On paper, the numbers weren’t all that bad for Eric Dungey. He completed two-thirds of his passes, he threw for 350 yards and two touchdown but also had two interceptions. Which was really three but one got called back on a roughing the passer penalty. Dungey also consistently lacked strength on his throws, struggled with his accuracy and decision making.
In the first quarter, everything was going in the Orange’s favor, including Dungey’s play as SU took what looked like a commanding 17-0 lead. After that, SU was outscored 45-3. Yes, the defense failed Dino Babers’ squad, but the offense did too. And part of that falls on Dungey.
Dungey can be better, we’ve seen that much. He played much better last week against potentially a playoff team. Dino Babers expects as much, saying after the game, “[Eric] is progressing nicely, but right now I think he’s still growing.” Adding that there is room to grow until Dungey gets to the point they think he can get to.
After the game, Dungey attributed much of the problems to poor execution. And that is a good way of describing what happened following the first quarter.
On multiple occasions, Dungey stared down receivers and gave the USF defenders time to get over and step in front of the passes. He also threw into double or triple coverage far to many times. Quite frankly, he is lucky that he only threw two (three) interceptions.
It is interesting to watch Dungey seemingly take steps back after two pretty good performances in the first two weeks of the season. It was widely assumed the team would look more comfortable and settled as the season went on, and it did in the first quarter of today’s game. But after that, things seemed to fall apart.
The Orange stopped converting on third downs, stopped converting on fourth downs, and stopped scoring points.
This may be a real indication of a change in the way we think. Brent Axe mentioned it multiple times on “On The Block” before the season, we need to think differently about judging this football team this year. Eric Dungey’s stats look perfectly fine in today’s game. You would imagine the team did alright and the offense moved.
But if we’ve learned anything these first three weeks it might be this: in the Dino Babers offense, the stats will most definitely be there. Today was proof of that.
It’s not just Dungey’s statline that could be misleading. Dontae Strickland ran for nearly 130 yards. SU had three receivers with more than 80 receiving yards. Based on those number, you would think the offense looked good and put points on the board. But it didn’t.
This is not an indictment of Eric Dungey. It is simply the idea that today while the stats looked alright after the game, he didn’t play all that well. And I don’t doubt this will happen again this season.
Click here to read Seth’s previous reports