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Let’s talk Defense vs. Syracuse

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Genghis Cane said:
This thread is for all posters on the board who want to discuss our defensive game plan against Syracuse.

McCord leads the country in passing yardage. He’s thrown the ball 50 times more than the next closest QB in division 1. It’s clear what they want to do. How do we stop it?

What formation would you run?
What coverages would run?
Are we blitzing McCord or praying our front 4 can get pressure on their own?

I live 5 minutes from the Dome. I’m surrounded by obnoxious SU fans. Everyone I work with says we’re going to lose. They have never been more confident. We can’t come out slow or we are toast. Defense needs to get some early stops/turnovers and our offense has to keep the pressure on them.
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You talking about their passing game but what about their running game
 
My thought is we need to pressure the QB or he will pick us apart. Rewatching the Wake game there were receivers running loose that they didn't see because of pressure and there were several near misses probably for the same reason.
 
sigmar said:
My thought is we need to pressure the QB or he will pick us apart. Rewatching the Wake game there were receivers running loose that they didn't see because of pressure and there were several near misses probably for the same reason.
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I think pressure is a must. I never understood the bend but dont break and make the QB beat you when the QB can throw like McCord can.

I posted in a diff thread we will obviously need a lot of nickel coverage this game but I wonder what we do with the front 7? We havent been getting home with our starting 4 of Barron, Barrow, Mesidor and Bain and that leaves Kiko in coverage. I think Guidry has two options which is the 3-3-5 or 4-2-5. My fear is with the 4-2-5 we will see a lot of Alston or whoever DE dropping into the flats.

The 3-3-5 interests me though. Messidor seems much more effective on the edge, to have a starting of DL of Messidor, Barrow and Bain, then add Pruit in as LB to cover sideline to sideline with Wes. Kiko isnt coming off the field so let him be the spy or 4th rusher to get after the QB, then he is playing downhill where he is comfortable.
 
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I mean there is no threat to run the ball. Play man on outside with OJ & DP2 and keep the safeties overtop to bracket everyone and let our d-line eat pin their ears back. Syracuse passing the ball always we'll have plenty of opportunities for sacks and ints this game
 
I think some of you are selling Cuse short based on name.

They have a legit offense with weapons that will probably light up our secondary. Allen is a great rb and Gadsden is a matchup nightmare for us. Pena is their Restrepo.

We have to run the ball and keep their offense off the field. I don’t think we can stop them. Our hope is holding them to fg’s. Their special teams is worse than ours so we need to exploit that. I think they have had 4 or 5 kicks/ punts blocked this year

The dome will be the loudest stadium we play in so Miami needs to pound them early and take the crowd out of it. No dumbass false start penalties and such killing our drives.

This is going to come down to what defense can get a stop in the fourth.

Buckle up for a ride.
 
JHallCanes said:
Actually the way to beat them seems to be shutting down their run game weirdly enough
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Makes sense in a counterintuitive sort of way. Shutting down their running game is something that this defense is capable of(Georgia Tech game notwithstanding). What gives me pause regarding this is that their passing game presents such an immediate threat that it will surely affect the way we attempt to defend the run. We can't use the same methods we used to shut down Wake because they presented a minimal threat through the air.

We obviously can't go with the 4-3 like we did vs Wake however there are many things we did very well on Saturday that we can take with us to Syracuse and hopefully beyond. For starters we can keep Mesidor at DE, keep Meesh at Nickel and Porter at CB and keep Kiko out of defending in space or just keep it to a bare minimum. That's going to mean more snaps for Popo and Pruitt. We have a good thing going at DT right now with Ahmad Moten, Simeon Barrow and CJ Clark. Mesidor and Bain at DE but we need to keep the DEs fresh because we will need to be constantly attacking McCord in the pocket. Getting Alston back for this game would be big. I would like to think that Tyler Baron will respond positively in response to his benching. Honestly it was something(benching) that was a long time coming and I had grown incredibly frustrated with his undisciplined and quite frankly reckless play especially vs the run.
 
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Cookie917 said:
I think pressure is a must. I never understood the bend but dont break and make the QB beat you when the QB can throw like McCord can.

I posted in a diff thread we will obviously need a lot of nickel coverage this game but I wonder what we do with the front 7? We havent been getting home with our starting 4 of Barron, Barrow, Mesidor and Bain and that leaves Kiko in coverage. I think Guidry has two options which is the 3-3-5 or 4-2-5. My fear is with the 4-2-5 we will see a lot of Alston or whoever DE dropping into the flats.

