I bet you didn’t expect Cardiac Cuse to show up tonight.
The Syracuse Orange played a chaotic game on offense and left points on the board. However, Tony White’s defense gave way and held the line to defeat the Virginia Cavaliers 22-20 and go 4-0 for the season.
Here are our three takeaways from a much tighter game than expected.
The mob is after you
Aside from the first drive of the third quarter, this game was dominated by the Syracuse defense. The only success Virginia found was long, crunchy rides that involved non-stop running and short passes. The pressure on Brennan Armstrong was incredible. It was easily the best performance by the defensive line and linebackers in going to quarterback with four sacks this season. And a great defensive performance as Virginia had little to no success on medium and deep balls.
Syracuse held the defense in this game. Thank god for that.
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Someone help Tucker
Sean Tucker had just 60 yards rushing on 21 carries with a nine-yard long. There are definitely concerns about a second game in a row where he won’t be happy with his performance. But he gets no help from two areas. First, blocking the offensive line in the last two games has been appalling. Virginia routinely reached Tucker at or before the line of scrimmage for contact. Second, despite the blocking issues, Tucker’s runs were designed to run between tackles, a return to the offense of 2019 and 2020. He only had runs around the tackles once, maybe twice. We know what Tucker can do when he gets out there. He needs help to get there.
Photo by Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images
Don’t see red in red
This game shouldn’t have been so close. Six drives to the red zone resulted in a touchdown (on the opening drive) and five field goals. While we all look forward to Szmyt, a quick mental math will show you that the orange left at least 35 points on the board. This was a drastic step backwards from 2020 and 2021, when the orange were also struggling to score in the red zone. Both players and coaches are equally to blame here, with game calls that didn’t make sense and readings from Shrader that didn’t make sense either. This should have been a more comfortable game for Syracuse.