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Following its bye week, Syracuse faced Louisville on the road. The Orange were riding momentum after two straight wins over Virginia Tech and Boston College — both featuring second-half comebacks — coming into Saturday’s game and needed just one more win to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2018.

But SU lost its first game in a month to the Cardinals 41-3 and never led. Syracuse’s defense struggled, and Louisville quarterback Malik Cunningham dominated, totaling five touchdowns and 228 yards of offense. Garrett Shrader and Sean Tucker couldn’t match their performances from previous matchups, totaling less than 200 combined yards. Shrader threw for only 46 yards, his worst performance since earning the starting job in September.

Here are three takeaways from Syracuse’s 38-point loss against Louisville:

Orange unable to contain Malik Cunningham

Coming into the game, SU’s main focus was on containing one of the best rushing quarterbacks in the country, Cunningham, who torched Syracuse for six touchdowns in 2019. He leads the Atlantic Coast Conference in total touchdowns this season.

Syracuse head coach Dino Babers said facing other mobile quarterbacks like Liberty’s Malik Willis and Florida State’s Jordan Travis helped the Orange in preparing for Cunningham, but the redshirt junior was one of the fastest quarterbacks he’s ever seen.

“Malik is unique. I haven’t seen anybody catch him,” Babers said. “He’s one of the most dynamic players in the league.”

On Louisville’s first-half possessions, Cunningham and the Cardinals’ offense dominated. SU was only able to force two third downs — both of which UL converted. Cunningham ran in his first touchdown of the game on second-and-goal by running right on a triple option as cornerback Duce Chestnut overcommitted. Cunningham used his speed to run right by the freshman, giving the Cardinals an early lead.

Then, Cunningham was able to beat Syracuse with his arm. After crossing into SU territory, Cunningham faked a handoff and found a streaking Tyler Harrell wide-open in the end zone. This time, Chestnut got beat looking deep into the backfield on the run fake, and Harrell ran right by him for six points.

Later, Cunningham and Louisville faced a third-and-short at the Syracuse 41-yard line. The quarterback faked a handoff and found another receiver open for a touchdown, this time Jordan Watkins, who had run past Eric Coley in man coverage. That put the Cardinals up 28-3, easily the Orange’s largest deficit of the season.

Syracuse’s run game gets nothing

SU entered Saturday’s game as the ACC’s top rushing offense by a long shot — the Orange averaged over 247 rushing yards per game, with the second-best team being Louisville at 205. Shrader and Tucker had been a consistent one-two punch for Syracuse all season, and Tucker had only run for less than 100 yards in one game all season.

But the Cardinals were able to find success containing the rushing attack. Tucker ran for just 95 yards, while Shrader recorded only 43. Louisville forced Shrader to throw the ball and stacked the box to give neither player any room to run. Like in previous games, Shrader struggled throwing the ball, averaging less than 3 yards per completion. He didn’t convert on any of his deep shots.

After being shut out in the first half two weeks ago against Boston College, Syracuse almost left the scoreboard empty again, only putting up three points after Andre Szmyt’s 40-plus yard attempt barely made it through the uprights. The Orange were 0-for-7 on third-down conversions in the first half, including the last one of the half, when SU sent five receivers wide, but Shrader was easily sacked by Yasir Abdullah.

SU was only able to drive the length of the field in the second half. But Tucker couldn’t score after stumbling at the 10-yard line on a run, putting the Orange in a goal-to-go situation. After Shrader was stood up on a third-down play, he dropped the snap on fourth-and-goal, allowing the Cardinals’ Greedy Vance to scoop it up. Vance had a chance to return the fumble for six points if he wasn’t tackled by Shrader.

SU gets no pressure on Cunningham

When Syracuse faced Willis and Liberty earlier this season, the Orange’s front six stepped up, recording six sacks in a 24-21 win. Szmyt’s game-winning field goal, in fact, was set up by a strip sack from defensive end Cody Roscoe. SU came into the game second in the ACC with 33 sacks after recording five against Boston College.

But in the game’s first 30 minutes, Syracuse’s defense got no pressure on Cunningham. Babers and the defense said throughout the week that their focus was on controlling Cunningham’s running abilities. That meant quarterback spies and bringing blitzes when needed. But whenever the Orange brought a blitz, Cunningham found a receiver on a screen pass, or froze the defense with play action fakes, freeing up targets downfield.

Without any pressure on Cunningham from Roscoe, Kingsley Jonathan or the linebacker unit — which was without Mikel Jones after he was ejected for targeting — Syracuse’s secondary was forced to sit in coverage for prolonged periods of time, usually in man-to-man coverage.

Three of Louisville’s five touchdowns came off play action throws. While SU was focused on Cunningham’s abilities as a runner, it was his passing ability that beat the Orange on Saturday. The Alabama native was only sacked one time and had several big-gain completions.

Even his incompletions were almost touchdowns. Up 28-3 in the second quarter, UL’s Trevion Cooley ran unguarded up the seam, and Cunningham bulleted the ball at him, which could’ve resulted in another touchdown on the board. Instead, Cooley dropped it, and Louisville had to punt for the first time all game. On the Cardinals next possession, SU brought an edge blitz, but Cunningham found Ahmari Huggins-Bruce on a screen pass for a 17-yard touchdown, sending Syracuse into halftime down 35-3.

Published on November 13, 2021 at 3:13 pm

Contact Connor: csmith49@syr.edu | @csmith17_