Syracuse Football Report Card: How did Orange Players do against LSU?

The Syracuse football team came up short against the LSU Tigers. Here’s our weekly report card on who did well and who didn’t on ITLH.

The Syracuse football squad fell to LSU on Saturday by a score of 35-26. SU really struggled out of the gate as Orange quarterback Eric Dungey threw a terrible interception that was returned to the 1-yard line and turned into a TD on the very next play. If you want any chance to come away with a win in Death Valley this is not how you want to start the game.

Syracuse rebounded from that poor decision by Dungey and weathered the storm in the first half. The Orange defense played poorly, but great for the first 27 minutes of the first half until LSU QB Danny Etling led an impressive two-minute drill capped off by a 43-yard TD to Stephen Sullivan which featured some awful coverage by the Orange secondary.

The Syracuse offense left a lot to be desired in the first half, moving the ball decently well at times between the 20’s but all attacks would flame out. A huge opportunity was missed when Orange wide receiver, Sean Riley, dropped about a 50-yard pass in the end zone. Syracuse went into the break down 14-3, missing out on plenty of chances to really take over the game.

In the third quarter, Syracuse’s secondary weakness’ were on display again as Etling hit Drake Davis in  stride for an 87-yard touchdown. Syracuse just has to clean these up heading into ACC play. You can’t expect to compete and be competitive when you are giving up huge chunk play touchdowns.

The Syracuse offense got on track as they continued to wear out an injured LSU defense with the pace. Some nice trick plays and pace, combined with Sterling Hofrichter’s punting allowed Syracuse to put up some points and eventually cut it to 28-26, giving the defense a chance to make a stop which they could not do.

Now let’s see how some of the Syracuse players did in a tough environment.