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.
If Syracuse wanted to win, most people knew that they were going to need a big game out of their third year quarterback. The quarterback who has had well documented injury problems at Syracuse is capable of doing big things both in the air and on the ground. Dungey is a flat-out play maker and has played great at times in his Syracuse career.
But Dungey did not play all that well this past weekend. I’ve always subscribed to the idea that
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Dungey is the Orange’s best option at quarterback and plays the position quite well. The past two seasons Dungey has turned out great numbers in his first two college seasons, and I thought he would make an even bigger jump this season.
In his first two seasons at Syracuse, Dungey complied 3,977 yards passing, 644 yards rushing, and 37 total TD’s, and 13 Int’s in just 17 games. Pretty impressive numbers but Dungey also has one his fair share of turning the ball over and beating up on some of Syracuse’s weaker opponents.
One of his biggest problems has been neglecting to look at of his primary receivers. This was a huge problem this week as Dungey’s interception, handing LSU all the momentum, came on a play where he never looked off his No. 1 option.
Throughout the remainder of the first half, the Syracuse defense was doing their job limiting LSU and winning the field position battle. This is where I thought Dungey would elevate to this season, that game was up for grabs and he took some bad sacks, called some premature time-outs and never was able to put up more points for the Orange.
Syracuse had an opportunity to score some points when Dungey aired it out 50-yards to WR Sean Riley who dropped it in the end zone. Dungey and the Orange offense had a chance to put up points and take control from the 7:58 mark in the first quarter to the 2:45 mark of the second quarter neither team scored. This is when Dungey needed to step up and score some points, grabbing control of the game.
Overall on the day, Dungey was 32/55, 265 yards, 1 TD, the big INT while also rushing the ball 13 times for 24 yards including 1 TD. These aren’t bad numbers but over the next eight games of the season I would like to see some improvement out of Eric Dungey. His offensive stat line isn’t terrible; but he needs to get rid of the ball, look through his progressions for the true open man, and stay in the pocket longer rather than looking to run.
Dungey’s decent number keep his grade up, and the aforementioned Riley drop hurts those numbers even more. I just see too much potential in the Oregon native, I would like to see him take over some games and really lead this offense down the field.
I mean what can you say about this kid. He is one of the real reasons why Syracuse was able to contain LSU’s offense in the first half having two punts downed inside the 10 yard line. He has become a real weapon for Syracuse head coach Dino Babers who now can use him more if the Syracuse defense is playing well like they did against LSU.
In the second half of the game, Hofrichter looked great again. He had the punt that was downed at the one yard line that ultimately turned into a safety by linebacker Parris Bennett. This was a huge change in momentum that gave the Orange two points and then gave them the ball back off of a punt that turned into a touchdown.
Hofrichter’s punt downed at the one that led to a safety really got Syracuse back in the game. Not only was it downed at the one yard line, but it was also a 58-yard punt, his longest of the day. Syracuse was down 28-10 at that point and needed a big play turnover.
Syracuse has a long-standing tradition of punters lately as Rob Long and Riley Dixon have paved the way before Hofrichter. The red shirt sophomore will be huge for Syracuse in the years to come and missed out on being preseason All-ACC by just two votes.
On the season now Hofrichter has 21 punts, with 11 coming downed inside the opponents 20 yard line, and an average of 46.2 yards. He has a long of 64 yards and that safety was largely due to his credit and the special teams ability to get down the field and down the ball.
Now we just need to get him involved in the fakes game and he’s the next Riley Dixon! #DixonForHeisman
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.
This is another kid who has had just a tremendous career at Syracuse and the departures of him and fellow linebacker’s Jonathan Thomas and Zaire Franklin will be tough in 2018. But let’s stick to this season, and particularly discuss how well Bennett played against LSU.
This kid was all over the field in Baton Rouge making 12 total tackles, deflecting one pass that maybe could have been intercepted, three tackles for a loss of five total yards including the huge tackle on the safety. Bennett left everything out there on the field and was certainly the best player on Syracuse’s defense.
The Detroit native has really good football skills, he knows how to shoot the right gaps and stop the run and can also do a good job covering running backs in the flats. He is extremely valuable for Syracuse and probably is their best blitzing linebacker, recording four quarterback hits this season, good most on the team. He also leads the team in tackles at 29 through and also leads them in tackles for loss at four and a half.
Bennett is having a tremendous senior campaign thus far and could be playing his way into giving himself a chance at the next level. If you watched the game on Saturday you know Bennett is all over the field and is just making plays.
Next: Syracuse Football: Top-5 bitter sweet oranges from loss to LSU
The 218-pound linebacker will be a key for Syracuse on Saturday as NC St likes to try to establish the run game and will throw lots of passes to their running backs. He and his partner in crime Zaire Franklin will need to contain the NC St playmakers at running back, which they a good job of this past week.