Stanford 26, Syracuse 24: Orange comeback not enough for win

Cardiac Cuse couldn’t quite complete the comeback.

Emmet Kenney hit his fourth field goal of the day with time expiring to give the Stanford Cardinal a 26-24 win over the Syracuse Orange. It’s the first loss of the Fran Brown era.

Before the game, Syracuse already found itself on the back foot with inactive players. Dion Wilson, Will Nixon and Emanuel Ross were in street clothes and not available. Zeed Haynes was also not at the Dome for personal reasons, which were reported to be not related to discipline.

Syracuse and Stanford traded punts to begin the first half, but that’s when the Orange started to crumble. Multiple missed and broken tackles allowed the Cardinal to gain free yards to methodically move the chains. Stanford star wide receiver Elic Ayomanor capped off a scoring drive with a spectacular one-handed catch, akin to Odell Beckham Jr.

Meanwhile, the explosive Orange offense showed no signs of detonating early on. Kyle McCord struggled with accuracy early in the game, overthrowing open receivers in good positions. The running game didn’t help either as LeQuint Allen struggled to get going on the ground. He finished the first half with four carries for six yards.

Both teams also couldn’t get any positive momentum going in the first half due to penalties. Stanford committed five penalties for 40 yards while Syracuse was flagged for four penalties costing the Orange 40 yards as well. The majority of the Cardinal penalties came on holding calls while Syracuse was flagged for an unnecessary roughness and roughing the passer call.

Stanford tacked on two more field goals primarily on the strength of its rushing attack and weak Syracuse tackling. The Cardinal rushed for 132 yards on 20 attempts in the first half. On the other side, the Orange rushing attack remained dormant, with a couple of McCord sacks resulting in -13 first-half rushing yards.

Momentum slowly started to shift Syracuse’s way after a Devin Grant interception set up the Orange in the red zone. Syracuse had to settle for a field goal. Then, on a two-minute drill, Umari Hatcher lost his defender and grabbed a bullet pass from McCord with nothing but green turf in front of him. The touchdown gave the Dome some much needed life heading into halftime. Syracuse trailed 13-10.

Syracuse started slow once again out of the halftime break, with the Orange run game failing to get going. McCord had to do a lot with his arm, and drives started to stall out as pressure got to the Orange QB. The Orange defense was doing its part, however, as the Cardinal were limited to 26 total yards of offense. Clarence Lewis came up with an interception as well after a horrible decision from Stanford QB Ashton Daniels.

However, Stanford capitalized big on a Syracuse mistake between McCord and Dan Villari. The Syracuse tight end had no idea that McCord was targeting him on a pass, leaving Stanford safety Mitch Leigber to pick the ball and return it for a touchdown. A lot of momentum was sucked out of the energetic Dome building.

The Orange responded with a methodical 10 play drive of their own, capped off by a 19-yard acrobatic scramble from McCord that sent the Dome fans into a fury. The Orange fought to within one score after the third quarter, trailing 20-17.

The fourth quarter started rough for Syracuse after McCord tossed his second interception of the evening. However, the Orange defense continued to hold strong, limiting Stanford to a field goal to trail by six. After trading three-and-outs, McCord lent on Darrell Gill to move the chains and found Jackson Meeks in the end zone on a slant to give Syracuse its first lead of the evening.

Stanford stayed relentless and used its rushing attack to chip away at the Orange. The big play came from Ayomanor who beat his man one-on-one on fourth down to put Stanford in field goal range. Kenney, who hit from 51 prior in the game, drilled a 39-yard field goal to win the game for the Cardinal.

McCord finished 27-42 for 339 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. LeQuint Allen only had eight carries for 25 yards. Trebor Pena paced the Orange receivers with 10 catches for 101 yards.

The next Orange home game comes on Saturday, September 28 against Holy Cross. Kickoff is set for 12:00 pm.