I'll have second viewing thoughts and grades up late Sunday.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Giving it away
For the first time in a long time we are officially eliminated from the Atlantic Division race. A weird game in that we were out of it early, made it interesting and then fell apart again. Congrats to the defense though more making things happen and playing hard.
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Don't line up from the gun every play, and MAYBE you can devise a play to go for it on fourth and goal on the 3.
More importantly, if its 3rd and 6 late in the game (fourth down time), line up under center and run the ball for a few yards. Don't line up in the gun so your quarterback is 11 yards from the marker and if you don't complete a pass, its still six yards to go.
/rant.
Tranquill must go. Your best offensive player(harris) barely even touches the ball in the 4th quarter. You gain 8 yards on first down and chuck it for two hail marys on 2nd and 3rd down. Someone needs to show Shinskie and Tranquill a tape of Tom Brady and show him how to throw a short pass.
This was one of the first BC games in a while that I had to leave the TV. The Defense was terrific.
Anyone know if Rettig is gonna come in early for Spring Ball?
I bet just to really rub salt in this one Clemson shits the bed and loses to Virginia.
Rettig is coming early...he's enrolling for second semester
Thank you Jesus.
Follow up question, does anyone know what Kuechly eats for breakfast? I would very much like to start eating that. Yesterday.
KUECHLY FOR 2009 ACC ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
My cable went out at the start of the 4th quarter so I missed the end. A couple of notes:
1) North Carolina has been on a tear the past few weeks and they have a very good defense. No shame in losing to them.
2) Quarterback is the most important position in college football and it makes or breaks you as a team. Last year, Crane was awful early but he was playing well before he got hurt. He truly got better with every game. Shinksie does not seem to be progressing at all. Granted, he is a freshman, but usually after this many games, you start to see better decision-making. Not quite ready to give up on him, but I hope he is much improved by next season.
3) This BC team is decent, but not great. This is mainly due to inexperience at several positions. I actually feel they have a good nucleus for the future, but just look at all they lost from last season. It's a minor miracle they have a shot at 8 wins. In fact, isn't it great that we can call 8 wins a down year? Those of us that graduated in the late 80's would take 8 wins in a heartbeat.
4) The defense has carried this team all season. They are not a great unit, but they are young and have faced tremendous adversity. I look forward to the next couple seasons with this unit.
5) It really was not realistic for BC to go to the ACC CG for the 3rd straight year. Even Va tech could not do it. New coach, new quarterback, injured players, ill players, mid-season transfers....that is asking a lot for a team to overcome. Still, they had a shot until the end and that was disappointing.
6) This team will be much better next year. Don't know if it will translate into wins, but they should be much better at nearly every position.
Even on TV you could see:
Locking in on a receiver is still the main problem for our qb. You can count the number of times passes attempted to anyone other than Gunnell on one hand.
If no throw to Gunnell, then no time to throw elsewhere, except a "wing & prayer" over the middle.
We used to have a tight end in our passing offense--no longer.
The only throwback screen I saw was off a double reverse from the "Wild Eagle". We did not attempt a running play from the "Wild Eagle"
Defense was not prepared for quick snap count in 1st half. UNC went away from it in 2d half.
Little pressure on opposing qb. Still no pass rush.
I think we wil continue to struggle and have trouble with Terps next weekend. Ralph F., just like Butch Davis, has our coaches' number, even in a bad year for Maryland. The "Nut Bowl" may be out of reach if we lose to Terps.
BB loses to St. Joe's while top scorer is held on bench because Coach "forgot" about him.
Hockey team just misses blowing lead to Maine.
Celtics lose...
Talk about a "Lost Weekend"
Wow, Notre Dame goes down to UCONN. We only play ND one more time, but I really want to even the series with them next fall at home. Weiss was good for us. A new coach could turn them around quick with all of the inherent advantages ND has.
Again, it does not matter a lot to us as we will only play them 1 more time in the next several years.
rough game today. a few positive notes: 1) extended tailgating time 2) gestapo didn't come by 1/2 hour before kick off and shut down tailgates (at least on shea field) 3) the old farts in the upper deck actually came alive and made some noise during some big 3rd downs on defense. 4) luke kuechly is a superhuman 5) at least uconn beat notre dame
It's not fair to compare BC not making the ACCCG to Va. Tech. VTech plays in a MUCH more difficult division. It's not even close. Think that's a bad analogy.
