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For weeks, Syracuse talked about finding an offensive balance between the number of times it was throwing the ball and running it. The Orange put up their biggest offensive game against No. 19 Wake Forest, behind 354 yards on the ground and 160 yards through the air.

That balance made sense. It featured an offense tailored toward SU’s strengths — star running back Sean Tucker, and quarterback Garrett Shrader’s ability to scramble and use his power and elusiveness to get upfield.

Then, against an unranked Clemson team, Syracuse abandoned that balance, electing to throw the ball a season-high 37 times via Shrader. The Orange lost 17-14, with kicker Andre Szmyt’s late 48-yard attempt to tie the game and force overtime coming up well short. Shrader struggled in his fourth start, completing just 17 of those throws and adding a costly red zone interception during the first half.

Clemson was the first team that was able to contain Shrader. After back-to-back 100-yard rushing games against Wake Forest and Florida State, including the former of which Shrader out-rushed Tucker, the quarterback couldn’t go anywhere. That was because “the guy that’s responsible for him was as athletic and as big as he is,” head coach Dino Babers explained. Clemson’s players were talented enough to make tackles on Shrader that prior teams couldn’t.

Shrader also had success scrambling and taking off running when his receivers were covered during prior weeks, picking up significant yards on the ground even when the play call wasn’t a designed run. But Friday wasn’t like that. The SU quarterback finished with six rushing yards on seven attempts, four of which came on a read-option play that he carried in for the Orange’s first touchdown.

When asked why SU decided to throw the ball so much and move away from the read-option, Babers disagreed. He said that wasn’t really the case. Tucker had a productive first half, but admitted after the game that he came out a little slower in the second half. Babers said that Clemson’s defense — who ranked the best in the ACC and second-best in the country in terms of points allowed before Friday’s game — was stacking the box and bringing pressure from its linebackers and defensive lineman.

“They were bringing everybody and there wasn’t a lot of space,” Babers said. “The young people were giving their best effort, but some of them were a little bit overmatched by athletic ability and age.”

SU tried to take advantage of looks where Clemson had just one deep safety, Babers said. But that got away from the work that the Orange did in the weeks prior. Even without Shrader’s legs, the rushing game still wasn’t stagnant.

Tucker ran up the right seam for a gain of nine on the first play of the game, then four yards, then seven later that drive. He broke loose for a gain of 54 on SU’s third drive at the end of the first quarter, a series that was smothered by Shrader’s decision to throw into the middle of the field as he was hit. The ball was picked, and the SU quarterback took responsibility later.

But if you take away a 62-yard bomb that Shrader connected with Trebor Pena on, which was a well-executed play but also appeared to be somewhat of a prayer, Shrader 191 yards passing on 37 attempts is an atrocious 5.16 yards per attempt. Shrader knew it too.

“We were sloppy, not good,” he said. “We’re running the wrong routes, we had some drops, I was missing throws. It was a little bit of a combination of everything.”

The problem is the Orange continued to throw the ball. Tucker had 126 yards with five minutes remaining in the first half, but SU didn’t feed him as frequently in the second half when the offense was clearly struggling. The running back had three carries during the third quarter, watching as Shrader dropped back to throw seven times on one nine-play series.

The fourth quarter was an improvement, with seven carries from Tucker, but it still didn’t seem like the Orange were getting their top playmaker involved enough. On a number of occasions, they spread all five players wide and left the backfield empty, a drastic shift from the frequent read-option that SU ran — with continual success — against FSU and Wake Forest.

A week ago, Syracuse turned to Shrader’s legs and a dump-off pass that Tucker turned into a 28-yard score when it needed the game-tying touchdown. That was when the Orange had 2:20 on the clock to score. But against Clemson, with twice as much time to tie or win the game, SU threw the ball eight times and rushed just four.

The Orange found the right formula by relying on the read-option and working with its strengths. Game-by-game adjustments are a necessity, but Syracuse doesn’t need to change its entire identity and play style depending on who its opponent is. It did against Clemson, and the offense looked flat compared to in recent weeks.

The game was won when…

Andre Szmyt came out to kick the game-tying field goal after his last kick — an extra point — made him Syracuse’s all-time points leader (335 points). On the 48-yard attempt, the snap was good and the protection looked solid, but the holder didn’t rotate the ball correctly. Szmyt kicked the laces side of the ball, and the kick bounced in the back of the endzone, well short of the field goal posts. It also looked like it was drifting wide-left. Syracuse lost its third straight game by three points after Wake Forest beat the Orange on a walk-off touchdown in overtime and FSU won on a field goal as time expired.

Quote of the night: Garrett Shrader on close losses

“We’re right there, we’re three games, three points, every single time. We’re right there, just one play away, that’s it. And we just gotta flip the switch and make it happen next week.”

