Upon Review: Radcliff's big game at Syracuse

Brandon Radcliff is Louisville's newest star on offense. In the past two weeks, the sophomore tailback's bullied his way through 229 yards and four touchdowns from 40 carries.

He's also had three catches for 59 yards and three kick returns for 94 yards, including a 62-yarder at Syracuse.

For those counting at home, that's 20 carries and two touchdowns a game over the last two contests, including a 5.7 yards-per-carry average and a 114.5 yards a game. That's also 24.5 receiving yards a game, plus about 31 yards per kickoff return.

The most impressive thing about Radcliff's last two weeks has been his ability to absorb and break hits and find a way to fall forward.

Of his 40 carries, 24 have gone for four or more yards. And here's the crazy stat from Friday's 28-6 win at Syracuse:

Radcliff broke 27 -- yes, 27 -- tackles during his 110-yard performance.

"He's been running really hard," Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said. "After the first contact, he keeps driving his legs and breaks tackles. He's done a really nice job for us. To be able to break tackles and get into the end zone two games in a row ... You can't get all of them blocked. You have to make one guy miss to get into the end zone."

Let's run through two of his better runs on Friday at Syracuse. Watch how he keeps his body low and drives through arm tackles.

A little bit later, you can see his strength as he fends off a tackle for about five extra yards before finally tumbling down. That's after skipping through two attempted arm tackles and avoiding one would-be tackler's attempt to trip him up.

Of course arm tackles are bad form for defenders, and there were a lot of bad tackling attempts from Syracuse. But sometimes they're all a defensive player can muster if they're engaged in a block or stuck in a cluster of bodies.

It still takes a strong running back to blow through the majority of them or, in reviewing this Syracuse game film, pretty much all of them. Radcliff, at 5-9, 207 pounds, has the body to do that. He has a compact build and the lower-body strength to keep driving.

Former teammate George Durant's photo probably explains it better than anything I could write here: