After seeing Missouri’s wide receivers on film, Scott Shafer couldn’t help but think they all look the same. Shafer would watch a play, then have to look again to see which receiver made the catch. Telling them apart was his first challenge in devising a game plan.

A win away from clinching a bowl bid, Syracuse (5-5, 4-2 Big East) is going to Columbia, Mo., on Saturday to play the Tigers (5-5, 2-5 Southeastern Conference), who are in their first season in the toughest league in the country. Missouri doesn’t possess anywhere near the same type of dominance that its SEC counterparts Alabama or Louisiana State do, but the Tigers present a test for Syracuse as it looks to reach the postseason for the first time since 2010.

“The biggest key is focusing on ourselves and doing our job,” said Shafer, the Orange’s defensive coordinator. “If you go beyond that, it’s out of your control.”

Syracuse is coming off a monumental 45-26 upset of then-unbeaten Louisville. The Orange played flawlessly.

No turnovers. A bulldozing running game opened up wide-open passing lanes. SU’s defense shut down the Cardinals completely.

Now Syracuse has to do it again. For an up-and-down team, that’s a challenge.

For one, there are the wide receivers Shafer lauded. Leading receiver Marcus Lucas is 6 feet 5 inches tall, and T.J. Moe is 6 feet tall. And there’s also Dorial Green-Beckham, who is 6 feet 6 inches tall, and the 6-foot-4-inch L’Damian Washington. Syracuse’s tallest defensive back is backup free safety Durell Eskridge, who is 6 feet 3 inches tall.

“They have really an extremely talented wide receiver corps,” Shafer said. “Very athletic, long, they’ve got some long, tall guys.”

Shafer said Missouri quarterback James Franklin has a strong arm and has the ability to tuck the ball and run to extend plays, something the Syracuse defense has struggled to combat all year.

And then there’s the fact that Missouri is sixth in the SEC in turnover margin at plus-2. While the Orange has improved in that category, it’s still at minus-3. Running back Jerome Smith said the key to winning Saturday rests in one area.

“No mistakes. We can’t hurt ourselves,” Smith said. “We can’t do anything where we hurt ourselves. If we hurt ourselves, we’re already back a little bit. We’re going to have to play catch-up if we hurt ourselves.”

Missouri’s also third in the SEC in red-zone defense, allowing opponents to score only 72.5 percent of the time. SU has had trouble in the red zone all season, including on its first drive in the win over Louisville.

So while the Tigers are still adjusting to life in the SEC, they still have some talent. And then on Saturday, they’ll be on their own field in front of what will likely be a raucous crowd as Missouri also tries to lock up a bowl bid.

“We’re going out and playing an SEC team at their home,” SU head coach Doug Marrone said on the Big East coaches’ teleconference on Monday. “I think it’s a great challenge.”

Missouri fell to then-No. 1 Alabama by 32 points on Oct. 13, gave then-No. 8 Florida a run for its money two weeks ago in a 14-7 loss and fought to beat Tennessee 51-48 in four overtimes last week.

But Syracuse is also coming off a big win. The Orange thought about that game for about 24 hours after the win and let it go after watching the film to see exactly what it did to beat then-No. 11 Louisville.

“We washed off the Louisville game after we watched it on Sunday,” quarterback Ryan Nassib said. “And now we know we’ve got another game ahead of us. And our 100 percent focus is on Missouri.”

Marrone had to watch some extra tape on the Tigers since it’s a nonconference team he hasn’t seen much of. But he said Missouri doesn’t know much about Syracuse either. The Tigers saw from last week that when the Orange plays well, it can beat good teams.

Syracuse’s trip to Missouri calls for that type of execution if it’s going to earn bowl eligibility.

“We’ve just got to prepare like we do every week and hopefully emulate what we did last week,” Nassib said. “Because doing that the same would be great.”

Published on November 15, 2012 at 2:56 am

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman