Austin Wilson started, AJ Long prolonged plays, but neither quarterback could finish.

At least not well enough for Syracuse (2-4, 0-2 Atlantic Coast) to beat No. 1 Florida State (6-0, 4-0) on Saturday afternoon in the Carrier Dome. Making his debut, the true freshman Long stretched the Seminoles defense and displayed a maturity in the zone-read offense that pleasantly surprised SU offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tim Lester.

Before leaving the game and getting treatment for an upper-body injury, the sophomore Wilson started for the first time in his collegiate career and showcased a strong arm that could beat the FSU defense on one play and give it the ball on another

Both he and Long were as quick to excite the Carrier Dome crowd as they were re-depress it. They delivered performances that allowed SU to improve and lose respectably, 38-20. But their play also reflected a team that lacks a clear answer to its struggles with continuing and completing drives as much as it is missing a clear starting quarterback.

“It went about how I wanted to,” SU offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tim Lester said. Lester also added that he hasn’t settled on a starter moving forward and that Long took more reps because of the type of defense FSU plays.

Wilson led the Orange to the very edge of the red zone on Syracuse’s first drive of the game, hitting four different receivers on his first four passes. But on third-and-11 at the Seminoles 20-yard line, he rolled to his left and threw across his body into the hands of FSU free safety Jalien Ramsey.

SU was set for a tie game. Instead, it trailed 10-0 with 1:23 left in the first quarter.

It was the score Long inherited and the lead he threatened as he entered his first SU game. He finished with two touchdowns, two interceptions and 16-of-27 throwing for 167 yards. And the undersized signal caller who’s still breaking a habit of sidearming passes hit Steve Ishmael on a 36-yard pass to the Florida State 7-yard line.

“You couldn’t write a script any better for a true freshman that everybody thought runs his mouth before, to come out and play the No. 1 team in the country and play a decent game,” Long said.

Lester’s combination of pocket presence in Wilson and backyard playmaking ability in Long, kept Syracuse in the game against FSU. The young quarterbacks kept Orange fans in the Carrier Dome much longer than Terrel Hunt or anyone else did last weekend, when SU fell to Louisville.

Still, he and Wilson failed to be better than OK. Long’s bomb to Ishmael ultimately yielded just three points as he and the offense couldn’t finish the drive with a touchdown. 

And as the game progressed the hope for each quarterback and the game continued to rise but just as consistently fall to long-term optimism and consolation for SU.

After FSU’s Jesus Wilson fumbled a punt to the Orange at the Seminoles’ 21-yard line, Long’s tried to throw the ball away on the next play, but his pass fell short of the sideline and into free safety Nate Andrews’ hands.

“We got to take care of the ball better,” Lester said. “… We didn’t throw it right to a linebacker like you see freshman do quite often where they misread something and throw it right to the wrong guy. So they were going to the right place most of the time.”

Long played more and better than Wilson, who went 5-of-9 in the pass game for 89 yards an an interception. The true freshman’s two touchdown passes — both to Ishmael — are as many as any Orange players has thrown all season.

Yet he also threw two interceptions. The first was underthrown and entirely his fault. The second was the product of a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage with about five minutes left in the game — Long had made the correct read but was hit as he threw.

The ball popped up in the air and to the other team. It was only then that Syracuse fans left en masse.

“I like the way we fought and all that but I’m really not all that into those type of victories, those moral victories,” SU head coach Scott Shafer said. “Moral victories don’t count at the end of the season.”

Published on October 11, 2014 at 8:37 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_