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[QUOTE="CIL, post: 1221955, member: 22"]
You of all people should know you are being selective with those stats.   Scoring is not [I]always[/I] indicative of offensive success.  You also need to create turnovers and have explosive plays from the return game.  That 2012 team forced 20 turnovers, 73rd in the nation.  We also ranked 108th in punt returns and 106th in kick off returns.

I'm sure you have checked out football outsiders --they have the 2012 Syracuse Football team 18th in offensive efficiency, which takes into account SOS, kneel downs, second teamers on the field, etc.

That team struggled to score for 2 reasons.  IMO, lack of elite skill position talent and red zone difficulty.  That team ranked 83rd in explosive drives for the season, combine that with poor specials and you can see the common denominator there.  We also struggled mightily in the red zone, especially running the ball, ranking 63rd in red zone offense.

In fact, I would wager we were much worse until we went AWAY from the spread inside the opponent's 10 yard line.  Spreads and Air Raids can have some trouble in the red zone because the field gets compressed, taking a lot of potential plays out of the playbook.  The defense doesn't fear any vertical or intermediate threats what so ever.
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