Five Takeaways: Florida State 41 Syracuse 3

Syracuse football was blown out at Florida State 41-3 on Saturday. Here are five takeaways from the loss. 

1. Defense

The defense was ready to compete against one of the best offenses in the ACC. A team that has scored over 30 points in 12 straight games and looked for a while like they would challenge that streak. The overall numbers do not look great, but there is some context to that. Florida State put up 535 yards of total offense, but 150 of that was on two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter with the game out of reach and backups in. That inflated both the total yards and points to some extent. Still, anyone who watched could see the defense was competitive. There are still issues, however. The team got better pressure on the quarterback than the previous two weeks, but still needs more. The secondary broke down multiple times that led to long gains. The Florida State rushing attack did have success against the Orange front. Still, overall, they looked much closer to the unit we saw in the first four or five games than against North Carolina. The lingering issue is not capitalizing on turnover opportunities. Syracuse dropped multiple interceptions against Clemson and missed what should have been an easy fumble recovery on FSU's opening drive. Three Orange players jumped on the ball with no one else around and did not recover it. The Seminoles ultimately got it and scored a touchdown on that drive. In the final five games, Syracuse has to take advantage of those chances. 

2. LeQuint Allen

The lone bright spot for the offense was LeQuint Allen and the Syracuse running game. Allen looked like he belonged against one of the most talented teams in the conference. He ran with decisiveness, power and was elusive at times as well. This may have been his most impressive performance, given the opponent and circumstances, of his young Syracuse career. A very encouraging sign for him and the offense as a whole. If he can run like that the rest of the way, the offense will be in a good spot against much worse defenses. 

3. Offense

Once again, the offense was not good. Syracuse could not sustain drives, the passing game was non-existent and it struggled to protect its quarterback. Outside of Allen, there was not anything positive to take away. The Orange will not win games if it plays like that offensively. Now, the last three weeks have been against defenses that are much more talented than the ones it will face in the next five games. That said, Syracuse needs to figure something out especially from a passing perspective. Umari Hatcher and Dan Villari have shown flashes, but need to be more consistent. Teams are not respecting Syracuse's passing attack right now and the Orange has not given them much reason to the last three weeks. It needs more in the last five games. 

4. Garrett Shrader

Shrader did not play well but also did not look like himself. We found out after the game he was dealing with food poisoning, which makes sense. He was not nearly the same player in terms of escaping pressure and running with the football. His accuracy was not great either, which could be partially due to the pressure he was under as well as his ailment. Regardless, he needs to be much better moving forward for Syracuse. It has been three straight weeks of offensive struggle, albeit against three of the best defenses in the conference. If the Orange is going to get back to what it was offensively in the first four games, it starts with Shrader performing better. 

5. Everything Still in Front of Syracuse

Going into the season, the consensus was that this three game stretch was brutal and Syracuse likely will not win any of them. Now that became reality over the last three weeks. Obviously you would have liked Syracuse to be more competitive (though they were against Clemson and the defense was against FSU), but the point is they are through it. The last five games are far more forgiving. Now, they will not be easy, but the hope is that you see the Syracuse team from the first four games and not the last three given the level of competition. If we see that Syracuse team, they should win three to four of those last five, if not all five. An eight or nine win season would be a very strong year. A successful season. That is still out in front of Syracuse and is realistic given the schedule.