Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 29, 2022 37 GAME PREVIEW: SYRACUSE end, the Orange was playing some of the best defense it has in years, and some of the best in the country. Syracuse ranked 11th nationally — and second to Clemson in the ACC — in rushing defense at 95.0 yards a game. Talented junior Mikel Jones and sophomore Mar- lowe Wax make up one of the better linebacker duos in the country. Through six contests, Jones paced Syracuse with 42 tackles (5.5 for loss). Jones — a 2021 first-team All-ACC honoree — tested the NFL Draft waters after last season, but he chose to return. Wax was second on the team with 38 tackles, and also had 5.5 for loss. The Orange run-stoppage success has spear- headed a first-down defense that ranks sixth na- tionally and first in the ACC for fewest first downs allowed at 14.5 per game. Advantage: Notre Dame NOTRE DAME PASSING GAME VS. SYRACUSE PASS DEFENSE What we thought was a growing self-confidence that would help junior quarterback Drew Pyne keep his upward improvement trend, hit a wall in the Stanford loss when he managed only 13-of-27 passing for 151 yards with 1 fourth-quarter touch- down and no interceptions. Pyne entered the Stanford game ranked No. 17 nationally in passing efficiency. He left the game ranked 42nd. As a weekly cut-and-paste job in this category, Irish All-American Michael Mayer continues to be Pyne's favorite target. The junior tight end led the Irish in catches (38), yards receiving (411) and touchdown catches (5) through six games, and he showed little signs of slowing down in his chase to break every Notre Dame tight end receiving record in program history. The Irish wide receivers struggled during the first half of the regular season. Of late, though, the group was showing more flash and making some improvement baby steps from what they showed earlier this season. Sophomore wideout Jayden Thomas caught a 30-yard touchdown pass against BYU. A week later, highly hyped freshman wide receiver Tobias Mer- riweather made his first career reception on a 41- yard touchdown catch against Stanford. And while incremental improvement at wide receiver for Notre Dame seems to be crawling along, this still remains an underperforming unit that ranked only 101st nationally at 208.3 passing yards per game prior to playing UNLV. Led by 3.5 sacks from defensive end Caleb Oke- chukwu, Syracuse ranked 26th in the country in team sacks with 2.67 per game during its 6-0 start. The Orange junior also had an interception and 4.5 tackles for loss. In the secondary, redshirt sophomore corner- back Garrett Williams has been the leader of a Syracuse unit that ranked a respectable 27th in passing efficiency defense before last weekend. The versatile defensive back was third on the Or- Staff Predictions Todd D. Burlage: Syracuse 27, Notre Dame 24 After leading Syracuse to a 10-3 record and a bowl win in 2018, the Orange went only 11-24 the fol- lowing three seasons under head coach Dino Babers. He flipped script this season with a 6-0 start that already has the Orange bowl eligible. Syracuse enters this game off an important matchup at Clemson last Saturday between two undefeated teams with an inside track to an ACC championship on the line. For Notre Dame, it travels to Syracuse after playing its best football on the road this season: a 21-10 loss at No. 2 Ohio State, a dominating 45-32 win over then-undefeated North Carolina and a thorough 28-20 victory over No. 16 BYU in Las Vegas. Steve Downey: Syracuse 24, Notre Dame 13 Syracuse, which lost nearly 70 percent of its games the past three seasons, was one of nine remaining unbeaten FBS teams heading into Week 8. The Orange started 6-0 for just the third time since 1935 (they also accomplished that feat in 1987 and 1959). And while the first-half schedule wasn't exactly a murder- er's row, there is reason to believe the Orange are for real. Quarterback Garrett Schrader and running back Sean Tucker form a potent one-two punch offensively, and Syracuse ranked sixth in the country in scor- ing defense (13.2 points allowed per game) and eighth in total defense (268.8 yards allowed per game). The Fighting Irish have played their best against the best teams on their schedule, so it wouldn't be surprising to see a strong effort against the Orange. However, with the offensive debacle against Stanford still fresh on my mind, it's hard to imagine they'll score enough points to pull off the upset. Patrick Engel: Syracuse 23, Notre Dame 17 It's simply hard to trust the Irish's offense right now, and the task in this game is to outscore a re- surgent Syracuse attack that fields one of the country's most efficient passing games. Notre Dame's defense should keep it in the game and hold Syracuse below its normal levels, but the Irish are facing a solid Orange defense as well. I'll side with the better offense here. Tyler Horka: Syracuse 23, Notre Dame 19 The Orange boasted a top-10 defense through Week 7. The last time Notre Dame played a top-10 defense? The Irish scored 10 points on the road at Ohio State in the season opener. The setback against Stanford wasn't an anomaly but rather a regression to old, unsuccessful habits. Notre Dame won't be able to do enough offensively in a foreign environment to spring an upset of Syracuse. Mike Singer: Notre Dame 30, Syracuse 28 Given how Notre Dame has performed this season, who knows what to expect when the Irish face Syracuse. But the Irish seem to play better on the road this fall and have the better roster. Redshirt sophomore Garrett Williams, the No. 2 cornerback prospect among 2023 draft-eligible players per Pro Football Focus, led the ACC in passes broken up in both 2020 and 2021. PHOTO COURTESY SYRACUSE ATHLETICS