Rakes Report #200: You hear him howling around your kitchen door, you better not let him in (The Syracuse Review)
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~optional musical accompaniment~
1) That was a perfect fun horror movie fitting for this Halloween weekend: There were thrills and chills and laughs and jump scares, at one point I felt a heavy mass of dread deep in my soul that made me question why I even turned it on but at the end it was very satisfying and we got to walk out of the theater with a smile. The major hinge point where it felt like all hope was lost occurred when Syracuse got the ball back down 24-17 with the dome electric and a back-up quarterback rolling — if you didn’t think the Irish were losing at that point, please send me your self-care regimen as I am envious of that level of zen — but the defense and special teams quickly shut the door.
The two other notable pieces of keep-you-on-your-toes plotting came bookending the first half: After a pick six to open the proceedings (yay), the Irish immediately gave up a quick touchdown drive (no), but then stoned the Orange offense for the rest of the half (huzzah). Then just before the break, the Irish offense had the ball with a chance to make it a two-score lead, immediately turned it over, then immediately got it back, then set up a touchdown and 21-7 lead with the best throw and catch of the game by far. God bless the broken road and all that.
Despite their ranking, Syracuse was more like a top 30-ish team coming into this, but that still means winning by two scores to get to 5-3 while building a little momentum and establishing a little more of an identity before the biggest home game of the season is very much a mission accomplished. Still a lot to work on, but also a lot to like.
2) After a couple cornerback missteps* led to the Orange’s opening touchdown, cannot say enough about how well the defense played in the first half. They forced a trio of consecutive three-and-outs and snuffed out a fourth down attempt after a quick change following the late second-quarter interception. Brandon Joseph kindly took the pick six to open the scoring and played extensively after only logging 10 defensive snaps last week, Isaiah Foskey was a force yet again and it appears Jayson Ademilola, Howard Cross and TaRiq Bracy are all healing well. I was worried the Syracuse rushing attack would find some success, but that never materialized, as they held star tailback Sean Tucker to under four yards per carry and suffocated any kind of quarterback run game.
* Perimeter tackling needs to get better before Thanksgiving weekend or it’ll be bloody. Also, we now have two instances of different freshman corners not positioning themselves correctly on blitzes where they appeared to think they have safety help. Al Golden either needs to coach that better so there isn’t confusion, not put rookies in those spots or take that out of the playbook.
Things got a little squirrely in the second half when Syracuse inserted Carlos Del Rio-Wilson and he unleashed a different level of athleticism and arm talent. But after wobbling they ended up coming through with a monster Cross tip into a Marist Liufau pick when things seemed at their darkest. Jordan Botelho had two sacks and his emergence as a potential terror on the line is big not just for the remainder of this season but could loom large for next year as well. Also, if the goal is to try and steal one of the remaining big games with turnovers and havoc then you need to increase the potential for volatility, even if that means the potential of a missed assignment. Yes, they benefited from some drops courtesy of an uninspiring Orange receiving corps, but it was a well-played game overall.
3) On the plus side of the offense, Notre Dame looked at an undersized defensive front and ran all over it for nearly 250 yards. After fumbling in three of the previous four games, the coaching staff trusted Audric Estime and he rewarded that faith by keeping a tight hold on the ball and rumbling for 6 yards per carry. Logan Diggs continues to look healthy, the Mitchell Evans sneaks are effective (while hopefully setting up a pretty sick trick play down the road) and Michael Mayer was able to work his way open a few times despite a lot of attention. Also, Deion Colzie back in the mix? What a pleasant surprise. And kudos to Jayden Thomas for finding the endzone and being so large and intimidating he was lined up basically as a tight end at times and fit the part. It was also a very good redzone day.
On the downside, Drew Pyne completed one pass after intermission, although at least it came on a third down and there was another pass interference flag drawn thrown in there which kind of counts? He was only 9 of 19 after, for six yards per attempt, and threw a horrible pick into quadruple coverage. After a promising pair of games in Chapel Hill and Vegas, the last three have left quite a bit to be desired, although he was strong on the first half’s final drive, finding Mayer twice then Thomas for the quick score. Mayer only bringing in three passes, tough, as is the entire wide receiving corps collectively having two more than that. Pyne did put a pretty good ball on Tobias Merriweather that could have conceivably been brought in, a potential connection we need to continue to test out when possible.
I understand the desire to run it every down — particularly with the announce booth caterwauling for runs up the middle and checkdowns at every opportunity — but the Irish came awfully close to that: They ran it 73% of the time, and on 81% of early downs, which leaves a little room for cranking it up but not all that much. Still would love a little more explosivity (Estime had a 28-yarder late, Diggs' long was 16) but that’s a great day at the office.
