WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Eric Dungey scrambled to his left and tried to shove Wake Forest linebacker Marquel Lee back with a stiff arm to the facemask. But like what happened five times in the game, Dungey wound up on the ground for a sack.

It was the second sack in three plays and derailed a promising Syracuse drive that started at its 9 and got as far as the WFU 36 while SU was down by five with 10 minutes left in the game.

To SU’s (2-4, 0-2 Atlantic Coast) detriment, Dungey was sent running throughout the game. Whether it was to avoid pass rushers on protection breakdowns or designed runs, Dungey was the offensive workhorse for a unit that had its worst outing of the season thanks in part to rainy and windy conditions. The offense did not throw downfield and struggled in blitz pickups, ultimately falling to Wake Forest (5-1, 2-1), 28-9, at BB&T Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on Saturday.

Dungey threw the ball only 25 times for 156 yards. SU had just one pass of more than 15 yards.

“I got banged up a little bit,” Dungey said of the hits he took. “But I was fine the next play.”

Heavy rain and wind persisted throughout the first half, forcing the game to go on the ground. But Wake Forest’s blitzes on first and second down sometimes caught the Orange off guard, forcing Syracuse into passing plays on third down.

SU was 0-for-3 on third downs in its first three drives, forcing three-and-outs. Dungey was sacked on one and came up well short on runs on the two others.

“There were some blitzes that we saw that we physically didn’t get to enough … guys not executing,” head coach Dino Babers said.

When the handoffs to the running backs didn’t work, Syracuse opted to use Dungey’s legs.

On Syracuse’s drive to take a 9-7 lead in the second quarter, Dungey did the legwork.

In a five wide receiver set, he ran around the right side of the line and slid forward on two knees after gaining 6 yards. He followed that up with a pass that Kendall Moore dropped, but then on third down took a designed run to the left side 27 yards thanks to a block by receiver Ervin Philips.

It was a Dungey run that moved the Orange into the red zone on that touchdown drive.

Excluding a play on the first drive where Dungey dropped the snap and his sacks, he ran the ball 12 times for 69 yards — the same number of rushes as starting running back Dontae Strickland.

The number of hits Dungey took effected him, though, Babers said.

“I think the young man got hit a little bit tonight,” Babers said. “He got hit a lot. There were a lot of pressures up the middle and even when he was getting the ball off those guys were in the vicinity so to speak.”

After Dungey was driven to the ground along SU’s sideline on a fumble return that put Wake Forest ahead 28-9, he didn’t return for the Orange’s last drive. The weight of the offense was finally off his feet.

Published on October 9, 2016 at 2:10 am

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus