Blue Raiders upset Syracuse - MTSU Athletics

Iceland12

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 12, 2008
Messages
24,453
Reaction score
2,285
Points
113
The Blue Raiders (1-1) scored the game-winner when quarterback Brent Stockstill connected with Shane Tucker for a 10-yard touchdown pass to stake Middle Tennessee to a 30-23 lead with 6:46 remaining. It was the third touchdown of the game for Stockstill, who finished the game 22-of-36 for 269 yards. He also rushed for 41 yards.

The big story was the play of the Middle Tennessee defense under first-year coordinator Scott Shafer. The Blue Raiders allowed just two touchdowns – one in each half – and slowed the high-octane Syracuse offense. Middle Tennessee held Syracuse (1-1) to 308 yards total offense, with 182 coming through the air and 126 on the ground.

The defense also came up with two turnovers, collecting a fumble and an interception. Linebacker Khalil Brooks had a huge game with a career-high eight tackles, one for loss and he assisted on three tackles for loss. Safety Jovante Moffatt also had eight tackles, including one for loss. Corner Darryl Randolph added seven tackles, including one for loss.

The Blue-clad stop squad was in the Syracuse offensive backfield throughout the game and totaled six sacks. Brooks, DJ Sanders, Walter Brady and Malik Manciel all had solo sacks. Brooks assisted on another. Freshman Reed Blankenship earned his first career start and responded with a fourth-quarter interception.

Richie James had another strong all-around game with eight catches for 96 yards, including a 28-yard touchdown, and Ty Lee also was a multi-purpose performer with seven receptions for 76 yards, including a 48-yard touchdown grab. He added a team-high 50 yards on the ground, including a 14-yard scoring jaunt...

'POWER'FUL WINS: Middle Tennessee notched its fifth win vs. Power-5 teams under HC Rick Stockstill. The Blue Raiders have wins vs. Syracuse, Georgia Tech, Missouri and Maryland twice.

SOLID DEFENSE: Middle Tennessee's defense was strong against a high-powered Syracuse offense. The Blue Raiders limited Cuse to 308 yards total offense on 93 plays for a 3.31-yard per play average. Syracuse piled up 586 yards last week and averaged 440.8 yards in 2016. The Blue Raiders piled up six sacks, hauled in an interception and recovered a fumble under first-year defensive coordinator Scott Shafer. Most important, the defense came up huge on key third- and fourth-down conversions throughout the game.

RARE SAFETY: Middle Tennessee recorded a first quarter safety when the Syracuse punter was forced to step out of the back of the endzone. It marked the first safety by MT since Sept. 26, 2015 at Illinois.

SACK ATTACK: Middle Tennessee recorded three quarterback sacks in the first half against Syracuse and went on to have six for the game. The three first half sacks went down as the most in a single game since they had four against North Texas last year - a span of 10 games.


http://www.goblueraiders.com/news/2017/9/9/football-orange-crush-blue-raiders-upset-syracuse.aspx
 

They sound too good for us. We got no chance. [emoji41]
 

Well, our Oline will probably have a bigger challenge than they have faced so far. I don't care how bad Syracuse might be, getting 6 sacks on one game is impressive. Gophers!
 

Watching game film of this match should help us from overlooking MTSU
 

Looking at the MTSU forum I noticed two items. First, their starting QB may have a throwing arm injury. The head coach started commenting on it in his presser then said that he really shouldn't comment on health things. One of the fans commented that it looked like he had an issue with his throwing shoulder in the second half. Second, one of their defensive players was tossed for targeting. Unlike the OSU ejection this was very obvious and was unbelievably vicious. it was a direct hit helmet to helmet. The Syracuse QB was in almost a sitting position after a tackle when he was struck. It was really ugly and the QB had to sit out a possession. I saw the film but could not tell if it was the first or second half, so don't know if he'll sit out the first half against the Gophers.
 


I'm surprised the article doesn't mention that Shafer was Syracuse's head coach before being hired at MTSU. He recruited all of the upperclassmen on the Syracuse roster and worked with them for 3 years. If anyone would know how to attack their offense (and have a great deal of motivation in doing so), it'd be him.
 

Syracuse is awful though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Yeah well Coyle was AD at Syracuse so this is a loss for him!
 

Yeah well Coyle was AD at Syracuse so this is a loss for him!

giphy.gif
 



My question is: Does the humidity follow them up to Minneapolis? If so, that's a big concern.
 

I know nothing about Syracuse and am too lazy to look much up. I'm hoping they're as bad as Oregon St. That said, a G5 team getting 6 sacks and holding a P5 team 130 yards under their offensive average from a year ago is a good performance any way you slice it. I don't think MN is a particularly explosive offense, so that worries me a bit. On the other side of the ball, we all know they've got the much-hyped QB. I think I predicted a 10 point Gopher win and that feels about right to me at the moment. If we see something drastically different (in either direction), it will tell us a lot about the season IMO.
 




Top Bottom