It doesn’t matter if it’s the run or the pass
The Syracuse Orange offense was dismantled last Thursday by Pat Narduzzi’s Pitt Panthers defense. Five interceptions later and the “ground and pound” voices have grown louder. So what should Fran Brown and Jeff Nixon do against Virginia Tech?
If you think the Orange should focus on getting 30-35 carries from a diminished backfield just because the Panthers bottled the passing game, you might be right, but it’s not that simple. Moving the ball downfield hasn’t been the problem this season, but there could be an adjustment to make it easier on the offense.
The overall problem for an improved Syracuse attack has been in the number of explosive plays. Syracuse leads the ACC in time of possession at 34:55 per game, but they are only 12th in yards per play (5.57). There’s nothing wrong with controlling the ball, but as we saw last week, if you take 10+ plays to score it is difficult to come from behind, and it leaves more opportunities for bad things to happen.
The Orange are currently last in the ACC in rushing and it’s not all from a lack of trying. They have run the ball 194 times and only 23 of those carries has gone for 10+ yards. Syracuse’s longest rush this year is 27 yards. This tells me that Syracuse isn’t scheming big runs against teams playing a pass defense, they aren’t blocking at the next level to spring the running backs, and the backs aren’t making enough tacklers miss.
But it’s not just the running game which has lacked the quick strike attack. The Orange lead the ACC in passing yards this season, but other than Umari Hatcher’s 67 yard score against Stanford, the Orange have no other pass play over 42 yards.
If you’re an opposing team preparing to face the Orange, are you worried about getting beat deep or watching a running back house on from anywhere on the field? Probably not, so you can do what Pitt and Stanford have done- crowd the box and dare Syracuse to beat you over the top.
Kyle McCord’s arm strength isn’t the issue, but with a lack of confidence in the pass protection, we’re not suggesting that Syracuse starts looking at a lot of slow-developing routes, but play design and receivers winning one on one battles is a big part of the solution for Syracuse getting back on track offensively.
Now before last week Kyle McCord ranked among the top QB’s on throws over 20 yards. Over the season, McCord is 23-45 for 710 yards and 6 touchdowns. Most of that damage has been down the middle so Syracuse needs to find a way to get back to that success, or make some plays on the outside.
The Orange also need to get more creative in their run game- returning to some jet sweeps or running the ball out of less predictable packages than the three tight end look. They need to find a way to attack the boundaries instead of forcing the ball in the middle of the field. If the offensive line is struggling due to the number of RPO calls and not knowing if it’s a run or pass, then the Orange need to find a better way to communicate those calls at the line of scrimmage. Above all, Syracuse needs to get the ball to their playmakers in space and generate some quick-strike offense.
If you want to see Syracuse turn this game over to LeQuint Allen, then you should probably hope for a couple of big plays early in the game to force Virginia Tech (and each future opponent) to play their safeties deeper and create more space for the running attack…..otherwise running into the looks that Pitt showed is just going to put Syracuse in difficult third down situations against defenses going all-out on the pass rush.