Fruits of Our Labor: Syracuse Orange Will Have To Work Hard To Beat Penn State

(Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)

This weekend the Syracuse Orange will face the unenviable task of walking right into the Nittany Lion’s den to take on the defending Big Ten champions, Penn State.

In this renewal of Syracuse’s most played rivalry, the Orange come in as heavy underdogs to the 5^th/7^th ranked Nittany Lions, who smoked Akron last week 31-7.

Last season, the Lions visited the Carrier Dome and laid an epic 55-13 beating on the Orange. However, after Syracuse’s overtime loss to Minnesota last week, Penn State coach Joe Paterno believes that this year, Syracuse looks like a different team.

"Syracuse looks like a pretty darn good football team to me," he said. "Maybe they weren't so good last year, but this is a different year. This is a different kind of football team. They hustled and made some plays."

That may be the case, but of course the question remains; can Syracuse win?

The grim reality is that the Orange are a long shot at best. The Lions are replacing some talented players who contributed to the pounding they gave Syracuse last year, but the thing about Penn State is, they’re one of the few programs in college football who annually reloads rather than rebuilds.

If the Orange are to compete with Penn State on Saturday there are a few key match ups that Syracuse will need to do well in.

Greg Paulus vs. Penn State’s secondary:

The Nittany Lions are replacing all four starters from last year’s secondary which held Syracuse to a pathetic 110 passing yards last season. Both safeties, Nick Sukay and Drew Astorino, as well as cornerback D’Anton Lynn are sophomores, with the lone upperclassmen being senior corner Knowledge Timmons.

The unit played well last week against Akron, allowing only 158 passing yards to the Zips.

Greg Paulus played efficient football for Syracuse in his first collegiate start, completing 19 of his 31 pass attempts (61.3%) for 167 yards, a touchdown and an interception against the Gophers. While his completion percentage was solid, Syracuse is going to need more total passing yards from him if they want to have any chance to win. They’ll need to take a couple more shots down field than they did against Minnesota because Penn State will likely be keying in on the Orange’s short passing game.

One thing working for Paulus is that Penn State’s young secondary has not yet faced an elite receiver like Mike Williams this season. If Williams can get free, he could be the deep threat Syracuse will need to score some points.

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