Syracuse Orange

Syracuse Football: Why is this offense so Jekyll and Hyde?

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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While we know how bad the defense has been this season for the Syracuse football program. The offense has also had its fair share of inconsistencies.

There’s been a ton of topics of conversation as to what’s wrong with the Syracuse football team. While there are a lot of valid reasons, we think we’ve pinpointed the issue. What head coach Dino Babers said he’d bring to the table is offense.

While we’ve seen the foundation of what he has been talking about, it has lacked a certain something. We discussed the offensive issues in full detail on ESPN Radio on Tuesday morning. You can listen to our full conversation right here on ESPNSYRACUSE.com.

So the question is this, what is happening to this team from the first half to the second half? This offense is rolling on all cylinders in the opening two quarters. This season they’ve scored 14 touchdowns.

While in second halves this season, they’ve only scored four touchdowns. So when coach Babers was asked earlier this week about it, he remained clueless. He said he can’t pinpoint why this team hasn’t been able to put it together.

When reporters started throwing ideas at him, he deflected or dismissed them. For example, a reporter said could the Orange be getting fatigued in second halves? Babers said he’d hope not and that he feels confident that his players are in shape.

This isn’t a magical phenomenon though, this isn’t the Bermuda triangle. Maybe the reason this team is having issues is because play calling shifts. In the beginning of games, the Orange seem to have this “play to win” attitude. While in second halves once they secure leads or the game is close, they play not to lose.

And ironically enough, once you play that way you typically lose games. So consider this, the Orange have punted 46 times this season. Last season with Scott Shafer at the helm they punted 67 times.

What about going for it on fourth down? Another Babers promise once he came to Central New York. So far this season he has gone for it 12 times. Last year, Shafer went for it 15 times. With more offensive plays, Babers is going for it less.

Seems curious for a coach who went out of his way to say that he was daring and aggressive. While in our segment on ESPN Radio we had a caller share this nugget which I thought was really interesting. This season the Orange have run 102 times on first down. While 66 of those attempts have gone for three yards or less.

Which means this Orange offense more times than not are facing second/third and longs. Which makes it more difficult for the Orange to go for it. Just so we play both sides of the fence in this conversation.

Again if you didn’t listen to our conversation feel free in the hyperlink above. I’ll preface all of this by saying it’s obvious the deficiencies with the Syracuse football program. Clearly there are recruiting issues long-term, obviously the geography doesn’t help, and there’s been a tradition of losing recently.

While the honeymoon may be over for Babers, that doesn’t take away from the long term prognosis if Babers stays on course. He can fix the recruiting issues and eventually he’ll get “his guys” to plug in on offense and especially defense.

But in the time being, we shouldn’t have to just accept being mediocre. We all knew this season wasn’t about wins and losses. It was about passing the eye test and so far it’s hard to say whether this team passes or fails halfway through the season.