Huskies have few answers
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The good news for the UConn football team is that the myriad of pre-snap penalties that doomed the Huskies in their first road game of 2018 were mostly avoided. However, they had no more answers in Saturday’s loss at Syracuse than they did in the recent nightmarish defeat against Boise State a couple weeks back.
Syracuse ran for 341 yards and three touchdowns en route to a 51-21 victory on Saturday at the Carrier Dome.
UConn came into the game ranked last among 130 Football Bowl Subdivision programs in total defense and didn’t do anything to help that standing with Syracuse piling up 252 yards of offense in the first quarter and 432 yards by halftime.
Unlike the last meeting between the teams in 2016 when Eric Dungey threw for 407 yards in a 31-24 win at UConn, Dungey and his teammates did more damage on the ground. Dungey had scoring runs of 2, 9 and 1 yards in the first half and had 68 of the Orange’s 250 rushing yards.
The game began with a promising drive by the Huskies, but UConn quarterback David Pindell lost the ball as he attempted a pump fake to give Syracuse the ball at its own 33. It took less than three
minutes for Syracuse to drive 67 yards for the game’s first score.
Alton Robinson, who constantly beat UConn right tackle Matt Peart in the opening half, applied pressure to force a third-down incompletion by Pindell on the next drive. Dungey capped the drive with his second scoring run in the opening quarter.
Another quick series by UConn turned matters from bad to worse for the Huskies as a punt by Luke Magliozzi was returned 41 yards by Sean Riley setting up Dungey’s 7-yard scoring pass to Gabe Horan to push the lead to 21-0
Pindell burst up the middle untouched for 75 yards on the next offensive play to get UConn on the board and when the UConn defense tightened up a bit, the Orange added a field goal instead of another TD to make it 24-7 after one quarter.
Pindell connected with Zavier Scott for a 2-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter as UConn, despite being badly outplayed, was within 10 points. Dungey’s third scoring run of the half made it 31-14 and it looked as if Jarveon Howard would make it 38-14 when he broke free for an apparent 47-yard touchdown. However, Ian Swenson knocked the ball out just before Howard reached the end zone and Omar Fortt recovered. Then the Huskies forced a punt on Syracuse’s next two drives it was 31-14 at halftime.
While UConn’s defense forced a punt on the first possession of the second half, it didn’t take the Orange long to add to the lead as Sean Riley raced 69 yards for a touchdown on a punt return.
UConn played without starting cornerback Tahj Herring-Wilson and safety/ linebacker Marshe’ Terry, who suffered ankle injuries in last week’s win over Rhode Island. Safety Tyler Coyle was able to recover from the injury he suffered in Tuesday’s practice but he did not start meaning that no UConn defensive player has started all four games this season. Shamel Lazarus became the fourth different true freshman to start at cornerback this season, the ninth true freshman and 11th freshman overall to start on defense this season for the Huskies. UConn (1-3) lost linebacker Eli Thomas, who ended the Rhode Island game with a sack, to injury during the game.
The game was a homecoming for UConn coach Randy Edsall who played for the Orange from 1976-79 and spent another 11 as a member of the Syracuse coaching staff.
Edsall won his previous two trips to Syracuse with his Huskies topping the Orange 39-14 in 2008 and 23-6 in 2010. UConn was 8-5 in both seasons including appearances in bowl games. With the defensive struggles in the 16 games since Edsall returned to coach UConn, there’s o much work for the program’s all-time winningest coach to do for UConn to be bowl eligible.
Pindell ran for 76 yards and threw for 151 more. His 1,217 yards of total offense are the second most for any UConn player through the first four games of the season since the Huskies began playing at the FBS level in 2002. The record of 1,236 was set by Bryant Shirreffs last year. Pindell also joins Donald Brown, Terry Caulley (who did it twice) and Jordan Todman as the only Huskies with more than 400 rushing yards in the first four games during that span.
Redshirt freshman Marvin Washington came on for Pindell at the start of the fourth quarter and his second play was a 26-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Davis. Syracuse came back with a 47-yard scoring pass to Riley.
Dungey threw for 286 yards and two scores while Riley had six catches for 120 yards. Robinson had three of the six sacks for Syracuse (4-0).