Shinksie is a typical freshman. That's all. He gets nervous after he gets hit. He throws off the back foot. He's inaccurate too much. Unless Rettig is a phenom, he'll be the #1 next spring. The scary thing is that he really hasn't shown much development on the death-stare to his first receiver. It's no sure thing that he'll be better next year, but freshman QBs don't usually win. Not a biggie.
I give Eagleboston the No Shame Award for Self-Congratulation. Nobody would have guessed that we would have trouble with a speedy defense. Because, like, you know, we haven't had any problems with those this year, have we?
Actually, I think it's quite nice not to have to bear the brunt of the polyannas and for that I'd like to thank BravesBill and Eagleboston. If it wasn't for some of Eagleboston's posts earlier, I'd have thrown up on the TV as another UNC defender was scoring rather than the keyboard.
Good news: next year, the tough ones are at home.
Bad news: next year, we might be blown out by NC State on the road.
Thank the Lord that Mr. Harris has two years left.
Hey, the bball team will surprise, even if the football team rarely does.
Great....I'm glad that they didn't chase folks off of Shea Field os there was an empty stadium on Senior day...Great
D stepped up again....I'm stll upset about this one
Remember Shinskie got hammered a lot in today's game - you have to give the guy the fact he's a gamer, and he'll get better - he wasn't even the starter at the beginning of the year, so he did't even have the benefit of all the reps etc. and we're (hopefully) ending up 9-4 with a bowl win. Remember when the national folks were predicting we'd win 2 games this year?
Like most years, this is another of what-ifs, but for a rebuilding year amidst chaos, let's feel good about this season.
After watching ND lose to UConn, I still can't believe we lost to them. That is the worst coached defense I have seen.
Remember Spaz's "this migth get ugly" comment from the Clemson game. I wonder if Spaz conveyed some mood of defeat/lack of confidence before the game. BC - and not just Shinskie -- did not take the field with confidence
Once the disaster of the 1Q was done, the players realized on their own that they were CAPABLE of beating a good UNC team, but could not seem to get the mojo going in the second half. (UNC is very good on D, so it was a tall order)
Same lack of conviciton was evident at the ND game too, and certainly there was zero confidence with the Clemson and VTech games. Come to think of it, team seemed to lack confidence for the start of the VA and C Mich games too.
Spaz certainly is not the cheerleader that Jags was and that really is too bad. Pumping up the confidence can mean a few more "W"'s -- like ND and UNC.
Can we lure Brian Kelly back home to Mass? Does GDF have some spare cash?
Shinskie??? More disappointment. He has sewed so much doubt about his ability with his play. Might be intersting to give Marsco the start next week to see what he can do in real game conditions. Maryland game seems to be close to meaningless for bowl purposes.
"I was getting good protection, it seemed like," Shinskie said. "I don't know if I was wary of those guys because they were coming in hard all day. I didn't get enough on it. I didn't get enough zip on the ball. I was kind of floating the ball over the middle, and you can't do that. You can't throw the ball over the middle late. That's what happens: You get interceptions."
Shinskie refused to blame a thumb injury or any other health issue for the lack of zip on his passes. Something, though, wasn't right.
"I don't know if it was my thumb or if I was throwing off my back foot," he said. "I'll have to look at the film and see."
"He'll bounce back the way he bounced back the last time he had a disaster," Spaziani said. "We'll coach him. We'll take the positive away from it. We'll try to correct what we did wrong. There was some pressure on him and some other things that caused it, and, obviously, Dave didn't play the way he needed to play."
Yea I would agree that next week is a good opportunity to get Marsco some more time. Maybe try the split halfs and/or ride the hot hand like they did early in the year when deciding between Tuggle and Shinskie. Let them know that whoever plays better gets the start for the bowl game and the month's worth of reps leading up to it.
The tendency that many of us have after watching our team struggle and stutter through a UNC defeat at home is to go alittle extreme on the critique--it's emotionally driven and so we tee off on the QB--who I thought was hurt last week, but no one said anything about the throwing hand thing so it just passed by. He was still a rookie,though--no miracles there.
But Mod, you're right about how hammered Shinskie got in this game--especially when he waited far too long to release on several passes, and paid for it with huge hits, but he bounced back--the guy's tough-- and the fact that he knew he had problems with execution and ball flight says alot. He had some guts to keep in there after the first 3 INT's( 2 for quick scores) and failures like that at home in front of your own crowd have to be doubly deflating. Hell, I salute the guy for having the courage and resilience to hang in there when he knew he was going down in flames.
