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The JMA Wireless Dome abruptly fell silent once Stanford safety Mitch Leigber made Kyle McCord fall to the ground en route to reaching the end zone.

Midway into the third quarter, Syracuse’s quarterback floated a pass over the middle intended for tight end Dan Villari, who never turned around. The ball flew right into Leigber’s hands. He had a litany of blockers in front of him as he ran along the right sideline. As Leigber neared the 10-yard line, a simple stutter-step to McCord’s right caused the quarterback to hit the turf. He could only sit and watch as Leigber celebrated his pick-six in the back of the end zone.

At that point, SU faced a 20-10 deficit to Stanford, which was picked to finish last in the ACC Preseason Poll. McCord’s not used to losing. His lone defeat as a starter at Ohio State last year came to Michigan — the eventual National Champions. On Friday, McCord needed to deliver a spark to ensure he wouldn’t suffer loss number two. He did. But it wasn’t enough.

Cardinal quarterback Ashton Daniels put together a game-winning drive after McCord threw a touchdown pass to Jackson Meeks, which made it a 24-23 game late in the fourth. With 37 seconds left on a fourth-and-9, Daniels connected with star wide receiver Elic Ayomanor for a 27-yard gain. It set up a 39-yard field goal attempt for Stanford kicker Emmet Kenney.

Kenney buried the kick as time expired. The Cardinal’s bench poured onto the field, jumping around in pure jubilation after winning their first-ever game in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

For McCord, it was a familiar feeling.

“It just sucks,” he said postgame. “Going through what I went through last year, (playing in) probably the biggest college football game last year in my opinion, and to lose that, it teaches you a lot about yourself. It teaches you about resiliency … So I think that we have to use this as motivation. Everything we want is still in front of us.”

In the first-ever matchup between the two programs, Syracuse (2-1, 1-1 ACC) suffered an upset loss to Stanford (2-1, 1-0 ACC), falling 26-24 in a thrilling affair. The “battle of the block S’s” was the ACC’s first football game featuring one of its three newly-added universities after voting to add Stanford, California and SMU on Sept. 1, 2023.

The Cardinal traveled nearly 3,000 miles to play Friday’s game. Yet, the Orange were often the ones lagging behind. They never found consistency on offense. Syracuse accumulated just 26 rushing yards and let up four sacks while McCord threw two damaging interceptions.

Postgame, SU head coach Fran Brown left no doubt.

“They out-physicaled us,” Brown said of Stanford. “(They had) 173 rushing yards and we had 26. There’s nothing to talk about. I was there, you see that, Stevie Wonder sees that … We gotta be more physical.”

SU edge rusher Fadil Diggs chases after Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels in the first half of Friday’s contest. Daniels finished with 178 passing yards and 45 on the ground. Joe Zhao | Video Editor

SU fell flat out of the gate. Its offense was anemic. Its defense consistently gave up chunk plays. Penalties incurred far too often. Syracuse was outgained by 106 yards through one quarter and punted four times in the first half.

Stanford’s offense looked static until defensive back Marcellus Barnes Jr. left the field with an injury on its second defensive drive. The Cardinal then picked up multiple big plays before Daniels found Ayomanor, who made an impeccable one-handed catch in the right corner of the end zone.

Errors kept piling up for the Orange as they trailed 10-0 in the second quarter. McCord was sacked for nine yards by linebacker David Bailey, who forced a fumble that SU’s Da’Metrius Weatherspoon recovered. All Syracuse could muster on a third-and-21 was a 12-yard screen pass to LeQuint Allen Jr. before Jack Stonehouse punted again.

SU’s defense swiftly responded, though. Safety Devin Grant jumped a route on the left side of Daniels, who threw the pass right into Grant’s outstretched hands. Grant’s first interception of the season gave Syracuse possession at Stanford’s 23-yard line.

An 11-yard connection from McCord to Trebor Peña made SU’s ensuing drive seem promising. Yet it only resulted in a Brady Denaburg field goal. SU faltered with a new set of downs — McCord spiked the ball into the turf on a rollout, Allen Jr. got stuffed for a zero-yard rush, then McCord and Peña miscommunicated on an end zone throw.

The Orange salvaged three points, but still lacked any rhythm. McCord wasn’t as decisive. Receivers were blanketed past the intermediate range. Their offensive line wasn’t holding up like it had been, and Allen Jr. couldn’t find much space to work with.

Not much looked right for the Orange — until McCord rolled to his right late in the second quarter.

Down 13-3 as the clock ticked toward the 0:30 mark, Syracuse needed points before halftime. McCord lined up in the shotgun to face a third-and-2. The quarterback broke from the pocket and sidestepped right, scanning the field for options. He saw Umari Hatcher just past midfield with a step on Stanford cornerback Zahran Manley. McCord didn’t hesitate.

He fired downfield for Hatcher, who hauled the ball in as Manley stumbled to the ground. Hatcher glided toward the end zone for a 67-yard touchdown. The score lifted significant weight off of the Orange, who entered the break with a manageable deficit.

Though SU punted to start the second half, Clarence Lewis picked off Daniels on Stanford’s ensuing drive to set up its offense again. On Syracuse’s next drive, however, McCord lobbed a ball over the middle for Villari that Leigber grabbed and took to the house for a pick-six.

“It was more so me being impatient,” McCord said of the play. “I was thinking that (Villari) was just going to turn around a few yards before he did. There was a miscommunication, but I take fault on that. I can’t throw it if he’s not looking yet.”

For the moment, all of SU’s progress was gone in a flash. But McCord came back with a sense of urgency.

He calmly led the Orange down the field to close the third quarter, hitting Peña and Allen Jr. for a few big plays before reaching Stanford’s 19-yard line. On a first-and-10, McCord rolled to his right and spotted a clear path toward the right pylon. He charged forward and as he neared the end zone, McCord jumped over a lunging Manley to cross over the goal line for a 19-yard rushing touchdown.

Syracuse forced a Cardinal punt right afterward, sending McCord back out again. Yet a common theme persisted for the Orange — inconsistency. McCord threw a short pass to the right side that Stanford’s Jay Green easily picked off. It was McCord’s first multi-interception game since playing at Michigan in last year’s regular-season finale.

Syracuse held the Cardinal to a field goal, which gave McCord another shot. He took advantage, leading SU on an eight-play, 60-yard touchdown drive capitalized by a 13-yard touchdown pass over the middle to Meeks.

In the end, however, his prior mistakes came back to bite. Daniels was the one who delivered the game-winning drive, tossing a 27-yard pass to Ayomanor to put the Cardinal into field-goal range. Kenney split the uprights as the Dome fell completely silent once again.

Published on September 20, 2024 at 11:22 pm

Contact Cooper at: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews