Syracuse Football: Gritty Orange fall at Miami, who played well?

Here’s your weekly Syracuse football report card. The Orange may have lost to the Hurricanes, but they showed a ton of heart and have done that all season.

The Syracuse football team had yet another tough task this weekend when they went on the road to take on the No. 8 Miami Hurricanes. Coming off a roller-coaster of emotions this past week after their upset win against Clemson, there were questions about whether or not the Orange would be ready to play.

In the first half, it looked like Eric Dungey was still riding high off his performance against the Tigers. The Syracuse signal caller threw four interceptions in the first half. This really set the tone of the game as all day the Orange couldn’t get out of their own way. The Syracuse defense played extremely well minus the one long pass play in the third quarter that resulted in a touchdown. Once again the defensive line struggled to get much of a pass rush on Miami quarterback Malik Rosier.

Syracuse’s run game was solid all day gaining 264 yards, as Dontae Strickland eclipsed the 100 yard total along with Eric Dungey. Moe Neal chipped in with 46 yards and a touchdown.

Syracuse’s execution in the red zone was pitiful all day as the Orange found some success moving the ball in the second half but only found the end zone once. Cole Murphy was tremendous on the day, making four field goals. However, having to settle for these field goals really did prove to be the difference and multiple times when the Orange had goal to go, they made mistakes.

Parris Bennett once again led the Orange in tackles with ten. He now has 75 tackles through the Orange’s first eight games and I really hope the kid gets credit for the type of season he is putting together.

With 11:50 left in the 4th quarter Syracuse had the ball at the Miami ten yard line. The following two plays were bad snaps by the center, which led to Eric Dungey getting sacked twice, settling for a field goal.

Lets see who helped the Cuse nearly pull off another upset:

I have been extremely critical of the senior Orange kicker, and I’ll be the first one to admit he proved me wrong Saturday at Miami. Murphy nailed four field goals for Syracuse, and if it wasn’t for him, the game wouldn’t have been close.

Murphy made field goals from 22, 40, 45, and 53 yards and bailed out a Syracuse offense that really struggled in the red zone. Eric Dungey was under pressure seemingly all day and the Syracuse offensive line was all kind of out of sorts. Center Airon Servais had multiple bad snaps, penalties, and plays for a loss of yardage all contributed to Cole Murphy’s big day kicking.

The field goal in the first half was a nice confidence builder for Murphy who had to be thinking of the slippery conditions the two teams were playing in. Murphy nailed a nice field goal to start off the second half on Syracuse’s opening drive.

Later on in the half, he put home a crazy 45-yarder. The California native approached the ball, and as he brought his leg forward to complete the kick, he slipped on the turf after striking the ball, falling to the ground. This was a remarkable individual effort by Murphy and a play that brought Syracuse to within four midway through the fourth quarter.

Murphy later hit a 53-yarder, which I thought was pointless to even try kicking in the situation. I was stunned to see him make the deep kick, a career long and the kick that brought Syracuse to within one point.

Murphy has had some problems on kickoffs this season, but against Miami he was good. He kept the ball in bounds all game and assisted in field position for Syracuse.

Dungey played probably the worst football of his Syracuse career in the first half against Miami. He was throwing the ball around the field with reckless abandon and he and the Orange paid for it. The offense in the first half stunk and whenever Syracuse did move the ball with effectiveness, Dungey would later throw an interception.

Miami picked off Dungey four times with, the second and third interceptions were really bad passes and receivers were never close to hauling in the ball. Dungey’s first pick was tipped at the line and then caught by a Miami defensive lineman. Give credit to Dungey, he hustled over immediately, and ripped the ball out of the lineman’s hands, regaining possession for the Orange. The fourth pick was a 50/50 ball thrown to Jamal Custis, and he did not make a good play on the ball, allowing the Miami DB to pick it off. I will say in his postgame press conference, Dino Babers said this about the picks:

"“There was a combination of things. Some times it was a wide receiver, some times it was an offensive lineman. It really wasn’t Dungey. It looks like four interceptions on the quarterback, but there were a lot of other things going on.”"