Only Shin, the team and the coaches know what was going down in there today--rough for the Sr's, for sure. But, hey--It's done and it could have been horrific, given when it was 21-0 with 5 minutes left in the 1st qtr.
I thought it was going to be a massacre and our guys toughed it out.Let's face it--we were still in this with 6 minutes left and the coaches abandoned the use of our all league running back (AGAIN!)
Tranq made some good calls and bad, but the worst is failing to use what Montel could give us and going with Shin's wacky inconsistent passing instead. He was sailing the ball in a panic with speedy dudes coming after him with evil intent. How many times was he clocked after release? 12? 15? Man, that's rough duty from where I was watching...
Montel was still strong and we just went with the air corp, instead. Faulty generalship, looks like.
Time to regroup and go back out and beat the Terps on the road--something it will take all we've got to accomplish.
Hate to see UConn beat the Irish. Those dudes will never let us hear the end of that. Can't stand those Huskies-they're real BC haters...
Say goodnight, Charlie. It's over--
Go EAGLES!!
in happier news....hoops managed a win over SDSU while hockey completed a three point weekend visit to Orono.
I'm honestly a lot more upset at how we lost today than that we lost. The defense was incrdible again. Shinski jay couldn't get it goig. It's not fair to completely hammer him. He a true freshman and UNC has a legit top 10 defense. That was us last year. Stealing games we might not have won because of our D. Great defenses force turnoves and that's what happened today
however, I am really not pleased with putting mike m in when he did. There was 5 minutes left and we were only down 2 scores. That's not impossible. But for tu backup wig almost no game experience it basially is. That didn't lose the game but it sealed it.
At least were young. I really like the overall direction of this team and god willing, with herzy back next year, we will have the best LB's in the country in my opinion.
Let's regroup, beat MD, win the bowl game and finish 9-4. That's a hell of a lot better than almost everyone can honestly say thy thought we would do this year. An let's win the ACC next year. Go Eagles!
agreed...9-4 would be huge...but let's get to 8-4 first...it's probably 50/50 up at College Park...the question is, will we show up with some energy now that the ACCCG is out of reach?
not high on the coaches, truth be told...but am willing to give them another season to see improvement...
CT- If we do get to the bowl game in SF and face a PAC-10 team it could be Cal, Stanford or even USC...can you imagine facing one of that trio with our present combo of intangibles? Maryland will be tough enough on the road...9-4? It could be 7-6 too if our coaches don't snap out of it and start game planning to our strengths.
Everybody knows now that Shin throws to 2 guys tops, and is not mobile if forced out of the pocket...Remember Vanderbilt.
During the game thread, I was one of those that was especially harsh on Shinskie. Obviously, that seems a bit unfair as he's a true freshman who hasn't started the whole year and didn't have the benefit of spring practice.
However, it's very tough for me to be confident in the quarterback going into next year. He has clearly regressed since the NC State game. For the entire game, there were only three throws that were confidence-inspiring: the two to Gunnell on the TD drive and the Gunnell drop in the 4th quarter. Beyond those, Shinskie was consistently late, inaccurate and improper with his throws. Much of the UNC pressure - like on the two early fumbles - was created by Shinskie being indecisive.
Now, many will chalk that up inexperience and a talented defense, and certainly there was a component of both of those. But when Shinskie did have time, he made poor decisions. When Shinskie had open receivers (such as on the last interception, when he had time to throw, too), he was unable to throw properly or accurately. It is the same mistakes, over and over.
For the last few games, there have been very few glimmers of the talented (Dave did seem to have all-conference potential; where did that go?) QB we saw earlier in the year. We have seen very little that inspires confidence in the quarterbacking next year. Where is the improvement? Where is the play-calling that simplifies the game? I'm trying to rationalize my way into believing in Shinskie for next weekend and beyond, and I just can't anymore.
Tranq's play-calling was questionable at times, but the bottom line is that Shinskie just flat-out stunk the place up. In addition to just taking too long to find a target, it definitely looked like a QB trying to throw with a cast on his throwing hand -- four out of five throws were soft wounded ducks just floating out there. I know he's a touch passer, but these balls looked like plastic bags in the wind (even when he had the wind at his back).
Trade four of those passes for four good passes from say, the NC State game, and this would've been a BC win, no matter what plays Tranq called on 3rd and 2.
