Syracuse football has never lost to Central Michigan. But take that for what it’s worth. Now after just week 2, we already know that any win is far from guaranteed.
Last week, the Orange faced a fiery quarterback in Middle Tennessee State’s Brent Stockstill. The redshirt junior now ranks 53rd for passing yards this season.
SU did a nice job of breaking up Stockstill’s offense this past week (except for a 48-yard touchdown pass to start the fourth quarter that ultimately cost the Orange the game).
Now, Syracuse is forced to defend against a quarterback who has done even more damage.
Central Michigan’s Shane Morris — a fifth-year senior who formerly played for Michigan (the big, yellow “M”) — completed all but nine pass attempts last week (28-37) against Kansas, tearing apart the Jayhawks’ secondary for 467 yards and 5 touchdowns.
Morris now stands 12th in the standings for passing yards so far this season with 693 (that’s 346 per game). He complete more than three of every five passes he throws (over 60 percent), and just last week he completed passes to seven different receivers.
Morris is calm in the pocket and is afforded a lot of time to be dangerous while his offensive line maintains the pocket. He knows how to utilize receivers down the field as well as throw the ball to the sidelines and chip away at the defense. He has both the weapons to use and the tools to use them well.
Syracuse needs to know this, and they probably already do. But if the Orange wants a chance of staying alive in this game beyond hoping its offense can respond equally to whatever CMU does, SU will have to show it knows what to do by defending well on the field.
Morris and his Chips are hot. Syracuse needs to cool down the nachos.
Published: David Edelstein