Stat to know: Eight penalties, 77 yards

After three straight games with five penalties or less, Syracuse’s penalty problems returned on Friday against the Tigers. Shrader was called for a facemask on a quarterback draw when he dove forward for a first down, a penalty that stalled SU’s offensive progress and forced it to punt. Sharod Johnson was called for offensive pass interference when Shrader threw a poor pass into double-coverage and Johnson had to improvise. Kalan Ellis’ false start penalty hurt SU’s momentum and rhythm when it needed to get from its 7-yard line into field goal range.

SU had a program-record 16 penalties against UAlbany, and eight against Rutgers. Friday marked the second-most penalty yards of the season, and the sloppy play certainly didn’t help the Orange in such a close game.

Game ball: Mikel Jones (and Sean Tucker, but he doesn’t count anymore)

Sean Tucker shouldn’t count as a game-ball recipient anymore, because he’s an automatic selection every week — the Syracuse running back had well over 100 yards during the first half, and finished with 177 all-purpose yards. He had a quiet second half, but still played his usual monumental role in the SU offense.

Beyond Tucker, Jones led the SU defense with 10 solo tackles and one assisted tackle. The defense held Clemson to just three second-half points, and took on a significant role given that the SU offense was struggling to produce. In the second half, Jones sniffed out a screen pass to Davis Allen and swallowed the Clemson tight end for a loss of four yards. The drive still ended with a touchdown on an impressive catch by Joseph Ngata over Duce Chestnut in the corner of the endzone, but Jones and the defense did its job — and then some — against Clemson.

“We had a game plan and we came out and executed pretty well,” Jones said.

Three final points

Airon Servais starts his 55th consecutive game. The offensive lineman was banged up during the week leading into SU’s Friday matchup with Clemson, and what he did in order to get himself ready for the game was impressive, Babers said. He recovered from an injury that a lot of people wouldn’t have been able to, Babers said, but declined to specify further. Shrader, who’s Servais’ roommate, said the offensive lineman “tweaked something” last week but spent all week in the training room working with SU’s team. They knew he’d be ready to go come game day. Servais has the ability to play multiple positions on the line — he’s currently playing center, but has played left and right tackle during his time at SU too.

“Super senior. Leadership. Toughness,” Babers said of what Servais’ 55th consecutive start means. “A guy that has an opportunity to play at the next level.”

The starting defense couldn’t cover…a fake punt? Syracuse’s defense played exceptionally well against Clemson, particularly in the second half when it held the Tigers to just three points. That comes with an asterisk because Clemson’s offense entered the game ranked among the worst scoring offenses in the country, but it is still a talented unit and SU’s defense seemed to get the better of them.

But at the end of the second quarter, with a fourth-and-5 and less than two minutes remaining, Clemson lined up in a suspicious punting formation at the Syracuse 41-yard line. It included bunch formations on either side of punter Will Spiers, and only three players blocking directly in front of Spiers. Clemson called timeout right before it too. SU knew it was a fake.

Babers did the right thing to leave his starting defense on the field, but Clemson still completed a 17-yard pass over the heads of Ja’Had Carter and Garrett Williams. The Tigers went on to score a touchdown right before halftime, and Williams was caught in friendly fire on that fake-punt play when he took a hit from Carter and didn’t return to the game afterward.

“If our defense couldn’t stop it, our punt return team sure in the heck wouldn’t have stopped it,” Babers said.

No, going to Tommy DeVito wasn’t a thought. After the game, Babers was asked whether he considered going to Tommy DeVito after Shrader struggled to complete short passes and couldn’t produce much of anything with his legs. Babers’ response was a quick, and resounding, no.

“I’m going to talk about the guys, I’m not going to bring up that Tommy stuff. We didn’t talk about Shrader when Tommy was out there playing,” Babers said. “We didn’t talk about Tommy when Dungey was out there playing, so I’m not gonna talk about that part.”

Next up: Virginia Tech

The Orange travel to Blacksburg on Saturday after back-to-back losses at home. The Hokies opened their season with a 17-10 win over then-No. 14 North Carolina (who’ve since fallen out of the top 25). But they’ve also since lost to West Virginia and then-No. 14 Notre Dame. Syracuse hasn’t played Virginia Tech since 2016 in the Carrier Dome, a 31-17 upset win over the No. 17 Hokies that featured over 300 yards passing from Eric Dungey and over 100 yards rushing from him. SU will look to find its first conference win of the year after its first three ACC games were decided by three points in the final moments.

Published on October 16, 2021 at 9:47 pm

Contact Roshan: rferna04@syr.edu | @Roshan_f16