The Syracuse football squad faced little adversity in their Week 5 thumping of the Holy Cross Crusaders. Here are all the details and the highlights.
The Syracuse football squad is back over the .500 mark after beating the holy hell out of the Crusaders. Here’s how they did it.
First half
This was a game that was never going to be in question. The Orange were 38.5 point favorites in this contest and have wallopped 35 straight FCS opponents in a row.
After winning the toss, the Orange deferred and Holy Cross got the ball first. Just as was the case in every contest so far this season, the Crusaders went scoreless in the opening quarter.
The Orange put up 17 points in a variety of ways:
- Aaron Hackett found the end zone for the fourth time this season from 14 yards out.
- The new No. 1 wide receiver Trishton Jackson scored on a 17-yard bullet from Tommy DeVito.
- A 52-yard field goal was drilled but not by Syracuse’s Lou Groza award winner Andre Szmyt, but their punter Sterling Hofrichter.
- The athletics department later confirmed this wasn’t due to injury, this was simply to get a look at some of the backups. To be honest, Sterling’s kick would’ve been good from 60 yards out.
A play that also deserves recognition in this game is Aaron Bolinsky who forced a fumble on a punt play in the first quarter. For those who don’t know, Aaron is the team’s long snapper. For him to snap the ball then run down and make the play is remarkable.
Holy Cross did get on the board with a field goal in the second quarter.
Although a real lowlight in the first half was an atrocious targeting call by the officials late in the first half. Holy Cross quarterback Connor Degenhardt avoided the near sack in the endzone, moved over to the right and was drilled by Syracuse defensive lineman Tyrell Richards in the shoulder area.
It was a bone-crushing hit that initially went without a flag. Upon further review, the officials called the penalty for targeting and gave the Crusaders a fresh set of downs. You can watch the play here to make your own judgment.
Ultimately the Orange led 24-3 at the half in a dominant performance, but it could’ve been even better for Syracuse on the scoreboard. The offense really slowed down for the squad in the second quarter.
Second half
Usually, you’d be pretty happy up three scores on anyone, but there were several depressing moments in the second half for the Orange.
The offense just looked lackluster: bad play-calling, subpar offensive line play, and just an overall underwhelming feeling.
This is Holy Cross, Syracuse shouldn’t be struggling in ANY category vs this team, yet struggled coming out of the second half.
Four straight punts between the end of the first half and the start of the second half is just pathetic.
They finally broke the drought thanks to a season-long punt return from Sean Riley to set up the Orange deep in Crusaders territory. Syracuse got a first down for the first time since the second quarter and ended up punching in another field goal to make it 27-3.
With the game growing stale, the Orange finally broke through thanks to some YAC from Syracuse wideout Taj Harris. He caught the underneath pass made a few Crusaders miss and took it to the house from 47 yards out.
With that, the Orange opened up the game leading 34-3, but even with it being such a large lead, it just didn’t feel that way.
With the game well in hand, we also got a glimpse at the future of the tight end position with Luke Benson cashing in on a 70-yard touchdown.
Top takeaways:
- The starters played a little deeper into this game than most would’ve expected, but perhaps they wanted some more live reps.
- While the starters played longer than anticipated, a lot of the younger players on the roster still got a lot of run in this game on all sides of the ball. Building depth is key for the Orange.
- Holy Cross couldn’t stop a nosebleed, yet somehow bottled up the Orange running game. That was incredibly disconcerting and so was the offense in general. Playcalling will not be a highlight of this contest.
Syracuse ended up winning this one 41-3 (just missing out on covering the spread thanks to a Jawhar Jordan fumble deep in Holy Cross territory). Up next for the Orange they’ll enjoy some much needed time off (bye week) then they’ll return to action for some Thursday Night Football vs NC State on the road October 10.