The Good, The Bad, and the Syracuse-Rutgers Clusterfuck

Hello, my name is Mitch and I am the other founder of this blog. I coached football my senior year in high school, which probably makes me the first openly gay man to coach a football team at any level. Football, it follows, is my favorite sport. I am not able to casually watch it any longer, as I feel the need to analyze everything I see.

That probably explains why the Syracuse-Rutgers game was so depressing. It was the most error filled game I have ever seen. I don't understand why Syracuse students drink at so many parties when their football games are a much better thing to black out of your mind. The game had 9 turnovers, 21 penalties for 143 yards, less than 50% completions, 5 missed field goals, a missed extra point, and a bad officiating error in overtime.

The first play from scrimmage was a fumble by Syracuse running back Antwan "Cutback" Bailey, which Rutgers recovered in field goal range. Did they capitalize? Nope (Chuck Testa). Two plays later was a fumble returned for a touchdown by Syracuse. The next drive resulted in a missed 51 yard field goal by Rutgers kicker San San "San Squared" Te, one of 3 misses by him on the game.

As the puntfest continued on, I grew more and more frustrated by the lack of ability that both sides showed in this game. At the beginning of the second quarter, San Squared missed his second kick of the game, which was quickly followed up by a Syracuse punt. Rutgers then followed up the punt with another fumble. Syracuse, with the ball on the Rutgers 26 yard line, played conservatively and kicked a field goal threw an interception to a defensive lineman on a screen pass. Rutgers scored a field goal later, and we went to half with a score of Syracuse 7, Rutgers 3. Greg “Gaptooth” Schiano decided to kick a 52 yard field goal forego a 52 yard field goal attempt right before the half, which seemed like a coaching error at the time, one that was surpassed later on (I’ll get to that later). Syracuse opened up the second half with a defensive stand and a touchdown, which was the last piece of offensive production in the game by Syracuse. The extra point by Ross “Extra Point?” Krautman was good blocked. I have a rule: when an extra point is missed, you lose every one possession game.

Rutgers threw an interception on the next possession, giving Syracuse the ball in field goal range, which they turned into 7 points squandered by playing conservative and making missing a short field goal.

Rutgers, on their next possession, had a negative 6 yard, 9 play drive that took up nearly 5 minutes. I don’t know how they did it. I think I’m repressing memories at this point. All I know is that Syracuse got the ball on a fumble inside of field goal range and drove the ball to the five yard line. From there, they decided to pass into the endzone. Syracuse kept the threat of the run by having someone in the backfield made the pass obvious by leaving nobody in the backfield and blew another scoring opportunity with an interception.

The fourth quarter started with Syracuse up by 10, and it was cut to 7 by San Squared when he hit a field goal. The Syracuse field goal on the next possession was made blocked when the coaches adjusted for ignored the way Rutgers blocked the extra point earlier. Rutgers then tied the game by returning the kick and not having a stupid penalty call it back mounted a long, game tying drive with 2:09 left. Syracuse had the ball in a long field goal situation with 30 seconds left on third down, so they ran the ball so that they would have the last play of the game be a scoring opportunity for Syracuse threw a pass to force a long fourth down just outside of field goal range. Syracuse pinned Rutgers deep launched a risky pass late over the middle which was intercepted and returned to field goal range. The mid length field goal was good wide left, forcing the game into overtime.

Overtime featured the worst coaching decision of the game, courtesy Doug “The Manimal” Marrone. Fourth and inches from the 4, he calls a QB sneak under the knowledge that his field goal unit is terrible launched a field goal under the boos of all of the 42,000+ fans in the stadium (Just kidding, many people left when they realized that they were going to die in 7 days after watching this horrifying game). The next 2 OT possessions were field goals by Rutgers, and then Syracuse fumbled and lost the game. The fumble was reviewed, and it was clear that Cutback was down by contact. It wasn’t overturned. We must remember that SU won against Toledo on a blown call that was reviewed and held up. My guess is that officials in the Big East aren’t allowed to overturn calls, but I can’t keep writing about this. Awful game. I’m disgusted. I want to go see my fun buddy Vic but after seeing Rutgers and Syracuse suck today, I don't think I need any more sucking today. I’m going to watch some baseball.