Syracuse Football: Boston College runs through Orange in blowout win

Syracuse football got run past, run over, and run through by Boston College on Saturday. Here are the lowlights and why this season is over for the Orange.

Syracuse football put up a good fight early, but it didn’t last as Boston College embarrassed the Orange in the dome. Here are the full lowlights and the top nuggets after this one.

First half

Boston College are who we thought they were. The Eagles entered the day with a top-10 rushing attack in the country with a pair of dynamic big tailbacks. Per the rest of the analytics, they aren’t very good at anything else.

Despite Syracuse knowing what the Eagles would be doing, BC ran it down SU’s throat for the first 10 points of the game.

Syracuse’s record-breaking takeaway streak was snapped last week vs Florida State. The Orange had 21 straight games with a takeaway (spanning the last two seasons). They revved it back up vs Boston College at the end of the first quarter with a forced fumble.

Sadly on the return, the Orange was slapped with a blindside block penalty which negated much of the field position. Syracuse still cashed in a long field goal to make it a 10-10 ballgame.

Although the opportunistic Orange defense wouldn’t stop there, on the very next possession Syracuse forced another fumble.

This is significant because BC entered the game with only seven turnovers on the season, in the first quarter alone they coughed it up twice. Syracuse didn’t waste this additional opportunity and Tommy DeVito cashed in on third and medium to a wide-open Trishton Jackson.

Speaking of easy, Boston College returned the favor on the first play of the second quarter with a long play-action touchdown. With BC pounding the rock, Syracuse defenders started creeping up and that’s when the Eagles struck big. 64-yards to the house to be exact, courtesy of Kobay White.

But quick side note, with the Orange offensive line being one of the worst in the country, I love how Dino Babers changed up the game-plan to quick passes, screenplays, and a fast tempo.

Sadly the Orange hurt their own cause, with the ball at the 1-yard line, a pre-snap penalty backed Syracuse up. A huge Boston College sack later, Syracuse had to settle for another field goal.

Which proved costly because BC is going for touchdowns via the play-action:

Syracuse gets duped on the same play twice in the first half for long touchdowns.

Then Boston College went back to the ground game and got over 100 yards rushing in the first half. AJ Dillon went untouched 51 yards to the house, simply unacceptable. Also with that run, Dillon became the all-time touchdown leader in BC history.

Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

Boston College after a quick short drive from Syracuse punches it in again on another long touchdown.

That was the 20th straight point Boston College has scored after a 20-17 lead by Syracuse. It only got worse from there as BC started to pour it on extending their lead to 44-20.

First half takeaways:

• Really nice to see the variety of personnel. Syracuse finally started to really use Jawhar Jordan in their real offense when it matters. He’s the fastest player on the team and it behooves the Orange to take advantage of that.

Second half

I’ll save you some reading, it was much of the same in the second half.

In this game, Syracuse gave up more rushing yards than any other game in program history. It’s just the perfect microcosm of this season for the Orange.

In 2018 Syracuse showed that the fans will come back if the team wins. In 2019 we saw that the fans will leave with losses.

While technically if Syracuse wins out they’ll go bowling this year, we all know that isn’t going to happen. The season is over with three games left to play and that’s more depressing than anything we could’ve possibly imagined.

Here’s a final look at the numbers:

• Boston College through 10 passes in THE ENTIRE GAME. Dennis Grosel completed 80 percent of those passes for 195 yards and three touchdowns.
• On the ground the Eagles just ran all over the Orange for a grand total of 496 yards and five touchdowns:
  • AJ Dillon: 35 carries 242 yards and three touchdowns.
  • David Bailey: 16 carries for 172 yards and two touchdowns.
• BC wins this one 58-27. The Eagles scored a whopping 34 points in the second quarter and never turned back.

Up next the Orange will enjoy their final bye week of the regular season. After the bye, Syracuse will take to the road to square up with the Duke Blue Devils.