Gone are the days when you can, in most cases, write off a team because it plays in the Sun Belt Conference, or the WAC. In the case of Syracuse University football, that goes for the MAC or Mid American Conference as well.
That's the conference Toledo plays in, and the Rockets will provide plenty of challanges to the Orange when the teams take the field at high noon in the Carrier Dome on Saturday.
At first glance at the schedule, the obvious jumps out at you.
This team almost beat Ohio State in Columbus.
Say what you will about the Buckeyes being down this year, but that's still a mighty impressive feat. Then you look at the spread offense the Rockets employ and how both quarterbacks that see the field are playing very well (Austin Dantin is 32-55 passing for 366 yards and five touchdowns and Terrance Owens is 34-60 passing for 460 yards and three touchdowns) and you now understand why Orange Defensive Coordinator Scott Shafer told the Syracuse Post-Standard "We'll have our hands full"
Oh, did we mention Toledo has an All-American that plays wide receiver and returns kicks?
Eric Page has 274 receiving yards for three touchdowns so far this year but is electric as they come at returning kicks too. John Anselmo's special teams unit will be tested as well.
Another offensive note for Toledo, running back David Fluellen is a native of New York State from the Buffalo suburb of Lockport. If the name sounds familiar, it's because David's older brother Jhamal was signed to play for Syracuse before a medical condition ended his career. Fluellen has rushed for 51 yards this year, and the Rockets are led in that category by Adonis Thomas who has rushed for 227 yards in the first three games of the season.
Further evidence of how potent this offense can be, it put up 58 points on FCS New Hampshire. And as Rhode Island proved two weeks ago, it doesn't matter who you play, 58 points is pretty darn impressive. The Rockets average 423 yards of total offense per contest.
This game may end up being a shootout.
The Rockets' defense is clearly its achilles heel. The Rockets may produce 423 yards of offense per contest, and score just under 32 points per game but they also give up 414 yards per game and just under 30 points per game.
Again though, look at the competition of Ohio State and Boise State.
The Orange's pass game has looked impressive this season. Even in a 21 point loss to USC, Ryan Nassib looked very, very good. At one point he completed over 20 passes in a row stretching from the Rhode Island game to the USC game. If Syracuse can play how it did on that first drive against the Trojans and how it looked offensively at times in the 2nd half it should be the winner. Every game, you've seen steps the offense has taken, and here's hoping it all clicks against Toledo, and going forward into Big East play.
Toledo will look to strike first or "hit us in the mouth" as SU defensive tackle Deon Goggins said. The Rockets have outscored opponents 38-20 in the first quarters of games this season. However they're being outscored 29-16 in the 2nd quarters, and essentially drawing even in the 2nd halves of games.
If Syracuse can weather the storm in the opening quarter and perhaps throw a first strike of its own, the game could be the Orange's for the taking.
In my opinion, I think the Orange is heading in the right direction. The game with USC was much closer than the score would indicate and Ryan Nassib is emerging as an elite quarterback in the Big East (and maybe ACC next year).
My prediction:
Syracuse 28
Toledo 24
