There were a lot of exciting moments in the Syracuse football team’s thriller over Central Michigan. ITLH breaks down the top Orange peels from Week 3.
That’s what I’m talking about! Finally the Orange is the New Fast came back to life against the Central Michigan Chippewas. I won’t break my wrist patting myself on the back, despite saying last week was a bad day at the office.
Although in the first two quarters it certainly looked like another Middle Tennessee State kind of game. Inept offensively and the Cuse defense keeping the team in the game as long as they could. But everything changed with a record breaking third quarter for the Orange.
The Orange lit it up and, get ready for it, threw the ball downfield! It was a revelation not only among the fanbase but all over social media. I don’t think it was a coincidence that the Orange took shots and good things happened for them.
Before we start looking ahead to the first road game of the season for the Orange against a gargantuan SEC opponent in LSU, lets try to enjoy this victory for SU. Because lets be honest, if the Orange would’ve lost this game, the season would’ve been over. Well in terms of hopes of a bowl berth. You can’t lose back-to-back home games against Central Michigan and Middle Tennessee State and still win six games, not when you’re Syracuse.
5. Steve Ishmael is the real deal
When Ishmael first came to Syracuse, people thought he was a NFL kind of talent. I heard so from a former Orange player who was on the team when the Orange recruited him. That was the talk around Central New York.
Since all that talk, he hasn’t had a season with over 600 yards receiving, nor has he reached the
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double digit touchdown plateau. Enter Dino Babers, last season it appeared he was the key to unlocking Ishmael’s real potential. I mean if any coach could, why wouldn’t it be the architect of the fast-paced, high-octane spread attack Babers employed?
Although it wasn’t Ishmael who reaped the benefits of this explosive offense, instead it was a relatively unknown grad-transfer from Maryland who will be remembered forever here in Syracuse for the greatest single receiving season in Orange history. That was Amba Etta-Tawo and everyone has been saying how will the Orange replace a guy like that?
Ishmael has gone from the talk of the town, to the forgotten superstar. So far this season Ishmael has led all of college football in receptions, has had three straight 100+ yard receiving days (seventh player to accomplish that feat in SU history), and has been the engine that could for this offense. Speaking of engine, side note, it was great to hear that back in the Carrier Dome. Please get rid of the stupid bell, sincerely every Syracuse football fan.
Highlights | Syracuse vs. Central Michigan#OITNF 🍊💨 pic.twitter.com/VHsJwZDNWW
— Syracuse Football (@CuseFootball) September 16, 2017
4. The running game is back and better than ever
Overreaction much? Perhaps. But seriously SU couldn’t run the ball on Middle Tennessee State and then out of nowhere they rush for 300 yards? I mean watching the game on Saturday it felt like a mirage or oasis like dream state during the game.
Give SU credit, it wasn’t working at first and they just kept their due diligence and those three and four yard runs turned into the 50+ yarders and even 70+ yarders. They pounded the rock 40+ times and it worked.
What didn’t work, but still sort of did was Eric Dungey. For the third week in a row Dungey led SU in rushing. Now I’ve got mixed feelings about this. While I’ve given up complaining about running him, I can’t help but be a worried mother every time he does it.
He had another front flip in this game and he seems to have a propensity for the dangerous situations. You know how they say a guy has instincts and he’s always around the ball. Well this is sort of like that, except he’s always in danger. You can’t take away what he does best because that would make him a different player, but hopefully another player can step up to be the guy so Dungey doesn’t have to be for the Orange.
https://twitter.com/CuseFootball/status/909185707507425280
3. Huge 3rd quarter
There’s a lot of three’s going on here. But the three most important ones are 333, that is the amount of offensive production the Orange had in a single quarter. It was almost more than what the entire Central Michigan team did the whole game (380). While it wasn’t enough to eclipse what the Chippewas did, it was enough to topple SU’s offensive output from last week vs Middle Tennessee State.
Why the sudden offensive explosion? It wasn’t rocket science, rather, the Orange had an epiphany, they realized they have the weapons to throw it down the field, and that maybe we should try that. Try that they did, with huge plays coming in the running, receiving and returning game.
The Cuse looked like it was headed for another guzzling slug fest that would keep Central Michigan in the game late in the fourth quarter. The Orange changed their destiny by taking over the game en route to a blowout. Syracuse ended up walking away with the 41-17 victory.
The Cuse finished up with nearly 600 yards of offense and half of that coming on the ground with 300 big ones on the ground by a variety of players. We talked about Dungey already and he ended up with over 100 yards on the ground, which led the way for the Orange. Most of that came on his 74-yard run crossing up the Chippewas defense. Hopefully that mojo can continue into next week.
2. De-Fense
If it happens once, it’s a shooting comet. If it happens twice, it’s a coincidence. When it happens three times, that’s a pattern. The Orange defense is going to keep SU in every game this season. That seems to be the only consistent thing on this team so far with three weeks of college football in the books.
From the tackling, to the turnovers, to the key critical stops. Beautiful segue, speaking of stops, SU held the Chippewas to 3-of-16 on third down. Forced another three turnovers and kept the Orange engine on until it was at full cylinders in the third quarter.
Staying with the consistency topic, I guess every week the Orange are going to drop interceptions. While they caught the one that counted to flip the momentum of the game in the first half to get on the board, they dropped others throughout the game. Multiple picks just bounced off facemasks and gloves alike.
The Orange have to make those plays if they’re going to get a skin on the wall this year. Obviously in this game they didn’t need the extra turnovers winning by multiple touchdowns, but they won’t always be that fortunate. They’re led by their fearless leader and NFL hopeful, Zaire Franklin, and that’ll continue throughout the 2017 campaign.
1. Sean Freaking Riley
Where the heck did Sean Riley come from? Well technically speaking, when two people really love each other and they want to have a baby.
All kidding aside, he was recruited from Los Angeles, California. The petite sophomore standing at 5’8 on his tippy toes and weighing 155 pounds soaking wet was the unlikely hero for the Orange on Saturday.
While he could’ve caused more damage than he did with a couple of his big plays called back by penalty, he still racked up 247 all purpose yards. You read that correctly, coming in the running game, receiving, and returning game.
Riley came up big when SU needed him most. On SU’s official site he’s listed as a return specialist, and he’s been stuck in that label during his young career with the Orange. Now he’s kicked the door of opportunity in and has forced Babers hand to maximize his talents on offense.
Which is not only good news for Riley’s career with the Orange, but also in terms of SU becoming a more explosive team down the stretch. On the postgame show on The Score 1260, I took a bunch of calls that suggested the only way for SU to take down a behemoth on their schedule would be to take shots downfield. It’s hard to disagree with that notion, speaking of skins on the wall, SU has their first opportunity next week in Death Valley against LSU.