Many injuries, don't think we will be able to score enough points to keep up with Toledo. Secondary will wear out in the second half, more walking mummies at cb and s. Noon home game. Toledo gets 500 yards on O.
Toledo 41, Syracuse 21
Efficiency is great but just not enough big plays on offense
It's been a fun time on the new board recently with all the expansion talk and what not. However, I cannot get over the hopeless negatism of many posters (IB is a renowned fatalist) here as it pertains to the Toledo game. Even during the darkest days of GROB, when SU actually lost to Miami(Oh) i think, nobody on these boards would have picked a MAC school to beat Syracuse. Toledo hung in their with a punchless OSU and got their asses ripped by Boise St. How does that make them a 20 pt favorite over a team that played hard against a vastly superior opponent (USC), beat another BCS school (Wake), and beat an inferior opponent when playing about the worst game imaginable?
I have always had a pragmatic view of the strengths and weakness of this Orange team (I predicted 6-6 for what its worth). The bottomline is that there is not enough play making ability or depth to say Syracuse is clear favorite in any game this year (Rhody and Tulane notwithstanding), but the talent level is certainly on par with a MAC school - one that uses a prodiguous amount of bubble screens. Not for nothing, but Syracuse did a decent job of shutting down all of USC's flanker screens, and they were being thrown to one of the elite players in the Country (Woods > Page).
My prediction, Syracuse wins by 10 at home if the Orange plays its game. Of course, if they come out flat or lacking in execution, a loss is likely, though not a certainty.
