After their early bye week, the Syracuse Orange returned to the field a few hours east of home and took on the still-Independent UConn Huskies. Despite giving away a 20-point lead, SU managed to take the game to overtime, where a successful two-point conversion gave them a stress-filled 42-41 victory.
The win gets SU back to .500 and gives them some confidence back on one side of the ball, but some familiar issues and even a few new ones plagued them and made this a way closer game than it had any
right to be.
Just like Syracuse did today, I’ll start with the positives before unleashing a flurry of problems:
A Change for the Better
After previously stating that Steve Angeli would remain his starting QB, Fran Brown instead made the last minute switch to Kennesaw State transfer Amari Odom – and it paid off.
Odom, who played one drive late in the Pitt loss, gave the Orange offense life right from the start. Shortly after converting a third down in his first series, Odom saved what seemed to be a broken play, collecting a low snap and airing the ball out to Umari Hatcher for a 40-yard TD.
Throughout the game, his mobility allowed for greater play variety, with SU utilizing their tight ends in the pass game and his legs in the read option. On top of that, Odom was hitting the deep balls that Angeli struggled with in the first three weeks – including one on a gutsy 4th and 23 that found the endzone.
And in the end, it was Odom who converted the game winning two-point try by taking it into the endzone himself.
While part of me feels for Angeli, who seemed far from 100% healthy, it’s clear that this was the right decision to make – and one Fran couldn’t afford not to. With the season, and his future as head coach, in question, Brown put aside his pride and gave the ball to the better available option.
Down the Hatcher
A talk about the offensive breakout wouldn’t be complete without highlighting Umari Hatcher’s efforts. The sixth-year senior started the season off scorching hot – so much so that he was our consensus best player on offense before the bye – and he stayed that way on Saturday.
Hatcher was Odom’s top target both in terms of volume (11 catches for 135 yards) and big play usage (two separate 40+ yard TD catches). Whenever there was a critical moment, his name was usually the one called on to convert, and it’s resulting in him earning true WR1 status.
The question moving forward is if other Cuse receivers can capitalize on his sudden stardom. Seven other players caught at least one pass, but only two – Darius Johnson and Justus Ross-Simmons – had at least three. Calvin Russell had two grabs in his Syracuse debut but looks like he is being eased back into things.
Top ACC corners will likely have a much better time guarding Hatcher so the offense can’t become overly reliant on him. We should appreciate his big day but also realize he’s unlikely to have another quite this dominant.
A Multitude of Mistakes
Alright, now that the good stuff is covered…
This shouldn’t have been a game. A 27-7 first half lead should have been the end of things, and if not that, the 34-14 mark seven minutes into the third quarter. The fact that neither was is a redder flag than the jerseys UConn wore.
In summary, today’s forced errors included:
- A missed PAT on the first touchdown
- Multiple facemask penalties on the defense
- Odom throwing a careless interception the first play after a UConn TD
- A failed 4th and 2 on Syracuse’s own 43
- A terrible interception right in a goal to go situation with a chance to retake the lead
- 302(!) total yards allowed by the defense in the second half
- A missed field goal as time expired in regulation
And for as defensive of Fran as I’ve been in the past, a loss here would have been grounds for firing him on the spot. That is not hyperbole.
Losing a game in embarrassing fashion to UConn – a game that only happened because SU chose to cancel a Dome game against Toledo instead of this, mind you – would have been utterly unacceptable.
A saving grace to the Orange’s continued discipline issues was that UConn actually had more penalties than them. But make no mistake – if the defense and special teams continue to play so poorly, this team will not sniff a bowl game.
Was that as wild of a rollercoaster as the game itself? Probably not, but I hope it gets the point across: There were two things to like very much, and a lot more to not like at all.
