The Executioner must wait

Well, well, well.  The Syracuse University Orange won a football game last night, defeating the Louisville Cardinals 28-21.  The win improved the Orange to 2-6 on the season and kept slim hopes alive for a post season bowl game.

The game was also a likely stay of execution for Greg Robinson, as it has been talked about ad naseaum that his firing is not a question of if but a question of when.  But while Greg may have survived the axe this week, there appear to be some new targets this week for executioner in the Big East.

With a loss this week to Cincinnati, South Florida coach Jim Levitt should find himself directly in the cross hairs of the exectioner.  How in the world does a team that was predicted by many to represent the Big East in the BCS bowl game, fall to 1-3 in conference and tied with you know who for LAST PLACE in the Big East?  While he should be given credit for rising the profile of South Florida football from backwater to BCS, the alarming losses the last two years should be a sign that Levitt is merely a good coach and not a great one.  How long should he last at USF? 

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Well, the familiar theme occurred on Saturday for the Syracuse football team.  The offense looked pretty decent for one half and then failed to register a single first down in the second half.  The defense played its usual consistent game of non-existent resistance.  The results:  a typical run of the mill beat down to the tune of 45-13.  (Some props to Reyes for his close 42-10 prediction).

The game went completely awry in the second half when Cam “The Pez Dispenser” Dantley, coughed up the ball, or should I say pezzed,  on a 3rd down pass play; gift wrapping a Bulls touchdown that made the score 28-13 and in effect put the game away.  It is not the first time that Dantley has shown little regard for ball security and it likely won’t be the last.

There was yet another coaching snafu when Greg Robinson failed to insert Andrew Robinson for the last couple of series basically because, “What happened was, I’m coaching over on the (defensive) side. I run over there (to the offensive side), and it’s too late. We’re already out. I think that Andrew deserves to get in there and do something like that.”  You would think somewhere amid all that driving that USF did in the 2nd half that he could have said, “Start warming up ARob and get him in next series.”  But he forgot.  It is comments like this that will seal GRob’s fate.  The man just can’t stay in the moment as the head coach.  Clearly he is in over his head.  Even when he has the chance to look over the film he still gets confused - “I watched very, very closely. I went back and I watched it quite a bit,” Robinson said of Dantley’s performance (11-of-17 passing for 129 yards) against USF. “And I don’t know there’s a whole lot there…”  Oh really?  It looked to me and to Dantley that he was completely off his game.  “I really just panicked - not panicked - I just didn’t think on my feet.”  Quotes are compliments of Donnie Webb’s blog.

Now the grades:

The good: Another solid performance by Curtis Brinkley, gaining over 100 yards in the first half alone and finishing with a buck twelve.  Curtis is on pace to be the first 1000 yard gainer since Walter Reyes in 2003.  He ran hard and his 24 yard TD burst in the 2nd quarter was about the last salvo that SU threw at USF on Saturday.

Dante Davis and Marcus Sales also played decently.  They both seem to excel on the slant patterns.

The bad: Penalties came and reared their ugly head.  I don’t know if it was the heat or what, but this was the most penalties that SU had all season.  A recall a Ryan Durand hands to the face penatly negated a nice Sales catch.  Jonathan Meldrum was in over his head against George Selvie.  The offensive line did next to nothing to stop the Bulls in the second half.  They seemed completely overwhelmed.

The ugly: It has to be the defense, as if this is a surprise.  Aside from the fumble that stopped USF’s first drive of the second half, they could do nothing right.  Most glaring was the blown coverage on first and goal following Dantley’s aforementioned pezzing.  There was no one and I mean no one on the outside to cover USF wide receiver AJ Love and he easily scored the touchdown.  The defense also couldn’t contain Matt Grothe and his patented draw play.  I almost stopped watching when he coverted a 3rd and 10 with a 20 yard scamper.  Thanks to alcohol and my trusty espn360 replay, I was able to endure.

Fortunately the footballers are on bye next week and I know that for some that means the hope of a Grob firing.  But don’t count on it.  The administration has shown no signs of pulling the ejection seat yet, even though this plane has not only started going down it has already crashed.  If we are all lucky the black box won’t be recovered either.  No one really wants or needs to dissect just what the hell has happened these last four years do they?

I knew I might regret blogging this football program and after Saturday’s game vs Akron, my worst fears were realized:

“Oh my, we suck again”.

At least on defense, where the Cuse was shredded like mozzarella on a cheese grater, picked apart like a dead carcas by a vulture,  hammered like a drunken frat boy, abused like a red headed step child, exposed like a piece of film, beaten down like Rodney King, run over like herd of bulls in Pamplona,  discarded like yesterdays news,  spanked like a XXX starlet,  crushed like a vat of grapes at a winery, fragile as a new born baby, destroyed like a bunker by a heat seeking missile, bullied like a preteen in the cafeteria,  duped like Frazier on a snipe hunt, smashed like pumpkins on Halloween, carved like Thanksgiving turkey, blitzkrieged like France in WWII, mauled like a menacing hungry bear at a campsite, mulitated like scissored paper, violated like the code of conduct and beaten like the Syracuse defense.  Oh wait I’ve come full circle!

