Eric Dungey injury ends Syracuse upset bid before it starts

Syracuse Orange quarterback Eric Dungey suffers an injury at the line of scrimmage. This ends the Orange’s odds of upsetting the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Though they are the No. 12 team in the nation, the Syracuse Orange were considerable underdogs to the No. 3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday. Syracuse has emerged as arguably the second best team in a weak ACC after the division rival Clemson Tigers. Notre Dame is one of three Power 5 teams that were undefeated entering Saturday.

For the Orange to thwart Notre Dame at neutral-site Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, Syracuse needed its star quarterback in Eric Dungey to be a difference maker. He has played in several big games in his college career, but suffering a scary injury at the line of scrimmage has probably brought an end to Syracuse’s shot at slaying the giant that is Notre Dame.

Early in the first quarter, you could see Dungey fall to the turf at the line of scrimmage after grabbing his right side. It appeared to be a non-contact injury and he is questionable to return. Without him, it would take a miracle for the Orange to beat Notre Dame in this neutral-site affair.

Dungey first gained national notoriety as quarterbacking Syracuse to an upset victory at home over Clemson last season. While the Orange weren’t a great team a year ago, this year’s team is arguably better than Jim Boeheim’s basketball team. It’s credit to the fantastic job that head coach Dino Babers has done since taking over the program just a few years ago.

Though the Orange are a resilient bunch, it will be awfully hard for them to play spoiler in this upset bid without their veteran signal-caller. Sure, having a coach like Babers and a team that has a never-say-die attitude could keep the Orange in this one longer than expected. However, we need to expect that Syracuse will suffer its third loss of the season on Saturday evening.

The real bummer in all of this is that it is largely cupcake week in the Power 5. This was one of the better games of the slate. Not to say that Syracuse was realistically going to beat Notre Dame, but the Orange had more than a puncher’s chance.

They would have needed a terrific game out of Dungey, as well as a timely turnover to seriously threaten Notre Dame. But with Dungey questionable and possibly out, that might be all she wrote for the Orange in this one. Look for Notre Dame to remain undefeated heading into its final regular season game of the season with a fantastic shot at making the College Football Playoff.