I think I have run out of ways to say Syracuse football lost. The streak is up to eight losses in a row after Syracuse fell to NC State 42-29 Saturday, leaving only next week’s game against Boston College as the Orange’s last hope for “improvement” over last season. As for today’s game, it wasn’t as close as the score indicated by any means. Syracuse was beaten in almost every aspect of the game, and when NC State wasn’t beating the Orangemen they were beating themselves.
Syracuse’s defense couldn’t stop anything. The Wolfpack put up 511 yards of total offense in the game, and didn’t punt until the third quarter. NC State’s 42 points make it five times this year Syracuse has given up more than 40 (all road games). The Orange offense wasn’t any better. Syracuse didn’t get into the end zone until there were less than two minutes left in the first half, and even then a missed two point conversion brought Syracuse fans back to reality (and reminded us all of Scott Shafer’s poor decision making). If it hadn’t been for a pair of garbage time touchdowns with less than four minutes in the game, Syracuse would have only put up 16 points. To put the cherry on top, Brisly Estime and Steve Ishmael were both disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct as the frustrations boiled over.
NC State outgained Syracuse by 219 yards, and made 27 first downs to the Orange’s 15. Syracuse went only 2-11 on third down, with both of the conversions coming once the game was already out of reach. The Wolfpack, on the other hand, went for it on fourth down three times and converted on all of them. It just seemed like everything that could go wrong did for the Orange.
Honestly, I wish I had a better angle to give you on this game, but at this point it seems like anything I could say would be beating a dead horse. The offense played badly, the defense played worse, and Scott Shafer made bad decisions. Oh, and Riley Dixon is still great. Watching this team has become more exhausting than entertaining, and perhaps the only thing to look forward to now is a week from now when the season is finally over.
Posted: Nathan Dickinson
