Syracuse Preview

 Well, that game was no fun.  I thought, early in the 4th quarter, I had the game predicted pretty well.  We trailed 28-21.  Looked about right.  

UCF is a good team, well coached and a really tough offense to stop.  We just turned the ball over too much and gave them too many short fields.  The game actually had 15 possessions, which is a couple more than average.  I was hoping for a low possession game, something like 10, where we eat up clock and keep the ball so our defense can rest.  That didn't work.  UCF ran 92 plays.  

We've gotta take better care of the ball, but that's expected with a true freshmen at QB.  He still looks like he has loads of potential, so there's good news.  And Gibbs appears to be as good as advertised.  Great kick return to setup the first TD, and then he scored the next 2 himself.  I believe he had around 200 yards of all purpose offense.  

So some positive takeaways but more or less a forgettable result.  

On to Syracuse.  Interesting team.  Not supposed to be any good this year according the preseason experts.  But Cuse's offense was supposed to be the better unit.  It has not played out that way so far.  If you believe the hype, UNC and Pitt are supposed to be good teams.  And Cuse kept it close early in both, with a scrappy defense but an ABYSMAL offense.  

This offense for Syracuse is seriously among the worst I've ever seen statistically.  Averaging 180 yards per game total.  120 passing 60 rushing.  That is awful.  Less than 2 yards per carry rushing.  Only 4.1 yards per attempt passing.  If they run once and pass twice in a series, on average they'd be facing 4th down.  That's... impressively bad.

Now its only two games, but its been two epically bad offensive performances.  

Their defense statistically is middle of the pack in the ACC so far.  We are middle of the pack in both offense and defense.  Given that, I'd expect to see us move the ball steadily as we have, but struggle to score.  However, we should end up with something like 24, 28 or 31.  They should be at 10 or 14, if I'm right.  

I know the Vegas spread is GT by 8 (and the computers, which still factor in last year right now, have this game as about a toss up), but I think we win comfortably.  We'll see.  Maybe Cuse playing at home for the first time figures out its offense.  Maybe UNC and Pitt are just really, really good on defense (but I doubt it).  

I think GT 28-10 or maybe 31-14.  That's my pick.

As always, let's go Jackets!