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“Don’t confuse effort with results”
(AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli)
The title quote from Coach Doug Marrone told the story in the opener versus Minnesota.
It was clear that this edition of the Orange would be far removed from its predecessor. Until the first snap of the ball, then it felt like deju vu all over again. Within 10 seconds of game play it was 7-0. Months of waiting for that? It was disgusting.
But alas, it was different. The Cuse regrouped, and I think we can give the credit to that to the staff. They got together. Mike Jones had a strong kick return and the offense went to work.
There was the stallion package, which was very effective. There was Alec Lemon, looking every bit as physical as advertised. Nick Provo looked great too, until he went down injured. And then there was Greg Paulus.
I’ll spare the in-depth analyis of Greg because he will get picked apart more than a Thanksgiving turkey. I will say that he played about as well as expected, all things considered. Lemon saved him from one hideous pick and of course the last throw should have been tossed into the first row. His receivers did him no favors either.
But hey the Marrone era, imo, is off to a successful start. Over 48K packed the dome and most of them should have been excited. For long stretches this team functioned well. The defense was agressive – I loved Brandon Sharpe. There was a fourth down stand, (see photo) and overall I liked Coach Shafer’s scheme. They had the balls to single Eric Decker and for awhile it was working. If the offense could have moved the ball at all in the second half we would have won this game.
But alas there is that quote again, “Don’t confuse effort with results”. We didn’t get the result because we couldn’t convert on third down. The pass protection was awful the second half. Paulus didn’t attempt too many throws beyond 10 yards based on lack of time and when he did, it was Owen and Williams dropping them. We clean that up and we will be in business down the road.
I loved the stallion package. Bailey looked fast and it always got us 4-5 yards. I almost wished we would have opened with that package. DC3 ran strong too. That broken tackle in OT was pure desire on his part.
On major surprise was the lack of Marcus Sales. I don’t think I saw him even on the field much.
On D, Holmes and Suter played nice games, hard hitting and Holmes’ pick was great, got his feet down like a player on the next level. Hogue looked pretty good at LB. Weber was an awful 19-42. Decker made some plays late which would have been filler had the offense been able to put some points on the board in the second half. All that talk about using MarQuies Gray was for nothing too. I think he got one series as a blocking WR.
Overall great effort, now let’s get us some results! Which I think we all see are going to come.
