Syracuse gave fans a late scare as it won its third straight game in a sloppy 24-17 win over NC State on Saturday.
The Orange defense allowed 411 total yards to true freshman CJ Bailey and the Wolfpack offense, with NC State scoring 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter as it tried to mount a late comeback attempt.
As he has all season, Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord rescued the Orange in the win, masking the team’s defensive struggles while throwing for 346 passing yards and 2 touchdowns. The Ohio State transfer racked up over 300 passing yards for the sixth straight week, delivering one of his most efficient performances of the season as he completed 74% of his passes.
McCord’s 31 pass completions went to seven different Syracuse players, with his top receiver, Jackson Meeks, hauling in a career-high 11 catches for 116 yards. Meeks, who 2 weeks ago caught 10 passes for 161 yards, connected with McCord from two yards out for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to seal the win against NC State.
Outside of the Syracuse quarterback, the other top performances against the Wolfpack were overshadowed by questionable personnel choices and the same kind of sloppy mistakes that came back to hurt the team when it lost against Stanford.
Running back LeQuint Allen Jr. turned in another quality performance, rushing for 91 yards and a touchdown, but he was the only one who produced out of the backfield.
Backup Yasin Willis, who scored his first career touchdown last week, had just five carries for -5 yards in a smaller role.
Tight end Dan Villari, who had caught one pass for 7 yards entering the matchup against the Wolfpack, surprisingly ran the ball 4 times for an inefficient 11 yards. Considering the success Willis had against UNLV last week, it was surprising to see Villari earn touches at the expense of Willis.
The Orange also forced three turnovers on defense, recovering two interceptions and a fumble and recorded two sacks. Those encouraging stats, however, were offset by 8 penalties for 50 yards and the special teams missing another field goal attempt, its sixth of the season.
McCord has proven he’s capable of elevating the offense to mask the team’s limitations enough to win games, but tight results like this against lesser competition do little to prove the team deserves to be nationally ranked.
With a tough upcoming matchup against No. 22 Pittsburgh, Syracuse will have to prove it won’t let its quarterback’s top performances like these go to waste against better opponents.