In the second half, Dungey came out with a purpose and made some plays for Syracuse. His performance in the first half was very bad, but he showed real perseverance and toughness in the second half.

His final stats were 13/41 137 yards, 0TD’s and 4INT’s with a quarterback rating of 24. That is about as bad as it gets in terms of stats through the air and I guarantee you this will be his worst game of the season. On the ground, Dungey began to figure things out in the second half especially. He carried the ball 20 times (too many) for 100 yards and a few highlight plays including this one:

I give the kid a ton of credit, his receivers were struggling to get open, and his offensive line was not in sync like it was against Clemson. However, Dungey needs to be smarter and some of those interceptions are okay to throw, but I still think he would like to have one or two back.

By the end of the game, Dungey was battered and bruised and the bye week will do him good. I love the kid as Syracuse’s quarterback and I think that as long as he is playing quarterback, Syracuse fans should feel like they have a chance to win. He simply makes plays.

Miami defensive coordinator, Manny Diaz recognized how hard Dungey was playing and his will to win. This is a classy move by the young coordinator: Grade: B-

Brandon Berry came to Syracuse this offseason from a Junior College and figured to contribute to a young defensive line. Berry has stepped in this season and been very solid, but I would like to see more from him. He finally showed up with a big game Saturday in Miami.

The Georgia native racked up seven total tackles five solo. He did not record any other defensive stats, but seven tackles is a very good amount for a defensive end. Berry is currently filling in for Kendall Coleman on the offensive line, and his pass rushing is sorely missed.

Berry weighs is about 15-20 pounds lighter than Coleman at 232 pounds, which is pretty light considering he is going up against ACC offensive lineman. If you are that small, you need to have elite quickness to get to the quarterback and he has yet to record a sack.

Next: Syracuse Football Recruiting Sitdown: Brandon Berry

Berry seems to be more of a run stopping defensive end. I have noticed him multiple times throughout the season do a nice job of setting the edge on stretch runs and tosses to the outside. While run stopping does seem to be the strength of Berry’s game, any sort of pass rush last weekend would have been huge as Miami QB Malik Rosier was able to sit back in the pocket and deliver throws.

Kendall Coleman and Josh Black both seem like they are due back after the bye week and hopefully they will be effective again. Coleman will be back as the primary defensive end, while Black will likely see more snaps as an interior defensive lineman, but may still see some at DE.

Berry’s role will decrease after that, but I think he should see snaps on running downs and he will still be a top four defensive end for the Orange. He had a chance to make a big impact this weekend and he did his job in terms of tackles, but Berry needs to work on his pass rushing.

The Syracuse run game came alive once again this week and these two led the charge. The run game has seen some success starting in the Pittsburgh game and continuing until this Miami game.

In the first five games of the season, Syracuse rushed for 716 total yards, good for 143 yards per game. That is flat-out awful, and if it weren’t for a 300 yard rushing performance against Central Michigan in week three the number would have been much lower.

In the last three games, Syracuse and their run game has been better against better opponents. They have racked up 561 yards on he ground, good for 187 yards per game, a solid increase compared to the first five games.

Dontae Strickland and Eric Dungey have gotten the brunt of the carries this season, with Moe Neal serving as the change of pace back. Neal is averaging a respectable 4.7 yards per carry on the ground, Strickland checks in at 3.7 yards per carry while Dungey is sitting at 4.0 yards per carry.

In the Miami game, Strickland ran the ball extremely well, gashing the Miami defense for 10+ yard carries multiple times. He finished with 14 carries for 105 yards and probably would have touched the ball more if Syracuse wasn’t trying to come back from a deficit in the end.

Moe Neal brought that nice change of pace to the table for the Orange. He rushed the ball 14 times also for only 46 yards but had a nice 15 yard touchdown run on a read option for play between him and Dungey. Dungey did a nice job holding onto the ball, disguising that he was going to run it, and at the last second handed it off to Neal who took it to the house:

All in all, it was a great game for the Syracuse running backs and I think the Orange coaches should have tried to establish the run more in the first half. By the time they found out the ground game was working, they were already down by 14 with only about a quarter to play, in passing situations.