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As Syracuse began its pregame warmups ahead of its battle with Boston College on Saturday, the Orange were onto their third quarterback of the season. Tommy DeVito and Rex Culpepper were injured, and head coach Dino Babers turned to freshman quarterback JaCobian Morgan for his first start.

A week prior, Morgan completed all seven of his pass attempts and threw his first career touchdown. He led the Orange downfield and generated offense outside of the game script.

Morgan finished 19-of-30 with 188 yards, one touchdown and one interception in Syracuse’s (1-7, 1-6 Atlantic Coast) 16-13 loss to Boston College (5-3, 4-3) in the Carrier Dome on Saturday. After the game, Babers said Morgan had done enough in the game to earn a start on Nov. 20 at Louisville, which is the Orange’s next game after the bye week. 

Here’s a closer look at some of the plays that defined Morgan’s first career start: 

Morgan escapes the pocket and finds Anthony Queeley for a big gain

The Orange faced a 2nd-and-10 from their own 17-yard-line on the second drive of the game. Since the graduation of Eric Dungey, the Orange’s offense has lacked a playmaker who can extend plays and generate extra offense outside of the scripted play. On one of Morgan’s best plays, he faced a collapsing pocket.

Even though Morgan momentarily stops looking downfield, he’s able to escape to his right. Immediately, his eyes turn back up the field. He uses his left arm to signal to Queeley to go deep, and that’s exactly what Queeley does.

Morgan floats the ball over the defensive back and into Queeley’s arms. On a play that looked to be a total bust, Morgan generated a 31-yard gain.

After holding ball too long, Morgan nearly avoids sack

Three seconds after catching the snap, Morgan is at the top of his drop and has a clean pocket. Nykeim Johnson is open underneath, but he’s unlikely to gain the 13 yards needed for a first down.

At this point, many college quarterbacks will bail from this clean pocket. It’s been an issue for both DeVito and Culpepper in the past: they flee a clean pocket and either run into a sack or hold the ball too long.

Morgan is able to use his balance to avoid the two pass rushers that nearly bring him to the turf. He spins out of that sack and rolls to his left, his eyes still downfield. Without a look at the all-22, it’s impossible to know if Morgan missed open wide receivers down the field or not.

But he remained in the pocket until the last possible second, kept his eyes downfield and demonstrated a good pocket presence on this play. Even as he rolled left and eventually took the sack by running out of bounds, he forced BC’s defensive backs to cover for an extended amount of time. 

Morgan makes a bad play worse by dropping deep and losing more yards

While Morgan did plenty well in Syracuse’s loss to Boston College, his inexperience showed on some plays. One came early in the fourth quarter, with Syracuse trailing 13-6. The Orange lined up with three wide receivers, and the Eagles brought the blitz.

The Orange’s offensive line is fooled, and BC gets to Morgan almost immediately. It’s a lost play. 

By the time Morgan reaches the top of his drop, no one is open against the Eagles’ man coverage. Even if he wanted to throw, there’s nowhere to go. He’s probably going to lose about five yards, but he continues dropping back, turning a small loss into a huge double-digit one. There’s a free rusher in his face almost immediately after the snap.

Morgan’s interception on 3rd-and-long shouldn’t have ever been thrown

At this point in the fourth quarter, Syracuse’s offense is struggling. The offense was stifled by Boston College for most of the second half. Before this third and long, Morgan took three sacks on the last five plays. When he does this play fake, some of the linebackers are interested, but none bite.

Almost immediately after the fake, Morgan turns to his right and fires. Wide receiver Taj Harris (top left corner of the screenshot below, not pictured) is past the first defender, who doesn’t seem to mind. 

The corner and safety bracket Harris, but there’s a window for Morgan to complete the pass between the two defenders by the sideline, if the throw is precise.

Unfortunately for Morgan and SU, the throw isn’t good enough. He unleashes what becomes a jump ball between the corner and Harris, and it’s deflected and intercepted. 

This might have been Morgan’s toughest throw to make of the entire afternoon and could have been a critical first down for the Orange. It’s an extremely tight window between the two defenders, but the freshman couldn’t make it. 

Morgan’s longest run of the afternoon nearly gets SU in the end zone

When looking at Morgan’s performance, his ability to create outside the game script stands out as his best attribute. There were issues, as is expected with a true freshman in his first start, he evaded an oncoming pass rush effectively on this play late in the fourth quarter.

As soon as he rolls to his left, Morgan’s head remains upfield, scanning for receivers. He doesn’t look to run right away, instead choosing it as a last option. He picks up 14 yards and nearly scores, but it’s ruled just short as he reaches the ball over the goal line.

Morgan shows some real burst to glide past the defenders chasing him. 

Looking back at his performance, Morgan appeared to miss some throws and reads throughout the game. But he also showed composure in the pocket, made plays on the run and added to the Orange’s very limited offensive production.  

Now that he’s the starter for at least the next game and potentially for the rest of the season, it remains to be seen if he can show week-to-week improvement when he gets more reps as the No. 1 quarterback in practice.

Published on November 9, 2020 at 9:56 pm

Contact Anthony: amdabbun@syr.edu | @AnthonyDabbundo