Syracuse Football: 4-0 is still 4-0, but lots to clean up before brutal stretch

To me, there are two ways to look at the nail-biting victory for Syracuse football over fellow Atlantic Coast Conference squad Virginia on Friday night in Central New York.

On the one hand, for the second contest in a row, the Orange managed to squeak out a triumph that it easily could have lost. In week three, Syracuse football scored a touchdown with just a few seconds remaining to stun Big Ten Conference member Purdue by three points on the Hill.

This past Friday evening, before more than 34,000 loud but nervous ‘Cuse fans, the Orange (4-0) built up a 16-0 advantage over the Cavaliers but then needed a field goal with around a minute to go in the fourth quarter to notch a 22-20 win against UVA (2-2).

So I credit the Syracuse football roster for making enough plays in crunch time to emerge victorious these past two weeks. However, the ‘Cuse also looked pretty darn ugly at times in beating Virginia, and that gives me some cause for concern.

Syracuse football has work to do as it prepares to face the meat of its 2022 schedule.

First and foremost, in the UVA encounter, the Orange piled up a whopping four turnovers – three fumbles lost and the first interception thrown by quarterback Garrett Shrader in this current term.

Oh, and the penalties. Yuck. Per ESPN statistics, Syracuse football committed 12 penalties for 91 yards. The Cavaliers, though, also didn’t fare well in this department.

Most notably, Virginia committed an untimely facemask penalty during the Orange’s final offensive series that helped propel the ‘Cuse further down the field, ultimately leading to a game-winning field goal by the team’s MVP in this affair, placekicker Andre Szmyt.

By and large, it was the Syracuse football defense that kept the Orange from succumbing to a setback on Friday night. Shrader threw for 277 yards in the air, which is solid, but the offensive line didn’t hold up well, as the UVA defense had six sacks and eight tackles for loss.

What’s more, All-American running back Sean Tucker only managed 60 yards on the ground, and as a collective unit, Syracuse football registered a sub-par 75 rushing yards and a meager 2.0 yards per carry. That won’t do.

Of course, not to focus merely on the negatives, and let’s remember that the Orange is 4-0 for the first time since 2018, and 4-0 is still 4-0.

In these two most recent games, I believe that Syracuse football displayed a lot of character, grit, heart and toughness by producing game-winning offensive drives, one resulting in a touchdown and the other resulting in a field goal, extremely late in the fourth quarter versus Purdue and then Virginia.

This coming Saturday, at 5 pm, the Orange will host Wagner at the JMA Wireless Dome. The ‘Cuse “should” move to 5-0. Then it has a bye week and a chance to recharge.

Because after that, Syracuse football faces N.C. State, Clemson (road), Notre Dame, Pittsburgh (road), Florida State, Wake Forest (road) and Boston College (road).

If the Orange plays as it did against the Cavaliers when it faces these other squads, including coughing up four turnovers, this will prove a long and painful stretch of seven games to conclude the 2022 regular season.