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What Garrett Shrader did with his legs on Saturday in Tallahassee, Jordan Travis seemed to replicate.

With 40 seconds remaining and a chance to win the game if the Seminoles got into field goal range, Travis scrambled. The pocket collapsed on the second play of the series, so Travis darted out the front side and then cut up the left sideline. SU linebacker Marlowe Wax expected Travis to step out of bounds — he’d already been called for a controversial late hit during the second quarter. So Wax stopped early, and Travis continued down the left sideline for a 33-yard gain that put the Seminoles on the edge of field goal range.

Then, on third-and-7 with 20 seconds left, Travis rolled out of the pocket and bolted upfield for a gain of another 25, albeit a missed holding call on FSU against Wax.

“Obviously he broke contain, he went down the sidelines,” Babers said. “I thought some guys were pulling up, and (Travis) kept tip-toeing down the sideline and turned it into a huge play.”

Travis finished with 113 yards rushing on 19 carries, an average of 5.9 yards per carry. He added another 131 yards passing and two touchdowns in Florida State’s (1-4, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) 33-30 win over Syracuse (3-2, 0-1 Atlantic Coast). The matchup marked the second week in a row that SU faced a mobile, dual-threat quarterback. But last week, SU’s defense limited Liberty’s Malik Willis, a likely future first-round NFL draft pick, to 49 rushing yards and 2.9 yards per carry.

“Just staying in coverage, knowing that he was going to be running around,” cornerback Garrett Williams said of Willis after the Liberty win. “We were trying to stay in coverage the whole time and respect the double moves knowing that they were running a lot of them.”

So why did SU have more trouble containing Travis?

Syracuse’s defense had a sluggish day on Saturday in Tallahassee, at least compared to its usual standards. The unit conceded season highs in total yards (378), rushing yards (247), first downs (22) and points (33). The clutch interception from Duce Chestnut nearly bailed them out, but the harsh missed holding call and roughing the passer penalties against Wax certainly didn’t make things easier.

Still, on numerous occasions just like the final drive, SU couldn’t keep Travis in the pocket. The quarterback continuously stepped up and eluded the defensive line’s pressure before taking advantage of space downfield. He made SU defenders miss. Babers said after the game that Travis was a quarterback who beat the Orange with both his arm and his legs.

“You’re trying to pass-rush, and if you leave a lane open and he steps through, you either you got a whole bunch of guys deep, playing zone, (or) you got a whole bunch of guys with their back turned to the quarterback playing man-to-man,” Babers said.

In the first quarter, Travis converted to two straight fourth down plays, the latter of which he kept it on fourth and short and bulled forward for the first down. A week ago, Willis tried to do the same thing on fourth-and-goal during the fourth quarter. But when the Liberty quarterback tried to put his head down and charge ahead with the pile, Kingsley Jonathan broke through a gap in the Flames offensive line and wrapped up Willis for a 1-yard loss. Cody Roscoe got a strip-sack on Willis on the final drive to set up the game-winning field goal, too.

The Orange did notch two sacks against FSU, both of which came during the second quarter, including a big one from Jonathan where he blew past his man and drilled Travis into the ground before taking a bow in celebration.

But after halftime, the Orange defense looked more worn out. Syracuse watched as Travis threw a lateral pass to the flat on third-and-goal, and the receiver dropped the pass. The ball was still live, but SU didn’t react soon enough. FSU scooped it up and ran it in for the touchdown.

That same mentality carried over into the fourth quarter when Travis continued to run quarterback keepers and the read-option. He negated a false start penalty on the previous play by pump faking and then stepping up to his right to outrun SU’s four-man rush for an 11-yard gain. That drive ended in a touchdown that put the Seminoles up 10 points.

On FSU’s next possession, he again alluded to SU’s four-man rush by darting through a hole on his left on third-and-5. Wax had a chance to make the play before the sticks, but Travis showed strength to shake the tackle. Chestnut’s interception came on the next play, but Travis continued more of the same on the game’s final drive to lead the Seminoles to their first win of the year.

The game was won when…

Travis’ two big runs on the game’s final drive put FSU into field goal range. Florida State’s redshirt freshman kicker, Ryan Fitzgerald, forced overtime with a clutch 43-yard field goal against then-No. 9 Notre Dame in the Seminoles season-opener. Saturday against the Orange, he split the uprights from 34 yards as time expired. Babers iced him with Syracuse’s second timeout, but it didn’t work. A week after winning on a field goal at the buzzer, SU lost in the same fashion.

Quote of the night: Head coach Dino Babers

Before the start of the season, Babers said with confidence that he’d want this team over the one he had last year. Saturday after SU’s loss in Tallahassee, he reiterated that sentiment.

