Joe Arrigo, Contributor (2-1)
As I wrote earlier in the week, the Syracuse Orange football team is at the fork in the road for the 2019 season. This game vs Western Michigan will tell us a lot about what team we will get the rest of the season.
I have a bad feeling that the players have already lost hope on this season, just because this was supposed to be the year that the Orange beat Clemson and really challenged the powerhouses that exist in College Football.
It’s impossible for Syracuse to make the College Football Playoff now, but SU’s remaining schedule is very favorable. There isn’t one game on their schedule they can’t win. If the Orange can regroup after a rough couple weeks, I think it is very possible that Syracuse could run the table, and finish out the regular season 10-2.
On Saturday, I will be watching to see what kind of energy Syracuse brings to this game. If they are flying all around the field and swarming to the ball, I will feel pretty confident that Syracuse can still make something good out of this year. But if they are just going through the motions out there, this season will get very ugly.
As for Western Michigan, I’m not worried about the fact that the Broncos beat Georgia State, the team that shocked Tennessee in Week 1. What concerns me is the fact that this is the last big school that Western Michigan plays this year. This is their Super Bowl. I know for a fact the Broncos are going to show up on Saturday, but will Syracuse show up?
Western Michigan QB Jon Wassink is playing better than Syracuse’s QB Tommy DeVito this season, so I expect the Broncos to play pretty well in this game.
The fact that Syracuse is only favored by six points really scares me as well. As for my prediction, I think this game means more to Western Michigan than it does to Syracuse.
I’m really worried Syracuse has given up on this season. I hope I am wrong, but I think Western Michigan pulls this off in the Dome, where the atmosphere won’t even be close to what we saw last Saturday night. WMU wins 31-30 over the Orange.