Syracuse football: first down offense vs Stanford

Some big plays but a lot of inconsistency

The Syracuse Orange were unable to complete the comeback against the Stanford Cardinal on Friday night. It was an uneven performance all around and that showed especially in the first down offense on Friday night.

Overall the first down numbers look pretty strong. The Orange averaged over 5 yards per first down play for the entire game, but it was a number of big plays which skew those overall results.

In the first half, Syracuse was able to get five plays of over five yards. The offense struggled to convert third downs until the final drive when they overcame a sack (and near turnover) to convert on McCord’s pass to Umari Hatcher.

The second half was the opposite. Syracuse had 10 of the 17 first down plays end up being for less than five yards. Included in this were four incompletions and an interception, but on the flip side McCord produced two first-down touchdowns, one on his scramble and the second on this dart to Jackson Meeks.

The Orange will be looking for more consistency heading into this weekend’s game where they should have a lot more offensive plays against Holy Cross.