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FACTS & STATS: Site: Superdome (69,703) -- New Orleans, Louisiana. Television: Cox Sports. Home Record: Syracuse 3-1, Tulane 1-1. Away Record: Syracuse 0-1, Tulane 1-2. Neutral Record: Syracuse 0-0, Tulane 0-0. Conference Record: Syracuse 0-1, Tulane 1-1. Series Record: Syracuse leads, 6-1.

GAME NOTES: Sitting a game over .500 at the moment, the Syracuse Orange pay a visit to the Tulane Green Wave on Saturday night for a non-conference clash at the Superdome in New Orleans.

This marks the first meeting between these two schools since 1999. Syracuse has won six of the seven previous meetings in the all-time series.

It will be only the second road game of the year for the Orange, as all three of their wins so far have come at home. Beginning with this tilt, three of their next four will be played in unfriendly confines. Last weekend, Syracuse opened its Big East Conference slate with a 19-16 double-overtime home loss to Rutgers.

As for the Green Wave, they are hoping to avoid a third straight setback. Last Saturday, they suffered an ugly 45-6 loss at Army to wrap up a three-game road swing (1-2). Tulane has yielded at least 45 points in each of its last two outings, a trend that cannot continue if the team hopes to make any noise in the Conference USA pecking order this season.

Syracuse senior running back Antwon Bailey had a rough day against the Scarlet Knights. On the first play from scrimmage, Bailey lost a fumble that set the Scarlet Knights up with the ball on the Syracuse 30-yard line. Fortunately for Bailey, the Orange defense bailed him out with a touchdown off a turnover. But later, in the second overtime, Bailey lost another fumble and this time it cost the Orange the game. The miscues overshadowed an otherwise strong rushing performance by Bailey, who ran for 124 yards and a touchdown (5.4 ypc). Quarterback Ryan Nassib also had a tough day, completing only 15-of-32 passes for 169 yards and three picks. With an offense that ranks seventh in the Big East in terms of both scoring and yardage, the Orange can ill-afford that many miscues and still expect to come away with a win.

On the other hand, the SU defense put forth arguably its best effort of the season so far. Rutgers' running back Jawan Jamison was bottled up to the tune of 48 yards on 24 carries, while the Scarlet Knights managed only 297 passing yards and one touchdown on 57 attempts. The Syracuse defense notched five sacks and forced four turnovers, including a fumble recovery that was returned 66 yards for a score by Ri'Shard Anderson in the first quarter. Dyshawn Davis led the way with six tackles, including four for a loss and two sacks. Dan Vaughan contributed a career-high 15 tackles, while Anderson, Torrey Ball and Marquis Spruill each registered a fumble recovery. After five games, Vaughan paces the squad with 38 tackles. Davis has collected a team-best four sacks, while Phillip Thomas and Kevyn Scott have combined for five interceptions.

There isn't much from the Green Wave's lopsided loss to Army that they can bring into this contest, as the offense was particularly inefficient, coughing the ball up four times, which led to 17 points for the Black Knights. In addition, drives often stalled because of untimely penalties, as Tulane was flagged 10 times for a loss of 92 yards. Orleans Darkwa was the lone bright spot for the offense, finishing with 138 yards and the team's only touchdown on 16 carries. He had a long run on the second play from scrimmage and then scored on the very next play to give Tulane an early 6-0 lead. However, that lead would not last very long as the Green Wave did little right the rest of the way. In the second half, two lost fumbles resulted in a touchdown and a field goal for Army, which all but put the game out of reach. Ryan Griffin has really struggled to get the passing game going, as the redshirt junior has completed only 56.9 percent of his passes for 196 yards per tilt.

Of course, Tulane's defense is not free of blame for last weekend's loss. The Black Knights were able to keep the chains moving with their option game and picked up huge chunks of yardage. By game's end, Army had rushed for 353 yards (5.7 ypc) and five touchdowns, and Tulane's defense was clearly fatigued. The Black Knights enjoyed an 11-minute edge in the time-of-possession battle, and they scored on all five of their trips to the red zone, including four touchdowns. Matthew Bailey and Sam Scofield each collected 10 tackles to lead the Green Wave defense. This unit has struggled for two straight weeks, having given up more than 90 points total. While a return to the Superdome and the home faithful could help provide a spark, there are still lots of questions that remain unanswered. Two weeks ago, the secondary allowed Duke quarterbacks to complete 24-of-36 passes for 333 yards, while the run defense was still gashed for five scores in that game. Expect Syracuse to get the ground game established early to try and set up some big gains with play-action later in the contest.

Both of these teams had far too many miscues last week, but Syracuse can at least build on a strong defensive effort. The Orange may be a work in progress on offense, but they should be able to find enough holes against Tulane's leaky defense.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Syracuse 24, Tulane 9