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Let’s talk Defense vs. Syracuse

FrancisSawyer said:
That sounds good in theory and in general I would agree that would be a good plan. However in reality the problem is that our offense just doesn't run at peak efficiency when they run thst style. When we go run heavy and slow the pace down, our offense has trouble finishing drives and they tend to get bogged down much easier than when we push it down the field. Another negative is that the run heavy and slower game pace takes Cam out of his rhythm. This offense is by far at their best being a pass first team that throws in the run as a changeup. When we get a commanding lead however then we can pound defenses and work the clock.

If for whatever reason we must go to the run based offense earlier in a game then it's crystal clear to me that it is imperative we have Jordan Lyle/Ajay Allen at RB. It's obvious that they are quicker to the hole and both have the speed to make plays outside the tackles and potentially make house calls. This is crunch time. This is the stretch run. It's important we use the roster wisely and to maximum effectiveness. This isn't about who had the biggest NIL anymore if it ever was. There is no reason for Ajay Allen to be sitting on the bench with zero snaps. We know now that Meesh Powell must be at Nickel, Porter at CB and Mesidor at DE in addition to playing Kiko to his strengths and using him in a downhill role exclusively. I'm not under the delusion that this defense can transform into the 85 Bears for the rest of the season. However if we use the adjustments mentioned above in a smart and versatile manner then we could conceivably improve enough defensively to make a deep run if we make the playoffs.


Back to offense, we have all noticed that offensively we have been in a bit of a rut lately. Personally I feel thst we have become too RPO based and a bit too predictable. We need to get back to dominating in the intermediate passing game which is Cam's strength. If it's a matter of taking what the defense is giving then fine but in those instances Dawson must communicate effectively to Cam that working the quick game is crucial to having things open up later in the game. Also if anyone remembers those post game pressers earlier in the season where Cam and even Dawson himself would say that we have only used 10-15% of the playbook then you likely agree with me that this point in the season would be the ideal time to expand the offense by going into that playbook. We must have a ton of stuff that we rep in practice every week but have not used in real games. Let's bust that out now. Oh and one more thing; We have an absolute stud and sure fire 1st rounder in TE Elijah Arroyo. USE HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Arroyo is the pressure point this offense should use to regain the explosive big play dominance we saw up until FSU(with the exception of the 2nd half vs Duke). Go Canes!!!!!!!
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Thanks for the lengthy response and apologies mine will do it a disservice, Monday's and all...

Agree on most points, though the offense and Cam loses some rhythm, it cuts both ways doesn't it?

I started typing out an offensive run scenario/drive and left this response for a second and happen to return to a new post by @JHallCanes regarding our offense by quarters and by run/pass.....

Considering those 2nd quarter numbers, and teams dialing up defenses accordingly - I feel confident that......

I have no idea what the F to do lol

Have a great Monday....GO Canes.
 
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MiamiVice7 said:
I’m concerned they’ll pop us with some long runs. Not sure how they run when they do it (draws, etc.), but our Dline getting upfield expecting pass all day plus some of our tendencies at times (poor tackling, lapses in discipline, lack of speed) seems like a recipe for them to have a season-high in rushing.
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They don’t run
 
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Genghis Cane said:
They are playing good football of late.

They have seen our defense look like **** most of the year.

They are playing at home in front of what will be a sell out. The Dome is a tough place to play when they give their fans a reason to have hope.
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And we haven't seen their defense look like ****? Must be worse then ours because they have 3 or 4 losses!
 
ajkreider said:
Syracuse wins by holding the ball. They lead the ACC in offensive plays, time of possession, and fewest defensive plays.
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Having flashbacks to 2017 when the announcers kept showing syracuse runs the most offensive plays in the country and if they this number of 67 plays we are cooked. They did and it didn’t matter. Man it would be cool to have neutral announcers for once.
 
