Syracuse football: don’t lose sight of the big picture

It was a disappointing Saturday for the Syracuse Orange. A big crowd was on hand ready to push the Orange back into the win column and seven seconds into the game, Notre Dame was in the end zone for a lead they would never relinquish.

With a hobbled Garrett Shrader, Notre Dame was able to load up and stop the run and outside of a beautiful adjustment on his touchdown pass to Oronde Gadsden II, Shrader wasn’t able to make them pay.

Notre Dame took what worked for Clemson and rotated their three running backs to attack the middle of the Orange defense. On defense, the Irish bottled up Sean Tucker and made him work all afternoon. Carlos Del Rio-Wilson replaced Shrader in the second half and he showed some big-time arm strength as he lead two touchdown drives.

I have barely looked at comments because I left the game and spent the rest of the weekend enjoying beautiful Fall weather and time with family. It was disappointing to be in the Dome ready to celebrate a bit win over a high-profile program, but it wasn’t meant to be. That’s college football Suzyn. I’m not going to let that game take away from this 2022 season.

I’d ask all of you to take a second and go look at the ACC standings and scores from this weekend. That’s “program on the rise” Boston College scoring 3 points against UConn. Miami which spent millions this season on Mario Cristobal and a bunch of players is 4-4 after beating Virginia 14-12 in 3OT. #10 Wake Forest gave up 35 third-quarter points to Louisville.

Syracuse has six wins. They have wins over UConn, Virginia and Louisville that some of you now want to consider to be less important, but the reality is those six wins mean the Orange are bowling. We knew this team had plenty of flaws in those first six weeks, flaws that have been exposed as Syracuse starts the stretch of the season we all knew would be a challenge to navigate.

Shrader’s injury status is likely to remain a mystery but it wouldn’t be the worst thing for Dino Babers to allow his QB1 the opportunity to rest and try and get back to 100%. We saw a limited Shrader at the end of last season and if he’s not able to run, it does impact both his and the offense’s effectiveness.

Yesterday the Orange were out-played in all three phases, yet entered the fourth quarter down seven with the ball. They weren’t able to complete the come-back but this post-game quote from Babers is telling

“I’m really disappointed about the loss but still feel good about this football team,” Babers said. “We’re 6-2, the two opponents that we just played were extremely, extremely physical. Obviously, some of that stuff has taken a toll. I told the team to stay together which we will do.”

Next week’s game at Pitt will be another physical affair and the Orange might be without their two best Garretts, but this fanbase could heed that part about “staying together” too. It might be another rough week, but that won’t change the fact that it’s another week where Syracuse is a top-25 team with a bowl bid secured.