Syracuse: Now 200% Better Then Last Year
Well it looks as though the Orange are halfway to a bowl birth. Pretty freakin’ outrageous. Somewhere Darryl Gross is drunk and telling anyone who will listen “I told you so” in reference to picking Greg Robinson as coach. After a year of wading through the poor recruiting of Coach P Greg Robinson has managed to go from an 11 game losing streak, to a 3 game winning streak. Theoretically it should be 4 but I won’t mention Iowa again. In a year which many were optimistic, but most were cynical, we have managed to triple our wins from last season and bring a level of respectability back to Syracuse Football.
I’m sure if you’re reading this you have already checked out Matt Glaude’s assessment of the game at the Fan House, however being that I saw the game in person I though I’d provide some thoughts.
Offense
Perry Patterson didn’t have a spectacular day (11 for 25, 121yards, 1TD, 1Int). However, with Taj Smith being too broken to play he did do a great job of spreading the ball to his available receiver core. On top of that, they didn’t seem to have a wicked case of the dropsies either. The run game today was what was really impressive with the headliner of Delone Carter (129 yards on 20 carries and 4 TD’s) looking spectacular at some points. The play that stood out for me was a misdirection for a touchdown in the 4th quarter. Overall a decent day for the offense, but certainly not the best day.
B-
Defense
The defense looked sharp for 3 quarters. In the 4th quarter they did not. They had several interceptions, and an almost interception by Joe 5 Fields. It looked as though that would end the game, but the referee called him out of bounds, the replay didn’t overturn the call, and thus Wyoming proceeded to tie the game to go to OT. The secondary was open for business like a teen slut on prom night. It was not pretty. Again the Orange get are too fatigued late in the game to be consistently effective. They made up for it in the second overtime, but the game shouldn’t have gotten to that point.
C+
Special Teams
Once again Brendan Carney earns a Heisman vote from me. Despite the long snapper’s best efforts to derail his campaign Carney managed to have some great punts, including one landing on the Wyoming 5 yard line. Patrick Shadle continues to be a great kicker as well.
A-
Coaching
I can’t say there was anything that really surprised me or that I disagreed with. However, on a 3rd and 17 I generally wouldn’t call a run play.
B
Referees
They really blew. This Mountain West Conference needs to check out their guys.
D+
All and all a good day in the dome. Frustrating at times, but when is being a Syracuse fan not frustrating. The game recap can be found here.
And now some things you may have missed:
The Big East Conference announced its weekly honors. On Defense Terrell Lemon gets Defensive player of the week with 10 tackles, 3 forced fumbles, and 2 fumble recoveries.
Running Back Delone Carter gets Honor Roll status for his 4 touchdown performance on Saturday, along with Patrick Shadle who hit 2 FG’s (43, 41), as well as going 4-4 on PAT’s.
Recently Syracuse Football was featured on the front page of ESPN.com’s College Football coverage. It was a pretty nice story asking players if we have hit the turning point of the season, and giving Orange fans some hope for the success to continue. That story can be found here.
The Bottom 10 on ESPN.com hasn’t had us listed for a few weeks. However, in their “Also Receiving Votes” category, the Syracuse Uniforms made an appearance. I guess I’m in the minority that actually likes them. The are a far cry from the Oregon Ducks.
JBren’s Take (Bonus Editoral from the Dome)
Joe 5 Fields (who was on meth for this game) is the next Taj Smith. He’d also be a good guy on onside kicks.
Also, congratulations go out to Matt Glaude on passing the Connecticut Bar Exam!
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