Syracuse Orange Football: What to Watch vs. Holy Cross

The Syracuse Orange (2-1, 1-1) returns to non-conference play against the Holy Cross Crusaders (1-3) of the Patriot League. It's a midday performance on ACCNX in front of a sold out JMA Wireless Dome.

Here's what we'll be looking for on Saturday as the sober students arrive at the Dome early for this game:

Kevin: When to empty the bank?

The Orange didn't look efficient last week, so Fran Brown probably wants to give his starters a few more plays to improve before hitting the road. What we don't know is what will Fran need to star in this case? Does he enter the second half with the Orange leading by three points? Dino Babers too often left his starters standing for too long against FCS opponents, so I'm excited to see Fran's approach.

Max: Restart the running game

LeQuint Allen saw just eight carries (his fewest in over a year), and SU managed just 26 rushing yards as a team in the loss to Stanford. That may be partly because he plays from behind, but getting Allen going is critical to this offense, regardless of the score. The Crusaders are a great rebounding spot for the Syracuse tailback, who should get a ton of carries in the first half. It wouldn't hurt to include Yasin Willis more if Will Nixon continues to be left out.

Dom: The defense shines again

It wasn't a completely perfect performance, but Syracuse's defensive unit forced several turnovers and really played better against Stanford compared to the first two weeks of the season. Holy Cross doesn't have the most efficient offense around, and this could be a moment for the unit to find some consistency across the board before the schedule really ramps up.

Mike: More defensive experiments

There have already been a number of adjustments in Elijah Robinson's unit, and at least one more is planned with Justin Barron moving to LB on the latest depth chart. The loss at Stanford showed that these are not the kind of changes you want to make on the fly. So if there are other tests with changing players, they should be carried out here if the risk of costing SU a game is not great.

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What will you be looking for in tomorrow's game?