SoCon Week 2

[The Jackal]

NC State loses at Miss. St. 24-10. NC State’s lone touchdown came very late. Strange game. There was less than 75 yds rushing total by both teams. (NCS 42 yds, MSU 22 yds) NCS threw over 50 times and MS threw 49. Look for NC St to throw it all over the field against the Paladins or they may think its s good game to work on their run game.

They may well be able to throw it all over the field vs us. As good as I think our D is - very good! - I still prefer to play a run team game vs a passing team. TTU just didn’t have much in the way of QB and they started out strong with a few nice throws. They just really didn’t
Have an accurate quarterback

Some of it is accuracy, but TTU's QBs had (1) virtually no time to throw, and (2) very small windows in which to throw.

They may not have been pinpoint accuracy, but their margin for error was very small against our defense.

This is what I'm talking about.

No, it's not an accurate throw. At the same time, the QB has to throw it quickly because he's got a defender in his face. He's also trying to fit the ball in above the spur and in front of the safety. That's a very small target.

Essentially, TTU's QB has only one person to throw to, has to rush to throw it to him, and is throwing it into an area in which four Furman defenders are closing quickly. Anything less than a perfect throw here is likely intercepted.

[Davemeister]

Pretty sure we are in for a SlobberKnocker in Paladin Stadium on 9/25.

I have a question for gofurman: Are you scared of Mercer?

[Affirm]

Oh.
Now WCU’s down 0-62.
Come on Catamounts.

0-76 final

[Affirm]

Yeah - not great, not terrible though…but SoCon needs great

3 UP / 3 DOWN / 3 Unchanged

Furman +
Mercer +
Chatt +

WCU Unchgd
Woff Unchgd
ETSU Unchgd

Samford -
VMI -
CIT -

Don't know what to think of Mercer yet. They played a really bad team and a really good team.

I didn't realize they had their off week before coming to Greenville.

Have seen all 4 games FU & Mercer have played.

Pretty sure we are in for a SlobberKnocker in Paladin Stadium on 9/25.

And…after the Paladins take down the Wolfpack next week, we should also see an overflow crowd.

The Paladins taking down the Wolfpack next week is highly unlikely.
Someone on UFFP wrote “shocker” to describe the outcome if we were to beat them.
As I see it, and in regard to what I expect to happen, “score wise” it will be good for Furman if the final score is better than a 20 point Furman loss to NC State. I expect it will be closer to a 40 point Furman loss. Hoping I am wrong.

[Furmanoid]

I think you are wrong because I don’t think NC State can score 40 points on us. But I’m not sure we will score more than 10 on them.

[apaladin]

Oh.
Now WCU’s down 0-62.
Come on Catamounts.

0-76 final

Correction: 76-0 final

[The Jackal]

I think you are wrong because I don’t think NC State can score 40 points on us. But I’m not sure we will score more than 10 on them.

Furman has a pretty long history of being a thorn in the side of ACC programs. Clemson's been a tough draw, but we don't have many blowout losses to a non-Clemson team from the ACC.

[Furmanoid]

Well I’m saying we can win a low scoring game. But being crack-free, I realize that we are unlikely to score much. Even a disappointing NC State defense is way, way, way better than defenses we’ve struggled against. They are still capable of blown coverages and slipping down and stuff like that, so we can steal a couple of TD’s but not much more. One thing that might help is that they will be too sophisticated to just do the Bush league everybody rushes defense that destroyed us all Spring.

[Affirm]

I think you are wrong because I don’t think NC State can score 40 points on us. But I’m not sure we will score more than 10 on them.

In any case, I hope Furman doesn’t get shut out, whether NCSU scores 20, 30, 40, or whatever.

[The Jackal]

Well I’m saying we can win a low scoring game. But being crack-free, I realize that we are unlikely to score much. Even a disappointing NC State defense is way, way, way better than defenses we’ve struggled against. They are still capable of blown coverages and slipping down and stuff like that, so we can steal a couple of TD’s but not much more. One thing that might help is that they will be too sophisticated to just do the Bush league everybody rushes defense that destroyed us all Spring.

I don't think our offense is "struggling."

We put up 29 against a good defensive A&T team and probably left 10 or 11 points on the field. We moved the ball well against TTU, just had trouble converting field goals to touchdowns in the red zone.

It's not perfect. We need some more consistency in our running game, for instance. However, we are a long way from "struggling" right now.

As an aside, you can win a lot of football games surrendering 9 ppg and having an offense that can consistently maintain possession and a solid kicker. It may or may not be enough against NCSU, but that approach will give us a good chance to beat everyone in the SoCon.

[Furmanoid]

Your last paragraph sums up what I’ve been saying, but for some reason you argue with me even though you agree! Good grief!

But OK “struggle” was maybe too harsh. Our performance has been suboptimal, how about that? But TTU is bad. I expected 40 against them. NCA&T isn’t looking so hot either. And so far nobody is throwing the sandlot defense at us that crushed us in the Spring. So I’m still not convinced the offense is fixed.

But if we can score 14 every game, we can win every game.

[The Jackal]

Your last paragraph sums up what I’ve been saying, but for some reason you argue with me even though you agree! Good grief!

But OK “struggle” was maybe too harsh. Our performance has been suboptimal, how about that? But TTU is bad. I expected 40 against them. NCA&T isn’t looking so hot either. And so far nobody is throwing the sandlot defense at us that crushed us in the Spring. So I’m still not convinced the offense is fixed.

But if we can score 14 every game, we can win every game.

TTU is not necessarily a good team, but I think if you told any Furman fan that we'd go on the road to a scrappy OVC opponent and win by 26, every one of us would take it.

I disagree about NCA&T, though. They were definitely selling out to stop the run and loading 8 or 9 in the box on a lot of plays. Furman schemed them up well and Sisson was on point with his throws into the traffic.

I know it's easy to look at the offense sputtering on a drive and have flashbacks to the spring where we seemed to be in 3rd an 8 every snap. I don't think we are there, though, for a few reasons:

• More weapons on offense. Joshua Harris looks like he's going to be a big problem for defenses.

• Better pass protection. On 70 attempts in two games, our OL has given up 1 sack for 3 yards. That's a massive turnaround.

• Emergence of WR depth. Bell, Harris, and Peterson have looked good as viable complements to Deluca.

• Consistency at QB. Sisson has completed 60% of his passes for 558 yards in two games. That's step for step with Samford's preseason all American QB in an offense built only to produce those type of numbers.

[Furmanoid]

When teams have 8 in the box, I don’t see that as selling out. It’s kind of standard. A 4-3 cover 3 is 8 in the box. It is just a run defense, that’s all. But last Spring it seemed like most of the 8 were flying forward at the snap which is all wrong but very effective against some teams. I haven’t seen much of that rec league approach this year. I think the DC’s have considered it beneath them.