The Syracuse football team had their chances in this road tilt, but ultimately fell flat. ITLH breaks down the disappointments from their Week 4 loss.
Going into this game, the Syracuse football team was a three touchdown underdog. ESPN Analytics gave them less than a 12% chance to come away with the victory. Despite all that noise, several key analysts were predicting a ripe situation for a potential upset.
That infectious hot take seemingly changed the mood of the fan base in terms of morale heading into this game. Many fans started putting the pieces together saying hey maybe the Orange can get this. If you watched the game and didn’t look at the box score, you’d agree with that notion.
This could’ve been one of the biggest victories for the football program in a very long time. Instead of talking about things that didn’t happen, it’s time to talk about things that did. This loss drops SU to 2-2 on the season heading into a pivotal road game and ACC opener against NC State. The Wolfpack just beat Florida State in an upset on Saturday.
So what players dropped the ball for the Orange literally and figuratively? We break it all down in our weekly segment on ITLH.
5. SU Rushing Attack?
Through the first two weeks of the season, the Orange struggled to run the rock. Then suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere the Orange dropped a 300 yard bomb last week. For the first time in the Dino Babers era, the team ran for more yards than they passed for.
Apparently that was a fluke as SU struggled to run the ball, albeit against a tough SEC powerhouse in LSU. While the putting was going to be a bit rough, that’s no excuse for the Orange to be anemic. This is the problem. If the Orange can’t run the ball, they become one-dimensional. If they do that, then Eric Dungey is going to be extra vulnerable to taking punishment.
That’s what we saw in this ball game against the Tigers. That’s not a recipe for success for the Orange. Dungey hasn’t completed a full season in Orange in two seasons, the way things are going the third time certainly won’t be the try. The Cuse finished up with less than 100 yards rushing as a team.
For the first time this season, Dungey wasn’t the leading rusher. Which initially sounds good because you’d think that means another runner stepped up. Quite the opposite, Dontae Strickland’s team leading 27 yards hardly inspires confidence.
4. Steve Ishmael is really good
Well at least there’ll be one positive takeaway from this game and that’s Steve Ishmael. Last season, Amba Etta-Tawo showed in just one season in Orange that he was worth a kick at the next level. With Ishmael’s play, he’s doing the same exact thing.
So far through this season, Ishmael leads the NCAA in receptions and has had four straight 100+ yard contests to start the season. He ended up with 11 receptions for 123 yards and a touchdown which led the team, per ESPN.
Ishmael displayed what he does best throughout this game: winning 50-50 balls. For those who don’t know, a 50-50 ball is when a quarterback throws it up and sees if his receiver can go get it. It’s one of the game’s most interesting one-on-one chess matches in a game.
Ishmael has all the tools and came down with his fair share of big time plays in this game to keep the Orange in it. From key third down conversions to SU’s last score to bring them within a field goal late. SU may be .500, but don’t blame Ish for not doing his part.
3. There are no moral victories
I want to say that I’m proud of the Orange’s effort. I want to be optimistic, but I can’t. This was a game the Orange could’ve won by 10 points! In Tiger Stadium no less. You can’t win games when you receive the opening kickoff and you’re down seven nothing nine seconds into the game.
You can’t win the game when you drop EASY passes (more on that in a second). In a game of this magnitude you have to make special plays to win these games. LSU has won 49 straight nonconference games at home. They haven’t lost at home in 17 years against a nonconference contest. That means it’s hard. Nothing is going to come easy and nothing did in this game.
I speak on behalf of myself, perhaps other Orange fans feel the same way, I’ve had it with moral victories. “Wow man if SU plays like this they can beat anyone” — no thanks. SU if it plays the way it can would’ve won this game.
I’ve got a closet full of moral victories and they’re worth nothing. This was an opportunity for SU to flip the narrative. Everyone is down on this team. They haven’t appeared in the AP Top 25 in 16 years, they haven’t been relevant in at least that long. They could’ve had this town rocking and rolling, hell this team could be undefeated right now. Instead the team is at .500 looking hard at themselves in the mirror.
2. Cough drops
Butterfinger commercial…get it? No one gets my humor. But in all seriousness, SU had a serious case of drops and this isn’t the flu. This is a chronic disease that has plagued the Orange all season long. There were some key ones in the Middle Tennessee loss that made Orange fans look back at
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that game.
This LSU game will be another that you think, ‘what could’ve been’. The one that immediately jumps to mind is Eric Dungey buying time rolling out to the right on a critical third and long play and he finds Sean Riley wide open and throws a beautiful rainbow pass right in the bucket and Riley who was the hero last week, drops it in the middle of the endzone.
That’s a killer. In these games you need your big time players, to make big time plays, not drop them. SU ended up punting on fourth down (that’s a seven point swing). Speaking of momentum plays, as good of a player as Parris Bennett is, his hands need work.
He coulda, shoulda, woulda walked an interception into the endzone and put Syracuse right in the game. Bennett did everything right. He showed great awareness and anticipation analyzing the route and jumping in front of it, but failed the easiest and simplest part, catching the football. Although as you’ll see next, that was a theme throughout this ball game.
1. Dino Babers is responsible
There’s no sugar coating necessary for the Orange, this game came down to a handful of plays. As does most college football games, but Dino Babers has to take this one on the chin. I’m not going to question playcalling, that was pretty solid throughout the game.
It was the lack there of on two point conversions. SU was down 16 before they got a clutch touchdown from Dungey to make it a game again. Yet the Orange kicked the extra point and settled with only being down nine points. Odd to say the least.
Then when SU scored another touchdown and was down three and they kicked another extra point. Although this extra point made sense after botching the first one. The Orange end up folding like a lawn chair at the end and lose by two scores. But this was a game SU dominated throughout, despite the score.
Next: Syracuse Football: Blown opportunities result in disappointing loss for Cuse
Quick rant: What was up with the pooch onside kick? If you’re going to do that, then just kick the ball deep and play defense. Wasting a timeout on the Dungey-Zack Mahoney play?
Ultimately this game was about Babers acing the hardest part of the test (execution on trick plays for huge gains). While Babers failed the easiest part of the exam: game management. Something he should be well versed in, although it didn’t appear like that during critical moments of this contest.