Syracuse football has no excuse not to dominate takeaways versus Duke

Syracuse football is crushing it in the turnover department, and the Orange should fare well in that arena this Saturday afternoon.

Simple math would suggest that Syracuse football is going to prevail in the turnover section of its contest this coming Saturday afternoon inside the newly renovated Carrier Dome versus winless Duke.

However, if this year has taught us anything amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and so many other issues facing our country and the entire world, it’s that 2020 is chock full of surprises, both explainable and unexplainable.

Thus, Syracuse football rating among the top Division I teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision (“FBS”) as it pertains to takeaways, and the Blue Devils awful to date in this facet of the game, doesn’t in any way guarantee that the ‘Cuse will ultimately conquer Duke in the turnover battle. Yet the Orange clearly possesses the upper hand, at least on paper.

Syracuse football head coach Dino Babers says that his team can’t just expect to impose its will on the Blue Devils, and that the Duke players will roll over as far as takeaways are concerned.

"“I believe that Coach [David] Cutcliffe is one of the sharpest guys I’ve met in coaching and I really believe he’s going to right that ship,” Babers said in an announcement posted on cuse.com. “He’s not the guy you want to be going against when things are going bad and he’s rallying the troops. They’re going to come in here ready to go … He’s not going to allow [the turnovers] to continue to happen. I expect to be playing a Duke team that’s not going to be turning the ball over a bunch.”"

Syracuse football has a big-time advantage in the turnover division, but the Orange can’t get complacent versus Duke.

To date in the 2020 stanza, the ‘Cuse (1-2) is slotted second nationally in takeaways (10) as well as third in turnover margin (+6), per the cuse.com press release.

The Blue Devils (0-4), meanwhile, have turned the football over on 15 occasions through their quartet of encounters to open the fall term, which is presently last in FBS. Here’s a good read on Duke’s takeaway woes in the 2020 campaign.

For Syracuse football, the Orange’s 66 turnovers gained since the beginning of 2018 are the most in the FBS, according to the cuse.com media statement.

That’s an encouraging statistic, but the ‘Cuse defense must remain laser-focused against the Blue Devils, while the Syracuse football offense has to put points up on the scoreboard like it did versus Georgia Tech in late September.