Steve Infanti’s keys for SU to beat Holy Cross Saturday

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Every week throughout the college football season, sports director Steve Infanti will preview the upcoming game for Syracuse. On Saturday, the Orange will welcome Holy Cross to the JMA Wireless Dome. A sold-out crowd is expected for the game with it being “Family Weekend” on the SU Hill. Here are Steve’s “Keys to the Game”:

Establish the Run:

As good as the SU offense has been this season, the running game has struggled to get going. Through three games, Syracuse is ranked 117 ^th in the country out of 133 FBS teams in rushing offense. The Orange is only averaging 95.3 yards per game on the ground. Part of that is because Kyle McCord has been that good through the air.

Part of it, though, is that this team has simply had trouble running the ball with any sort of consistency. We know LeQuint Allen is capable of having big games. He had seven games last year of at least 100 yards rushing and went over 1,000 yards on the ground for the season. Holy Cross is an opponent that SU should absolutely be able to run the ball on. It’s important for the Orange to dominate up front and get LeQuint Allen and company going on the ground.

Play Clean:

In the first game, the run defense was bad. In the second game, the special teams unit had issues. In the third game, SU was hurt by a slow start and by penalties. Against Holy Cross, Fran Brown’s guys shouldn’t have any of those problems. The bad penalties, in particular, need to be eliminated. Last Friday against Stanford, SU had a roughing the passer that kept a drive alive and led to a field goal, a personal foul on a punt, and a holding call that negated a long pass play. It’s really the first time we’ve seen Syracuse hurt by penalties since Fran Brown took over. Was it a fluke or the start of a trend? It would be nice for the Orange to play a clean game and show everyone that the mistakes against the Cardinal were the exception to the rule.

Get Right:

Let’s be honest, this is a mismatch and should be a lopsided final score. Nothing against Holy Cross, but Syracuse has better players who are generally bigger and stronger, and faster across the board. Especially coming off of a loss, the Orange needs to use this as a “get right” game. Go out, score early and often, and restore any confidence that may have been lost last week in the first loss of the season. Use this game to get back on track with a dangerous UNLV team awaiting next week in what will be SU’s first road game of the year.

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