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Let’s talk Defense vs. Syracuse

Babscanes said:
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.
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Gadsden is going to get a lot of yards. He’s probably the best TE in the country. He’ll be a matchup nightmare for sure. I don’t like anything about this game.
 
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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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Syracuse is also top 10 in avoiding QB sacks. McCord gets the ball out quickly. Not sure sending all out blitzes is going to be effective, but also, if he has time he's going to chew us up.
 
You know what’s weird? When you look at Syracuse‘s stats and the fact that their quarterback has more passing yards than ours, you would think they’ve scored a ton. However, they’ve only hit the 40 point threshold twice. Once against Holy Cross for 42 and then once against UNLV for 44. I haven’t watched a minute of Syracuse but it sounds like we have to pray our defense is bend but don’t break.
 
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AlexCane said:
You know what’s weird? When you look at Syracuse‘s stats and the fact that their quarterback has more passing yards than ours, you would think they’ve scored a ton. However, they’ve only hit the 40 point threshold twice. Once against Holy Cross for 42 and then once against UNLV for 44. I haven’t watched a minute of Syracuse but it sounds like we have to pray our defense is bend but don’t break.
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Yup, beyond forcing a bunch of turnovers and blowing them out that's the ticket.

They struggle to run/abandon the run a lot, they aren't very explosive, and they're slightly below average on 3rd/4th down success rate.
 
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 have not had explosive running plays this year. 1 run of + 30 yards all year and no runs over 40 yards.

For comparison, we have 8 runs of + 30 yards

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AlexCane said:
You know what’s weird? When you look at Syracuse‘s stats and the fact that their quarterback has more passing yards than ours, you would think they’ve scored a ton. However, they’ve only hit the 40 point threshold twice. Once against Holy Cross for 42 and then once against UNLV for 44. I haven’t watched a minute of Syracuse but it sounds like we have to pray our defense is bend but don’t break.
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Cal held them to two field goals in the second half. It can be done.
 
Our best defense is keeping their offense on the sidelines and out of rhythm with our running game. However, when we are on D just get lined up probably and make them one dimensional.
 
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grover said:
Why do people think we can’t run 3-3 vs Cuse? I’d like to go multiple different setups so McCord never knows where we’re coming from.

Need speed at LB. Love the idea of more Popo, Pruitt (Washington?). Alderman looking faster than Kiko too.

I’d like to see us try our UF approach of press assuming Guidry has fixed the assignment and alignment problems. Also more disguised coverages to keep McCord guessing. We need to free up a guy or two for pressure and that pressure needs to be unpredictable. Kiko needs to get a couple sacks this game. But spread the love.

On offense I want a balanced attack between run and pass. No interest in controlling the clock but definitely want to control tempo to our choosing. A lot of thunder and lightning in the run game. Otherwise just play our game and don’t try to get too cute, especially Cam. If he wants to throw go routes for 400 yards and they’re open, great. But don’t push into defended space.
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I think its best if we stay in a 40 front to be honest.
McCord and the OC game plan will likely be throw it often and quick.

Man up an athletic LB on their RB (i.e., Pruitt) for check downs or motioning, meanwhile the backfield either be tight man playing the trial technique and if we go zone, sit on curls slant and quick outs. If they decide to have longer developing passing plays the 4 man rush can take care of that.
 
Ironmanfootball said:
This is how far Cam Ward has slid down the Heisman hopeful list?
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No, he slid down the list for playing average to bad in his last two outings.

And people have short memories so they remember that instead of the beginning of the year. It’s unfortunate but reality.
 
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I’m predicting a 45-38 type win with possibly 400+ passing yards from both.

But what I want to say on record is no one here should say a word about D Brown. Dude is a true sophomore, hasn’t played in 10+ weeks, playing against the best passing offense we’ve seen. He is going to get beat, we have to live with it and hope he comes through when we need him.
 
Does anyone know what the stats say about Syracuse’s OL? Mainly I’m wondering about the interior OL as that seems to be the only place we are generating pressure.
 
They surprisingly only average 31.7 PPG. Their yards per catch are significantly less than ours. The overall passing yardage is a product of sheer volume. Strategically, do you press and try to take away the short/intermediate they rely heavily on, or bend but don't break and hold them to FG's in the red zone? I could see the latter early before tightening coverage and turning up the pressure IF we can grab a lead.
 
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