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Syracuse Football is in a dangerous place. We’ve lost the surprise factor in our new offense and our defense has yet to stop anybody but lowly Colgate. So what must the Orange do while visiting the Huskies on Saturday?
Syracuse football comes in with a (1-2) record looking to bounce back from two consecutive lopsided games. The University of Connecticut Huskies, our former Big East rivals (more so in basketball than football) comes into this game with a 2-1 record. (Whether they deserved to win both of their games is up for debate, but that is another story.)
The Huskies come into this game having faced lowly Maine, a respectable Navy squad, and Virginia. The Virginia Cavaliers, if you didn’t know, were ranked last in the ESPN ACC Power Rankings last week. Now, that’s not saying much though because we were only ranked one spot ahead of the Cavaliers.
To put things into perspective, the teams Uconn have faced have a combined record of 3-5, with all three wins coming from Navy. So the Huskies have played two winless teams and a team who deserved to win.
The Huskies come into this game knowing its winnable especially with how Syracuse’s defense has played of late. The good news though is that Uconn doesn’t pass much and our secondary is depleted so hopefully that helps this weekend. Here’s three keys to the game for our Syracuse Football team.
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3.) Stop the Run
If there’s one thing the Huskies like to do its running the ball. They’ve run the ball 124 times
Uconn Quarterback Bryant Shirreffs is no Lamar Jackson seen here hurdling Syracuse defenders. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports
this season and only passed 73 times. That’s almost double the amount of snaps being handed to a rusher.
When the Huskies can’t pass they’ve relied a lot on their starting QB Bryant Shirreffs to run. Luckily for Syracuse, Shirreffs is no Quinton Flowers or Heisman front-runner Lamar Jackson. He does lead the team in carries with 53 though, but only has 160 yards and 1 touchdown to pair with that. In comparison, Jackson has 464 yards on 49 carries and 10 touchdowns.
The next best rusher behind the quarterback is running back Arkeel Newsome, whom Connecticut Football’s Twitter page says needs to get more carries this week.
Newsome has not done much with what he’s been given gaining 130 yards on 37 carries and 1 touchdown in three games. He is only averaging 3.5 yards per carry, but has the ability to turn anything into big run if given the room. Syracuse’s defensive line needs to stop the run in either case so the secondary won’t have to.
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2.) Take away WR Noel Thomas
Now you might be asking who’s Noel Thomas? He’s the leading receiver for Connecticut and it’s not even close. The Huskies don’t pass much as stated before. They have passed 73 times and only completed 56 of those passes for a lowly 555 yards.
Syracuse Football’s injury-plagued secondary needs to take away the go-to receivers for Uconn. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports
Of those 56 passes completed, almost half of them, 26 to be exact, have gone to Thomas.
He doesn’t have one catch over 34 yards this year, so he’s not a deep threat, but he is dangerous in the short game. Those 26 catches are good for 277 yards, an average of about 10 yards per catch. If there’s one thing we can learn from that number it’s that he knows where the sticks are.
The next closest receiver in receptions is Hergy Mayala with 7 for 96 yards, and Ron Johnson with 6 for 34 yards.
This Huskies team is not known for their passing, so if we key in on Thomas, then hopefully the defense won’t have to worry much about the other receivers as much.
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1.) Play like the season’s on the line
As Tyriq Butler said earlier this morning, this is a must-win game if the Orange want to be bowl eligible this year. Most sports analysts think its impossible, but while the opportunity is still there we should strive for it. Most bowl eligible teams need six wins.
Clemson has dominated Syracuse Football in recent years.Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports
We missed an opportunity versus South Florida to pick up an “easier” win. If we want to reach 6-6 we would have to knock a couple of teams from this list. The beatable teams left on the schedule besides Connecticut are NC State, Virginia Tech (maybe), Boston College, and Wake Forest.
The less likely wins left are Notre Dame, Florida State, Pittsburgh, and Clemson. Last year, those three teams and Notre Dame (2014) beat us by a combined total of 136 to 83. That’s a difference of 53 points!
So when Tyriq said the season is on the line, he’s right. We missed an opportunity against the Bulls Saturday so we need to make up for it versus the Huskies. Let’s hope “Orange is The New Fast” has even greater meaning this Saturday against Connecticut.
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