Prior to Syracuse’s third ever meeting with Wagner, SU head coach Dino Babers stressed the importance of avoiding complacency, even referring to his 2013 Eastern Illinois Panthers who upset San Diego State 40-19 in the season opener. But that scenario quickly dissipated from existence after a historic first half flurry and saw SU take a 49-0 lead. Syracuse would extend that advantage in the second half, trouncing Wagner 59-0.
The first quarter revealed the Orange as judge, jury, and executioner, with Syracuse traveling 55 yards in three and a half minutes, capping it off with Garrett Shrader’s fifth rushing TD of the year. After one of Wagner’s two first downs in the opening quarter, the Seahawks handed the Orange the ball at SU’s 16-yard line.
Following one drive that looked seamless from start to finish, Syracuse didn’t slow its roll on drive number two, turning to Sean Tucker who took the fifth play of the sequence to the house.
Before this weekend’s game, Tucker’s longest run of the year was 13 yards, which the Maryland native easily crossed with one gap up the middle. The sophomore would go on to rush more than 13 yards on five separate occasions.
“I would say I’m pleased. That was bad couple of weeks, but guys came out today, played hard and we definitely came out with the win.” – Sean Tucker following the win
Tucker’s day would be far from over. Number 34 trounced Wagner on the ground, amassing over 200 rush yards for just the second time in his career. But this time it was all in the first half for a single-game best 227 yards. If Tucker isn’t pleased with his performance after totaling just 314 yards through the first four games and nearly that amount in one half alone, then something is wrong.
The number 227 is also significant because it lands Tucker at fourth all-time in single-game rush yards in SU program history. SU’s star back also leapfrogged a plethora of Syracuse greats to sit seventh all-time in rushing yards in program history.
“It means a lot, you know, it represents the hard work that I put in through the offseason and during the season and all those guys up front and my wide receivers outside blocking for me and just being up there and passing those guys… being mentioned with the greats is a good feeling.” – Sean Tucker moving to 7th all-time in SU rushing yards
The other Syracuse star was two-time ACC quarterback of the week Garrett Shrader. SU’s QB1 pitched a perfect first half en route to 200 yards on 14-of-14 through the air. That included three total touchdowns and 15 overall through the first five games. In Shrader’s opening five starts of last season, he found the endzone 16 times, so right on par with where Syracuse’s starting quarterback should be to garner just as much success as he did last season. The difference from years is Shrader didn’t have a perfect completion percentage in any game in 2021. In fact, the Mississippi State transfer is the only QB in Syracuse history to have a perfect completion percentage with over ten pass completions.
“It was nice to do what we did today. Just guys getting open, making easy completions to throw the ball to them. But I mean just doing routine stuff, that’s what we’re preaching to this offense and when you do that, you have a lot of success, so it’s good to see that. Also, the run game playing out how it did today, so it’s exciting moving forward and we’re ready to go. For me, I’m ready, I could play tomorrow, so really excited.” – Garrett Shrader on the Offense’s efficiency
Although the offense totaled 59 points, and racked up 434 yards at the half and a total of 631 yards, the most impressive feat might have been accomplished by the defense. Out of Wagner’s ten drives, Syracuse forced six Seahawk three-and-outs and allowed just 50 yards on 34 plays. In the first half alone, the ‘Cuse allowed only 19 yards on 24 plays. Add the Orange’s second pick six of the year, today’s courtesy of Duce Chestnut, and the defense had itself a perfect day at the office.
Chestnut’s interception also marked Syracuse’s fifth interception on the season, which eclipses the Orange’s four INTs from all of last year, and tacks on a fourth pick to Agent 0’s career.
“I just had a great disguise, we know they’re a big RPO team, so just reading the quarterback’s eyes and reading the route of the receiver… it was an easy pick six.” – Duce Chestnut on his first interception of the season
The second half was a formality to say the least, so much so that the third and fourth quarters were only ten minutes due to an agreement between the officials and Wagner’s head coach to wrap up the game sooner. The only clear negative was backup rover Rob Hanna’s ejection to open up the second half, which will keep him out for the first 30 minutes of the NC State game on October 15th.
But a scoreline of 59-0 should be the focus. It was a dominant performance from start to finish, with plenty of history broken in the process.
Now it’s on to NC State in a couple of weeks. But before then a bye week allows the Orange to regroup and get healthy in preparation for a conference stretch like no other. A reminder that after last year’s bye week, the ‘Cuse lost all three of its games to miss out on bowl eligibility. With seven chances to win one game, it’s crunch time for Syracuse with over half the season left.
