The Syracuse football team struggled in Week 2, stumbling to a 30-23 loss to the Blue Raiders. Here are the top five bittersweet oranges from the contest.
Wow that was disgusting. The scoreboard didn’t show it for the Syracuse football team. I mean they only lost by a touchdown (30-23), but it felt like the Orange lost by a billion points. This was a team that had legitimate bowl aspirations. A team that many already wrote three wins in the column heading into the LSU game.
Many fans called into the postgame show and said:
- Is it basketball season yet?
- It’s Tommy DeVito time! Eric Dungey sucks!
- Orange is the New Fast is a sham.
We’ll address, most of these notions in our weekly bittersweet oranges piece. Last week we only had three bittersweet oranges, this week we have to bump it up to five. The offense wasn’t fast or efficient. The loudhouse wasn’t the loudhouse, and I can’t blame the fans. The running game is non-existent.
Dino Babers doesn’t care about the long term health of Dungey. The defense was atrocious. A lot of the postgame comments were trash from the coach. Lets not waste any more time, here’s the top-five bittersweet moments from Week 2.
5. What The Fake?
WTF? What the fake?
Complete and utter nonsense. Now don’t get me wrong the Orange didn’t lose the game because of this BUT it was something that affected the game. Orange is the New Fast and everyone knows it because when we talked with play-by-play man Chip Walters he mentioned it. Plus everyone just knows Babers MO.
So the Blue Raiders dropped like flies when the Orange were moving too fast? Convenient. But the worst one came at the end of the game when the Orange were about to snap the ball and clearly the Blue Raiders would’ve been called for 12 men on the field and one of their corners drops like he got shot. Convenient again.
Yet the referees did nothing. Although miraculously he rose from the dead mere minutes later and looked just fine. I couldn’t have been screaming at the WatchESPN app more than I was. It’s impossible to tell when players are faking or when they’re really injured, but sometimes are just so obvious you have to do something about it. People can call it ‘gamesmanship’ but I call it bullshit.
4. Not going to stretch the ball down the field?
What the heck happened to this offense? When players weren’t faking injuries for the Blue Raiders, the Orange offense still couldn’t get it moving. This isn’t the 2000 Baltimore Ravens defense we’re talking about here. It wasn’t just the execution, which was obviously poor, but the play calling was suspect.
A lot of screens, bubble plays, crap run plays, and dangerous quarterback running (more on that later). So what could be the reason for this? Are the Orange not as good as we thought they were? Did we underestimate the ‘Scott Shafer‘ emotional factor?
That’s what Dino Babers suggested in his postgame comments. The only long ball I saw was when Dungey got knocked out of the game and Zack Mahoney came in. Like I don’t agree with the notion SU isn’t talented enough because they have the horses clearly. Look at Steve Ishmael, look at Erv Philips.
These are both players who could and should break the all-time reception mark at Syracuse. This is a University that has Pro Football Hall of Famer’s at the position. I know it was a little bit ago, but that’s significant. There’s no excuse not to adapt when things aren’t working. The Orange weren’t making things happen and enter halftime and things continued not to work.
3. Eric Dungey health clearly isn’t a concern
I’ve given up. Heading into the season one of the main priories for the team was preserving the health of their Heisman hopeful, Eric Dungey. Now it seems that was never really a priority. In the first two weeks of the season Dungey has 28 rushing attempts for 104 yards. He’s the 146th
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leading rusher in NCAA, per ESPN statistics.
It started Week 1 against the Blue Devils. It should be labeled ‘reckless’ because that’s what it was. Not only due to his recent history of durability issues, but because this is the most important player on the Cuse team. In terms of wins and losses, in terms of rolling on all cylinders, and in terms of hope for the future.
Is honesty like chivalry? Retired? Is no one honest anymore, the reason why I ask is because Dino Babers promised that all the quarterback run plays were out of the playbook. Yet over the sample size we’ve been provided, it seems that’s not true at all. Dungey’s been the leading rusher for the Orange and that’s not good for him or the team.
The Orange have a slew of very capable running backs. Yet for whatever reason they refuse to use them. Let me stop the fans saying the offensive line sucks because if it does then why avoid running with the position running was created for and put your quarterback in extra danger? Doesn’t make sense.
2. Cheap Shots
Continuing on the Dungey point, now it can’t be argued he’s an extremely aggressive player. Due to this, he’s always going to be in harm’s way. Although a line has to be drawn in the sand. Just because he’s a mobile quarterback doesn’t mean he should be abused additionally. The best parallel that can be made is Cam Newton last year in the NFL.
He’s labeled as a mobile quarterback and often a lot of the hits he takes are due to him running
outside the pocket. Although last season he was taking additional hits and either on purpose (despicable) or subconsciously referees were letting the hits happen after the play.
Dungey has taken his fair share of cheap shots in his Orange career and that trend continued in the Carrier Dome on Saturday. Walter Brady of the Blue Raiders took a cheap shot to Dungey’s head and he had to be taken out of the game.
The referees did disqualify him, but at that point the damage is already done. I’ve never seen a collegiate player take more hits in his career after the whistle than with Dungey. He’s not going to finish the season unless something changes with play calling.
Epic: 2 years after being fired as Syracuse's head coach, Scott Shafer upsets SU w/ MTSU. Had celebratory cigar ready pic.twitter.com/zut9RIaYoF
— Stephen Bailey (@Stephen_Bailey1) September 9, 2017
1. Scott Shafer with the victory cigar
Scott Shafer was on a mission. Not many gave his team a chance to win the game, (Vegas projected the Orange as 10 point favorites). Yet his emotional return was realized with a huge win over a power-five school in Syracuse.
After the game, Babers said the team wasn’t ready for the emotional roller coaster and said the blame was on him. I personally said I didn’t think Shafer could do it. But I admit when I’m wrong and Shafer won the chess match between explosive offense and hard-nosed defense.
After the game Shafer enjoyed a victory cigar as noted by Syracuse.com’s Stephen Bailey. Shafer also received a larger applause than I thought from the fanbase entering the Carrier Dome and when he went up to the press box.
Next: Syracuse Basketball: Top 30 Players in School History
Here’s an interesting note to think about for Week 3 of college football. Not that you’d be usually watching Middle Tennessee Football, but this week may be an exception. Shafer took out the team that fired him in the Orange this past Saturday. Up next? He can now go to Minnesota to take out the man who fired him in Mark Coyle. When people get fired they always want to go out with a bang. While Shafer’s vengeance would be a bit delayed, it would put another big smile on his face.