FreakTalksAboutOrange
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Just wanted to share some high level Orange info for those who are interested. Feel free to ask anything else if you are curious. And this is just the opinion of one Orange fan but I think most of the below is generally agreed upon, though probably not all.
- Syracuse has an above average defense, one that was borderline elite over the first half of the season. Ultimately settled in about the top 25 area, with injuries playing a role in that. When healthy the secondary is exceptional and the LB are very strong as well. As is stands now, still very capable, especially when an opposing offense is super one-dimensional, but I'm slightly worried about the ability to defend the Minnesota run given some of our losses. Lots of folks will need to step up. Lots here is going to depend on who plays and who decides to sit out. We have some exceptional players on the D with Sunday chances, as I know Minnesota does. If Minnesota begins running all over the team early, it's a big red flag. If the D keeps that at least somewhat in check, its a good sign.
- Offensively, this team was at its best earlier in the season when it was running an open, diverse offense that used the entire field, used the tight end in the passing game, used the intermediate passing game. Tucker is very good as a RB, but when we overly rely on the running game, and short passes only, and too much of the offense is concentrated within 6-8 yards of the LOS, we tend to stagnate and get highly predictable. That happened way too much during the 5 game slide. Gadsden has emerged as a legit weapon at WR/TE but when Shrader tries to force it to him, the offense tends to falter. A big part of that was due to an injury to QB Garrett Shrader, which was was nursing for a number of weeks. The last game of the regular season, vs BC, he started to show flashes of the early season downfield game, so the hope her is that he is on the mend and a few more weeks of rest can only help. But we'll likely know after 2 series of or so which version of the offense we will have.
- The offense also tends to get into a weird place from time to time where it manages to be super risk averse, yet still will only get Tucker like 8 rushes in a game. It's hard to explain, but we will have a game where we don't throw a pass more than 10 yards downfield, yet still only get Tucker 8 rushes. If Tucker plays (your guess is as good as mine), he needs to run more. Not like 25 times...I think a great Tucker game is 15 rushes and 6-7 receptions....but not 8. If Tucker doesn't play we will still be run focused, and LeQuint Allen, who is the RB heir apparent, will be featured heavily. Allen is going to be a special RB, and can be a weapon if he ends up starting, but the backfield for now is certainly better with Tucker leading it.
- Our coaches are historically bad when it comes to time management. Wasted timeouts. Timeouts left on the table. Long chunks of time run off the clock before timeouts called. I can't remember a game in which at least one time management mistake wasn't made.
- Syracuse has a unique ability to look like the best team in America one half and then completely revert. Heck, it can even shift quarter to quarter, or drive to drive. The talent is there to a large extent but the consistency is not. It's a big reason why they couldn't close out the Clemson game IMO.
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I was literally about to post this exact meme! Honestly, the teams sound very similar in many ways beyond timeout usage too: relatively good defense, risk averse offense that's at it's best when they push the ball down the field (even if it's against their better instincts), etc. Please share more, OP. Why/how did Syracuse lose so much after that great start? Inability to stop the run? Stagnant offense? Injuries?