I wonder why Larmond and Anderson got no playing time yesterday.
Any insight?
mmason, yeah, you're right...i don't know what i'm thinking wrt 9-4. essentially two road games left on the schedule. i hope those extra bowl practices pay off. i hope shinskie finds a comfort zone before next yr. i hope i win the lottery.
playing stanford would be cool. toby gerhardt and montel. i'm getting way ahead of myself. wait, am i ct or mod34b? quick, someone bring me back to 7-6 and talk of rettig.
There was mention of Shinskie having an injured thumb. Is that correct?
Was he trying to throw with a bad hand?
CT, remember you (the CT image) have supressed your capacity for hope and thus should properly be lumped with the Drs. of Gloom and Doom, EagleBoston and Bravebull.
(But see, CT, you do have some budding CAPACITY for hope after all.)
You (the CT image) do differ from the true doom and gloomers in an imporant way. They also suffer from the sin of self-importance, particularly EagleBoston. You don't.
(I still think Bravesbull has got to be a goof. nobody can be that angry and dark about college sports.)
Mod, get off this gloom and doom BS. I predicted that BC did not have the horses to defeat UNC and it turned out I was right. That does not make me a gloom and doomer especially when I defied the pre-season pundits.
Here is my pre-seaason prediction:
"I do not agree with the pundits that BC will finish at the bottom of the conference. I also don’t believe BC has a shot to return to the ACC Championship game. Thus, they should be somewhere in the middle of the pack in the Atlantic and I look for them to go 7-5 and play in their 11th straight bowl game."
How can you call me doom and gloom when I forecasted 7 wins? Would not doom and gloom be a prediction of 5 or fewer wins? Further, I am going to up my pre-season forecast to 8 wins as I feel very confident BC wins on the road against Maryland. Pretty good for a down year.
Sorry, Mod, that I did not predict a BC National Championship but there is always next year.
In honor of the approaching holidays, I am making this a SCROOGED post (one of my favorite flicks).
In the words of the Bill Murray character, Frank Cross, "Oh my gosh, does that suck!".
Not much good takeaway from this one except for Luke and in general a stalwart defense except for the first drive.
Regarding the coaching staff: "Now, I have to kill, all of you!" -FC.
I am on board with Tranq taking the old, dusty trail. I am a big fan of Spaz, personally, but he has to realize that as an older head coach, he should not have an OC that is an even older skeleton than he is. We need some aggressiveness in the booth. Now, this system might work if we had a good QB, but I think Logan would have molded the system to work with what we've got.
On final games: "I can't get these little antlers on this mouse, we've tried crazy glue".
"Have you tried staples?"-FC.
As far as these final weeks go, Spaz should put everything and everyone on sale or rather on notice. No job is safe! He who out works his fellow depth chartee should get the nod. Nothing like the prospect of riding the pine to get some fire in their bellies. Spaz is generally a cool customer, but I've seen him fired up, and I would be beside myself as a coach if I saw the lack of intensity in the first quarter from a team that was playing for post season position.
On post season play: "He's Fired? but it's christmas!"
"Thank you...call accounting, stop his bonus"-FC.
Maybe we don't "belong" in the title game, but you will never hear me say that. If we had made it back, it would have meant something, and we would have Boise State fans rooting for us probably harder than we rooted for ourselves. I tell you, they sure have the system gamed out there in Idaho, play one good game and a then a slate full of nobodies and end up in the BCS (most of their opps. are worse than CMU), Genius!
Nut Bowl:
Pros,
1. San Fran is more fun than Nashville, Charlotte, Jacksonville and Orlando.
2. Higher payout, so maybe we can bring the band and cheerleaders.
3. Direct flights from Logan, JFK, Dulles, Hartman, O'Hare are easy and probably reasonable.
Cons:
1. Day after Christmas, our shared tradition as BC alumni tend to make this family time, and usually not long-range travel time.
2. Flying at the holidays is not fun, x2 with kids.
3. Not exactly a bowl to write home about.
I was at the last Nut Bowl and it was awesome. There was decent BC attendance, Colorado State turned out big. The game was on New Year's Eve which was better than Dec 26th. The reason we go to this game is that everyone travels poorly to it, even FSU and Miami, so that issue is moot.
