Syracuse Football: Key takeaways from the Orange's week 2 win over Georgia Tech

Ohio is a good team and they challenged Syracuse football in their week one win. But the Georgia Tech game, led by a potent rushing attack which Syracuse struggled with against Ohio, was always going to be more difficult.

The Yellow Jackets picked up an impressive week zero win over then-No. 10 Florida State and followed it up with a comfortable 35-12 win over Georgia State. In the end, Syracuse football eliminated doubts and picked up a 31-28 ranked win.

My key takeaways from Syracuse football's ACC opening victory versus Georgia Tech.

Special teams were far from special

In the past, I'd consider special teams to be a strength of the Orange. That was not the case on Saturday. In the first quarter, Brady Denaburg had a 43-yard kick blocked that would have given the Orange a 10-7 lead. Late in the second quarter, a Jack Stonehouse punt was blocked, which led to a field goal attempt for the Yellow Jackets.

Having two kicks blocked is almost unheard of, and it's lucky that it didn't cost Syracuse the game. But the third special teams' major mishap almost did.

In the fourth quarter, Georgia Tech was down 31-21 with 5:06 left and needed a miracle to come back. They got it via an onside kick recovery. Postgame, Fran Brown showcased the A in his motto DART (accountability), and he owned up to the mistake. But it should have never happened in the first place. After that, the Jackets drove down the field again to make the score 31-28, and the upset win has lost some of its luster because of it.

Kyle McCord is one of the best quarterbacks in the country

Last week, I said Kyle McCord was "the real deal" after throwing for career highs in 354 yards and four touchdowns in the Ohio win, which got him national recognition. Against Georgia Tech, he one-upped himself again. McCord avoided the sloppy throws he had at the start of the last game and didn't throw an interception. In total, he completed a career-high 32 of 46 passes, threw for a career-high 384 yards, and tied last week's career-high with four touchdown passes.

Through two weeks, McCord is third in the country and first in the ACC with 735 passing yards. His eight passing touchdowns are tied for first with LSU's Garrett Nussmeier. A 69.4% completion percentage isn't too bad either. Those are Heisman-level numbers and through two weeks, he should at least be a contender for the prestigious award.

With this, McCord is putting his name and Syracuse football back in the national spotlight. Syracuse recruiting, especially at the quarterback position, should also improve from this. 2025 commit Luke Carney looks to be a great passer in a similar vein to McCord and Syracuse should have more interest from quarterbacks in 2026 and beyond. McCord also looks more confident than he did at Ohio State and will be rising up draft boards.

The run defense answered the challenge

Syracuse's run defense was much maligned against Ohio and for good reason. The team allowed 19 missed tackles, 262 rushing yards, and were without star LB Marlowe Wax with an injury. Georgia Tech, meanwhile, had dominated the line of scrimmage in their first two games, running for 190 yards and three touchdowns in each game.

With all that going against Syracuse football, defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson and his defense stepped up. They allowed only 112 yards, and an improved 4.7 yards per carry. Fadil Diggs in particular was fantastic. In Wax's absence, he played some middle linebacker as Syracuse played some packages with three defensive linemen in a return to years past. Diggs led the way with seven tackles, two for loss. His six tackles for loss are tied with several others, including Miami's Tyler Baron for the national lead.

Syracuse's run defense, despite the improvement, still has work to do. Haynes King made some good plays and was especially effective on misdirection plays. The tackling is still far from perfect, but I'm happy to see the improvement and excited to see what happens after the bye week.