Syracuse Football: Only a few bright spots in positional grades vs. Pitt

Syracuse football doesn’t get a lot of stellar grades after a relatively dismal performance over the weekend at Pittsburgh.

Syracuse football looked fairly woeful in a lot of facets of the game as the Orange offense sputtered in a 21-10 setback to then-No. 25 Pittsburgh this past Saturday afternoon from Heinz Field.

The ‘Cuse has fallen twice in a row to start the 2020 campaign, with both defeats on the road to foes ranked in the Associated Press top-25 poll.

So it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibilities that Syracuse football would come up short in this duo of Atlantic Coast Conference battles, given the circumstances.

Still, the overall showing by the Orange versus the Panthers didn’t prove all that inspiring, not in the least, and providing grades by position for that contest feels pretty brutal, for the most part. Statistics cited below, by the way, come courtesy of ESPN.com.

Quarterbacks: D-
The only reason that I’m not giving the signal-callers an F here is because Syracuse football finally scored its first touchdown of the 2020 stanza, a 69-yard TD pass by redshirt senior QB Rex Culpepper.

Culpepper received extended minutes against Pitt, as redshirt junior Tommy DeVito got banged up a bit versus the Panthers.

DeVito finished 9-of-15 for a mere 32 yards and an interception. Culpepper, meanwhile, had that one touchdown throw, and he was 4-of-9 for 88 yards. The quarterback debate rages on among ‘Cuse fans.

Running Backs: B-
Redshirt freshman Jawhar Jordan, the team’s starting running back, had 13 carries for 40 yards, which isn’t great, but it’s also not awful, either.

Freshman running back Sean Tucker got rave reviews from the Orange fan base, as Tucker picked up 23 yards on only four carries, which translates to a strong 5.8 yards per attempt. Maybe it’s time to give Tucker the ball more moving forward.

Wide Receivers: C-
Junior Taj Harris hauled in that 69-yard score from Culpepper, which is the good news. The bad news is that, besides that event, the wide receivers as a collective unit caught 12 passes for 51 yards, which is a sub-par 4.25 yards per reception. That won’t do.

Tight Ends: NA
It would prove nice if the Syracuse football tight ends got some utilization in the passing attack.

Offensive Line: D-
The offensive line is catching a lot of grief from fans, and some of that is deserved, since for the second-consecutive week, Orange quarterbacks got sacked seven times. Still, let’s remember that the offensive line is facing some depth challenges due to injuries and other issues.

The Syracuse football team had just a couple of positive grades following a 21-10 loss on the road to Pitt.

Defensive Line: B-
The defense as a whole proved solid, much like against North Carolina on Sept. 12. One thing to note, though, is that defensive linemen hopefully will get more pressure on the quarterback in upcoming affairs, because that lacked some versus Pittsburgh.

Linebackers: A
This group as a whole competed at a high level, and sophomore Mikel Jones is off to a stellar start in 2020. I was glad to see that redshirt junior Tyrell Richards suited up after not playing in the season opener due to injury. He had three tackles, one tackle for loss and one sack.

Defensive Backs: B
The Pittsburgh passing game collected 215 yards on 25-of-36 attempts, which isn’t terribly amazing, so that means the ‘Cuse defensive backs did a fairly credible job. I did feel like the Panthers wide receivers caught some passes in which they were relatively wide open, but the Orange defensive backs remain a strength for the team.

Special Teams: A-
Redshirt junior placekicker Andre Szmyt made his only field-goal attempt, and redshirt senior Nolan Cooney made six punts for 263 yards, which is an excellent 43.8 yards per punt. Senior Nykeim Johnson provided some okay, but not spectacular, kick-off/punt returns.