On the heels of Syracuse’s crushing 41-13 loss to No.19 Pittsburgh, the Orange have plenty of questions to answer, but one stands out above the rest.
What is Syracuse’s identity as a football team?
In the first few games of the season, it was clear that the Orange employed an offense that could compete with any team in the country. Quarterback Kyle McCord’s stats ranked towards the top of the nation in multiple categories, and Syracuse was firing on all cylinders heading into its matchup against the Panthers.
If there were any question marks about the Orange, it was the defense, which had struggled to contain the run and was susceptible to giving up chunk plays, as it did in Syracuse’s upset loss against Stanford. The defense might have been shaky, but fans could count on the offense showing up.
During Thursday’s game against Pitt, it was the complete opposite. The offense struggled mightily in the loss, and the Panthers made life difficult for McCord as the team headed into halftime down 0-31.
He threw a career-worst five interceptions in the loss, throwing no touchdown passes and only completing 35 of his 64 (55%) pass attempts for 321 yards. Aside from the fact that it was his lowest completion percentage and yardage total of the season, Pitt took full advantage of McCord’s struggles, intercepting him three times in the first 10 minutes and returning two of those for a touchdown.
McCord threw a third pick-six right before halftime, cementing the game as his worst performance in a Syracuse uniform. He rushed for a one-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter, but ended the game with -32 rushing yards, as he was sacked 4 times for 46 yards. It was the first time all season that the Orange were held scoreless for an entire half and McCord ended the game without at least one passing touchdown.
While the Panthers scored 41 points, the Syracuse defense held its own against one of the top-scoring offenses in the country. McCord’s mistakes were directly responsible for 18 of those points, and the two interceptions that didn’t result in pick-sixes gave Pitt an easy field position to start its drives.
The Orange limited Panthers quarterback Eli Holstein to only 108 passing yards and were stingy on run defense, giving up under 100 rushing yards for the second straight game and the third time in four games. Linebacker Marlowe Wax picked up a sack in his first game back from injury, and Pitt only mustered 13 first downs the entire game.
With those performances in mind, Syracuse needs to decide what type of team it wants to be.
If the Orange are going to be a more well-rounded team, as the defense has shown it is capable of in recent weeks, then McCord and the offense will need to avoid putting up clunkers like this that let the defense down.
