How’s this for “stories you never thought you’d read on Orange Fizz”? Syracuse was a non-factor offensively in the second half against Clemson. The Orange wasted a 21-10 lead at the intermission and lost 27-21 to the Tigers.
There’s a lot that can be discussed regarding this game. The officiating was poor at times, Dino Babers and his staff’s clock management was terrible, and most of all SEAN TUCKER GOT FIVE CARRIES…
Tucker received five opportunities to go out and make a play. In the rare times where Syracuse’s best offensive player got to touch the leather, he ran for 54 yards and averaged over ten a pop. This is the biggest game of the year and the biggest game for the program since 1987 and you don’t utilize your best player? How can this happen?
“That’s something that should not happen,” Babers said. “I agree with everyone else that he should have more carries than that in the football game. That has been addressed.”
Obviously it’s something that should not happen? You’re willing to go try and break records against Wagner in a meaningless quarter but you aren’t willing to hand the ball off to your star tailback? How does this make any sense?
This is the least amount of touches that Tucker has received since the Pitt game in 2020 when he got four. How is the passing game all of the sudden the identity of this offense? Sure Garrett Shrader has been much better through the air this year but SU has ONE wide receiver to throw to.
Other than Oronde Gadsden II where is the ball going? Nowhere.
Sure Shrader had 21 carries and he probably kept the ball on a lot of read situations and what not. And look there’s no certain amount of touches that are required for Tucker on a game-to-game basis. The problem here is that you can’t walk out of Death Valley with a comeback loss and regret using your best player more.
Brennan Armstrong warned us about a “gunslinger” mentality from Robert Anae and abandoning the run game. It seems like that’s exactly what happened on Saturday. SU’s single-season rushing leader got a whopping FIVE carries. That’s just an abomination.
