A career day from McCord highlights the top performances in Syracuse’s win over the Huskies.
In their first home game since the beginning of November, the Syracuse Orange (8-3) relied primarily on a strong day from the offense to come away with a one score victory at home over the UConn Huskies (7-4).
Kyle McCord’s career day proved to be the story of the game as Syracuse took an early lead and managed to stay out in front even as UConn stayed within an arm’s distance from making a comeback. There were polarizing performances on both sides of the ball, but the result is the Orange getting to eight wins — the first time the program has done so since 2018.
How did the Orange’s different position groups perform? As per usual, here are your weekly grades for Syracuse after its 31-24 win over UConn:
Quarterbacks: A+
After rewatching the game, I could only count two “interceptable” balls, one of which could have arguably been picked. With that said, it’s hard to not hand out the A+ here: with the running game being ineffective and the defense giving up yardage, Syracuse needed its quarterback to be consistent and the passing game to be on point. The result was Kyle McCord throwing for a career-high 470 passing yards, going 37/47 (79%) from the field with an average of 10 yards per throw and two touchdowns. Not much else to say outside of Syracuse’s passing offense has been a constant all year and really shined on Saturday.
Running Backs: B-
Tough all-around to really have a definitive grade for the running backs. LeQuint Allen (20 carries for 58 yards, 2.9 YPC, five catches for 30 yards) was largely held in check on the ground but still had his impactful moments. Oronde Gadsden, Darrell Gill, Dan Villari and Yasin Willis each had a carry, but Syracuse had just 33 carries for 68 yards combined. The passing game was also Syracuse’s bread and butter pretty much all game. All that said, B- feels the most fair. It all depends how you grade out the totality of Allen’s performance, which is why I’m at least keeping it in B range.
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Wide Receivers: A+
Hello, Gill! Nine catches for 177 yards and nearly 20 yards per catch highlighted a spectacular day for Gill. Jackson Meeks (seven catches for 110 yards, 15.7 YPC) also topped 100 yards and had a great performance of his own. Justus Ross-Simmons had one catch for 32 yards. Trebor Pena caught two different passes that were called back and ended up leaving early, but Syracuse held on even with him sidelined. Gill and Meeks both stepped up when it mattered.
Tight Ends: A
Another great game from Gadsden, who finished with 11 catches for 103 yards. Loved how he was used in different ways: slants, routes going to the sideline, flying down the middle. That really opened things up for the rest of the passing game.
Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Offensive Line: C-
A familiar story with Syracuse’s offensive line: not enough durability to get the run going, but holding on just enough for McCord to make a play. At the end of the day, McCord was only sacked once and the blocking did look a bit better on passing situations compared to running. This could be a D+ but I think C- is still fair. From what I could remember, didn’t see more than two penalties from the O-line which also kept the momentum up for the offense.
Defensive Line: C+
The case for the D-line getting a C+: UConn did have 124 yards on the ground on just 17 carries. With that said, one big run for 71 yards came off a missed tackle inside by Duce Chestnut and another was a 35 -yard run that was caused by a gap right down the middle. take those two runs away and UConn had just 15 carries for 18 yards. Fadil Diggs was the only player from the Orange to record the sack, but considering the Huskies came in with a reputation to run the ball like Boston College did a few weeks ago, the run defense had a pretty decent day.
Linebackers: C+
Similar to the d-line, there were some good moments and some that were not. Marlowe Wax was tied for first in tackles and second in solo tackles. Justin Barron only had three tackles but saved at least one UConn touchdown and was flying across the field. The duo did nothing that broke the game completely, but they were at least solid enough.
Defensive Backs: C-
The pros: freshman Davien Kerr leading the team in both tackles and tying for most solo tackles, a couple solid plays from Chestnut and Clarence Lewis and UConn’s quarterback throwing 47 times but only getting 228 yards on those passes. The cons: the coverage notably performed worse in the second half compared to the first, a couple missed tackles led to some big plays for the Huskies and pass interference penalties was one of the few things that kept UConn in striking distance.
Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Special Teams: B
An overall mixed day for special teams. The main highlight was Syracuse recovering the onside kick with under 90 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Jack Stonehouse punted three times for 44/7 yards a kick, including a 55-yard punt. One of Jackson Kennedy’s missed field goals was at the end of the half and from a far distance, ending 1/3 on field goals and 4/4 on extra points.
Coaching: B+
Overall, the gameplan going in went as well as it could with a few exceptions. Had a few plays sprinkled throughout the game went Syracuse’s way, a double-digit win would’ve realistically been possible (namely, a few TDs getting called back, a missed field goal that was at least makeable and one fourth down call thag could’ve gone either way).
The one true “negative” was trying to still establish the run game when it clearly wasn’t going to be effective. Considering how dominant Syracuse was passing the ball, the Orange sort of went away from that mainly in the second half at times which stalled a few drives.
With all that said, give credit for the Orange limiting the UConn rushing attack for about 80% of the game and forcing Joe Fagnano to at least have to make the big plays down the field. Offensively, the passing attack succeeded once again and that came from a mix of McCord throwing to several targets and making those plays at different spots on the field.
Now it’s your turn: how would you grade the Orange’s performance versus UConn? Where do you agree or disagree with the most?