Syracuse Football: Orange offense blows chance to upset Clemson

Syracuse football blew an opportunity of a lifetime to upset the Clemson Tigers. Here’s why the offense is solely to blame for this brutal loss in Week 3.

Wow, this is a game Syracuse football fans won’t soon forget. Another chapter in the Syracuse vs Clemson rivalry that was littered with missed opportunities, broken promises, and a 1-2 start to the season. Here’s how it all played out on Saturday night.

First half

The first half was a tale of missed opportunities for the Orange.

When they got in position to make a statement, they settled for field goals. If you look back at the Clemson vs Syracuse matchup last season in Death Valley, it was the same song and dance.

Andre Szmyt kicked three first-half field goals and the Orange only led 16-7, when the lead should’ve been much larger in 2018. Syracuse ended up losing that game 27-23, perhaps if the Orange scored another touchdown in that first half they would’ve won.

For the first time in three years of this rivalry, the Orange trailed at halftime heading in 17-6 but nonetheless were still in the game which is a major win in itself.

Give credit to the Orange defense and special teams unit for keeping the team in the game.

Sterling Hofrichter had five punts that averaged over 50 yards per clip, which kept the field position battle in the Orange’s favor.

Second half

Syracuse received the second-half kickoff and wasn’t able to make anything happen offensively, but the true MVP of this game Hofrichter delivered another beauty that forced Clemson to operate from within their own 10-yard line.

RANDOM NUGGET OF THE DAY: The official attendance for this Week 3 matchup was 50,238 which is the third-largest in Syracuse football dome history.

Speaking of the crowd, we witnessed a complete 180 in the span of 60 seconds early in the third quarter.

After playing some hard nose football the Orange defense finally caught a break. No. 3 Christopher

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Fredrick tipped a Trevor Lawrence pass and intercepted it and took it inside the 10 of the Tigers.

With Syracuse down 17-6, this was a golden opportunity to make this a four-point game and get this crowd into it. But on the very first play, Tommy DeVito gets pressured rushes out to the right side and just attempts to throw it away (I guess) and it gets intercepted.

What DeVito needs to realize is he’s not superman, not every play is going to be a touchdown. When it’s not there, just let it go and throw it away.

Occasionally vs Maryland, he did that too often. It’s a healthy balance, but in this specific situation, he cost his team. Tommy also had the same throw vs Maryland where he threw a terrible interception.

With Clemson having newfound life, they finally delivered the knockout punch by way of an Amari Rodgers 87-yard touchdown to put the Tigers up 24-6.

Just when it appeared the game was getting out of hand, the Syracuse defense made another huge play to keep the Orange in the mix. Trill Williams grabbed the interception and ran it back 41 yards and nearly scored for Syracuse.

Sadly he didn’t and the Orange offense once again BLEW a chance to get the team back into the game. Failed runs up the gut over and over-highlighted by a sloppy DeVito fake run around did the Orange in as they turned it over on downs.

Demoralizing mood swings back and forth is the taste that was left in the mouths of Orange fans everywhere.

Tommy DeVito looked awful, but a few things must be considered: the offensive line was invisible provided little to no protection which is critically important to the success of Tommy. No. 2 this is only the third college football start of his young career. Finally, the play calling was just atrocious, wasn’t sure it was possible for a Dino Babers offense to look this bad.

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Even with those three things being said, what an uninspiring performance in the biggest moment of the 2019 season. The Orange defense did everything they could to keep this team in the game and Trevor Lawrence never really looked comfortable in this one. Sadly it wasn’t enough and the Orange fall to 1-2 on the season after a 41-6 loss to the Tigers in Week 3.

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