Syracuse's blowout loss to Notre Dame: It can't get worse, baffling QB management

Three touchdowns before the offense touched the field. Five touchdowns after five offensive plays. That's what Notre Dame did to Syracuse in Saturday's blowout 70-7 loss. The Orange weren't just outclassed in Notre Dame Stadium; they looked like they were playing a completely different sport. Here are my takeaways from the game.

My key takeaways from Syracuse football's week-13 loss against Notre Dame.

It can't get worse for the Orange

The 63-point loss was the worst for Syracuse in program history, as nothing went right. On the bright side, the Orange only have one more game left in the 2025 season, a home tilt against a Boston College team that has struggled about as much as Syracuse. After a 66-10 win over FCS Fordham in the season opener, the Eagles have lost 10 in a row, although they are coming off a heartbreaking loss to Georgia Tech and a bye week. Even with the problems at quarterback (more on that later), Boston College should provide at the bare minimum, a competitive game. Even if it doesn't, that will mercifully be the end of the 2025 season.

As Fran Brown moves into year three - getting more and more of his talented recruits in the program and another year of experience, losses like this are less likely to happen. Steve Angeli will be back next year, and he'll probably be joined by another transfer or another year of development for the current backups. Despite what the last few months have shown me, I still believe in Fran Brown and his vision for this football team.

Fran Brown messed up quarterback decisions again

Against the Irish, Joseph Filardi made his second start of the season. He struggled mightily the first time against North Carolina, but did lead Syracuse to its only touchdown drive of the game in garbage time against Miami. Against Notre Dame, we saw more of the North Carolina Filardi. His game started with a pick six, three-and-out, and another pick six. After that, Luke Carney came in. This was his fourth appearance of the year, and like the last two, lasted for only two drives as Filardi came back in afterwards. Carney re-entered the game in the fourth quarter, although for another short stint before Filardi came back in, ending the game with a rushing touchdown.

First, a decision like that kills the confidence of both Filardi and Carney. Filardi played better later on, although Notre Dame's defense took their foot off the gas, had a pick six overturned, and he threw a pick that stood. For Carney, who's another true freshman, the coaches now have a tough decision about him next week. If he plays, he will burn a redshirt. Finally, where are the other quarterbacks? If you want to get Filardi out of the game, you could add Rickie Collins, who started five games for the Orange, or other freshman Rich Belin and Jakhari Williams. They probably aren't ready to play, but neither are any of the other quarterbacks that have taken snaps since Steve Angeli's injury.

Syracuse needs to revamp the lines of scrimmage

Other than the issues at quarterback, Syracuse's offensive and defensive lines and their rough day are what I noticed most. Notre Dame opened massive holes for their dangerous running backs to run through. Six of Notre Dame's seven offensive touchdowns were on the ground. Of those, the shortest run was 14 yards out. At one point in the fourth quarter, nine of Notre Dame's 18 runs went for over 10 yards, and five of them were for over 30 yards.

On offense, none of the running backs could find a hole to run through, and as a team, the Orange had just 112 yards on 50 carries, most of it coming in the second half against backups. Notre Dame had five sacks and 15 tackles for loss, making the operation so much more difficult for Filardi and the offense. Granted, Notre Dame is a talented and very physical football team, but getting beaten at the line of scrimmage has been a common theme in 2025, and Notre Dame forced Syracuse into their worst performance in the trenches.