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Five minutes and 54 seconds showed on the clock when head coach Dino Babers called timeout. As his team jogged to the sideline, he had a decision to make: sell out for one more yard on SU’s 41-yard line to extend the drive or let the defense try to keep No. 1 Clemon’s lead at 27-21. 

It was a position the 46-point underdogs had no business being in. Yet there they were, down one score, with a chance to mount the greatest college football upset in modern history. They’d won the second half, 7-0 at that point, and had Clemson seeing flashes of the 2017 upset in the Dome. The drive before, a snap sailed over Trevor Lawrence’s head, an uncharacteristic mistake for the best team in the nation.

When Syracuse’s timeout expired, the punting unit came out. The game turned from there, with Clemson ripping off 20 straight points. An inexplicably tight game rapidly turned into a blowout, as Syracuse quarterback Rex Culpepper gave the ball away three times post-punt.

“The whole thing about going for it on 4th down is, when everybody in the booth is saying you should go for it, that’s probably when you shouldn’t go for it,” Babers said.

It’s convenient to point to that one play as the key moment of Syracuse’s 47-21 loss to Clemson. But football is a game of thousands of decisions, fluke plays and connections. Babers’ decision to punt didn’t cost Syracuse (1-5, 1-4 Atlantic Coast) the game. Had SU gone for it and been stuffed, Clemson’s (6-0, 5-0) then-fledgling offense would’ve been juiced by a short field, and critics would equally excoriate the head coach.

“I consider every play a turning point in the game,” Babers said. “We can’t come back to one play. Media can do that. For us, every play matters, every game matters.”

Clemson opened the game with a five-play, 47-yard touchdown drive that displayed the dominance nearly everyone expected. A 49-yard kickoff return gave Lawrence a short field, and the Tigers’ star did the rest.

Syracuse’s offense expectedly stumbled without its No. 1 receiving threat Taj Harris, who didn’t make the trip to South Carolina after showing his middle finger to a camera at the end of last week’s Liberty game. SU started with a three-and-out, then Culpepper threw his first interception of the day, setting up a Tigers field goal.

At one point in the first, Syracuse tried to generate some offense with a gadget play, giving receiver Nykeim Johnson the direct snap on 4th-and-1 for a keeper. He was stuffed.

A 25-yard Travis Etienne rushing touchdown put the Tigers up 17-0 in the first quarter, then the teams traded touchdowns to start the second quarter.

But Syracuse’s defense didn’t break, and emerging star defensive back Garrett Williams became the first college football player to pick-six Lawrence. Williams entered the game with 30 passes defended and no touchdowns allowed, the best mark in the FBS, and continued to shut down receivers in Death Valley.

At halftime, starting running back Sean Tucker, averaging 6.3 yards per carry, out-gained Etienne. With Williams’ pick and a blocked punt, SU was winning the turnover battle.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney reminded his team this week that Syracuse “embarrassed” them in 2017, Amari Rodgers said. So when Culpepper found Johnson in stride for an 83-yard touchdown to start the second half and make the score 27-21, Clemson may have experienced a bit of déjà vu.

“I don’t know what it is about the Orange versus the Orange, but it seems to be, if you don’t have anything to do on a Saturday, it might not be a bad game to watch,” Babers said.

Then came decision time for Babers and his Orange.

SU had faced just one third or fourth down and short — less than three yards to go — and elected to run the Johnson direct snap play, which went nowhere. Tucker had gone to the locker room in the first half with an apparent right ankle injury, leaving Markenzy Pierre and Cooper Lutz as SU’s backfield options.

This year, as well as this game, has had no shortage of questionable coaching decisions. Against Pittsburgh, Babers had to defend not using any of his timeouts as the Panthers ran out the clock up 11 with four minutes left. Babers called a timeout on a first down later in Saturday’s game, even after he had the quarter break between the third and fourth to choose a play.

On his own 41-yard line, Babers chose to trust his defense and flipped the field.

“Punting in a situation like that, we take it as a compliment,” Williams said. “Because we know he believes in us, and we also believe in ourselves that we can stop them as well.”

Punter Nolan Cooney pinned Clemson inside its five-yard-line with a miraculous punt, and Clemson quickly handed the ball right back to SU, proving it was at worst a net-neutral outcome.

“If I told you beforehand that we were going to punt the ball and it was going to be on the three, or we could not punt the ball and run it on fourth down and we don’t know what’s going to happen, what would you choose?” Babers said. 

Clemson’s onslaught ensued thereafter, with Culpepper imploding and the Tigers capitalizing on his mistakes. Babers’ decision to punt didn’t make Culpepper throw into double coverage or hold onto the ball too long in the pocket, leading to a scoop-and-score. But it may have stymied some of Syracuse’s momentum.

Babers said Syracuse had to play “almost a perfect game” to beat Clemson. With the talent across the line of scrimmage as lopsided as it was on Saturday, it’s possible perfect wouldn’t have even been enough. Perhaps Syracuse needed to be perfect and take risks. 

“I had a lot of decisions to make. I feel good about what I did,” Babers said.

Published on October 24, 2020 at 6:38 pm

Contact Danny: dremerma@syr.edu | @DannyEmerman