Tuesday Thoughts 11/14: On to Syracuse

Yikes, that was bad.

Game Recap in Three Sentences

Tech scored first but then gave up 42 unanswered points before managing a couple worthless late TDs.

The offense completely disappeared for nearly the entire game, having only 1 passing yard at the half and finishing with just 254 total offensive yards.

Four interceptions (including three on three straight drives) killed any hopes of driving down the field.

Above The Line of the Week

1. Jamal Haynes quietly had a 104 yard rushing game on just 15 carries.
2. Not getting too many penalties maybe?
3. Idk basically nothing went well.

Unformed Thought of the Week

Clemson is now on a nine game win streak against us; our last win was in the magical 2014 season. A couple of those losses have been close, but by and large they’ve absolutely smoked us. Saturday’s debacle was unfortunately par for the modern course in this rivalry and it sucks. Even in a “down” year for them we just got trampled.

5 Star (7 Star, 5 Star) Developmental Program Haiku of the Week

Can’t beat the Tigers
Please please just beat Syracuse
Don’t ruin the year

On to Syracuse

Look, I don’t really have anything new to say about that one. It was embarrassing, grotesque, and painful to watch. Let’s put it out of our minds, we’re on to Syracuse.

Nothing matters as long as we beat Syracuse. It is the most important thing, it is the only thing. We can lose by 60 to Georgia and I’ll be fine as long as we have that sixth win in our back pocket. The only silver lining to getting absolutely pantsed by Clemson is that it hopefully lights a fire under the team and galvanizes our focus. In stereotypical Tech fashion we’ve left ourselves with no room for error; the Syracuse game is the single point that will make or break our season. A win and we’re in bowl game bliss with failure amnesia, a loss and we’re rehashing “how the hell did we lose to Bowling Green” all offseason. 2024 is going to be a difficult year and the momentum of a bowl game will be critical to its success.

Everyone needs to start burning offerings to the ACC deities now and pray for Coastal Chaos to once again lift one of its former members to greatness.

Look Ahead

Up next is Syracuse (11/18, 8:00pm). For like the fifth time this year, I’m here to tell you that our next opponent is something of an enigma. After a HOT 4-0 start where they were putting up points left and right, the Orange then lost five straight before finally overcoming Pitt last week. Here’s the good news: Pitt is awful and it wasn’t exactly a dominant performance. The big question will be whether QB Garrett Shrader will be healthy and ready to play a full game. This matchup is classic Tech: if we play our best it should be a relatively easy win, but if we don’t then it could be a bad night. Speaking of, I’m very happy this is a home night game; Hopefully with a great atmosphere we can put together a solid 60 minutes and earn ourselves a bowl berth.