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In the third quarter against Pitt, quarterback Garrett Shrader faked the handoff to Sean Tucker, dipped his shoulder to fake out the defense and then unloaded a shot to the endzone. Wide receiver Courtney Jackson hauled it in, marking his career-high second touchdown catch of the night.

The throw and catch gave SU the tiniest glimmer of hope that a comeback to become bowl eligible might be possible. That was extinguished shortly after when the Orange suffered a 31-14 season-ending defeat at the hands of No. 20 Pitt. But the throw from Shrader to Jackson was also a sign of something else — progress for SU’s passing game.

“We’ve got the guys to do it,” Shrader said of the passing game after the loss. “We (just) weren’t particularly good at it this year. And so just percentage-wise, looking at the plays we want to major in, we just were not efficient with them.”

Syracuse secured five wins by leaning on Tucker and Shrader’s legs. It was no secret that the Orange relied on a run-based offense, a unit that finished the season ranked 16th in the country (214.3 yards per game). But balance is key, head coach Dino Babers pointed out after the game, and SU didn’t have that.

It wasn’t able to keep defenses honest by establishing a solid pass game to counteract its run-heavy offense. Instead, it was predictable, Babers said. It struggled to complete passes at all in three consecutive games against Boston College, NC State and Louisville, where Shrader threw for less than 70 yards in each of those contests.

But amid Saturday’s season-ending, blowout loss was Shrader’s 17-of-24, 217-yard, two-touchdown game through the air. Saturday was a sign that Shrader had grown, developed and improved his arm and his connection with his wide receivers during the weeks since he took over the starting job in mid-September. He looked more confident firing strikes over the middle, something he struggled with earlier in the year. Receivers ran cleaner routes, too.

“He handled the opportunity, his percentage was up. I thought he hit some throws, I really did,” Babers said of Shrader.

It was growth from the quarterback’s wild overthrow of tight end Luke Benson against UAlbany over two months ago and the red zone interception thrown to a Clemson safety a month later. It was noteworthy for a quarterback who seemed to be in a slump, struggling to complete over 50% of his passes for much of the season.

Pittsburgh, like many of SU’s other recent opponents, stacked the box to compensate for SU’s run game. That meant going to the air, and on the opening drive, SU and Shrader did just that. Shrader hit Jackson on his left for a 10-yard gain and then once more over the middle for a gain of 17 yards. He found Tucker, and then Jackson three more times, the final of which was a 12-yard touchdown to give SU the lead. Interspersed between those throws was the Syracuse run game.

“Our quarterback and receiver were definitely connecting on deep balls, they were catching them and scoring,” Tucker said after the game, adding that Pitt was trying specifically to stop the run.

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Shrader said earlier in the season that his goal was to throw the ball at every opportunity he possibly could. Oftentimes, he takes off running because his receivers were covered or couldn’t get open downfield.

This offseason, SU will need to improve its pass-protection and route-running, Shrader said. The receiving room has talent, so they all just need to be on the same page and “see the defense the same.” Shrader said after the Louisville game that the offense isn’t built for a high completion percentage, but he said he still needs to be more efficient at getting the ball in his receivers’ hands and moving the chains.

“We need to go back and rebuild,” Babers said of the throwing game. “This football team that we just played, they’re a good run stop defense, but what they were giving us was massive throws all over the field which we need to be able to take advantage of.”

The game was won when…

Syracuse started strong with an opening drive touchdown, something the Orange struggled with for much of the past few weeks. The Pitt offense started slowly with a scoreless first quarter and three drives that didn’t include the first down. But then SU gave up 28 unanswered points on four touchdown throws from Pitt’s Kenny Pickett.

The dagger came on the Panthers’ third touchdown. Coming out of halftime down 14-7, the Syracuse defense needed a stop to regain momentum. Instead, Pitt marched 65 yards in nine plays, aided by a third-down facemask penalty against the Orange. Pickett connected with his tight end moments after being given a fresh set of downs in the red zone, and Pitt didn’t look back.

