Many things can be blamed for Syracuse’s loss to Boston College Saturday. There were untimely penalties, questionable play calls, and, once again, missed tackles.
But no single issue plagued the Orange as much as running the football – on both offense and defense. Syracuse once again struggled to get ground yards, as it has most of the year, and on defense let Boston College run all over the place.
Syracuse finished the game with just 39 yards on 25 carries. It doesn’t take a mathematician to tell those aren’t great numbers. It’s hard to place the blame on LeQuint Allen. The offensive line has been inconsistent all year, and Allen didn’t have the holes he needed.
And he didn’t benefit from great playcalling either. On a third-and-long from midfield in the third, a run up the middle was called. There’s time to run the football. That was not one of them.
The final offensive issue is depth. While there are plenty of wide receivers who can play, at this point in the season Allen is the only solid run option. Both Will Nixon and Yasin Willis, who showed promise early in the season, are out with injuries. So it’s Allen or bust for the Orange.
The rush offense wasn’t pretty. But the rush defense was almost objectively worse. The Orange gave up 313 rushing yards. Kye Robichaux led the effort with 198 yards, and Jordan McDonald was just behind with 133 yards of his own.
It was a day where BC couldn’t pass the football (just 65 passing yards). But it didn’t matter because of SU’s inability to stop the run. Tackling players has been a problem all year long, and that continued in Chestnut Hill.
Now, SU has to correct itself next week. Cal’s rush game had high hopes entering this year, but the Golden Bears are only rushing for 118 yards a game. They do, however, only give up 100 a game. But if Syracuse can get to the century mark, that will still put them in better shape than this week.
