Syracuse has not had a true road game in over a month and Wake Forest is off a bye. Syracuse is now without their QB Terrel Hunt and will start a QB with even less experience than Wake Forest's starter. Wake Forest's defense is enough to completely overwhelm the Syracuse offense that has struggled. They held Syracuse on the road to 13 points last year, but their offense put up a goose egg. Things could be different this year despite Syracuse's defense being very good again, because of the bye and the fact that Syracuse pass defense has allowed 76% completion over their last 3 games. Look for Wake to pull out all the stops to get a win here. Both teams have had red zone issues scoring TD's at just 39% of their attempts while the defenses have been solid, but Wake's red zone defense has been better at 43% to Syracuse 54%. Wake allowed Louisville and Florida State to go 3-7 in the red zone for TD% and they did that on the road. Syracuse was home in both of those games and allowed the two to go 7-9.
There is just too much value with the home dog here despite their struggling offense I think JOhn Wolford will be able to put up some points involving WR EJ Scott and TE Sam Serigne as Syracuse has allowed 10 passing TD's over the last 4 games. I also expect Wake to have the advantage on special teams as they are 8-8 on field goals Syracuse is 10-14. Their punt coverage is also better allowing 7.13 yards per return while Syracuse has given up a TD already and 13.4 yards. Wake also has a TD return this year out of their punt unit while Syracuse does not.
