Syracuse Football: Breaking down the Orange 2022 schedule, Pittsburgh

Before the Syracuse football 2022 schedule was released, I said that despite the tough teams on the schedule, I thought this team could still have success and be a bowl team based on what I have seen so far this offseason. And when the schedule came out, it does appear difficult but I still stand by it.

So I sat down and decided that instead of just saying that I believe it again, I wanted to break the games down one by one and give you the information you need to decide for yourself. I will go game by game with fun stats like head-to-head outcomes, players to watch, my way too early rating of difficulty, and a few other notes that might help.

Here are the teams scheduled and links to those that are already published in case you missed one:

Louisville

UConn

Purdue

Virginia

Wagner

Bye Week

NC State

Clemson

Notre Dame

Pittsburgh

Florida State

Wake Forest

Boston College

Let’s take an early look at Syracuse football traveling to Pittsburgh.

Syracuse Orange vs Pittsburgh Panthers

Saturday, November 5, 2022 (time and viewing options TBD)

Location: Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, PA

Last season head-to-head: Pittsburgh won 31-14 in 2021 and after consulting Winsipedia, it appears Pittsburgh has won 42 games against Syracuse football, while the Orange have only won 31 times all-time in head-to-head matchups.

Opponent’s overall record last season: Pittsburgh finished 11-3 last season including 7-1 in the ACC and winning not only the Coastal division of the ACC but also beat Wake Forest in the ACC Championship Game 45-21. Pittsburgh did lose to Michigan State in the Peach Bowl however 31-21 but without QB Kenny Pickett who opted out to prepare for the NFL Draft.

Stats from their last face-off: Pittsburgh QB Kenny Pickett passed for 209 yards and 4 touchdowns and Pittsburgh DL Dayon Hayes had 2 sacks as well against the Orange. Syracuse football QB Garrett Shrader had one of his better passing performances of the season as he passed for 217 yards and 2 touchdowns (both touchdown passes were to Pittsburgh native Courtney Jackson). On defense, Marlowe Wax had the solo sack for the Orange while Duce Chesnut had the only interception.

Possible level of difficulty on a scale of 1-10: I’m giving this one an 8 because winning at Pittsburgh especially will be difficult but without Kenny Pickett, I have a hard time giving it anything higher until whoever takes over for him can prove to be just as effective. Having said that, this is still a program that is successful against Syracuse football, won the ACC last season and gets the game there at home.

Key person on the opposing team: Kedon Slovis. The current Pittsburgh Panther and former USC quarterback is the likely choice to take over for Pickett.  I’d also watch another transfer at WR, Konata Mumpfield, who was a freshman All-American who transferred from Akron. If these two develop a chemistry together, it could be an interesting day for the Syracuse football secondary.

How can Syracuse win: Sean Tucker is the Orange’s most explosive and talented offensive weapon and yet he only had 29 yards rushing last time they played. Garrett Shrader finished with negative yardage rushing as well. The passing game did look good in that last game but Syracuse will need a balanced attack to beat the Panthers. The defense gave up 31 points, which isn’t terrible against a top NFL draft pick at QB but will hope to do better especially if the offense is again only limited to two scores. This also is a good game for the Orange to sneak in a quality win if you want a chance at a bowl game especially coming off three in a row versus NC State, Clemson and Notre Dame if they failed to find a win in any of those games.

Other news, notes and nuggets:

– Tyler Ennis owns Pittsburgh.
– It’s hard for me to make a Syracuse food > Pittsburgh food comparison because I did spend 3 plus years living in Plum, PA (a suburb of Pittsburgh and also home to sports talk host and former Colts punter Pat McAfee) including my senior year of high school and liked the food there. The pizza was actually pretty good there, I loved Rudy’s Subs, I miss Chi Chi’s near the Monroeville Mall, Kennywood is great fun, King’s Restaurant and Eat and Park were both enjoyable, and my first job ever was at a Foodland in the area. But for the fun of the rivalry, I’ll go Brooklyn Pickle or Darwin’s > Primanti Bros.
– Is Pittsburgh the closest thing to a football rival to Syracuse? You could say Boston College and at one point West Virginia was arguably in that discussion and many Syracuse fans like to say Clemson is (and I think the Wake Forest program is fairly comparable to Syracuse), but if you look at history and all sports, I think Pittsburgh is up there.
– If you ever get called a jag off, just know that person has likely spent a lot of time dahn (down) in Pittsburgh and is calling yinz (you) stupid. Somehow that region of PA has its own vocabulary.
– This is Syracuse’s 9th game of the season and will definitely have some clue at this point where the bowl possibilities lie. They’ve got 3 more remaining against Florida State at home, at Wake Forest and finishing at Boston College. I’m not psychic nor am I Shawn Spenser on Psych so I have no idea where Syracuse football will be at this point in the season record-wise, but I’m really hoping SU finds a way to a winning record at this point.