Quote of the night: Babers evaluating the success of this season

“Last season was an asterisk. You guys can count it: it’s on my record, it will be with me for the rest of my life,” Babers said. “But I told you, if those super seniors came back, they would bridge something and it would be different. And I think they’ve bridged something and it’s going to be different.”

Stat to know: 25%

Syracuse was 3-of-12 (25%) on third downs on Saturday. On the season, the Orange rank 120th of 130 FBS teams in third-down conversion rate (32.7%).

Shrader scrambled ahead for a short run to move the sticks on the Orange’s opening drive. He fired a pass up the middle to Jackson for a touchdown on third-and-9 too. But after that, the Orange couldn’t convert on third down until late in the third quarter when they scored their second touchdown.

Third down conversions led SU to score, and generally, offenses that can stay on the field on third down by moving the sticks are able to find success. SU didn’t do that consistently on Saturday and didn’t do that well this season either. That’s one big reason why they couldn’t reach bowl eligibility.

Game ball: Courtney Jackson

Jackson had his first career receiving touchdown against Virginia Tech this season and his first punt return touchdown a week later against Boston College. The wide receiver stepped up once more with two receiving touchdowns against Pitt, despite the loss.

When Taj Harris transferred, Anthony Queeley seemed like the next No. 1 receiver. But in the weeks that followed, Jackson accumulated more targets, more catches and more yards. He’s a strong run-after-catch receiver who’s shown significant growth, and Saturday against Pitt was the epitome of his development this season.

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Three final points:

Did Syracuse become too predictable?
Shrader said that Syracuse was running the same plays as always on Saturday. The offense is always evolving and looks change week-to-week, Shrader said, but Pitt was loading the box.

That made it hard for Syracuse to successfully run the ball. It was the same thing against NC State and against Louisville — opponents learned that they just had to stack the box and sell out on stopping the run, then the rest would come easily.

To a certain degree, Syracuse did become too predictable. It was clear that SU leaned on its run game, so if opponents could stop it — which they did for all of November — Syracuse had issues. Moving forward next year, it’ll need to diversify its offense to create a more balanced and unpredictable unit, Babers said.

Special teams didn’t make glaring mistakes, but it still hurt.
Babers said that redshirting or losing players to the transfer portal particularly affects reps on special teams. Those losses accumulated — specifically after the bye week — and cost the Orange 15-20 yard runs on kickoffs and touchdowns.

The Syracuse special teams unit played a solid game, considering a lot of their other performances this season. The punting was particularly consistent, with Ian Hawkins averaging 43 yards a punt, an improvement on the previous few weeks for him.

But Pitt still was able to win the special teams battle. The Panthers used a 48-yard kickoff return in the first quarter, though they couldn’t turn it into points. Cooper Lutz had a 14-yard kickoff return that eventually set Pitt up with good field position. And Jordan Addison ran back a punt 27 yards to set up the Panthers at the SU 25-yard line.

Those small wins by Pitt hurt the Orange, and in a must-win game for bowl eligibility, they weren’t an area that SU could afford.

Will Babers return next year?
The Syracuse head coach just completed the fifth losing season of his six-year tenure. When asked about his future after the game, Babers said “I’m not going to get into that stuff.”

But the head coach also spoke for much of his press conference about the 2022 team, the goals that the group had already set and his hopes for how that team can improve upon this year’s.

Babers contract runs until 2024, and his buyout clause is substantial considering he signed a sizable extension in 2018.

“My job belongs to my employer. My career belongs to me. I only control the things that I can control,” Babers said on Monday before the Pittsburgh game. “I also believe that good coaches get hired and good coaches get fired. And really really really good coaches get rehired, but I’ve always thought that for 35 years, whether I was an assistant, a coordinator or a head coach. It’s not the most important thing.”

Published on November 28, 2021 at 6:32 pm

Contact Roshan: rferna04@syr.edu | @Roshan_f16