Syracuse won this weekend! Cue the...cute puppy? I know, it feels strange this, what do you call it...new way?
Who's most excited about this? SUAthletics.com of course. They finally get to run a post-game article that mentions the final score within the title. Of course, when the article first went up it was accompanied by a photo of the SU-Penn State game but, hey, they were excited.
What of the game itself? If you missed out live chat you can relive the glory here but the gist is this...if you watched the game, you kinda felt like Syracuse was going to pull it out, but you pretty much knew it wasn't gonna be by much. And you were right to think so. And while I suppose we should be thankful for small favors and hey, a win's a win, it still felt a little...fech.
SU led the entire game but it never ever felt safe. Northeastern seemed to be able to turn it on at times and in the end it seemed to be their own mistakes that did them in rather than anything SU's defense was doing. Northeastern QB Anthony Orio racked up a career-high 293 passing yards. Let me repeat that...Northeastern QB Anthony Orio, who has played 80% of his college football games against 1-AA teams, racked up a CAREER-HIGH 293 passing yards.
"What A Relief" seems to be the phrase echoing through Cuse-ville. The Post-Standard and the Daily Orange both leads with the same idea. This win felt like more of a "thank God we at least beat the 1-AA team and won't go winless" moment rather than "great win to start building on." Unlike last year's Louisville win which instilled the team and the fanbase, however briefly, with hope, this win is more like a wipe of the brow before we start sweating again.
The running game was once again the best thing about SU. Curtis Brinkley and Doug Hogue took advantage of the weak opponent and both came out with some gaudy stats. Brinkley netted a career-high 145 yards on 24 carries while rushed for 100 yards, got 25 more through the air and scored two touchdowns. It was the first multi-100 yard rushing game since 2004. Injured Delone Carter silently wept on the sideline.*
*not confirmed, but probably
Defensively? SU barely, and I mean barely, held its own against a middle of the road 1-AA team. To paraphrase Kenny Haas, I shudder to think what will happen when Pittsburgh, South Florida, West Virginia and UConn come a-callin'.
As for Greg Robinson, you can imagine this feels good, no matter how it happened. Greg's been putting up with our shit for a while now, almost all of it justified, but at least one more time before he goes Greg can savor the win. Well, no, actually he can spend the entire time defending the quality of the win...
Oh and if you haven't already, check out Axe's recap of the game, which includes this little note:
Finally, check out the Three Idiots recap of the game as well and peep some of their photos of the crowd...or the lack thereof as the case may be. What's the official guess on attendance? 20K?
(Photo: Three Idiots)
Who's most excited about this? SUAthletics.com of course. They finally get to run a post-game article that mentions the final score within the title. Of course, when the article first went up it was accompanied by a photo of the SU-Penn State game but, hey, they were excited.
What of the game itself? If you missed out live chat you can relive the glory here but the gist is this...if you watched the game, you kinda felt like Syracuse was going to pull it out, but you pretty much knew it wasn't gonna be by much. And you were right to think so. And while I suppose we should be thankful for small favors and hey, a win's a win, it still felt a little...fech.
SU led the entire game but it never ever felt safe. Northeastern seemed to be able to turn it on at times and in the end it seemed to be their own mistakes that did them in rather than anything SU's defense was doing. Northeastern QB Anthony Orio racked up a career-high 293 passing yards. Let me repeat that...Northeastern QB Anthony Orio, who has played 80% of his college football games against 1-AA teams, racked up a CAREER-HIGH 293 passing yards.
"What A Relief" seems to be the phrase echoing through Cuse-ville. The Post-Standard and the Daily Orange both leads with the same idea. This win felt like more of a "thank God we at least beat the 1-AA team and won't go winless" moment rather than "great win to start building on." Unlike last year's Louisville win which instilled the team and the fanbase, however briefly, with hope, this win is more like a wipe of the brow before we start sweating again.
The running game was once again the best thing about SU. Curtis Brinkley and Doug Hogue took advantage of the weak opponent and both came out with some gaudy stats. Brinkley netted a career-high 145 yards on 24 carries while rushed for 100 yards, got 25 more through the air and scored two touchdowns. It was the first multi-100 yard rushing game since 2004. Injured Delone Carter silently wept on the sideline.*
*not confirmed, but probably
Defensively? SU barely, and I mean barely, held its own against a middle of the road 1-AA team. To paraphrase Kenny Haas, I shudder to think what will happen when Pittsburgh, South Florida, West Virginia and UConn come a-callin'.
As for Greg Robinson, you can imagine this feels good, no matter how it happened. Greg's been putting up with our shit for a while now, almost all of it justified, but at least one more time before he goes Greg can savor the win. Well, no, actually he can spend the entire time defending the quality of the win...
"We won the game. We won the football game," Robinson said. "And we did a lot of good things in that football game. That's the bottom line."Greg, even when you win, at this point, you can't win. Just move on.
"I'm not going to sit here and speculate what the score coulda, woulda, shoulda been," Robinson said. "We won the game. We won the football game, and we did a lot of good things during the game. That's the bottom line."
"You guys don’t want to give Northeastern credit...Don’t sit there and try to put down something that was real. That’s the truth."
Oh and if you haven't already, check out Axe's recap of the game, which includes this little note: UConn Coach Randy Edsall said this week that he schedules Division I-AA teams to give his team a breather in a brutal twelve game schedule. Greg Robinson said this week that this game, against a Division I-AA squad, was a must win and important for his team to gain confidence and to "get to know what it feels like to win again".Yeah Greg, see that's why we're not quite as excited as you are.
Finally, check out the Three Idiots recap of the game as well and peep some of their photos of the crowd...or the lack thereof as the case may be. What's the official guess on attendance? 20K?
(Photo: Three Idiots)