State Wins at Syracuse!

'14 Football38

Old MacDonald had farm today at Syracuse with an important 24-17 win.

Dave Doeren improves to 1-12 in ACC play but more importantly the Pack, now 5-4 (1-4) — and undefeated in November 2014 — took a big step towards bowl eligibility.

It wasn’t easy — nothing ever is for us — but State overcame piss poor officiating and the defense earned the win.

The play of the game was Pharoah McKever’s 82-yard pick six with 2:52 left in the 3rd quarter.

Box Score (ESPN)

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Home › Forums › State Wins at Syracuse!

Viewing 13 posts - 26 through 38 (of 38 total)
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  • 11/01/2014 at 11:32 PM #60638
    ruffles31
    Keymaster

    Any win is a good win. Loved the 3rd down call to Thornton at the end of the game. The albatross is off and the team can relax and play well next week.

    11/02/2014 at 6:56 AM #60644
    TheCOWDOG
    Moderator

    Pharaoah McKeaver.That’s fun to say. Anyway,good call by Hux… Zone blitz and McKeaver stayed with his responsibility.

    11/02/2014 at 9:57 AM #60646
    Wolfanatic
    Participant

    Pharoah showed some good speed on the return, but Dravious was pure hustle getting down there and taking out A.J. Long roundabout the ten yard line. Don’t think Long could have brought the big fella down, but he might have ridden him out of bounds inside the five. Good play by both Dravious and Pharoah.

    11/02/2014 at 11:31 AM #60647
    pakfanistan
    Participant

    Dravious Wright’s improvement over the course of the season has been impressive.

    Early on, he was always around the play, now he’s around the play making plays.

    11/02/2014 at 2:00 PM #60648
    ryebread
    Participant

    CD: You made the comment that I was going to make — the pick 6 was a zone blitz. That was something that I was asking for a few weeks back, along with just overall more aggressive LB play.

    I’m not saying the coaches read my posts or anything dumb like that. What I’m saying is that the defense is evolving right before our eyes, at least as it appears to me.

    I thought yesterday’s DEFENSIVE game plan was great. Syracuse had piled up some yards on the ground, and flat out ran over us last year. Sure they had some injuries on the line and that probably hurt them, but we also made them that way and made a freshman QB beat us. We were also much more aggressive.

    Did the defense play perfectly? No. But their points differential on the day (what they gave up versus what they scored) was 10. We will win an awful lot of games when that happens.

    I don’t know what changed starting with about the second half of BC forward, but I like what I’ve seen out of the defense. This is more of what I expected when we hired a defensive coach and paired him with a DC that had put together good defenses elsewhere.

    As for the O, well, after that first possession, there really wasn’t much. We need to get 7 as opposed to 3. We couldn’t convert on third down. We couldn’t run. Our trick plays didn’t work. I guess it was improvement that we didn’t try any wildcat, and weren’t telegraphing the snap timing with the jet sweep, but it was still interesting. I will admit that I’m not sold on Canada, and maybe my view of the offense is through that lens.

    Oh, and we should give a major thumb’s up to the kickers yesterday. Baumann’s punting has really been our MVP this year, and Sade made some clutch kicks and had some nice kick offs. Nice job guys!

    It’s a win, and we’re 1 behind where I thought we’d be right now. The good news is that all three of the last games are winnable. We need to come out of GT injury free, and get that win against WF. UNC looks like it could go either way. I’m not counting us out of GT. I feel like our strength (especially with this more aggressive scheme) plays into their weakness (they really struggle when they can’t control the middle up front on offense). We could win all three, but I’m kind of leaning towards 2-1 at this point.

    11/02/2014 at 2:12 PM #60649
    YogiNC
    Participant

    Personally I’d take 1 – 2 if the 1 was unx and we smoke them AND keep them from being bowl eligible.

    Smarter than the average bear

    11/02/2014 at 2:27 PM #60650
    YogiNC
    Participant

    Just watched the interview with DD and Pharoah, did anyone else notice that kid kept saying “yes ma’am”? That is a class kid right there. He did come from a rival high school to where I grew up but he is all class to me. I know this defense took a lot of hits during the first half of this season but they are REALLY starting to show up. Still wondered what happened to Moore this week. Those kids are beginning to to gel and they are YOUNG. One or two more positions get filled with backups and such and they could be monsters.

    Smarter than the average bear

    11/02/2014 at 3:05 PM #60651
    Texpack
    Participant

    Yogi – I noticed the manners as well. Kid was in the library studying, not out in his rented SUV with guns and drugs. He’s quite an athlete based on that return.

    11/02/2014 at 3:41 PM #60654
    TheCOWDOG
    Moderator

    You may note that the 42 is morphing into that Bear 46 over the last 2 games, with 8 men in the box.

    11/02/2014 at 7:06 PM #60656
    choppack1
    Participant

    We’ll need that Saturday to stop the fb draw on the option.

    11/02/2014 at 7:22 PM #60657
    nav
    Participant

    If we throw out last years terrible season from our minds and look at whom we have played this year in the ACC, we really are where we should be. State’s played probably the toughest ACC schedule of any team. FSU, Clemson, L’ville, and a surprisingly good BC.
    I honestly feel that if we were in the joke of the Coastal div, we would be more like 3-2 in the ACC.

    11/02/2014 at 9:14 PM #60665
    john of sparta
    Participant

    Old Mac’s blind pig just found an acorn.

    11/02/2014 at 9:32 PM #60666
    Greywolf
    Participant
    TheCOWDOG wrote:

    You may note that the 42 is morphing into that Bear 46 over the last 2 games, with 8 men in the box.

    I’m making this up but IMO Doeren (and Hux and our run game coordinator, Nielson) have done a remarkable job putting in the base 4-2-5 and training our mostly young defense to operate inside the principles they are teaching. With the 4-2-5 fundamentally in, we are now installing such as that zone blitz and putting in nuances such as “morphing into that Bear 46.” When the sky was falling and we were blasting Hux and Doeren and anybody else we could think of to include, those guys were “doing it the right way” — installing it methodically and creating what looks like a pretty formidable defense. Those guys are playing “fast” and without having to think. Putting in the pieces too soon would have been a big mistake IMO. Knowing the pieces to put in and doing so in a timely manner with a young defense are 2 different animals.

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