his word when he says they do this in practice every day and it’s not really disrupting to the team. And assuming that’s true, here’s why I like it: it makes the Stallion more effective and makes Nassib as QB more effective. Or, rather, the opposing defense doesn’t exactly know what to expect when Ryan Nassib is on the field.
That said, I still believe Greg Paulus is the starting QB. He has to be. We’re still way too early in the season to be making changes of that magnitude, and there’s really no fundamental flaw in his playing at this moment that can’t be fixed by repetition and actual game play. But I like the emergence of Nassib as an integral part of the offense, and hopefully the experience he receives now will pay off next year when Paulus is out of eligibility. Or later this year if things go south or Paulus gets hurt (God forbid).
This coming Saturday, the Orange match up against the Methodists – or, uh, the Wildcats of Northwestern back at the Carrier Dome. Hopefully friendlier confines than 100,000+ PSU hippies will cut down on the mistakes and bad decisions at the QB position. In the Wildcats, we see a defense that allowed 148 passing yards to Eastern Michigan in squeaking out a 27-24 victory this past weekend, and 140 yards in a victory over Towson in week one. Syracuse has to have similar air numbers to keep this game close, and must mix in its running game if it wants to notch its first W of the season to what I consider to be a vulnerable Northwestern team. I’ll keep on saying it until it happens: the Syracuse OL needs to give Paulus/Nassib at least about 1 second more in the pocket. I think if we don’t see improvement in this category by the end of this next game, then we know it’s a personnel problem and not a coaching problem. I’d rather not have to make that assessment; I want to see results!
The Weekly QB Watch
Going into the upcoming game against the Northwestern Wildcats, the probability of starting is as follows:
Greg Paulus – 98%
Ryan Nassib – 2%
Cam Dantley – 0%
Charley Loeb – 0%
Other – 0%
A slight change from my first and second week predictions. I had to throw a bone to Nassib, simply because he actually got some snaps against the Nittany Lions. Look for him to come off the bench to ram his Stallion into the Wildcat defense, and/or toss a TD pass or two.
Labels: Football, Greg Paulus