Syracuse Football: The 2 steps forward, 2 steps back life of SU fandom

Being a Syracuse football fan often feels like being sucker-punched.

Repeatedly.

Like being blindsided.

Repeatedly.

It feels like being Charlie Brown and having Lucy take that football away.

Again.

And again.

And again.

How many of you woke up on the morning of the Syracuse vs. Louisville game as excited as you had been in years when it came to Syracuse football? We were facing off against a sliding ACC team, coming off back-to-back ACC wins for the first time in forever, with a running back about to set the Syracuse University single-season record for rushing yards.

Yes, this was going to be a bowl-eligibility-gaining, record-breaking day that was going to be a payoff, finally a payoff, for all of those horrible games we, as fans, have endured in recent seasons.

A payoff…that seemingly-as-always, never came.

Instead, we watched the Syracuse football team get manhandled by a team that had no business manhandling it. Louisville is an average-at-best ACC team, one that entered the game below .500. Sure, I gave the Cardinals every bit of a chance to win the game, in fact, I really had a hard time making a prediction before finally settling on an all-heart, no-head call for a tight Syracuse win. But all along I knew the chance was there that Louisville could win, and could win by a couple of scores in a worst-case situation.

But I never expected this type of utterly humiliating performance.

The same spirit-crushing feeling of that 2019 Maryland game for Syracuse football.

Remember that Maryland game from a couple of years ago? Syracuse fans got so geeked up because we had just come off that 10-3 season, and ESPN College GameDay was finally going to come to town to see us face off against Clemson the following week?

And then Lucy came and took that ball away.

Again.

Look, a loss would have stung, but a spirited, competitive one in which the Orange showed competence, if not excellence, on both sides of the ball, would have been one thing.

But how does THIS happen?

How do you come off a bye week, against a team that is 4-5, and lose 41-3? How do you, with 2 weeks to prepare, come up with an offensive game plan that is so one-dimensional you are continuing to run the ball into the teeth of a defense that is cheating run on play after play, even after you are down 35 points?

How many weeks off would have been needed to draw up a game plan that at least hints at a competent passing game, enough so that the Cardinals would maybe not stack the box with 8 or 9 defenders even in situations when nearly every other team in college football would be throwing the ball?

How many more weeks off would have been needed to draft up a single play in four tries from goal-to-go that actually involved the ball being thrown into the end zone?

Many, including Dino Babers, will say, “They shut down the run.” They did. And good teams, really any team with a functioning offense, can pivot to the other half of the offensive playbook when that happens. But Syracuse football just can’t. And I admit it. I was fooled. I thought maybe Garrett Shrader’s running ability would be enough of the chance of pace from Sean Tucker’s.

It’s not.

This game is evidence that no matter how good your two-headed running monster is, it is quite simply impossible to consistently win in high-level college football without at least a threat to pass the ball reliably.

I had an article halfway written around possible bowl destinations. I’m not going to delete it, but I am definitely stepping away from that one for now, and will revisit it if, and when, we get that sixth win. Frankly, the schedule is just not favorable at all at this point. For weeks I saw the upcoming game at NC State as virtually unwinnable, and many people that I speak to feel the same way about that season finale vs. Pitt, so my spirits, and expectations, have plummeted.

Which is pretty much exactly when Syracuse football tends to find a way to tease us with those 2 steps forward once again.