Syracuse Football: What the Orange must do to beat tougher opponents coming up

Syracuse football moved to 3-1 with a very inconsistent win over Holy Cross. Sure, a 42-14 win is good, but this is against a now 1-4 FCS team. Additionally, the stats suggested the score should have been even more of a blowout, as the Orange played a game that was far from their best.

This Friday night, Syracuse football will travel to a talented UNLV team. And the Orange's 2024 schedule is going to get more challenging in the coming weeks.

Here's what Syracuse football must do to have success against tougher foes coming up.

As a team, there's too much reliance on "out-talenting" opponents
Syracuse is a much more talented team than Holy Cross. The same goes for Ohio, and you can make an argument for Georgia Tech and Stanford. Back at Georgia, Fran Brown had the more talented team in nearly every game, usually by a lot, but that won't happen much more for Syracuse in 2024.

When you have a more talented team, you can get away with doing different things. You can get away with taking a lot of downfield shots because your receivers are better than their DBs. You can get away with rushing three or four because your pass rushers can still win. The fact of the matter is, that Syracuse does not have very good pass rushers. Syracuse does not have one of those teams where you can rush only three or four and get away with it.

I've been largely unimpressed by the Syracuse playcalling, too. A lot of what Syracuse has run comes from basic spread formations with little motion. Sure, against Holy Cross, you don't want to run a complicated offense and give things away. I did notice an interesting quads formation (with motion) on the first drive that led to a quick screen for LeQuint Allen and a first down. More of that would be appreciated.

On defense, meanwhile, it was a lot of big zone coverages and few blitzes, especially in the first half. Elijah Robinson and the defense did make a good adjustment and started to blitz more in the second half, which needs to happen more as the season progresses.

Kyle McCord is being asked to do too much
Kyle McCord is a truly fantastic passer and ranks among the top quarterbacks in passing completions, yards, and touchdowns per game. McCord has been asked to do a lot and be a leader, something he never had the opportunity to do at Ohio State, but I'd like for the Syracuse offense to make things easier.

There should be no reason why McCord needed to throw 50 times against Holy Cross, without even playing the final eight minutes. Additionally, many of those throws were deep balls down the sideline. Sure, McCord completed a good number of them, but that's something hard to sustain.

I understand that the offensive line has been unimpressive all year, which has limited Allen and the run game. It's also limited the passing game. As mentioned above, more creative playcalling would do wonders for McCord. I also think more creative formations and playcalling, alongside motion, would help the Orange get easy passes and put the ball in the hands of very skilled wide receivers, such as Oronde Gadsden II, who hasn't done much the last two weeks.

Syracuse will be special if/when they can put a full game together
It really feels like there are one or two things that Syracuse can't do in each game, which holds them back from a more dominant win. Against Ohio, they couldn't stop the run. Against Georgia Tech, it was the special teams. And against Stanford, it was the offensive line.

Three games, three different problems, and we saw some of them return against Holy Cross, notably the offensive line, which allowed five sacks, and special teams that missed three field goals.

What's frustrating is that there's a different problem every week, and the problem one week can be a strength the next. Syracuse allowed only nine yards rushing against Holy Cross and 112 against a Georgia Tech team that loves to run the ball. The special teams were nothing to worry about against Ohio and Stanford. And the offensive line was fantastic against Georgia Tech.

I do believe Syracuse football can play a game where they put everything together, and when that happens, we'll all be asking where has this been all year?