West Virginia goes on the road once again, this time to upstate New York to face the Syracuse Orange on Saturday afternoon.  The Cuse’ and the Eers’ have taken part in some epic battles in their time, but the Orange have been on a downward spiral the last several seasons and this game looks to be much of the same for Syracuse.

Syracuse started off the season by getting completely manhandled by Washington, Iowa, and Illinois.  The Orange were outscored 118-32 in those three games and looked to be headed for a fourth consecutive defeat when they traveled to Louisville two weeks ago.  However, the carroty critters from up north prevailed in an upset of a then top ten Louisville team 38-35.  Things looked to be turning around for Greg Robinson and his team.  Scheduling tough early season competition was paying off in conference play.  Or so they thought.  Syracuse sputtered on the road at Miami University(OH) and lost 17-14 in what appeared to be an uninspired contest. 

The Orange’s 1-4 record may be deceiving.  Well, in fact, it may not be.  The talent level is there, the coaching is there.  Maybe there is just something in the water.  This team has not been able to put together a winning season since 2001 when they went 10-3.  This season was looking up for Syracuse, coming off of a 1-10 season in 2005, the Orange upped the ante by winning four games a year ago.  Progress was being made and it looked as if a possible bowl berth was on the horizon for 2007.  It was not to be.  Aside from the game at Louisville the offense has been futile and the defense has let opponents run up, over, and around them on their way to the end zone.

Quarterback Andrew Robinson is the leader of the Syracuse offense.  He was nothing short of brilliant against Louisville, and has been the most consistent player on that side of the ball the last several weeks.  Despite the loss last week, Robinson has been better by cutting down on his interceptions and finding his big play makers Mike Williams and Taj Smith.  Running back Curtis Brinkley leads the team in rushing, but with porous numbers.  He has carried the ball 71 times only gaining 183 yards.  The second leading rusher on the Orange squad is Jeremy Sellers, and his numbers are equally unimpressive rushing the ball 21 times for a total of 49 yards.  In total, Syracuse averages just over 40 rushing yards per game.  Needless to say the ground game has been ineffective, and that trend should continue against a West Virginia defense that has creeped it’s way up to 11^th in the total defense category. 

Due to the fact that the rushing attack has been poor, the weight of the offense has been left on Robinson’s arm.  Syracuse averages nearly 250 passing yards per game, which accounts for 85 percent of the offense.  However, West Virginia’s defense has been a shining bright light so far this season, and continues to get progressively better each week.  They have been awesomely good in pass defense.  On the opposite side of the spectrum, the Syracuse defense has been anything but spectacular. 

The Orange defense is giving up an average of 34 points per game.  Some bit of credit does go to the Orange defense however, a week ago they gave up 436 yards of offense but only 17 points (sounds familiar doesn’t it?).  The defense was on the field for nearly 13 more minutes than Miami’s and they forced three RedHawk turnovers. 

If Syracuse wants to have any chance to win this game, they will have to be disciplined on defense.  In their only win of the season they still gave up 35 points, and scored 38 against a Louisville defense who couldn’t stop Middle Tennessee from putting up 50.  Points will be at a premium for Syracuse on Saturday and the defense will have to step up big time for the Orange to have any shot at a victory.

Prediction

WVU- 55 SU- 13