If you just glance at the score, and see 14 points scored by Akron, you'd think the defense played decent against the Zips. But that would be an extreme understatement. Think about the 14 points, or two touchdowns. Akron recovered a fumble from a bad snap inside the SU 30 yard line, hardly a bad outing for the defense to give up a touchdown with a short field to defend. The other score came by way of a 98 yard kickoff return for a touchdown to start the 2nd half for the Zips.

The real stats that show just how tough Scott Shafer's defense was go like this: 0 (zero) total rushing yards for Akron! Really, they gained 47 on the ground, but Shafer sent blitzes from everywhere under the sun, resulting in 5 sacks for a loss of 47 yards bring the total to a nice even "0". Derrell Smith was a machine, with two sacks and forcing a fumble. Mikhail Marinovich also had two sacks, one of which came on a pivotal 3rd down for Akron. The 5th sack came on a screaming safety blitz by Max Suter where he crushed Patrick Nicely who in turn fumbled it into the paws of Doug Hogue.

All in all, a banner day for the Orange defense who faces one of its toughest tests next week when undefeated Cincinnati comes to the Carrier Dome on Halloween Saturday. But as Coach Marrone said in his press conference, the Orange is going to enjoy this one a little bit before looking ahead. And they deserve to after a great effort all around