You can't make some of this stuff up. I still don't know exactly what I watched here at the Carrier Dome today, but other than Syracuse winning to move to 3-0, nothing went as planned. Let's quickly recount some of the most bizarre things that happened:
- Eric Dungey left the game after taking a shot to head from Central Michigan's Mitch Stanitzek -- who was promptly ejected -- in the second quarter. Not long after that, Steve Ishmael left the game with, like Dungey, the dreaded upper-body injury. To recount: Syracuse could be without Dungey, Ishmael and Ervin Philips against LSU next week. The injuries just keep coming.
- After Dungey came out, sophomore walk-on Zack Mahoney practically split time at quarterback with Austin Wilson. A walk-on played significant minutes at quarterback in a big game! And AJ Long is still nowhere to be found!
- Syracuse didn't score any points in the second half en route to blowing a 24-10 lead, looking pretty awful the whole way. And then, somehow, SU managed to win in overtime on a Mahoney-led drive.
- After Luke Arciniega sacked CMU quarterback Cooper Rush in the final minute of regulation, Syracuse called an inexplicable timeout with 15 seconds to play and the Chippewas facing a 3rd-and-17 from the Orange's 27-yard line. On the play out of the timeout, Rush found Ben McCord in the end zone, sending the game to overtime. Later, SU head coach Scott Shafer said he used the timeout to make sure everyone was on the same page.
- After the game, Shafer refused to say whether or not Dungey suffered a concussion, telling a reporter that he hates when media members ask for specific details on injuries. Shafer also repeatedly mentioned that Syracuse is now 3-0 for the first time since 1991 and told the media not to "twist it." Guess he didn't watch the same second half the rest of us watched.
Sure, in Shafer's defense, it is a pretty big accomplishment for the Orange to get to 3-0 -- even with the soft schedule. But how Syracuse played after Dungey left the game leaves a lot to be desired.
On the play Dungey got hurt, he avoided Central Michigan's pressure long enough to find Dontae Strickland on a dump off to his right. Strickland then raced 25 yards up the right side of the field for a touchdown, putting the Orange up by two touchdowns.
For a moment there, it would have been fair to feel pretty damn optimistic about Syracuse football. The Orange looked well on their way to an easy win and it also looked as if they had found the quarterback of their future in Dungey, who was in the midst of his best game yet.
And then, as Dungey lay on the Carrier Dome turf near Central Michigan's 35-yard line, it was as if all of that optimism -- maybe even SU's 2015 bowl aspirations -- flew out the window. Because even though Syracuse "found a way to win," as Shafer said afterward, it became very clear that this team isn't the same without Dungey.
Dungey isn't without his faults, but he's played well enough to erase a number of Syracuse's offensive deficiencies. The offensive line just isn't very good, and the holes that opened up for the Orange's running backs in the first half -- when Dungey got most of the snaps -- were nowhere to be found in the second half. After running the ball four times for 56 yards in the first half, Jordan Fredericks was held to just 18 yards on seven carries in the latter two quarters and overtime.
And, clearly, Austin Wilson and Zack Mahoney are an enormous step down from Dungey. Aside from a touchdown pass on a fade route to Jamal Custis in the second quarter, Wilson had difficulty moving the ball at all. Mahoney played about as well as you can expect a sophomore walk-on to play, but he wasn't nearly as effective in the double and triple-read options as Dungey has been.
On the other side of the ball, Syracuse got flat-out punched in the mouth. The defensive line consistently lost the battle in the trenches, as Central Michigan running backs Jahray Hayes and Devon Spalding had little trouble combining for 134 rushing yards on 33 carries. The secondary, meanwhile, looked even worse than it did against Wake Forest. Cooper Rush is a good quarterback, but he was simply throwing to wide open receivers en route to finishing 37-of-51 for 430 yards and two touchdowns.
No, Dungey can't play defense. But the point is that all signs point to SU's defense -- and specifically its secondary -- being one of the team's flaws. Opposing offenses, especially as the competition gets tougher, are going to score a lot of points on this group. That will, obviously, leave the burden on Syracuse's offense to score points, and that burden will rest pretty heavily on the quarterback's shoulders.
With or without Dungey, it would take a near-miracle for SU to beat Leonard Fournette and LSU next week. The Orange will then go into a bye week. But when Syracuse travels to Tampa the following week to take on South Florida, it'll desperately need Dungey to be ready to go. If he isn't, this season -- for all intents and purposes -- might be over already.