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No. 18 Syracuse had two weeks to prepare for No. 15 NC State with a chance to qualify for a bowl game for the first time since 2018. The Orange put two weeks’ worth of preparation into the team that leads the Atlantic Coast Conference in interceptions, the team that has seven players with double-digit unassisted tackles. It knew the Wolfpack, who SU head coach Dino Babers called a top-three defense in the country.

The Orange knew the impact of players like Tanner Ingle and Aydan White, among others, when it was pairing its revamped, balanced offense against the revered Wolfpack defense. For two weeks, Syracuse worked to beat its first ranked opponent since 2018.

Despite the interceptions, the blown coverages, missed opportunities, even the broken-up pockets and dropped passes, Syracuse came out the other side victorious. Bruised and wilted, the Orange came out on top of No. 15 NC State 24-9 and head to No. 4 Clemson with an unblemished record and a ranked win.

“I can’t tell you that’s not gonna not happen against Clemson,” Babers said. “I just stayed the course. There was no guarantee. Sometimes you just keep punching.”

Syracuse (6-0, 3-0 Atlantic Coast) wasn’t perfect like it was against Wagner, nor was it dynamic and score-heavy like it’s been over the last five games. But on Saturday, the Orange showed that they don’t need to win by putting up a flurry of touchdowns. The Orange put up 24 points against NC State (5-2, 1-2 ACC), despite not scoring a touchdown for over 42 minutes.

It took Syracuse two minutes and four seconds to hang the first touchdown of the afternoon on NC State. After the opening kickoff went out of bounds, the Orange grabbed the first down with two quick slants, first to Devaughn Cooper, then to Oronde Gadsden II. Sean Tucker then grabbed the ball on an outside handoff. With extra blocking from LeQuint Allen, he found a hole to the left of Matthew Bergeron and took off. One more broken tackle allowed Tucker to barrel his way down to the 12-yard line.

Garrett Shrader executed a hard count on the ensuing play, drawing an offside and allowing him to snap the ball for a free play. He found Gadsden running to the front left corner of the endzone on a fade route and lofted it up for the touchdown.

“We always aim to start fast, and we expect to score,” Shrader said. “That’s why we always take the ball.”

After its first drive, though, Syracuse’s offense didn’t run over the opposing defense. The Orange still flashed the deep ball — specifically to Gadsden on either sideline — and they still featured Sean Tucker up the middle. But NC State responded by flexing a defensive unit that has led it to its No. 15 ranking. Shrader’s two red zone interceptions, one in the back of the endzone and one on a fade route down to the 15-yard line, didn’t help Syracuse’s chances of building successful drives either.

Shrader said most of NC State’s defense and himself thought a defender had jumped offsides. Before the snap, Shrader said he thought he saw the referee reach for his flag. He didn’t have enough time to watch him throw the flag, so he looked down field and — thinking it was a free play — tried for Damien Alford. Instead of a free play, there was an interception, and the opportunity for seven points was erased.

“That’s when you started feeling like an idiot. But that (interception), we just got pushed out of bounds. The corner made a great play,” Shrader said.

While the Wolfpack stuffed Shrader, the Orange were also apt at shutting down NC State quarterback Jack Chambers. When Syracuse head coach Dino Babers began preparing for NC State nearly two weeks ago, he and his staff created a game plan for Devin Leary. But Leary was ruled out prior to Saturday’s game after undergoing season-ending surgery on a torn pectoral muscle. Instead of suiting up for a sequel to his 303-yard masterpiece against Syracuse last season, he slowly walked to the sidelines in black jogger sweatpants with a black beanie placed loosely on his head.

The injury forced the Orange to scout Chambers, who is more mobile than Leary. Across 32 games at Charleston Southern, he ran for over 1,300 yards to complement more than 5,700 passing yards. On the second NC State drive of the game, he flashed his dual-threat ability to matriculate down the field and take seven minutes off of the clock in the first quarter. But the Wolfpack finished the first half with just 72 total yards. Chambers scrambled as much as he could, but his 81 rushing yards hardly made a difference on drives. Jordan Houston got the ball 12 times but wasn’t effective either.

“We’re just gonna keep showing people we all remember what we’re capable of,” Mikel Jones said.

Shrader hardly had a pocket to operate in, and he frequently had to scamper away from as many as four would-be tacklers to evade sacks. With over seven minutes left in the third quarter. Gadsden collected a pass across the middle for 19 yards and Tucker followed it up with nine yards off a bubble route. Syracuse, for the first time in nearly two quarters, was driving, stringing a sequence of plays together like it did on the first drive of the game. 

Shrader then snuck on a fourth and short that had to be reviewed and confirmed a first down. On the following play, with two receivers on both sides and Cooper in the slot, Gadsden lined up in the backfield and then streaked down the left sideline, easily beating his man. He turned around in plenty of time for Shrader to give him his second touchdown of the day.

Tucker’s 25-yard rushing touchdown with 2:20 left added a cherry on top and caused offensive coordinator Robert Anae to give high fives out to his assistants. The entire offensive line moved right as Carlos Vettorello snapped the ball. Both Cooper and Alford said the wide receiver room had an emphasis on blocking over the bye week. Wide receivers coach Mike Johnson has a sheet for each of the receivers filled with what they need to work on going into practice. After practice, there’s a new sheet for each of them. Most of the time, blocking was on the sheet.

Tucker also went left when he got the handoff, but immediately cut to his left, and once Shrader blocked the Wolfpack’s defensive end and the receivers held their men tall, he took off and streaked into the endzone. Tucker flew past the remaining defenders to beat, shook his head and pounded his chest, giving SU a 24-9 lead it would end the game with.

“There’s a lot of goals that are still out there, but there’s one goal that’s been checked,” Babers said.

Published on October 15, 2022 at 7:17 pm

Contact Anthony: aalandt@syr.edu | @anthonyalandt