Five Takeaways: Syracuse 31 Louisville 7
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Syracuse football was extremely impressive in its 31-7 win over Louisville Saturday night. Here are my five takeaways from the victory.
1. The New Offense
The new offense was as advertised. Versatile, balanced and taking advantage of the skill sets of the players. I still think there was plenty in the playbook that we did not see, which is also encouraging. Of note were the inclusion of Sean Tucker in the receiving game, for which Louisville did not seem to have an answer, utilizing the tight end and the middle of the field in general, and stretch runs that get Tucker out in space. All things people were clamoring for under Sterlin Gilbert. Robert Anae was a fantastic hire.
2. Garrett Shrader
Shrader answered a lot of questions in his performance Saturday night. He was accurate, in command, made plays and led the offense to over 440 total yards. Despite multiple drops, Shrader still completed 72% of his passes. If he can throw like that all season, the Orange will have one of the most dynamic offenses in the ACC. Shrader may never be an elite thrower, but he does not have to be with what he can do with his legs.
3. Sean Tucker
Sean Tucker is Sean Tucker. He showed NFL caliber acceleration and speed on the 55 yard screen pass touchdown. Tucker showed power on several runs between the tackles. He was also elusive when he got to the second level. All things we expect to see from Sean Tucker. That said, his ability to be a consistent receiving threat is going to be a problem for opposing defenses. Tucker led the Orange in rushing yards and receiving yards while scoring two touchdowns. A nice start to his Heisman campaign.
4. The Defense
We knew the Syracuse defense would be good coming into the season. It was a top 25 caliber defense last season, and was, on paper, deeper and more talented this year. On Saturday, it was flat out dominant. Louisville struggled to get anything going as Syracuse forced three turnovers, sacked Malik Cunningham three times and held Louisville to just 334 total yards. The stat that best reflects the performance of the defense is the ending of Malik Cunningham's touchdown streak. Cunningham had scored at least one touchdown (rushing or throwing) in 30 straight games coming into Saturday. It was the longest active streak in the FBS. Syracuse kept Cunningham out of the end zone to snap that streak.
5. Negatives
There were two negatives that came out of the game. The first was penalties. Syracuse had 18 in total for 107 yards. That is far, far, far too many. A vast majority were pre-snap procedural penalties. The Orange has to clean that up moving forward. Perhaps it was first game over excitement, which should then get cleaned up in week two. We shall see. The second was injuries. Chris Elmore and Stefon Thompson both went down during the game and were wearing crutches on the sideline for the remainder of the night. Not great signs. Syracuse has not given updates on the status of either as of the writing of this article, but both would be tough blows for the Orange moving forward.
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