Game Changing Reason to attend:
MY TAILGATE! For the first time in my life I have a a vehicle that actually has a tailgate, so I am going to take full advantage. I am already in the process of finding the biggest BC flag I can get my hands on, or should I go with something more distinct like "Cold Beer" or "Free lap dances" so all my fellow insane asylum friends here will be able to locate it easily? *
*If you really are insane, then please don't forget your meds.
Eagelboston --
just a little joshing....don't take it so seriously... it's just a blog. Without a difference in opinion the blog would be pretty dull!
ps. you might consider dropping the "i told you so" shtick it would make you a little warmer and fuzzier.
The comments about Tranq's age are crap. It wasn't Tranq who couldn't complete even the most routine passes yesterday. The offensive game plan gave Shinskie open receivers all day. I was at the game, and even without the benefit of multiple camera angles and replays, it was obvious to me that Shinskie just wasn't seeing his receivers until it was too late, and then he threw nerf balls.
Tranq's 3rd and 2 calls kill me -- I'll never understand why that's not either a running down or a play-action down. But other than that, he calls a more varied game than Logan did last year, and that was with a fifth-year senior QB for half the season.
I was at the game - we gave them 24 points. Other than that, we were up to the great Tar Heels. Too bad we couldn't convert those FGs into TDs in the first half. The players really buckled down and played hard - I was very proud of them.
Place was empty at kickoff, and only half full when it was 14 to 0, and people were still filing in when it was 21 to 0. Pathetic - and there was a lot of effort put into the pre-game for the starters and the seniors. The band did a great job as well - only a handful there to see it.
What is with BC fans anyway?
More on the game later. But I will say this - I've been to a lot of football games and I can not recall seeing a team fail to convert even one 3rd down - EVEN ONE!
Justin Tuggle might have really helped us in this game, but unfortunately, he wasn't Tranq's type.
Tuggle also sucked
Mod10,
Tranq's age and Shitskie's inability are separate issues. However, when placed together, they are not good.
Tranq reminds me of the Dan Henning days, when we would run draw plays on every 3rd and 7.
Shitskie reminds of the punt returns during Henning's reign, when we would all hold our breath every time our guy was about to catch the ball. Every time Uncle Dave drops back, I hold my breath waiting for the bonehead play.
I think the jury is still out on Tranquill, but If Shinskie had executed at a C- level instead of an F-, no one would be talking about Tranquill's play calling. He called the plays that produced open receivers, but Shinskie simply didn't make the throws. If he completes just three or four of those, it's a different game.
Mod--You have to create your game plan around the strengths and abilities of your players. Logan did a great job of that even if it was not varied enough for some people. He got a lot more out of Crane than most people would. On the other hand Tranq keeps putting the ball in Shinskie's hands even after he has shown time and again that he is not up to the task. He needs to start going with the play action, screens and 5 yard dunk passes more so Shinskie can't really screw them up instead of letting him make the worst damn decisions ever downfield.
Not to get too off-topic...UNC plays LSU in Atlanta in the Kickoff Classic next year. Hopefully UNC's defense proves itself on the national stage.
Bball v. No. Iowa tomorrow.
yes, the place was incredibly empty at kick off, very embarrassing but i'll blame it on early start time, nice weather, relaxed rules, last game, etc...Shinskie was awful, I hope he takes the off season to get in shape, perhaps find some speed, and generally have more confidence in himself. All in all, let's be proud, check the "archives," just a few months ago many wrote that BC football was dead.. gone, and here we are. Good job Eagles, the best is yet to come ( but, damn I wish we beat those Irish).
Check this out. It's hysterical.
CBS Sports in projecting that ND will go to the PIZZA bowl in Detroit to play Central Michigan.
OMG!
That has got to be the bottom of the barrell for ND.
Thanks for keeping ND mediocre Charlie, we will miss you!
We all know a 6-6 ND team will be slotted in a second tier bowl based solely on the fact that they bring money. Every second tier bowl must be salivating at the prospect of getting ND's mobile fan base at the game and huge television ratings.
I'm worried that the second viewing may have killed ATL.
Kuechly named ACC rookie of the week:
http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/112309aaa.html
Next stop: KUECHLY FOR ACC ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Not to speak ill of the dead, but is there anyone worth picking up out of the Northeastern program? I can't imagine there's much talent on a squad we beat 54-0 and went 3-8 in I-AA.
Dan -- I know!
Where art thou ATL?
In your absence, let me guess as to grades;
Offense: C, with a D+ for Shinskie
Defense: B+
Special T: B+
and Overall: C
How prescient, mod34!
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