Syracuse Football Season Officially in Chaos
By David Stone
Do you hear that? It’s the winds of change. No, strike that. It’s the winds of a burning forest fire quickly spreading all over the Syracuse football season. Yesterday, SU lost a heartbreaking 44-38, triple overtime thriller to Virginia. It now drops Syracuse to 3-3 and 1-2 in the ACC.
That’s bad. What’s worse is that they are now through the easy part of the schedule. Next up is Pitt, who beat this same Virginia team by a touchdown. Then they play Florida State, Louisville, Clemson, North Carolina State, and Boston College. These 6 teams have a combined record of 26-11. Two of them are undefeated (FSU, Clemson). It’s not an easy slate of games.
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To make matters even worse, they still need to win three of those six games to get to a bowl. Louisville is 2-4. That’s a winnable game if the defense can shut down their balanced offense. Boston College is 3-4. That’s also winnable, but only if the defense can stop the potent rushing attack that BC offers. They are ranked 27th nationally in rushing yards per game and Syracuse has struggled lately against good rushing offenses. Assuming they can pull out that game, it leaves a victory over NC State or Pittsburgh.
Given that Pittsburgh only narrowly escaped Virginia last week, I think they have a shot there. NC State started 4-0, but have lost back-to-back games to Louisville and Virginia Tech. They do boast a very good defense that is only giving up 16 points per game though, so it won’t be a walk in the park. A win is possible however.
I don’t think there’s much chance this Syracuse football team can beat Clemson or Florida State. Both are at least as good as LSU. Both might have better defenses as well. It’s certainly possible to steal a win, but unlikely.
All of this adds up to one chaotic second half of the season for Syracuse football. I was really hoping they’d win at least one of the past two games. That would have put them in a much better position at 4-2. Certainly the opportunity was there against Virginia, but they just couldn’t close out in regulation.
Oct 17, 2015; Charlottesville, VA, USA; Syracuse Orange place kicker Cole Murphy (48) misses a field goal in the third overtime against the Virginia Cavaliers at Scott Stadium. The Cavaliers won 44-38 in triple overtime. Photo by: Amber Searls-USA TODAY Sports
The game this weekend against Pittsburgh will tell us a lot. Will the defense show up to play? Will the offense continue to be bland and uninspired at times? Can the coaches get their act together and play call to win the game, and not just to try and hold on?
All these questions loom over this team now. The fans have already started to turn on the team and the usual shouts of “Fire Shafer!” have already begun to ring out. I think that’s a little pre-emptive and panicky, but the truth is that the wheels are falling off this season and something needs to change before it’s too late.
That leaves just one last question to ask: can Syracuse recover from these last two games? That’s something we’ll find the answer to very quickly next weekend against Pitt.
Check back later in the week for coverage of the Pittsburgh game as well as analysis on the season so far and the state of the ACC conference. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get news on when articles are published and more!