Penalties, injuries plague SU’s offensive line
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Dino Babers listed Syracuse’s injured offensive linemen at his weekly press conference Monday. He said right guard Joe More and left guard Kalan Ellis are eventually “going to be solid starters for us.”
He then paused before referencing right tackle David Wohlabaugh Jr., just another player from the unit who has barely played this season due to injury. That didn’t stop Babers from praising the line, though.
“They’re out there, they’re doing a really good job and competing,” Babers said. “There’s been some penalty issues, obviously, with that group. We’ve talked about some of the things that’s gone on in there. But when they settle down, even with all the young people in there, they really have performed better than what a lot of people think they have.”
Syracuse’s offensive line has lost key starters at the right tackle and guard positions. Babers has said he has been impressed by the players who have been around the whole season — Enrique Cruz Jr., J’Onre Reed, Chris Bleich and Mark Petry. But the trio have committed far too many penalties while allowing the third-most sacks in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“We just got to keep on getting better,” Cruz Jr. said. “Get better week by week and just hold down our responsibilities.”
Since their 2023 season opener, the Orange never seemed to have the injury luck to prove Babers’ positive assessment. On the Monday before SU’s Week 1 matchup against Colgate, More was listed as the starting right guard while Ellis was listed as the backup left guard.
But less than two hours before kickoff Saturday, More and Ellis were both in street clothes, watching from the sidelines.
Ellis ended up playing in one game, but Babers said he will redshirt the rest of the year. He said Ellis suffered a Lisfranc injury before the season. More has appeared in three games but hasn’t played since Syracuse’s 41-3 loss to No. 4 Florida State.
One week after More and Ellis were ruled out, Wohlabaugh Jr. suffered a lower body injury. Following SU’s Week 2 win, quarterback Garrett Shrader said it’s a matter of finding out who the best five linemen will be. But that became a challenge.
Five days later, Babers announced on his weekly Thursday radio show that Wohlabaugh Jr. was out for the year. Even two games into the season, when the offense had scored a combined 113 points, Babers knew having multiple linemen injured was going to be a challenge.
“There’s just not a lot of big guys walking around (that are) 300 pounds and that are trained like offensive linemen,” Babers said after SU’s Week 2 win over Western Michigan. “So anytime you lose an offensive lineman, that’s difficult, and you’re hoping you don’t lose any more.”
His hopes didn’t come true. Even during the Orange’s most recent loss to Boston College, Jakob Bradford was helped off the field after going down with an injury. As of Monday, Babers said he didn’t have an update on Bradford.
Even among the healthy players, issues have persisted. According to Pro Football Focus, Syracuse is ninth in total pressures allowed. Compared to the defensive lines of schools like North Carolina and Florida State, the talent gap was evident.
FSU’s Shyheim Brown and Kalen DeLoach breezed past the left side of the line and sacked Shrader on the game’s opening play. Shrader was sacked three times and finished 9-of-21 for 99 passing yards before leaving the game due to food poisoning.
Against Virginia Tech, the offensive line’s struggles peaked as Shrader was pressured 16 times and sacked seven times.
According to Bleich, the Orange’s biggest issue doesn’t lie in faltering against elite pass rushers, He finds the amount of penalties to be the offensive line’s “achilles heel.”
The Orange are one of two ACC teams to have three offensive linemen with at least five penalties each. Bleich, Cruz Jr. and Reed are the three offenders, combining for 17 penalties. In total, the offensive line has been responsible for 23. In the last three games, Cruz Jr. has had at least one penalty in each.
On the road in VT’s Lane Stadium, Cruz Jr. committed a false start. In the third quarter against BC, Reed pushed the Orange back to a 2nd-and-20 after moving before the snap — the same, persistent penalties which have plagued SU all year.
On Syracuse’s first two drives of the season, Bleich picked up two false start penalties. He registered another two the following week against Western Michigan. Then, with the Orange down 24-0 to North Carolina, a LeQuint Allen Jr. burst for seven yards was canceled out due to Bleich tripping over an opposing defensive linemen. SU eventually punted.
“I don’t want to say penalties are part of the game, because you can definitely limit them,” Bleich said. “But I would say when you look at your pre snap penalties those are the ones you should clean up.” And to Bleich’s credit, he’s only had three penalties since those first two contests.
Like with many of the position groups on the Orange during their still ongoing five-game skid, the offensive line has had meetings where they can hold each other accountable. Cruz Jr. said he and his teammates are always honest with each other during these meetings as the unit attempts to improve.
“We all take accountability that we all got to improve and do what we got to do to get better,” Cruz Jr. said.
