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

Philips is a great player for Syracuse in the slot position and when he and Eric Dungey are on the same page they are tough to contain. Philips, who was listed as questionable going into the game and some reported he wouldn’t play managed to haul in 11 passes for 93 yards and a touchdown. Philips also had a huge eight yard rush that picked up a fourth and five for Syracuse en route to a touchdown by Dungey.

The Connecticut native stuck to what he knows best finding creases in the LSU defense 7-10 yards down field, catching the ball and looking to turn it up the field for more yards. He played a great game and was getting beat up by the much bigger LSU linebackers and safeties who were covering him. This was a truly gutsy performance by Philips who picked up some big first downs and caught Devin C. Butler’s 30-yard scrambling TD pass in the end zone that pulled Syracuse to within nine points.

Philips has had a very successful career and was named preseason second team All-ACC after being honorable mention last season. He was relatively quiet against Central Michigan and Middle Tennessee State, it was nice to see Erv get back on track against a very good opponent. He did have a few drops against those teams, so that was concerning but was relatively sure handed this weekend.

One possible reason for the success is that Philips was being used much more in the slot, where he is more comfortable. Against CMU and MTSU, he was forced to play a fair amount of snaps at outside receiver where he is not nearly as comfortable due to the Jamal Custis injury.

Steve Ishmael also had a very big game against the Tigers, but we have graded him in the past three weeks. If Syracuse wants to have much success in the ACC both Philips and Ishmael will have to continue their good wide out play.