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Message: [QUOTE="Powellfan, post: 3843187, member: 4819"] Syracuse has their last (as of now) game of the season against ACC rivals Notre Dame. The Cuse are coming off a big win against Virginia, but are still smarting from blow out ACC losses, including one to ND. The Irish beat the Orange 18-11 and took their foot off the gas late, or else it could have been worse. SU was done in by a porous defense who couldn't defend Pat Kavanaugh and a face-off unit that couldn't win a draw. Has Syracuse turned things around? Against UVA, the Syracuse defense mixed in some zone defense with their man-down, and looked pretty good doing it. For most of the game they deflected passes, were as good on groundballs as I've seen this year, and played fast and aggressive. After playing perhaps his worst game against UNC the previous week, Brett Kennedy played one of his best against Virginia with eight groundballs and three caused turnovers . The Cavs took advantage of the depleted Orange short stick situation and kept things close, so it will be huge to get back either Dami and/or Aviles this week. The question is how much zone does SU play? I've read that Notre Dame decimated zone defenses earlier this year against below average opponents, but don't know if that is because of scheme or talent. The Orange still looked unsteady in man-to-man, with still lots of bad switching and off-ball work. To me Syracuse looked more comfortable in zone, but they have to switch things up as well. They also need to find an answer to Kavanaugh who scored nine points last time they played. I imagine Mitch Wykoff will draw the assignment again, hopefully he can improve. Offensively, the Orange will most likely play their second game in row without Chase Scanlan. SU showed it could score on the Irish defense in their first meetup, racing out to a 6-2 lead, but they just couldn't win a face-off the rest of the way and hardly saw the ball. I thought the offense looked pretty good against UVA with Owen Seebold filling in, but as a whole the unit does need to shoot better. Jakob Phaup will get the start of course after his absurd game against Virginia, but if he struggles how long do the coaches stick with him? It really feels as though the Orange have to win around 40-45% to win this game. Maybe Phaup has pulled a corner, but it's hard to say since he's had good performances sprinkled in throughout this year. Danny Varello did look okay against UNC, so maybe the coaches go to him more quickly. This feels like a big game for the Orange, win and they sit on a respectable 3-3 record in the ACC and could potentially rocket up the bracket with a good seed. Also you'd send a conference rival on a three game losing streak to end the season. It is a lot easier said than done, and Syracuse would have to overcome a lot. Most of the talk this week has been directed at the offense and them only scoring 13 goals with a massive possession advantage, but I'm still worried about the defense. I loved the energy from the UVA game, but this team needs to learn to play with their hair on fire each week, not just when their backs are up against the wall. [/QUOTE]

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