Ad Disclosure
Syracuse is on a roll under 1st-year coach Fran Brown.
One week after upsetting UNLV in overtime, the Orange went back on the road on Saturday and earned their 1st ACC road win under their new coach by outlasting NC State 24-17 at Carter-Finley Stadium.
Quarterback Kyle McCord threw for 2 touchdowns and running back LeQuint Allen scored once to complement a defense that forced 3 turnovers. At 5-1 (2-1 ACC), Syracuse is now just 1 win from bowl eligibility at the midway point in the season while the Wolfpack falls below .500 at 3-4 (0-3) after their 3rd straight loss.
It’s the 1st time since 2014 that State has dropped its 1st 3 conference games since
Here are 3 takeaways from the Orange’s 1st ever victory in Raleigh:
McCord is keeping it 300
It only took 42 pass attempts this week, 21 fewer than last week at UNLV. But the result was the same for McCord. The transfer from Ohio State completed 31 of his throws for 346 yards and 2 touchdowns. He has now thrown for more than 300 yards in all 6 of his games as a member of the Orange, extending the school record he set 2 games ago against Holy Cross.
McCord was effective in spreading the ball around to his 3 top targets, hitting 3 different receivers at least 6 times each. Jackson Meeks led the way with 11 catches for 116 yards and a touchdown. Trebor Pena had 8 grabs for 75 yards while tight end Oronde Gadsden II added 6 for 74 yards. The other touchdown pass went to Umari Hatcher.
Red zone not kind to the Orange in the first half
Syracuse dominated time of possession and red zone opportunities in the 1st half. But those advantages didn’t translate into points. Despite holding onto the ball for 9 minutes more than State and getting inside the 20-yard line 3 times before halftime, the Orange managed to put only 10 points on the board before halftime.
Both of their scores – a 28-yard pass from McCord to Hatcher and a Jayden Oh field goal – came from outside the red zone.
While Syracuse was 0-for-3 when it drove into scoring position, the Wolfpack took advantage of its only red zone possession of the half to cut the Orange’s lead to 10-7. The Orange did, however, turn things around after the break, scoring touchdowns on 2 of their final 3 trips inside the 20.
Wolfpack is its own worst enemy
Syracuse wasn’t the only team that ran into trouble once it got the ball into scoring position. The difference is that the Wolfpack’s self-inflicted mistakes ended up costing them. They did score a touchdown late in the 1st half when CJ Bailey hit tight end Justin Joly for a 14-yard touchdown.
But State’s 3 other drives inside the Orange 30-yard line ended in turnovers. And Syracuse converted each of them into scores.
The first came on a 2nd quarter fumble by running back Kendrick Raphael and led to Syracuse’s 1st touchdown of the night. The 2nd was forced by safety Devin Grant on a 3rd quarter strip sack of Bailey and also led to 7 points in the other direction while the 3rd came later in the period when a pass bounced off Raphael’s hands and was picked off by Justin Barron.
State did, however, appear to get a break in the 4th quarter when a 75-yard touchdown pass from Bailey to Noah Rogers was allowed to stand upon review, even though it appeared that Rogers stepped out of bounds before making the catch.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
