This was the worst loss SU has suffered in a while. So bad, that the Flames took to Twitter to troll the Orange, blasting Jay-Z’s timeless classic, “Empire State of Mind” in the visitor’s locker room. Saturday, Syracuse suffered a gut-wrenching 38-21 loss to Hugh Freeze and the Flames, here are the biggest takeaways:
You Can’t Win Football Games If You Can’t Stop The Run
Allowing 338 rush yards is an embarrassment when playing any team, but especially when against a team that hadn’t been victorious against an ACC opponent for the entire history of the program. Syracuse’s performance against Liberty was downright disrespectful to the fans. Joshua Mack, Liberty’s feature back, a guy who’s incredibly talented, was expected to put on a show inside the Dome on Saturday. He didn’t even play! It was Shedro Louis accompanied by Peytton Pickett who ran for 285 yards and 3 touchdowns. It’s fair to cut this Orange team some slack when it comes to the secondary, Andre Cisco declared for the draft. The offense deserves a break too, Tommy DeVito could be out for a while, but this front 7 is simply guilty. These defensive lineman and linebackers have no excuse for the abysmal performances they’ve turned in week in and week out. It’s no wonder Syracuse has come out as a 45 point underdog against Clemson this upcoming Saturday, Travis Etienne is going to have broken Samaje Perine’s 2014 single-game rushing yards record (427) by halftime. There are no valid excuses for this defense to be this bad.
There’s Not Much For Dino To Point To
Dino Babers has objectively not been the coach everyone thought he might have been after a triumphant end to the 2018 season. It seemed after Eric Dungey took down West Virginia in Orlando, that Syracuse might finally become a well-respected football program. Nope. Just a year after, Babers had plenty of problems, Tommy DeVito wasn’t the savior he was thought to be, this defense began to show signs of ineptitude in the tackling department, and one player, Ryan Alexander, was so fed up, he just got up and left the program without warning. Now in the 2020 season, with just a single win through week 5, Dino Baber’s has a win over Clemson, and what now seems like a fluke 10-win season on his resume right next to his 24-30 overall record in the salt city. Sure the argument can be made that he’ll have to finish this season without Andre Cisco, the best player on the roster week 1, and his starting quarterback, but neither of those things should warrant a loss to liberty. That’s simply unacceptable.
At Least Syracuse Fans Have Something To Cheer About
Amid all the embarrassment this team is enduring, mostly brought on by the defense, there’s been one huge bright spot. Sean Tucker, the true freshman running back from Maryland has been electrifying to watch. At the beginning of this season, SU’s two notable ball-carriers, Abdul Adams and Jarveon Howard decided to head to the NFL draft. Without those two, the only notable name left was Jawhar Jordan. Through the first two games, this season Jordan rushed for just 66 yards, a number Tucker surpassed in his first game against Georgia Tech. We haven’t seen Jordan since. Truth is, Tucker is the future of this offense. With a question mark on Tommy DeVito, only one thing is certain, SU will have a solid running back for a few years.
