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All season long we’ve been tracking the Syracuse Orange first-down offense. We haven’t seen a lot of success when it comes to getting the team in second and short situations. Despite the overall offensive numbers on Saturday there was a strong showing from the Orange when it came to running the ball on first down against the Duke Blue Devils.
Yes some of the success came in garbage time but compared to most of the games this season Syracuse was putting themselves in positive situations. This was especially true in the second half when the Orange were able to run the ball and not expose Tommy DeVito to any unnecessary hits. If this team can get over five yards per carry on first downs it opens up a lot more options.
Syracuse vs Duke
| 1st half | Run or Pass | Yards | 2nd Half | Run or Pass | Yards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st half | Run or Pass | Yards | 2nd Half | Run or Pass | Yards |
| Run (DeVito) | 5 | Run (Adams) | 2 | ||
| Run (DeVito) | 1 | Run (Howard) | 2 | ||
| Run (Neal) | 6 | Run (Neal) | 8 | ||
| Pass (Incomplete) | 0 | Run (Neal) | 7 | ||
| Run (Neal) | 35 | Run (Neal) | 2 (TD) | ||
| Pass (Incomplete) | 0 | Run (Adams) | 6 | ||
| Pass (Incomplete) | 0 | Run (Adams) | 1 | ||
| Run (Adams) | 1 | Run (Howard) | 4 | ||
| Run (Harris) | 15 | Run (Howard) | 28 (TD) | ||
| Run (Neal) | 5 | Run (Howard) | 14 | ||
| Pass (DeVito) | 4 | Run (Howard) | 2 | ||
| Run (Neal) | 3 | Run (Howard) | 10 | ||
| Kneeldown | Run (Howard) | 9 | |||
| Run (Jordan) | 7 (TD) | ||||
| Run | 8 | 71 yards | 8.87 yds per play | Run | 14 |
| Pass | 4 | 4 yards | 1 yd per play | Pass | 0 |
| 12 | 75 yards | 6.25 yds per play | 14 | ||
| Total | |||||
| Run | 22 | 173 yards | 7.86 yds per play | ||
| Pass | 4 | 4 yards | 1 yd per play | ||
| 26 | 177 yards | yds per play |
I’ll leave the offensive line review to Steve but no matter what sparked the rushing attack it certainly was nice to see the Syracuse running backs with open space to maneuver. With both Moe Neal and Jarveon Howard going over 100 yards for the game the Orange had their first 100-yard rusher since the Western Michigan game.
Next week’s game at the Louisville Cardinals will be a bigger test as the Syracuse offense will need to keep pace with a team that is averaging over 32 points per game. On the flip side Louisville’s defense is allowing over 32 points per game with opponents averaging 4.7 yards per rush so we’ll see if Syracuse can keep the ground game going as they make a desperate push for bowl eligibility.