The Syracuse Orange jumped on Clemson from the start as they came away with a 34-21 road win to move to 3-1 on the season. Let’s get to the three takeaways from this game:
Angeli’s status
We’ll start with the dark cloud on today’s victory. Syracuse’s quarterback went down twice in this game. He bounced back in the first half, but started the second half with a knee brace. Then, on a scramble, Angeli went down untouched and exited the game for good. He was seen on crutches and in a boot, so we’ll have
to wait and see what the official word is, but it didn’t look good for QB1.
Fran Brown confirmed that Angeli would be out for a while, so we’ll have to see how Rickie Collins runs the offense.
Playing to Win
An aggressive start on offense. An onside kick in the first quarter. Pushing the ball downfield against the tough Clemson front. Even throwing the ball on 3rd downs late in the game (which probably didn’t make sense). Everything Syracuse did today was about putting the pressure on Clemson.
After forcing a Clemson fumble, Syracuse didn’t get conservative, they had Collins throw a back shoulder route to Justus Ross-Simmons for a dagger touchdown.
The Orange probably played a bit too soft to close the first half, so in the final quarter, they kept sending pressure on Cade Klubnik and the approach thwarted the Clemson comeback attempts. As Mike McDaniel said, “to win games, you have to win them, not lose them”, and Syracuse won this one.
Total team effort
Syracuse’s offensive line came out and helped establish the tone on the opening drive. The defense gave up a lot of yards, but they forced two turnovers in the second half and made Clemson work in the second half. I know commenters have been down on Elijah Robinson, but he seemed to dial up the right pressures on Klubnik and having Devin Grant back made a big difference.
To win road games like this you need players to step up and Johntay Cook (6 catches for 113 yards), Yasin Willis (16 carries for 98 yards) and Will Nixon (10 carries for 46 yards and a score) all came through with big performances in the first half.
The Orange get halfway to bowl eligibility and move further along Brown’s path towards bringing the program back to national relevance.
What are your takeaways from today?
