Syracuse aims to get back on track vs Western Michigan
There’s usually no looking back in football, but for Syracuse a second straight lopsided loss can tend to linger, especially because the opponent was top-ranked Clemson.
“We put it behind us, but it’s something that’s always going to be there,” Orange sophomore defensive back Trill Williams said. “We just don’t ever want to feel like that again.”
Coming off a 41-6 loss to the Tigers last Saturday night, Syracuse (1-2) will try to regroup when it hosts Western Michigan (2-1) on Saturday.
This is the second straight matchup between the schools, and the Broncos threw a scare into the Orange a year ago, scoring three straight touchdowns to open the third quarter before eventually losing 55-42.
That alone gives them confidence for this one.
“I think playing last year helped,” said Broncos coach Tim Lester, a former Syracuse assistant. “We’ve faced a lot of these guys before and we know that although it’s going to be really difficult to move the ball and really difficult to slow down that offense, we know we’ve done it before.”
Ranked in the preseason, Syracuse is anxious to get its season turned around. The defense, which coach Dino Babers was counting on to be a difference-maker, gave up 104 points in the two losses, and the uptempo offense under new quar
terback Tommy DeVito has been inconsistent. He was sacked eight times and forced to hurry his throws seven other times by the swarming Clemson defense.
“It’s just a lot of growing, trying to get better every game,” said DeVito, 60 of 101 for 678 yards and three TDs with four interceptions on the season. “It can go downhill in a hurry. We’ve got to keep climbing up that mountain.”
For Lester, a record-setting quarterback in college for the Broncos, the game plan is simple.
“We’ve got to get after him if we can, try to put people in his face cause he’s had people in his face,” Lester said of DeVito. “That’s an explosive offense and they haven’t really got in rhythm yet. We have to keep them out of rhythm because we know what they can do when they get in rhy thm.”