Syracuse Football: Takeaways from Cuse's week 11 loss to Boston College

In the yearly installment of the northeast rivalry, Syracuse football fought back from a 14-0 deficit and even took a third-quarter lead.

The Orange, now 6-3, were not able to hold onto the lead, however, as Boston College got the win 37-31. Here are my takeaways from the game.

My key takeaways from Syracuse football's week 11 loss against Boston College.

Boston College imposed their will on Syracuse

Syracuse has had trouble stopping the run all year and Boston College knew it. So, when you're Boston College and your offensive identity is running the football, what do you do? You run the football 51 times for 313 yards and three touchdowns.

If you're Syracuse, that can't happen though. Everybody in the stadium knew that Kye Robichaux (29 carries, 198 yards, 2 touchdowns) or Jordan McDonald (15 carries, 133 yards, 1 touchdown) was getting a handoff. Yet the Orange couldn't stop it.

As much as credit needs to be given to the Boston College coaching staff and running backs, defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson and the Orange defense needed to make more adjustments. Injuries to the defensive line have been a killer for Syracuse, but that shouldn't be an excuse for boxes that frequently didn't have enough people in them, and safeties that were too far back.

Especially when Boston College had a backup quarterback for much of the second half. It's inexcusable to let any team run for 313 yards on the ground.

Much of DART was missing

First-year head coach Fran Brown has four key values that he incorporates into his life and this Syracuse football team: discipline, accountability, relentlessness, and toughness, shortened to the acronym DART. Starting with discipline, Syracuse had their second-most penalties for the second-most yards of the 2024 season - 10 of them for 91 yards.

The only week with more penalties or yards was last week, which presents a concerning trend for the rest of 2024. In addition, illustrated by the above takeaway, Syracuse was not tough. The offense was better overall, but quarterback Kyle McCord was under duress all day and the Orange could only muster 39 yards of rushing offense.

The only part of DART I can say was a strength was relentlessness. Despite the early deficit, Syracuse made this a 60-minute football game and was an illegal block on an onside kick (a penalty I've never heard before) away from giving the offense a chance to win.

We have not seen anything about accountability yet, but we'll find that out throughout the week during press conferences, this week's practices, and most importantly, at Cal next Saturday.

Syracuse has to finish drives and avoid negative plays

Against Boston College, Syracuse had five drives that reached Eagles territory but didn't get any points. One was just a failed hail mary at the end of the first half, but the other four were frustrating in their own way.

On the game's first drive, Syracuse handed it off to LeQuint Allen for just one yard on a third and seven, leading to a punt. A few drives later, McCord was quickly sacked on a third and nine. The very next drive, Syracuse got the ball close to midfield but couldn't convert on a fourth and two.

Finally, Syracuse's drive down nine in the fourth quarter stalled at the Boston College 38-yard line, with four incompletions that all but ended the game.

In total, Syracuse was 5-12 on third down but 0-3 on fourth down. Going 40% on third down isn't terrible, but a lot of the Orange's offense is built around short completions and the team is one of the best on third downs in the country at 50.4%. Convert a couple more of those and you could steal a win despite the poor defensive performance.