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The Syracuse Orange defeated the Boston College Eagles 28-20 on Saturday.
They should have beaten them by 21.
They could have lost by 10.
I’m still not sure how any of these three outcomes make sense.
I take that back. The one that had Syracuse winning by three touchdowns makes sense. That’s the only thing that makes sense when you look at the stats. Eric Dungey throws for over 430 yards and three touchdowns. Amba Etta-Tawo finishes with ten catches, 144 yards, and a score. Steve Ishmael added 108 yards and a touchdown. BC added a couple turnovers and their offense stalled for most of the day.
And yet... the outcome of this game wasn’t truly decided until about two minutes left when BC just barely missed out on a fourth-down touchdown that could have led to a tied ballgame.
SU dominated this game and still almost gave it away thanks to nine (NINE!) false starts, a slew more penalties, missed scoring opportunities (including a missed field goal), sloppy special teams, and whatever else it is that causes Syracuse to do stuff like this.
THAT SAID...
For any Syracuse fans potentially upset with the penalties or sloppiness of today's game, just remember, you could be a Boston College fan.
— Matthew McClusky (@MatthewMcClusky) October 22, 2016
Fair.
Look, given what most of us expected from this football season, you take a 4-4 record and you friggin’ run. You might have wanted a better-played game. You certainly wanted that Wake Forest game to be played in normal weather.
But that’s just what this season is. One big experiment in action and the results are starting to go our way just enough.
Who knows how it turns out from here. 6-6 is officially plausible. You might even be talking yourself into 7-5 right now like a crazy person. But maybe that’s what this Boston College game was about. Reminding you that we’re winning but we’re still working out a crapton of kinks.
It’s frustrating and annoying and shortens your lifespan, but it’s also a helluva lot more fun than knowing you’re going to lose and then losing.
Yeah, a win’s a win and SU fans should be excited to see Dino Babers’ system paying dividends so soon. Even if we don’t win another game we’ve seen enough to know the future is bright. We’ve also seen enough to know we could potentially win a lot more. That hope will probably make the impending losses frustrating and any impending wins equally frustrating.
I guess we should just be happy to be so frustrated right now.