Heading into week Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium last year, the Syracuse Orange were riding high with a 5-1 record, fresh off a road win at NC State. With plenty of momentum and a BYE week to prepare, they
geared up to face the Panthers in a nationally televised Thursday night showdown on ESPN.
Kyle McCord headlined the offense, throwing the ball all over the field in the games prior to the BYE, completing passes for more than 700 yards in the two wins on the road at NC State and UNLV.
Pittsburgh entered the contest undefeated, but aside from a notable win at UNC, their schedule had featured relatively weak competition.
With Syracuse’s offense firing on all cylinders, expectations were high that they would continue to shine in this matchup.
But the game belonged to Pittsburgh from the kickoff. The Panthers dominated in a 41-13 rout, intercepting McCord five times, one in each of Syracuse’s first three possessions, totaling four in the first half alone.
Despite Syracuse tallying 10 wins in the regular season, Pitt’s defense and the Game 7 loss closed the door on any postseason hopes of the Orange.
What made Pittsburgh’s defense so effective that night was their ability to disguise their linebackers. All four of Pitt’s first-half interceptions were picked off by linebackers, two of which were returned for touchdowns.
By halftime, the Panthers had built a commanding 31-0 lead and refused to look back.
Despite a handful of new players this year, the Panthers defense remains strong well into this season, once again led by their athletic linebacker corps.
Rasheem Biles, Kyle Louis, and Braylan Lovelace, each of whom recorded an interception in last year’s matchup, have have emerged as the Panthers’ leading tacklers this season, stepping up in key moments, ensuring big wins in the ACC.
As Fran Brown noted last week, Rickie Collins has to get better, and this would be the week to do so, as the Syracuse offense is going to need to lean heavily on the passing attack to shore up the struggling ground game and have success this weekend in JMA Wireless Dome.
Syracuse’s underwhelming run game has fallen well short of preseason expectations, as illustrated in the graph below.
But danger lurks ominously in the Panther midfield, so Orange Air will need to proceed with caution against the linebackers that caused them so much heartache in last year’s matchup.
With Pitt entering Saturday’s matchup with a winning 4-2 record this year, Syracuse will look to flip the script, own the air, and deliver a blow to the Panther’s postseason hopes.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
