AP/ Kevin Rivoli
Think we got a little ahead of ourselves?
Fizz, 11/4/10: “After the Orange knock off Lousiville this weekend, it‚Äôs a trip to Piscataway.”
This was not even supposed to be a competitive game, let alone an upset loss at the Dome.
Louisville was a Big East pushover, a doormat the Orange would wipe its shoes on now that Marrone’s Marauders had found their 2010 swag.
We made bowl plans, declared SU football back with vengeance, and waved off hoops for another few weeks.
Whoops.
The Cardinals seemed like sacrificial lambs, without their leading rusher and starting quarterback; SU would clinch bowl-worthiness in front of the home fans, to be serenaded by the Dome faithful who had watched (and also ignored) five years of disgusting football.
Unfortunately, two 2nd-half UL touchdown drives halted all that. Marrone’s defense is the strength of this club, but when a backup signal-caller marches down the field twice in crunch time inside your house, you need to reevaluate. The SU defense couldn’t create the game-changing turnover like in Cincinnati the week before and allowed 160 yards rushing.
Then again, maybe it had to be this way. The Orange is 3-0 on the road in the Big East, 0-2 at home. Next week, to clinch that bowl bid, SU will travel again – this time to nemesis Rutgers. Get win #7 in front of crazy Greg Schiano and your recruiting rival? Smells good.
Don’t worry, Syracuse will not lose out. It’ll find a way to beat either Rutgers, UConn or Boston College. But we all probably took a little more for granted than we should have. Syracuse still is not good enough to take any program lightly, and maybe that’s why it seemed despite the fan enthusiasm, Marrone appeared irked this week. He feared overconfidence from his team. As usual, he was right.
Posted: D.A.
