The Syracuse Orange (3-2, 1-1) came off a huge win at Clemson to just lay an absolute egg in front of a sellout crowd in the JMA Dome. Duke took advantage of sloppy play and emptied the Orange bandwagon in a win. Let’s get to the three takeaways.
Old woes return
Last week the Orange used explosive plays and turnovers to overcome Clemson. Today, they were victimized by both. An interception and two fumbles along with an inability to tackle Nate Sheppard doomed any chances Syracuse had of building momentum
after last week.
Sheppard absolutely dominated the Syracuse defense going for over 150 yards while averaging over 10 yards per carry on the afternoon. Duke ran for over 230 yards, averaged over 6 yards per rush as a team and it was an afternoon of broken tackles plaguing the Orange defense.
On the other side, the offensive line never got on track and Rickie Collins was rushing throws from inside the pocket, or on the move. When you take away Yasin Willis’ 35 yard run and hurdle, the Orange duo of Willis and Will Nixon ran 17 more times for a total of 53 yards. Duke took away the deep pass and the running game and their defensive line will probably earn some high PFF grades after this one.
Targeting Turning Point
It was a 10-3 game when Collins hit Johntay Cook inside the Duke 40. Cook took a shoulder to the helmet while being tackled and fumbled. The officials called targeting which would have pushed the ball just outside the red zone, but ACC Replay ruled that it wasn’t targeting and that Cook had fumbled the ball. Duke took 3 plays to go 61 yards and make it a 17-3 game.
Let’s be clear, the game wasn’t lost on this play, but it was an obvious shift in momentum and a play that the Orange never recovered from…which leads to my final takeaway.
Inexperience on Display
Maybe the Orange got too full of themselves after last week because they were flat from the start. Duke was quicker off the snap all game, they were a step ahead of the Orange and they kept the pressure on. Syracuse never gave the big crowd a chance to get into the game and several young players struggled. We had issues on both kickoff and punt returns leading to terrible field position, Collins locking onto receivers and throwing dangerous passes, and the secondary just never made a play all afternoon.
While the new starter showed his arm strength, he showed plenty of inexperience. From forcing passes, to dropping the ball without being touched, Collins never looked comfortable. The loss doesn’t fall on his shoulders, but the performance certainly isn’t inspiring confidence from the fanbase. He needed some veteran players to help him out by making plays today, and he didn’t get it.
The Syracuse coaching staff had no answers today either. The team coming out flat to start such a big opportunity is disappointing and it felt like they completely deflated early in the third quarter of this one. We know Fran Brown will take accountability for this one, but with a road trip to SMU coming next week, the Orange have no time to get too down after the loss. Next week is a pivotal game before the bye week. A 4-2 record with two ACC road wins would feel like a massive accomplishment at this point, while going in at 3-3 after winning at Clemson will be disappointing to many.
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What were your takeaways from today?
