The Syracuse Orange will be in front of their home fans this weekend, but a projected 3.5-point deficit forecasts there might not be much to cheer about. 'Cuse and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons will face off in an ACC battle at 12:30 p.m. ET on Saturday at Carrier Dome. With a combined 1,071 yards of offense in their previous games, we can expect a fast-paced matchup.
'Cuse has to be hurting after a devastating 56-34 defeat at the hands of the Louisville Cardinals last week. A silver lining for the Orange was the play of RB Moe Neal, who rushed for 163 yards and one TD on 20 carries.
Wake turned the game against the Duke Blue Devils into a track meet and took the gold after outgaining them 596 yards to 282. Wake walked away with a 39-27 win. QB Jamie Newman had a stellar game for Wake as he picked up 144 yards on the ground on 29 carries and accumulated 284 passing yards. Newman's performance made up for a slower game against the Clemson Tigers two weeks ago.
Wake Forest's victory lifted them to 8-3 while Syracuse's loss dropped them down to 4-7. A pair of stats to keep in the back of your head while watching: The Orange are stumbling into the contest with the 20th most yards allowed per game in the nation, having given up 454.3 on average. To make matters even worse for the Orange, the Demon Deacons enter the matchup with 464.5 yards per game on average, good for 16th best in the nation. So the cards are definitely stacked in the Demon Deacons' favor.