I will say this on Pyne: Within a pretty uninspired game, the 37-yarder to Mayer and a couple of the throws to Colzie were A+ plays. He’s now at three straight games of 50% completion percentage or lower after three straight of above 70%. If he can channel the accuracy, or at least hit a few more key throws, or ideally both, there’s room there. But it’s getting late and the margins remain thin.
4) Truly horrendous officiating and another poor production from ESPN, which failed to show replays and note penalties along the way. Is there a single fan out there watching a game who wants to know every single announcer’s projected playoff field? On Thursday night in the fourth quarter of a one-point NC State/Virginia Tech matchup there was a discussion of Tennessee’s potential for style points against Kentucky. Stop it!
When the Irish were racking up a bunch of penalties early, I did have some dark thoughts of “Wait, has this been happening all along?” but no, coming into the game they were 8th in number of penalties per game and 11th in penalty yardage per game. For their faults and missteps this season, they’ve played cleanly in that regard. Jon Sot, great again. Blake Grupe, mixed results again. If the Irish blocked a punt every game that would be great, big fan of those.
I wouldn’t want to make a habit of playing noon games, but it was nice to get that win notched early and then get to spend the rest of the day watching other teams flail about while the comfortable 17-point margin continually scrolled across the bottom of the screen.
5) Winning Is Hard/Schadenfreude Round Up: Two different Top 10 teams gave up 48 points on Saturday in losses. Oklahoma State didn’t score at all against Kansas State, the worst loss of the Mike Gundy era. Wake Forest scored a decent amount against Louisville but turned it over six times in a single quarter and eight times overall, a staggering number that seems like a bit but very much was not. If either of those results happened to Notre Dame we would talk about them for years.
Penn State had a fourth quarter lead against Ohio State and let it slip away in bloody and dramatic fashion. Kentucky was nuked by Tennessee. Pitt had a 10-point second-half lead at North Carolina but got outscored 21-0 in the final frame to fall to 4-4. (Congrats to anyone who bet the Panthers’ win total under simply because you guessed Pat Narduzzi would immediately be back to his old ways.) (Syracuse at Pitt on Saturday for this weekend’s ACC Real Sad Game Of The Week.) Texas A&M lost for the fourth straight game, this time at home to Ole Miss. Virginia Tech was leading NC State 21-3 in the third quarter and lost. South Carolina was ranked for some reason but don’t worry they lost at home to Mizzou so they’re not anymore.
Miami needed four overtimes to defeat Virginia in a game that featured zero total touchdowns. Northwestern’s quest for 0-for-the-United-States continues, as they gave up 33 points to IOWA. Boston College only scored three points in a loss to UConn, which should get you kicked out of the Power 5 but will more likely lead to a lengthy piece this offseason about Jeff Hafley’s Redemption. Marshall lost again, this time at home to Coastal Carolina. San Diego State was close to springing an upset on Fresno State but gave up 15 points in the game’s final 90 seconds.
6) If Notre Dame plays like they did on Saturday, they would have a great shot of beating both Navy and Boston College. They might even have a chance at Southern Cal, whose defense has left a lot to be desired all year and whose turnover luck has been the inverse of the Irish’s for much of the season, but of course anything can happen in a single game. I do not believe, however, that they can beat Clemson without more aerial lethality.
I know the natural instinct would be to say “Clemson struggled with Syracuse and Notre Dame just beat Syracuse sooooo transitive property?” but that score isn’t totally indicative of a contest where Clemson had four turnovers (including one returned directly for a score), 10 more first downs and 159 additional yards of offense. Notre Dame is probably not going to be able to line up and plow through the Tiger front like they did on Saturday because while Syracuse was undersized Clemson brings a bunch of blue-chip monsters who are going to mark the stiffest test this version of the line with a healthy Jarrett Patterson has seen all season.
Pyne is going to have to be better, and we’ll need someone at receiver to step up and fill in for Avery Davis’ heroics of two years ago. If the defense can hold up against the Clemson running attack while pressuring whoever is rotating through at quarterback, it’s going to give the Irish a puncher’s chance. If the special teams can come through with a blocked punt for a third straight week, well, that would be fruitful as well. This team has played so much better away from home, but perhaps if the expected orange and purple deluge hits then it will feel enough like a neutral site we’ll get that level of performance.
Cannot express to you how much I want to win this game and how little confidence I have in that possibility if the offense remains one-dimensional, but let’s turn this thing into a rock fight and see who’s standing at the end. The season is two-thirds over. It’ll be November tomorrow. We’re running out of football fast, so even if you don’t find this Fighting Irish product to be perfect, drink it up because the long arid expanse of the offseason is just around the corner.
Go Irish, Beat Tigers. Let’s do this.
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