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Only an illegal substitution penalty stopped Tony Elliott from going for the two-point conversion and attempting to cut Syracuse’s lead to eight points. Instead, he frustratedly opted for the extra point. It halted, at least for a moment, the steady momentum Virginia had built throughout the third quarter.

SU returner Trebor Pena, who kicked off Friday night’s game with a dynamic 57-yard return, caught Brendan Farrell’s kickoff two yards deep in the endzone. He may have, and head coach Dino Babers certainly thought so, extended his arms to signal a fair catch. Instead, he took the kickoff out as the Virginia special teams unit came barreling toward him. Kevon Darton tried to slide over from the left side and tripped up his man.

But Darton fell in the process and forced Pena to leap over him around the 15-yard line. By the time he landed, UVA tight end Henry Duke launched into Pena. The returner lost the ball in the process, and Virginia recovered at SU’s 14-yard line. Two plays later, the Cavaliers scored their second touchdown in 20 seconds.

The Orange are 4-0 after their 22-20 win over Virginia. All is well, on paper, for Babers as he’s off to his second 4-0 start in his seven-year tenure at SU. But mistakes, hints of which surfaced in last week’s win over Purdue, haunted the Orange against Virginia. They came at crucial times and nearly sunk Syracuse. If the Orange want to continue this perfect start, those mistakes cannot continue.

“If you look at the stats, not a lot of teams can do that, have that many turnovers, not convert like that and win a football game,” Garrett Shrader said.

Syracuse lost three fumbles and Shrader threw an interception after a forced pass. Babers said he was concerned about the four turnovers “a lot,” but noted that averaged out, the Orange have only turned the ball over once per game, something he’s somewhat okay with moving forward.

But after Wagner and a bye week is a four-game stretch that includes three ranked opponents and a struggling Notre Dame team that has easily handled the Orange in years past. Those mistakes can quickly pile up and cascade into consecutive losses. Syracuse has been fortunate in the last two games that mistakes, specifically from the offense, haven’t tampered with its road to perfection. That’s what happened last year in a season Babers calls an “outlier.”

An anomaly of a 5-7 season, one that saw SU lose three straight games by three points, can quickly become status quo if play isn’t cleaned up. Babers doesn’t want key mistakes, like Sean Tucker’s fumble because of poor ball security, or Courtney Jackson’s dribbler that was broken up by his defender and led to a UVA red zone possession, to become a painful Modus Operandi for a team seemingly heading in the right direction.

“The biggest thing is just learning not to panic in games like this,” Shrader said. “But offensively we absolutely have to get it cleaned up, we cannot do that against NC State and Clemson.” 

Syracuse isn’t the penalty-ridden team that it was last year. It somewhat cleaned up the pre-snap violations but had a difficult time against a talented Virginia defensive line. Holding calls sank drives again and Syracuse’s offensive line was tired out by edge rushers continuously disrupting Shrader’s pocket. Even Matthew Bergeron, who has garnered significant attention from NFL scouts, drew a penalty and let his man blow past him.

Babers said he’s comfortable with this group of players. He’s calmer knowing that there’s a talented group of seniors and juniors that have been through a 1-10 season and most recently a 5-7 one that should have ended with a bowl game. He believes they’re the reason why SU is winning these close games.

But these upperclassmen need to keep those close losses from last year in the back of their minds. This 4-0 start and all the attention surrounding the team can quickly crumble, and the Orange could be sitting outside of contention for an Atlantic Coast Conference Championship game berth by the end of October if they can’t clean up those reversible mishaps.

The game was won when…

Andre Szmyt rifled his fifth field goal of the night through the uprights. The bulk of the scoring was placed on the former Lou Groza Award recipient. Szmyt said he approached the 31-yard go ahead kick like any other one. And similar to every one of his four previous kicks Friday night, Szmyt buried it through the middle with plenty of distance to spare.

Quote of the night: Dino Babers

“He went back to his old ways. Low and behold, we’ve got old Andre back. He kicks field goals through the goal post.”

After making 30-of-34 field goals and winning the Lou Groza Award in 2018, Szmyt’s accuracy declined, going 9-for-14 last year. But Babers has mentioned that Szmyt returned to his “old ways.” Thus far, Szmyt has only missed one field goal through 10 attempts and buried a season-long 50-yard field goal.