The 3-3-5 interests me though. Messidor seems much more effective on the edge, to have a starting of DL of Messidor, Barrow and Bain, then add Pruit in as LB to cover sideline to sideline with Wes. Kiko isnt coming off the field so let him be the spy or 4th rusher to get after the QB, then he is playing downhill where he is comfortable.
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I just posted something about stopping the Orange on offense and I was going to mention the 3-3-5 but forgot. That's a very interesting possibility for this game especially since Cam Pruitt is an extremely versatile back seven defender. He's a LB for us but he has the skill, intelligence and speed to be an effective hybrid LB/Safety. In a 3-3-5 Pruitt can go sideline to sideline as a LB and he can also provide help in the secondary by taking some coverage responsibility. Alston is also very versatile like you mentioned as a DE/LB type and he could have a significant impact in this game. Getting Damari Brown back would be a tremendous boost to the secondary for obvious reasons. One last thing that I would like to suggest regarding getting an increase in pressure on the QB. Bobby Washington is a well built athletic LB with major major speed. With his athleticism and explosiveness I would love for the staff to work on getting him some pass rush opportunities both as a blitzed and as a stand up rusher from the outside.
 
dukemv said:
Pitt was switching up pressure, guys were showing pressure then blitz was coming from the other side, then they were dropping right into the middle of the field. Iirc most of the 3 picks early on were in the middle of the field.
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Weren't several of the pics also due to his WRs not catching the ball and deflecting it to Pitt defenders?
 
FrancisSawyer said:
I just posted something about stopping the Orange on offense and I was going to mention the 3-3-5 but forgot. That's a very interesting possibility for this game especially since Cam Pruitt is an extremely versatile back seven defender. He's a LB for us but he has the skill, intelligence and speed to be an effective hybrid LB/Safety. In a 3-3-5 Pruitt can go sideline to sideline as a LB and he can also provide help in the secondary by taking some coverage responsibility. Alston is also very versatile like you mentioned as a DE/LB type and he could have a significant impact in this game. Getting Damari Brown back would be a tremendous boost to the secondary for obvious reasons. One last thing that I would like to suggest regarding getting an increase in pressure on the QB. Bobby Washington is a well built athletic LB with major major speed. With his athleticism and explosiveness I would love for the staff to work on getting him some pass rush opportunities both as a blitzed and as a stand up rusher from the outside.
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My assumption hinges on Pruitt or Bobby Washington being ready. If this game was game 3 of the season then I dont think this is even a convo, they werent ready but Pruitt and to some extent, Washington have been getting more snaps as the year goes on.
 
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JHallCanes said:
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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Yea man who TF knows!??
 


Here's the link to the Syracuse - UConn boxscore. You can view the play by play, too.

Syracuse received the kickoff and the first two plays were a 53 yd pass and a 22 yd pass to score.

and very important: NO HUDDLE for Syracuse - they go tempo every play.


SCORING DRIVES (NOTE TIME OF POSSESSION)


Scoring Summary​


1stSYR - Gadsden II,Oronde 22 yd pass from McCord,Kyle (Kennedy,Jackson kick ) 2 plays, 75 yards, TOP 00:50
1stCON - Edwards,Cam 71 yd run (Freeman,Chris kick ), 4 plays, 80 yards, TOP 01:37
2ndSYR - McCord,Kyle 5 yd pass from McCord,Kyle (Kennedy,Jackson kick ) 12 plays, 77 yards, TOP 05:40
2ndSYR - Allen,LeQuint 1 yd run (Kennedy,Jackson kick ), 14 plays, 68 yards, TOP 06:15
2ndCON - Hansen,Louis 5 yd pass from ***nano,Joe (Freeman,Chris kick ) 10 plays, 75 yards, TOP 02:45
3rdSYR - Kennedy,Jackson 23 yd field goal 9 plays, 69 yards, TOP 04:00
3rdCON - Freeman,Chris 42 yd field goal 6 plays, 10 yards, TOP 02:39
4thSYR - McCord,Kyle 1 yd run (Kennedy,Jackson kick ), 10 plays, 73 yards, TOP 04:51
4thCON - Sheffield,TJ 2 yd pass from ***nano,Joe (Freeman,Chris kick ) 15 plays, 89 yards, TOP 02:54

Scoring Summary
 
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PIPO said:
They have LeQuint Allen, whom has nearly 900 yards rushing with 12 rushing TDs.

Their slot guy, Peña, left last game hurt so who knows the extent of that injury. Of course, Gadsen at TE/WR.

They are going to be a ******* problem thanks to our bad defense.

I will start drinking early Saturday, like 8am so hopefully I fall asleep just before game time and save myself the agony on my already fragile heart.
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Pena is good to go.

Syracuse's offense (especially the passing game) is going to be a problem. They legitimately have 4+ receiving weapons. The WRs, collectively, are the best we've faced all year. We can potentially slow down teams with 1 or 2 weapons on the outside, but McCord and company present a greater challenge.

Another underrated aspect of Syracuse's offense is that they are in the Top 10 in terms of time of possession. I believe they are the only passing team in the Top 10. That's remarkable. Not only do they throw it all over the place, but they keep your offense off the field while gassing your defense.

Drinking early is a good idea.
 
Scorpioncane said:
And we haven't seen their defense look like ****? Must be worse than ours because they have 3 or 4 losses!
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Our offense is better — that’s the reason we don’t have the same amount of losses.

But we’ve seen what happens when our offense goes through a dry spell. We need to do the best we can to limit the pressure on Cam.
 
Genghis Cane said:
Our offense is better — that’s the reason we don’t have the same amount of losses.

But we’ve seen what happens when our offense goes through a dry spell. We need to do the best we can to limit the pressure on Cam.
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Oh! I agree, I'm a lil Leary bout cuse! Because they're gonna pull out all the stops to **** up our season !
 
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