After a sleepy first half, SU wakes up to pound Boston College, 21-6 - syracuse.com

Syracuse, N.Y. — By this season’s standards, it was as dull a game as we’ve seen yet.

Syracuse, perhaps a bit starry-eyed after last week’s thrilling victory at Virginia Tech, looked out of it early against a Boston College outfit reeling from three-straight conference losses and a shattered outlook with its NFL prospect quarterback sidelined with a serious hand injury.

The Orange doesn’t have the depth or numbers to sleepwalk past anyone, and a scoreless first half confirmed as much.

Then, in a flash, Syracuse woke up.

Sean Tucker ripped off a 51-yard touchdown run — and rushed for a career-high 207 yards — to ensure he still leads the race for the nation’s rushing crown.

Garrett Shrader, bottled up and off the mark through two quarters, galloped down the sideline for a 48-yard touchdown with Eric Dungey looking on from his seat in a suite.

A staccato of points culminated with another roar by the end of the third quarter when Courtney Jackson, filling in for another electric return man, uncorked a 64-yard punt return touchdown.

The bang-bang-bang sequence carried the Orange to a 21-6 victory against Boston College on Saturday afternoon in the Carrier Dome.

Syracuse surges into November with back-to-back conference wins for the first time since 2018, needing just one win over its final three games to become bowl eligible.

The home stretch has rarely been kind to the Orange, which is 5-7 in its last 12 regular-season games in November (plus the rare December game at Notre Dame last year). The record drops to 5-15 over Dino Babers’ six-year tenure.

But with a week of rest and a pedestrian ACC slate that doesn’t look as imposing as it once did with Pittsburgh’s loss to Miami (Fla.) on Saturday, there’s no reason to think the Orange suddenly won’t be able to compete down the stretch.

All of which means Babers, after making a season-defining quarterback switch a month ago that brought on this dynamic backfield that has made Saturdays fun again, likely isn’t going to be leaving the Syracuse sideline anytime soon.

For all the hair-pulling over sideline miscues, botched communication and special teams mistakes, Babers is building toward even better days in a year the league’s contenders are upstarts with senior-laden personnel at key positions.

Syracuse on Saturday played without fullback/H-back Chris Elmore, who showed up to the game with his right arm in a sling, and without return specialist Trebor Pena, who sparked the fourth-quarter comeback last week at Virginia Tech with a couple of big returns in the decisive quarter.

Still, Syracuse racked up nearly 300 rushing yards without its lead blocker and one of his most versatile chess pieces in Elmore.

Still, it got the explosive play in the return game that Pena looked to be on the precipice of in previous weeks.

That it could accelerate its play in a pinch seems to be the latest sign of a maturing team that may not have reached its crescendo.

Syracuse went three-and-out on four of its first six drives, with plenty of mistakes across the offensive unit factoring into a paltry 3.6 yards per play.

There were dropped passes, missed throws, four presnap penalties and a costly turnover near the goal line as a result of a busted protection that left Shrader flattened before he could even complete a short drop and release an arcing pass to the end zone.

A week after racking up 410 yards of offense at Virginia Tech, Shrader got a fraction of that on 4-for-13 passing for 50 yards and zilch on the ground in the first half.

The two teams were veering toward a scoreless tie at the half if not for a bold move by BC coach Jeff Hafley to switch to big-armed quarterback Emmett Morehead early in the second quarter.

The 6-foot-5, 229-pound true freshman from California is largely viewed as the quarterback of the future inside the BC program, is more in the mold of injured starter Phil Jurkovec and brings a different beat to the offense.

Morehead uncorked a 44-yard completion to Zay Flowers to set up the only points of the first half, a 31-yard field goal by Connor Lytton.

It was as dull as it looked.

Then, in a flash, Tucker, Shrader and Jackson sent SU into the bye week, eyes wide open to the possibilities the final month can bring.

Contact Nate Mink anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-430-8253

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After a sleepy first half, SU wakes up to pound Boston College, 21-6 - syracuse.com
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