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Five minutes and 51 seconds was more than enough time to go 62 yards down the field and erase the mistakes and sloppy play that plagued Syracuse. Dino Babers wanted to score more touchdowns — especially in the third quarter — and the Orange likely had one more smooth drive. There wasn’t an urgency to retake the momentum. Garrett Shrader could work behind a more astute offensive line as he tried to cap off a rollercoaster game on top.

He trotted out to the 25-yard line and began a properly executed symphony on the final drive. A 10-yard pass to Oronde Gadsden II for the first down. Then a pass to Sean Tucker, who was all alone on the left side running a wheel route, moved them up some more. Babers doesn’t exactly remember what happened. This was another close game in the waning seconds that weighed on the head coach. Gadsden said the success was as simple as SU converting on third downs.

With less than two minutes to go, Shrader and the Orange found themselves in the red zone, a place that had bugged them throughout the game. But Shrader didn’t need to make his reads, it didn’t even matter that he was sacked two plays before, though Babers isn’t happy that the sack occurred.

Andre Szmyt jogged out to the 31-yard line. A third Power 5 win and a 4-0 start rode on his leg as he lined up and extended his arms. The Orange needed Szmyt to continue his perfection. His kick could erase that abysmal third quarter, that Courtney Jackson fumble and the first interception of the season for Garrett Shrader. A new holder, as Justin Barron had been thrown out for targeting earlier in the game, spun the ball around, laces out, for Szmyt. Like he’d done four times before on Friday night, like the Friday night win against Liberty last season, he roped it through the uprights to give Syracuse a 22-20 lead with just 1:14 to go.

“The play was not perfect, that’s for sure. But the record is,” head coach Dino Babers said.

Szmyt saved Shrader and the offense that had floundered during the third quarter. Virginia, whose offense looked hapless in the first half, stormed back in the second. The Orange tried their best to establish a run game, but once the team found itself in the red zone, the production essentially halted. But the last kick made the missed chances and stagnant hips null. It erased any redzone miscues and gave the Orange (4-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast) their fourth win of the season, defeating Virginia (2-2, 0-1 ACC).

“Those touchdowns early might have made the game extremely different, but we couldn’t get them in,” Babers said.

Syracuse’s offense had done nearly everything to perfection throughout the first half. The reason Robert Anae made a name for himself, establishing Virginia as an offensive powerhouse in the process, slammed itself right back in the Cavaliers’ face. The patient dual-threat quarterback that Jason Beck had helped invent with Brennan Armstrong wreaked havoc on UVA in the form of Shrader.

Even after taking a huge blindside sack from Kam Butler, who swung around the horn and beat Matthew Bergeron, Shrader had two chances to bring the Orange’s first half lead to 20. He missed both. Jackson motioned in from the left hash, settling down as the ball was snapped next to Oronde Gadsden. Anae used the pre snap motion to set up a bunch set numerous times Friday night, just as he did during SU’s first three games.

Shrader had Gadsden, who seamlessly executed a dead-leg cut, on a fade route. He beat out his man within two seconds, and had Shrader seen it. But the pocket collapsed and Shrader was forced to scramble right.

Gadsden said he thought he was open on that play and one other while SU was in the red zone. But every time he looked back, Shrader was “running for his life.”

On the next play, Tucker bled out to the middle behind Trebor Pena. The pair ran the exact same route before Tucker cut in and Pena leaked outside to the left. A wide open Pena spun around and saw Tucker get hit from behind as he tried to catch the short throw, which ultimately fell to the ground.

The freight train of Anae’s offense continued to barrel throughout Friday night. It’d eaten up Louisville and UConn, also edging out Purdue. Then, minutes after kickoff, it stormed ahead — the coal of three receiver sets and pre-snap motions fueled an unstoppable machine.

Syracuse only needed 41 yards on its first drive to go up by a touchdown. Pena had taken the opening kickoff out from the 2-yard line, finding a seam up the left side. He shoved Brendan Farrell at the 40, scampering another 20 yards to set up one of the ACC’s top offenses. Two plays later, SU was in the red zone.

Garrett Shrader needed three seconds before a large hole on the right side of his pocket opened up. Darting through it, he dashed to the right to avoid free safety Langston Long and pedaled into the endzone for his lone touchdown. It stood as the only time SU made its way into the red zone and ended the drive with six points. That freight train derailed when it got down inside the 20-yard line.

“The biggest thing is just learning not to panic in games like this,” Shrader said. “But offensively we absolutely have to get it cleaned up, we cannot do that against NC State and Clemson.”

Shrader’s pocket was hardly clean Friday night as Virginia’s six sacks were the most Shrader had encountered this season. Unable to operate for any sort of time, Shrader sped up his reads or bail on the passing play quicker. He floundered when under pressure to put a game out of UVA’s reach during the second half.

Had Shrader not missed a read on a 3rd-and-long from the edge of the red zone, the Orange would have had plenty of breathing room to allow another UVA touchdown on its second possession of the third quarter. Szmyt effortlessly put the ensuing 32-yard field goal through the uprights, but instead of 20-0, it was a two possession game.

The Orange have now won their last two games by a combined five points, a feat that would have gone against SU’s favor last year, a season Babers coins an “outlier.” Babers prides himself on the fact that his teams at Syracuse win close games, like Purdue last week and Virginia Friday night.

“I have no clue what’s going to happen down the road, but I’ll go anywhere with these guys. I will ride with these guys,” Babers said.

Published on September 23, 2022 at 11:19 pm

Contact Anthony: aalandt@syr.edu | @anthonyalandt