“This team is not like last year’s team. Even though we’ve got people missing, last year was something totally different,” Babers said. “We’re going to be able to compete, we’re going to be able to battle … this team has got some stuff to it.”

Stat to know: 2-of-12, 0-of-3

Syracuse’s offense looked the most balanced it has been thus far this year. Shrader was able to throw the ball with more success than in the past, and his legs combined with Sean Tucker’s added a dimension to an SU offense that looked flat at times this year.

But, despite putting up 30 points in its loss, the Orange still went 2-of-12 and 0-of-3 on third and fourth down, respectively. SU hadn’t missed a fourth-down conversion until Saturday’s game in Tallahassee, Babers pointed out after the game. On the first, a predictable handoff to Tucker ended with a 2-yard loss as FSU’s defensive linemen exploded through the gap. The second was Shrader’s desperation pass to end the half, and the third was another controversial call where officials called Shrader down inside the 1-yard line on a fourth-and-goal rush.

But SU’s struggles on third down are perhaps the most concerning. This year, the Orange have a conversion rate of 32.2%, good for 110th of 130 Football Bowl Subdivision teams. SU went three-and-out on three of its first four drives against FSU, and converted just 4-of-13 despite a win over Liberty.

“We can do better,” Babers said post-FSU of the low conversion rates. “We were disappointed that we didn’t get it and there (were) third down(s) that were pretty much the same.”

Game ball: Garrett Shrader

In his second career start for SU, Shrader sparked the offense with his 55-yard touchdown run, and then kept it going. He had three touchdown runs — and was inches away from tacking on a fourth — in addition to a touchdown pass. The offense ran through Tucker for the first four weeks, but this was the first time that Shrader’s playmaking abilities were on display for an extended period of time.

“We made one big play in the run game and kind of gave us a little confidence to start spreading the ball out and giving the ball to other guys,” Shrader said after the game.

Three final points

Tucker’s gradual emergence: Compared to his first four games, a stretch where Tucker was averaging an FBS-leading 177.8 yards per game from scrimmage and was second in the nation in total rushing yards (536), it was a quiet afternoon in Tallahassee for the running back.

Tucker’s first half started slowly. He had 32 rushing yards over the first two quarters and didn’t record a rush of 10 or more yards until there were less than four minutes remaining in the half. But in the second half, his consecutive carries of 17 and nine yards helped set SU up in the red zone. He ran for 12 and a touchdown on Orange’s next possession, though it was overturned. When Shrader got going in the run game, both he and Tucker were the beneficiary of the read-option.

Duce Chestnut’s miraculous — and timely — pick: The true freshman’s highlight interception came at the perfect time for SU. With the Orange down three points and the fourth quarter halfway gone, Chestnut leaped into the passing lane and secured the pick on a designed screen pass play, giving the Orange a chance to take the lead with a touchdown (they’d be forced to settle for three instead). It’s the second week in a row that the defense has come up with a timely takeaway after last week’s strip-sack of Willis.

The moment required impressive instincts, Babers explained later. Chestnut had to commit to the play, dodge the first receiver’s block and then jump the route. The fact that he secured the catch was even more impressive, Babers said, because oftentimes when a wide receiver’s elbows are the first body part to hit the ground, it jars the ball loose.

“He had so much confidence that he stayed locked on,” Babers said. “’I’m telling you, the catch was a lot harder than what you guys think it was — and he made it look easy.”

Slow starts: Syracuse didn’t score a first-quarter point against Florida State, Liberty or Rutgers. It did score opening drive touchdowns against UAlbany and Ohio, albeit the two worst opponents the Orange have faced this season, but has struggled to get going early the remainder of its higher-caliber opponents.

“In the first quarter, our base stuff, they kind of shut us down,” Shrader said after FSU. “But when we spread things out and started making plays and letting other people touch the ball, different run schemes and stuff, you saw what the offense has the potential to be.”

Babers and the Orange are aware of what lies ahead in their ACC slate. They’ll also need to be thinking about how to get the offense going quicker.

Next up: No. 19 Wake Forest

The undefeated Demon Deacons are the most unlikely of conference leaders five weeks in the college football season. They notched resounding wins over ACC opponents Florida State and Virginia and beat Louisville on a last-second field goal to improve to 3-0 in conference play. They recorded wins over Norfolk State and Old Dominion, too. With the conference-wide open, and Wake Forest being the highest ACC team in the AP Top 25 poll as of Sunday, this will be a crucial game in the Dome for Syracuse.

Published on October 3, 2021 at 5:26 pm

Contact Roshan: rferna04@syr.edu | @Roshan_f16