“Hineysight”

I really hate that the launch of my blog comes on the heels of a Clemson loss.

This will not be a normal “hineysight” post because it being an away game, our normal “hineysighters” are not together for the after-game session. For home games we will have such masterminds as Needle, Jaybird, Zork, Gos, Smiley, Jim P, and occasionally others offering their expertise. And I should say that they rarely agree with me, so take this post for what it’s worth.

It’s very disappointing to lose, but especially so when it’s to an opponent we should beat. But Syracuse played a near perfect game, and it was apparent from their first drive that Clemson might be in trouble, as we missed a tackle at the line of scrimmage on a 3^rd and 15 play. We just couldn’t get their offense off the field – penalties, poor coverages, missed tackles. Syracuse beat Clemson in every aspect of the game: offense, defense, special teams, and coaching.

Much has been said already about the wisdom of playing Kelly Bryant. I’ll take the coaches at their word that he looked ready in practice during the week. But it became pretty evident early on that he was not comfortable running the ball, and his running ability is the main reason he’s starting in front of Cooper and Johnson. I do have issue with the decision to go with Cooper over Johnson in the second half. Obviously the coaches feel that Cooper has looked better on the practice field, but I feel that Johnson has performed much better in games. I believe he would have hit receivers that Cooper badly missed.

The fake punt attempt was badly botched. It was supposed to be an option whereby Spiers was to roll out for a rugby style kick with the option of passing if the receiver was uncovered. Unfortunately, there were three men covering the receiver but Spiers thought he could squeeze it in between all three. A freshman mistake, but Dabo rightly took the blame for putting him in that situation.

Before the season started, Coach Venables said he was concerned about depth on defense. I think he felt, and I do as well, that our starters on defense are as good as any in the country, especially our front seven. Last night’s game really exposed that lack of depth. Syracuse did to us what we did to Alabama last year in the National Championship game. They wore us down running over 80 plays. For the most part our defense was pretty effective on first and second downs, but we gave up way too many third and long conversions.

All is not lost, though. If we win out from here as we did after the Pitt loss last year, I believe we’ll be right back where we ended up last year – in the playoffs and possibly more.

GO TIGERS!!