At 3-6, any chance Syracuse (3-6, 0-5 Atlantic Coast) has of making a bowl game hinges on Saturday’s road trip to Duke (4-5, 2-3). The Orange haven’t beaten a Power 5 opponent all season, they’ve lost four straight games, all to ACC opponents, and are the most penalized team in the nation. Duke has lost four of its last five and also needs two wins to make a bowl game.

The Blue Devils are 10.5-point favorites with a total of 54 points as of Friday night, per Pinnacle.

Here’s what our beat writers predict will happen when Syracuse plays Duke on Saturday at 4 p.m. 

Eric Black (6-3)
Not happening
Duke 34, Syracuse 20

Syracuse’s last remaining halfway-decent chance to earn a win was two weeks ago at home against Boston College, and the Orange lost that game by 31 points. From here on out there’s really no reason to pick or expect Syracuse to win any more games, even against a Duke team that’s lost three straight. The Blue Devils showed flashes of quality play earlier in the season, including a 45-10 victory over Virginia Tech and a 41-23 win against Georgia Tech. SU can’t even say that much, as the Orange still haven’t defeated a Power 5 opponent. Should that trend continue and Syracuse loses out as expected, it’ll be the first time since 2005, when SU went 1-10, that the Orange fail to win a game against a power-5 team. 

Andrew Graham (7-2)
Close, but no cigar
Duke 27, Syracuse 23

Dino Babers lauded Duke head coach David Cutcliffe as the smartest coach in the Atlantic Coast Conference at his Monday press conference, but Cutcliffe won’t need any masterstrokes to beat Syracuse. Duke rushes for a modest 158.2 yards per game, but hosts a Syracuse run defense that gives up nearly 200 a game on the ground. If the Blue Devils can establish a decent run game with both quarterback Quentin Harris and running backs Deon Jackson and Mataeo Durant, I doubt Syracuse will find enough offense and or get enough big swings to pull out a road win. Goodbye, bowl game.

Josh Schafer (8-1)
Long road back
Duke 31 Syracuse 17 

The last time we saw the Orange, things didn’t look good. Even when Syracuse had things fall its way with turnovers and susbesquent scores early in the game, it didn’t matter. Duke’s run-pass option game will likely stifle the Orange as offenses have in the past and could make for a long day. With a bowl game left to play for and coming out of an idle week, this could be the Orange’s last stand in their most winnable game left of the season. But we just haven’t seen enough from Syracuse this year to believe that will happen on Saturday.

Published on November 15, 2019 at 5:11 pm