After starting the season 3-0, Syracuse football has crashed back down to earth with five consecutive losses. The most recent was on Saturday to Florida State in an embarassing 45-21 game that was over by the early third quarter.
It was an incredibly painful game to watch as a fan because it just showcased the vast gap in talent between a team like Florida State and Syracuse. Even with Florida State’s two star players, Dalvin Cook and Everett Golson sidelined with injuries, they were still able to pick the Syracuse defense apart.
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Even though they had backups in at runningback and quarterback, it’s not like those players were scrubs. Their quarterback, Sean Maguire, was a former 5-star recruit and looked like a superstar against the horrific coverage that Syracuse passed off as a defense.
Jacques Patrick, the backup runningback, bulldozed the Syracuse football defense for 162 yards and three touchdowns. Last year he was the Florida High School Athlete of the Year and third ranked runningback nationally. The talent gap between that and three-star Syracuse players is huge.
There weren’t many positives to take away from the game. Dungey was held to just 120 yards through the air and less than 50% completions. He did however score on a pair of rushing touchdowns. The rest of the running game actually played pretty well, racking up 173 yards against a stout FSU defense, but they rarely threatened to do more than gain a couple first downs before inevitably punting. Brisly Estime got his second punt return touchdown in garbage time.
The defense was absolutely awful. That’s really all that can be said. Aside from one early sack from Ron Thompson, the front seven got zero pressure on Maguire. The defensive backs got routinely torched by FSU’s receivers, giving up over 350 yards through the air and looking like a high school team playing against a super bowl champion.
The tackling was some of the worst that I’ve ever seen in a game. It’s like all 11 players decided to start playing two hand touch. It was honestly that bad. Jacques Patrick routinely broke arm tackles or just bowled over defenders. Their receivers, specifically Travis Rudolph, did the same. Rudolph was also the star of a play that will go down as one of the most pathetic in Syracuse football history.
The most frustrating of all had to the be the coaching, specifically right before halftime. Syracuse drove the ball inside the Florida State 10 yard line with under a minute and a half to play. Instead of letting the clock run down to not give Florida State any time, they called not one, but two consecutive time outs. They ended up scoring a touchdown with a over minute left.
Then, to exacerbate a bad decision, they elected to attempt an onside kick which was completely botched and gave FSU excellent field position. Florida State capitalized with a touchdown and a game that could have been 21-14 at the half ended up being 28-14 and seemingly out of reach.
Before I say anything more, I need to clarify that I’m a Scott Shafer fan. I think he’s done a great job recruiting, I think he’s a good leader, and I think he’s a players coach that kids really respect. He’s also done a tremendous job of cleaning up the program and getting rid of the cancers that plagued it in years past.
That being said, he is an awful game manager. He has routinely made questionable calls this season in crucial situations. He’s made stale, boring play calls in goal line situations, he’s gone completely vanilla on offense and defense when he had a lead and ended up squandering it, and he’s routinely been a poor clock manager.
I’m not ready to jump on the #FireShafer bandwagon, as I think there are a lot of positives that he’s brought to the program.
But if he can’t prove that he’s a better game manager and play caller in crucial situations, no amount of fan support is going to keep his job safe. New athletic director Mark Coyle needs to turn this program around. If the coach can’t be trusted to make the right decisions in game, it doesn’t matter how good a recruiter or how well liked he is.
Shafer needs to play these next five games like his career depends on it, because it probably does. If he can somehow win at least two games and show some improvement in his playcalling and game management, I think he will be given another year. However if he continues to make bonehead decisions like what he’s done against Florida State, Virginia, and Pittsburgh, he’s going to find himself sitting in the unemployment line.
Next week, Syracuse football travels to Louisville to take on the Cardinals. In my opinion this is a must-win game for Shafer. We have virtually no chance of beating Clemson, so it’s basically down to Louisville, NC State, and Boston College. All three games are winnable, as all three have either lost to teams we’ve beaten, or barely won. I doubt we’ll win all three, but if they could grab two and finish 5-7 I think Shafer sticks around.
Check back later in the week for more coverage of Syracuse football vs. Louisville. Don’t forget that Syracuse basketball season starts tonight as well, so check back for coverage of the game. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on the latest news and information.