The Fizz crew is rolling off a perfect week against Wake Forest. And another consensus panel arrives in game number 10.
Tyler Aki (8-1): Syracuse 65, Louisville 24
Forget Rutgers. Forget Kansas. Louisville is the worst team in the Power Five. It’s to no fault of the talent. The Cardinals may actually have just as much, if not more than Syracuse when it comes to stars and rankings. But the culture and dysfunction with Bobby Petrino and company right now is unheralded. The Cardinals have boat raced the Orange in the Lamar Jackson era, but now the roles have reversed. SU is 13th in the polls, while Louisville is 0-6 in the ACC and has lost its last six games. That’s not going to change against the Orange. Syracuse has a potent offense while Louisville is 124th out of 129 teams in scoring defense. This may be the easiest opponent on the Orange’s schedule. SU cruises to a perfect 6-0 at home for the first time since 2001.
JD Raucci (6-3): Syracuse 54, Louisville 24
Simply put, Louisville is the worst team in the ACC and it’s not even close. The Cardinals rank dead last in the conference in scoring offense (21.6 ppg) and scoring defense (40.8 ppg) and are allowing an average of over 460 yards per game. The only defense worse than the Cards in yardage is Wake and we all saw what happened last week when SU ran all over the Demon Deacons. For that reason, offense should come quickly and in bunches, allowing the Orange to jump out to a big lead early on. Because of that, an otherwise anemic Louisville offense might be able to notch a couple of garbage time scores to get the Cards over the 20-point mark. All things considered, this should be a pretty easy win for Syracuse and has the potential to be a very explosive night. Don’t be surprised if Eric Dungey puts on an absolute show in his final game in the Carrier Dome and maybe even breaks a few personal records along the way. This matchup should send Carrier Dome fans home very happy and continue Syracuse’s stellar stretch.
Tim Leonard (7-2): Syracuse 54, Louisville 14
Louisville is probably the worst power five team in the country. Eric Dungey and company are going to be able to get what they want on offense all night. The Cardinals gave up 66 points to Georgia Tech, 56 to Wake Forest, and a whopping 77 to Clemson last week. They are 115th in the nation in total defense and 112th in total offense. Bottom line is this: they are objectively just not good at any part of football. This will be nothing but a senior day cake walk. Expect Syracuse to start out hot and never look back.
Jonathon Hoppe (7-2): Syracuse 55, Louisville 21
This Cardinals team is really bad at football. Given that, this is a great chance for Syracuse to close out its home portion of the schedule with a bang. All the focus is on the offense this game, but I think this becomes a turning point for the Orange on the defensive side of the ball. SU has been sneaky good on defense recently. Now, Louisville isn’t the most potent offense teams, but they do have some weapons. The Cardinals have nothing to play for and Bobby Petrino is essentially coaching for his job. Usually, the team with nothing to play for wins out, no matter how many speeches the coach gives. The Orange continues their impressive run with a dominant win over a lowly Louisville team.
David Edelstein (4-2): Syracuse 45, Louisville 21
This is not the same Louisville team we have seen in the past, and it’s not the Same Syracuse team we’ve seen in the past either. With the two seemingly headed in different directions, Syracuse will come away with the victory. The Orange has been performing at its highest level in years and is getting the recognition for it. Meanwhile, Louisville has struggled with personnel this season and has not been playing at the caliber it had been over the past few years. This is a fresh matchup in the Dome as SU looks for its eighth win of the season.
Gill Gross (2-1): Syracuse 59, Louisville 13
It’s one thing that Louisville is a dumpster fire. It’s a whole other thing that the Cardinals match up poorly with Syracuse. Bobby Petrino’s team hasn’t had a running back go over 100 yards all season. That shouldn’t scare Syracuse. Quarterback Jawon Pass has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns, and I expect the Orange secondary to shine in this one. On offense, Syracuse will have its way on the ground. I’d be surprised of Eric Dungey didn’t break 100 yards on the ground. The only way this is close is if the Orange come out flat. I don’t see that happening in front of a Carrier Dome crowd that is going to be juiced. We’re about to see why Louisville might pay Petrino 14 million dollars to go away.