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1mg of Epi said:
Do they use a lot of pre snap eye candy? If not I think we’ll be able to do that.
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I only really watched the Pitt game and honestly I think that’s one to toss out. McCord isn’t the QB he showed that day and I don’t think our defense can do the things Pitt was doing we’ve had enough trouble with the basics
 
JHallCanes said:
I only really watched the Pitt game and honestly I think that’s one to toss out. McCord isn’t the QB he showed that day and I don’t think our defense can do the things Pitt was doing we’ve had enough trouble with the basics
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I haven’t seen them either. My understanding tho is that they have a suspect OL.. if that’s the case, and our DL looks more like what we saw against wake then GT, and we have DB healthy, then we might be good.

But If Syracuse is gonna try to confuse us, and we have Barron playing tiddly winks instead of his assignment, and DBs using a magic 8 ball to decide who to cover and who to let run by…. We might be ****ed.
 
1mg of Epi said:
I haven’t seen them either. My understanding tho is that they have a suspect OL.. if that’s the case, and our DL looks more like what we saw against wake then GT, and we have DB healthy, then we might be good.

But If Syracuse is gonna try to confuse us, and we have Barron playing tiddly winks instead of his assignment, and DBs using a magic 8 ball to decide who to cover and who to let run by…. We might be ****ed.
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I think they’re fairly straight up. I’m a little biased because before Cam was realistic I wanted us to look at McCord. He just was in a bad spot at OSU

But all that to say man I really don’t know what the **** to expect with this team anymore 😂
 
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Play the defense that bothers him the most. See how he does against legit pressure.

Don’t try to be cute against a dude that has had success passing against a lot of teams.

The issue is likely how can we insure we out score them.

Saying you’re gonna shut them down is unlikely unless we know for a fact that he struggles against a particular look.

Expose their defense and hold them to their season low in points and yardage.

In other words do whatever Pitt did

 
JHallCanes said:
I only really watched the Pitt game and honestly I think that’s one to toss out. McCord isn’t the QB he showed that day and I don’t think our defense can do the things Pitt was doing we’ve had enough trouble with the basics
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Just out of curiosity, what was Pitt doing on defense that game?
 
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This game could get ugly for our defense or they could play right into our hands. McCord is not a runner and they don’t really have a big threat in their backfield. We’re going to get a lot of chances to rush a pocket passer with limited scrambling ability and a mediocre offensive line. We’ve been really good at getting pressure if not getting the QB down as much as we’d like. That seemed to change a bit against Wake so hopefully we can keep turning pressures into sacks.

They are going to play super fast and they are going to throw it a ton. We can’t be lazy getting lined up like we have at times this year. We saw USF roast us a few times because guys were being lackadaisical between plays. We’re not going to be able to use base 4-3 personnel against them like we did against Wake. If Damari Brown can play, this week would be a great week to finally get back out there.
 
brock said:
I don’t want to see anymore of it honestly, it’s not needed.

The miss to fletcher (or Riley Williams on the same play) and that ugly int was glaring. Can’t have that in this next game or the rest of the season
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That was supposed to be a TE screen that Wake accidentally stunted right into. Cam should have thrown it way but he tried to run the screen even after it got blown up. The worst thing was, if that pass gets completed, there’s three linemen already ten yards downfield before the pass was even thrown. Improvising on screen plays is just a waste of time. Take the sack or get rid of it. You can’t complete the pass because linemen are already downfield
 
JHallCanes said:
Actually the way to beat them seems to be shutting down their run game weirdly enough
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Lol with our Defense idk if we can shut down any basic fundamental OF. I want to put a great wager by idk. Cam is going to give us 30 pts.but our D is horrendous excluding the 3 lineman
 
FrancisSawyer said:
Just out of curiosity, what was Pitt doing on defense that game?
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Disguising defensive formation like showing pressure and then dropping into zone or showing coverage and bringing the house on well designed stunts and blitzes. Played their assignments very well and communicated on all 3 levels of defense.

Unfortunately we are not particularly good at any of those things. Hopefully we have Brown and Alston back (I doubt it) and can hold them to 30 or less.
 
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