ALL good questions…
Were their defenders that much better than others we have faced, or was our entire team slower in this game? Remember Nyheim Hines getting caught from behind?
Hines tweated an ankle midgame. IMO – he needs 20lbs to play the role he played yesterday — the workhorse RB who got hit hard all afternoon… We’re missing this season’s Shadrach….
A lot of our passes were dropped due to very heavy coverage, ie, no separation at all between receiver and defender. Was Finley not seeing his open receivers or was there no such thing?
BOTH… the more open receivers were consistently 10yds farther downfield… Finley was locked in and threw a number of passes that had a 1sqft margin of error and great hands in order to be caught… and Sycacuse’s LBs and DBs were good all day in pass coverage….
Our (total lack of) pass defense is going to be the death of us.
We are weak on the corners in one on one coverage… playing too much with our backs to the QB… but ‘Cuse was sending 5 guys downfield most all the time…
When they make 47 pass attempts, we’re gonna remember the mistakes more than we should….
Now as long as we stay up a couple of scores, we can hope our DBs mature quickly, but if we get down early to anybody…. we’re in serious trouble….
I think it’s noteworthy that our REDZONE Defense, including our DBs may just be one of the best in D1….
The problem seems to be largely in the middle of the field…
As for Chubb’s leadership, why did he wait until the end of the 3rd quarter to show it? The start of the 3rd quarter would have been a good time to ignite the team.
When the going gets tough, the tough get going…
Even when ‘Cuse scored a quick TD on the opening drive of the second half… Nobody in Red & White — inside or outside of Carter Stadium — felt any real pressure or urgency…
At least, that’s what I saw….
