Syracuse Football: The highs and lows from the Orange win over Ohio

For Syracuse football, not a perfect performance, but after last season…close enough.

Now, that’s what I am talking about, Syracuse football.

Was it a perfect performance this past week vs Ohio? Not nearly. But for a team coming off a 1-10 season, eager to prove this is a new team and a new season, it was close enough.

Here are some highs and lows I took away from the Syracuse football 29-9 victory over the Ohio Bobcats.

The Highs:

• True Freshman DB Duce Chestnut came to play. I left the game thinking he was potentially underrated as a four-star recruit, excited to see what he will do moving forward. I tweeted that this may be the best debut game I have ever seen out of a freshman DB for the Syracuse Orange, and while we have had some other really good ones (Andre Cisco for one), I stand by it. Duce was all over the field, making form tackles, breaking up key passes, and pulling in a big interception to prevent the Bobcats from getting that late score.
• QB Tommy DeVito has gotten a lot of criticism over the off-season, but he had a good game that should not be discounted. He was efficient, and he managed the game smartly. Made the right reads, made some good passes (that skinny post to Anthony Queeley was one of the passes I’ve been waiting to see for years), and just missed on a couple of deep throws (with the exception being that pass to Taj Harris in the corner of the end zone, which I’m sure even he would admit was just off).
• Can we discuss the highs of this game without talking about Sean Tucker? I predicted earlier this week that Sean Tucker would amass a 1,200 yard rushing season, which would land him in 4th place for a single season in the history of Syracuse Orange football (just behind Delone Carter’s 1,233 yards gained in the 2010 season) and that this would finally warrant the sort-of-but-not-really retired 44 being reissued to him. I stand by it. He did an awful lot right yesterday and, while admittedly not against a particularly stout D, a lot of what he did looks like it will translate later.

The Lows:

• The red zone offense still needs work. It’s very hard to win against top-flight opponents when you are forced to settle for field goals as often as Syracuse did yesterday (a trend that was endemic over the course of 2020). Way too early to say this will be a consistent concern for 2021, but certainly something worth watching.
• Additionally, while Tommy DeVito played a solid game, the passing play calling was still, at best, pedestrian. Luke Benson continues to be tragically underutilized as a pass catcher, and we really needed to see more of Garrett Shrader than one series of mop-up duty after Dino Babers insisted both players would get playing time.
• While the defense played a very good game overall, the lack of consistent pressure on the Ohio QBs is a potential red flag worth paying attention to going forward. While I recognize the mobility of the Bobcats’ play-callers, to have zero sacks against a MAC team, especially given the talent on the DL, seems implausible. Moving forward, there will likely have to be an array of additional stunts and blitzes mixed into the play calling to help get more pressure in the backfield.

All things being equal though, it was a good solid first showing from this 2021 Syracuse football team. Let’s call it a B+. Room to improve, for sure, but good enough that they should be able to walk into the Dome next week against Rutgers with the confidence needed to compete…and maybe even win.