Week 3 review, week 4 preview and other news

The episode where I curse on Twitter about the Charles Dickens “It was the best of times … it was the worst of times” illustrates the Syracuse football game we watched the weekend.

Review of week 3:

• Yes Sean Tucker did not earn the right to wear 44, no one else will ever wear it! Look, the offensive line and blocking overall did a fantastic job and I’m so happy to see that, but if you watched this game and wanted to give it a sitcom title, it would be called the Sean Tucker Show. Sean had FIVE touchdowns on Saturday afternoon (four rushing and one receiving) as well as 132 rushing yards and 121 receiving yards and sure enough it’s Albany, but those stats are still impressive even though they were playing. at CNS. He already has 235 rushing yards in three games (and should probably top 300 if used more against Rutgers). There are a few players on this team that excite me, but right now Sean is the one who does it constantly.
• Congratulations to André Szmyt for break the record for most field goals completed with 60. Head coach Dino Babers was interviewed during his post-game press conference on Szmyt and he spoke of him hitting a camera on the crossbars and realizing how great he was. good kicker because of that and Sterling Hofrichter telling him how good he was.
• And this defense? People will say “but it’s just Albany”, but how many of those same people thought Albany had a chance to win or that it would be a close game? I said after that Rutgers game that I thought Syracuse had to come out today and dominate and then not play Liberty like they did with Rutgers if they want to restore the fans’ confidence and they dominated. A 62-24 win is impressive and the defense did a good job. Keep in mind that out of those 24 points, 6 was an inclined interception which turned into a 6 pick unfortunately, so the defense cannot be held responsible for that score. There weren’t a lot of pieces that one could consider “memorable”, but I think overall, as a unit, they were really impressive and contained Albany in the way they needed them. That said, again linebacker Mikel jones led the team with 7 tackles and SU had NINE sacks including 3 from Cody Roscoe.
• Like many, I didn’t see the quarterback play enough today that I could say, “This guy is THE guy.” I think both guys played really well for the most part and I can honestly say I wouldn’t be mad at either one being named a starter in the future and happy to know the other is here. if necessary. I recently stated on social media that I think Tommy DeVito gets a lot of unnecessary criticism for his game, what I have said in the past seems to be more of a team manager than Peyton Manning and I agree with that. this because it limits turnovers. Neither Tommy nor Garrett Shrader did anything to openly win the job, but neither did anything to lose it either (which I saw anyway).
• Well, now the only negative point of this game which made me drop an eff bomb on Twitter and which seems to have frustrated everyone … penalties! I don’t often get frustrated watching Syracuse sports, but the number of penalties handed down made me wonder when they would stop. BTW, the stats I listed above for Sean Tucker would be even more impressive if the penalties, including one of his for a mask call, didn’t hurt them. I know Coach Babers is just as frustrated after seeing a lot of them, but how not when the team have combined to set a new Syracuse football record with 16 penalties for 163 yards. Those penalties cost Tucker at least one huge run, one received TD, and huge kick return. This is simply unacceptable and if it was a competitive game it could have resulted in lost points which cost them the game or at the very least given a more competitive opponent a better position on the pitch or better momentum. I’m not a Nancy Negative and I would even say that without the penalties, they are a team that I was hoping to see this season and that could lead at the very least to a quality bowl game.

Syracuse football closes its non-conference record later this week.

Week 4 preview:

• Syracuse football ends a three-game home streak this Friday with the Liberty Flames arriving at the Dome for a tee time at 8 p.m. This game will also be on the ACC network just like the Albany game if you are curious where to find it on your TV if you have been able to watch it (I believe Comcast still does not offer it) and I’m sure locally on TK99 if you want the radio stream and can’t make it to the Carrier Dome or your local sports bar. Need tickets for the Dome? Click on here.
• Prior to the season, the only team ranked on Syracuse’s football calendar was Clemson, but Boston College and Liberty were just outside the top 25 with votes, so to take this game lightly would be crazy. Hugh Freeze is a former SEC coach who set up a successful program at the small religious school in Virginia, including recruiting Malik Willis, a potential candidate for Heisman, as quarterback.
• This game will be the rubber game as both teams won their respective home game against the other team, so hopefully playing this at the Carrier Dome will help give Syracuse football the advantage. The overall record is only 1-1, but that could be for bragging rights between fan bases.
• Liberty is 3-0, having beaten Old Dominion 45-17, Campbell 48-7 and Troy 21-13 in Troy. After playing football in Syracuse, Liberty will play UAB, Middle Tennessee former SU head coach Scott Shafer and later in their UMass program Ole Miss (former Coach Freeze head coach) and Army. .
• If Syracuse football can beat Liberty then that makes them eligible halfway through, although 5 winning teams have also played in some in the past, but generally 6 wins is the mark to reach for a bid.

My news and hopefully positive notes:

• Could we see the return of the Rhino Chris Elmore? I’ve heard from many people that the belief was that Rhino’s comeback was likely to happen after the first three games. Also in the post-match press conferenceCoach Babers said he also hopes to bring Garrett Williams back against Liberty.
• Pitt lost to former Syracuse assistant football coach Tim Lester and Western Michigan 44-41. Miami lost to Michigan State and Wake Forest crushed FSU. So if you look at the Syracuse football schedule trying to figure out who Syracuse will win or lose to move forward, good luck. This ACC football season has more twists and turns than an M. Night Shyamalan movie. Who knows, maybe everyone will go .500 at this rate or maybe a team like Wake could win it all?
• Syracuse field hockey beat # 3 Boston College on Friday 3-1 to bring their record to 2-2 this season, including beating # 12 UConn and losing to # 8 Rutgers.
• Is 44 still available for Sean Tucker and in his locker?
• The highlight of today’s local spot for game viewing is Trappers II in Minoa. I saw recently that they have specials for NFL and SU games, such as $ 2 pizza slices and $ 16 beer buckets, as well as a different weekly special.
• I would like to point out that if you regularly read our work on this site, you will probably see that sometimes a fellow contributor Jeff Abraham and I do not agree or at least share different points of view. Jeff is someone I consider a friend and he and I often discuss our perspectives together. I bring up this because we do it without insulting the other and respecting the other person’s opinion or at least their right to think that way and sometimes I would like more of us to explore our differences. this way when we are discussing sports in the stands or on social media instead of resorting to fighting and trolling. How boring would life be if we all thought the same, looked alike and agreed on everything?
• Ifetu Melifonwu and Chandler Jones are former Syracuse football players who have had very good seasons in the NFL so far. Iffy had a forced recovery by escaped and Chandler Jones had 5 sacks amid speculation his agents wanted a new deal before the season started, this is his last season contractually with Arizona.