CuseConfidential.com - The Good, Bad and Ugly

October 26, 2009

Sean Sweeney
CuseConfidential.com Staff Writer

GOOD:

It was all about Delone Carter on Saturday afternoon. The senior rushed for a career-high 170 yards and found the end zone 3 times. It was the break-out game everyone associated with the Orange was waiting for from him. All year long, Carter has been middling in 3-yard runs. He was expected to have a spectacular season, but had been anything but in Syracuse's first six games. Against Akron, Carter finally showcased just how impressive, and valuable, he is to this team.

Because of Carter's performance, Greg Paulus was allowed to simply manage the game. Syracuse didn't need the quarterback to throw 30 times in this one. In fact, he only aired it out 17 times, but completed 12 of them and didn't throw any interceptions.

234-0 were the total rushing yards for Syracuse and Akron. The team's net rushing yards told the whole story. If the Orange's defense can continue to play the run like this going into the last turn of the schedule, then they can help to cover up the iffy secondary.

BAD:

In the third quarter, with the game still very much in the air, Akron's Dashan Miller returned a kickoff 98 yards for a score. And it wasn't really anything the visitors did to spring him. Syracuse just missed a couple of chances at a tackle. Plus, they didn't stay in their lanes and opened up a huge cut-back hole for Miller to tie the game at 14.

Syracuse fell behind early in the first quarter after a pair of fumbles in the first 10 minutes, bringing back memories of the turnover-fest against South Florida. Luckily, the team turned it around, winning their first game this year when they failed to score first.

UGLY:

Akron punter John Stec had just a 6-yard punt in the third quarter. This colossal mistake set up Sales' touchdown catch that put 'Cuse up for good. To give Stec some credit, he did follow up that horrible kick with a 76-yard punt on his next opportunity.

Akron ended the game with just 191 total yards. The Syracuse run defense continued to impress and at least for this week, the secondary wasn't getting burned.

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