Number to know: 4

Syracuse quietly turned in three straight games without a turnover. That all changed when Garrett Shrader tried to force a 15-yard pass to Jackson, who was already covered, and Virginia’s Jonas Sanker jumped the route for an interception. Syracuse finished with the most turnovers its most since Oct. 24, 2020, against Clemson. That included fumbles from Tucker and Jackson, the interception and a fumble off a kick return from Pena.

Game Ball: “The Underbelly”

Syracuse pulled from some of the deepest parts of its depth chart Friday night because of a litany of injuries and one ejection. Derek McDonald walked out of the tunnel prior to the game in street clothes, and a team spokesperson said he’d be unavailable for the game. That forced Leon Lowery, who started the season as a third stringer behind McDonald and Stefon Thompson, into a starting role. Then Ja’Had Carter went down and was out in the second half. Terry Lockett had to be helped off the field by two trainers, and later on, Alijah Clark did too.

“There was a lot of guys that didn’t think they’re going to be playing a lot of snaps today, they came in and stepped up,” Babers said.

Despite these injuries, backups Darton and Austin Roon flew off the edges to disrupt Armstrong, and Anwar Sparrow garnered five total tackles.

Three final points:

Swiss cheese offensive line

Shrader didn’t have a ton of time in the pocket against the Cavaliers. So far this season, the offensive line has held its own, transformed by second-year offensive line coach Mike Schmidt. They’ve had their difficulties with penalties, with a record 18 penalties against Louisville. But Shrader has tended to have a great deal of space in the pocket.

Virginia’s defensive line presented a large challenge to the newly set offensive line. Each UVA lineman is an upperclassman or graduate student, a unit infused with experience. Kam Butler forced a fumble on Tucker and made Bergeron’s athletic feet look cemented in the turf when he was swinging around the horn.

Six sacks stand as the most the offensive line has allowed this year. Even Virginia’s backups like Paul Akere penetrated through a previously solid wall of linemen en route to disrupting Shrader throughout the game. The unit, in part, led to Tucker’s second straight game without a touchdown or at least 100 rushing yards.

Third down struggle again

Against Virginia, it had an equally difficult time moving the chains, getting a first down on just 5-of-15 third down plays. Oronde Gadsden II attributed SU’s lack of success in the red zone to its difficulty converting third downs. Once they were able to convert, like they did on the final play of the drive, the Orange’s offense operated more smoothly, like it’s seen in the previous three games.

SU’s drives mainly stalled out when it got itself into third-and-long scenarios. Gadsden said he knows teams are going to try to replicate what Virginia did in the second half, whether it’s rushing at least four people or bleeding linebackers toward the line in order to protect against short passes and screens. Since teams are already favoring the run game on defense, third downs become especially difficult for Syracuse. Teams are already used to stacking the box, but they can do it more aggressively, especially because opponents don’t trust the passing game yet, said Gadsden.

Marlowe Wax is taking over Stefon Thompson’s role

When Thompson went down, it was unclear who’d be able to fill the void left by a self-described hybrid linebacker who could also help against the run. The defensive line has had no problem holding its own thus far. But on Friday, Marlowe Wax not only fulfilled his role frequently as a QB spy, successful tracking down Armstrong on scrambles to prevent big first down runs, but he even lined up as an edge rusher and helped out players like Steve Linton in zone blitz packages.

Wax helped SU dominate in 3rd-and-short scenarios. Early on, Virginia tended to convert if it was 3rd-and-long, either via a long scramble from Armstrong or a nice pass on out routes. To end Virginia’s first possession, however, Wax curled around the edge and got a big hit on Armstrong, who subsequently overthrew Keytaon Thompson. If Wax can continue to be that potent threat, the loss of Thompson won’t be as glaring.

Next up: Wagner

Syracuse’s only Football Championship Series opponent is off to an abysmal start, losing all three games, including a 66-7 loss to Rutgers. Quarterback Nick Kargman has 457 passing yards and four touchdowns but has also been intercepted four times and is completing less than 50% of his passes. Running back Rickey Spruill leads the team with 116 rushing yards thus far and is only Wagner player with a rushing touchdown this season.

Published on September 24, 2022 at 12:35 pm

Contact Anthony: aalandt@syr.edu | @anthonyalandt