This season’s new theme song is the blog’s title:  My Apocalypse by Metallica.  (Great song by the way, best thing I’ve heard from them since And Justice for All).  It is truly the end for Coach Robinson.  It cannot be a question of if anymore, it’s a question of when.  It is the end of the fans, as aluminum will be more prevalent than Orange the rest of the way.  To complete my thoughts on SU football 2008, I’ll conclude w/ more Metallica references.  The shortest straw has been pulled for you, GRob.  Color my world blackened.

Well so much for that.

The kool-aid has been returned to the refrigerator. An offseason of optimistic hopes faded in watching the 2008 edition of the Syracuse Orange take the field against Northwestern. If the Orange was going to make a run at a bowl appearance this season, the opener against Northwestern was going to be important game. Well the Orange showed it is not bowl ready. Now comes the real question. Just how much from this game can be taken as a barometer for the rest of the season?

In the pregame write up there were 5 things I didn’t want to see:
5) Any quick kicks on 3rd down - check
4) Corner backs playing 15 yards off the ball - I give this a check as well, although with the spread you really cannot afford to be too far off of the receiver. Overall I liked the coverage schemes.
3) 3 or more sacks allowed - well we gave up 2 and it was mostly a biproduct of the 3 step drop
4) CJ Bacher having all day to throw. Well 1 sack and 3TDs and getting 10 different players involved in receptions means we didn’t do a much to deter Bacher.
5) No hideous march onto the field - check.

Hey that’s 4 out of 5, so why were we so dismal?

The answer could fill a book, but the long and short of the problem could be filled with about 2 statements.

1) The no huddle completely wore down the defense. It was apparent early that Northwestern was going to have their way with the defense. While it was admirably that they allowed only 23 points, it was clear that NU could do what they wanted when they wanted.
2) SU lost terribly the battle for field position. The Cuse spent the day unside their own 10 3 times and inside the 20 3 other times, just in the first half alone. This put alot of pressure on the arm of Andrew Robinson and the offensive line and it was clear that neither were up to the challenge.

The Good:
1) From a first half perspective only, the rushing attack seems to be improved. All 3 of Brinkley, Hogue and Carter were able to bust runs in excess of 10 yards. The Orange matched their 2007 season average after the first quarter. It was clear that the scripted play calling was successful. After that???
2) Penalties. Only 5 which I took as very good. One of them, the 15 yarder on McKenzie for a chop block was BS. Overall a good job there.
3) We won the turnover battle despite ESPN’s Pam Ward and their crack graphics displayed late in the game. AJ Brown’s int squelched a sure scoring drive in the first quarter and Jared Kimmel’s strip of Sutton helped put the Cuse in the lead in at the start of the 3rd Quarter.

The Bad:
1) Where were the down field throws? I don’t think the Cuse went down the field until there was under 6 minutes left in the game. As a result, the NU defense was allowed to get closer and closer to the line of scrimmage. The result - 68 total yards in the second half and a predictable interception. Note to Browning - is there a pump fake in that 3 step drop playbook?
2) The RB rotation. It looked like GRob went developmental league on us with the rotation of Brinkley, Hogue and Carter. Brinkley starts because of seniority? Carter comes in cold to start the 2nd quarter standing in his own end zone and predictably fumbles. I saw Hogue run more sweeps than smashing between the tackles where you’d think his size would give him more of an advantage. I wasn’t happy with the personnel decisions at RB. Someone has to get 2/3rds of the carries and the other two will have to split what’s left. Note to GRob - your job is on the line. Start coaching like it.
3) Mike Mele - part of the blown coverage that created Northwestern’s first TD, was run through on a couple of occasions. Not his best game. The overall LB core needed to play better and he was the worst of the group.
4) The dropsies were back. Lobdell and Davis started well on the first drive, but each had some regrettable drops. This does not give ARob any confidence and likely caused him to overthink a few throws, especially in the 2nd half. Marcus Sales did look decent in his first game as a collegian.

The Ugly:
1) I have to put Andrew Robinson here. He was off target all day. For a guy with a full year under his belt, his performance was very discouraging
2) Tackling. Part of the problem with the defense was the total lack of commitment to tackling. Numerous arm tackles put NU in short yardage situations all day, allowing them to do all sorts of things and really get their no huddle into high gear.
3) Corey Chavers did not have a good game. Missed several run block assignments, matadored Wooten much of the game, allowing the pressure that brought the safety. It just wasn’t a good game for the senior who will now be pressed by Jonathan Meldrum for playing time.

The GRob Hot seat meter:
Africa Hot. A few more games like this and AD Darryl Gross will have more than two cell phones crammed in his ear.

Around the BE:
Well we aren’t the only team in the Big East that is in big trouble. 25th ranked (well not now anyway) Pittsburgh rolled over in its opener to Bowling Green. Louisville scored a whopping 2 points in its crudge match opener with Kentucky. Both teams played at home and both teams coaches are probably on the hot seat as well.

On the winning side, Cincinnati looked good with Grutza in command. Pat White and WV threw the ball way more than it ran it. A sign that they may be trying to save White some wear and tear early. UConn ran all over Hofstra as expected and USF rolled in its opener.

Rutgers will try and salvage what can only be described as an overall dismal performance by the Big East in Week One as it faces Fresno St today.