Syracuse (2-2, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) finally showed flashes of the team it was last season against Western Michigan last week, breaking out for 52 points and 545 yards of offense. Tommy DeVito had the best performance of his Syracuse career thus far, beating WMU both through the air and on the ground.

The Orange are home again at noon on Saturday versus FCS opponent Holy Cross (1-2). SU is currently a 38.5-point favorite over the Crusaders, who are coming off of a 23-10 loss to Yale last week.

Here’s what our beat writers predict will happen when Holy Cross visits the Carrier Dome on Saturday at 12 p.m.

Eric Black (3-1)
Crushedaders
Syracuse 55, Holy Cross 7

There’s a legitimate chance that Holy Cross, which has scored 30 points through three games against Navy, New Hampshire and Yale, fails to score at all on Saturday. But I’ll give the Crusaders the benefit of the doubt and expect a touchdown from them, only because at some point the Orange will take their starters out and play their backups. Even then, though, SU will dominate. After a game in which Syracuse’s offense finally played up to its potential, who knows what it could do versus a team that’s allowing nearly 300 rushing yards per game. I’ll be looking for DeVito to continue his success and more importantly play mistake-free football. Even though he didn’t turn the ball over last week there were still a couple of poor decisions he made that should’ve been picked off. 

Andrew Graham (3-1)
‘A very good Holy Cross team’
Syracuse 66, Holy Cross 13

Holy Cross is, statistically, one of the worst teams in Division I college football — FBS or FCS — giving up 289 rushing yards per game and getting blown out by Navy, the only FBS opponent on its schedule to date. Their other two games? A 13-10 squeaker win against New Hampshire and a 13-point loss at Yale. I’ll put it this way: Syracuse scheduled a win this week. Dino Babers of course lauded his opponent at his weekly press conference. He said the fumbles that bounced SU’s way against Western Michigan could go the other way and, as is always true, an injury changes everything. But, we saw the Orange decimate Wagner last season and Holy Cross might be worse. SU should wipe the floor with Holy Cross, but Babers does make a good point. A banged up SU team should hope to leave this game with the same amount of healthy players it started with.

Josh Schafer (3-1)
Holy point spread
Syracuse 61 Holy Cross 10

The betting line for Syracuse has peaked with the Orange favored by 38.5 points as of Wednesday and it’s not a reach at all. The Orange just scored 52 points against Western Michigan while Holy Cross just scored 10 points against Yale. The Crusaders 289.3 yards allowed on the ground per game ranks 118th out of 124 teams in the FCS, a division lower than the FBS which Syracuse plays in. And don’t forget Holy Cross’ offense is ranked 111th in the FCS.  The Crusaders aren’t even good in the FCS and it hasn’t changed in recent years in FBS matchups. Last year, they lost 62-14 against Boston College and Saturday’s result should be similar in favor of the Orange.

Published on September 25, 2019 at 11:46 pm