Orange grades: Special teams, offensive line flounder in loss to Cal
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.
Syracuse squandered numerous opportunities Saturday and lost its first game of the season to Cal 21-18. Nothing looked quite right, as the Orange dropped to 1-1 after demolishing New Hampshire in Week 1.
The team that beat the Wildcats wasn’t the one present versus the Golden Bears. Here are position-group grades from SU’s loss to Cal:
Quarterback: D
A week removed from a flawless injury return, Steve Angeli had his worst game in a Syracuse uniform Saturday. He went 24-for-49 — an abysmal 49% completion percentage — and chucked three second-half interceptions that killed any hopes of winning.
Angeli finished with 306 passing yards as a byproduct of his absurd attempt count, but he looked nothing like the quarterback that blitzed New Hampshire last week. He put together some strong drives, two of which were foiled by missed field goals, but they often stalled out in the red zone.
Angeli’s first pick came at Cal’s 30 amid a promising drive, his next was a game-losing pick-six and his last was an underthrown ball that ended the game on SU’s final drive.
Running back: B-
Syracuse’s running backs couldn’t match Shavane Anderson Jr. and Tylik Hill’s masterpiece versus New Hampshire. With Ju’Juan Johnson and Ahmad Miller back in the fold Saturday, SU rotated through four backs to start the game. The Orange eventually shifted to Johnson for most of the second half, though, as he totaled 64 snaps to Anderson’s 19, Miller’s seven and Hill’s two, per Pro Football Focus.
Johnson wasn’t overly impressive. He finished with 15 carries for 46 yards and one touchdown. Hill ended as SU’s leading rusher despite playing two snaps, taking the game’s second play 55 yards before coming up lame with a hamstring injury and not returning.
Anderson and Miller were both non-factors, finishing with 18 and two yards, respectively.
Receiver/Tight end: A-
For as much as Angeli struggled, he helped three receivers to big days. In his first game back from his eligibility saga, Justus Ross-Simmons hauled in six passes for 105 yards, while Umari Hatcher and Daunte Bacheyie also ended with 70-plus-yard games.
The rest of the room, though, turned in duds. Darien Williams and Darius Johnson were targeted often but only hauled in three passes each. Cole Weaver didn’t catch a single ball, with his only target being an underthrown pass. There were also a few drops — one from Ross-Simmons in the end zone and another from Hatcher on a slant — but the Orange’s receivers were still mostly productive.
Offensive Line: D
Syracuse’s offensive line made Angeli’s day difficult. The Golden Bears had five tackles for loss and three sacks, hounding Angeli all day. He rarely had a clean pocket, and that pressure often led to ill-advised throws.
The unit’s run blocking wasn’t much better. Holes were scarce, with many handoffs stalled immediately at the line. The Orange totaled 118 yards on the ground, while Anderson and Johnson finished with just two and 3.1 yards per carry, respectively.
Defensive Line: D
On the opposite side, the Orange’s defensive line rarely laid a finger on Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele. SU’s defense may have allowed just 14 points and kept Sagapolutele under wraps, but that wasn’t because of its pass rush.
Syracuse had one sack and seven tackles for loss, but a defensive lineman contributed to only one of those plays. Sagapolutele comfortably took his time in the pocket and strung short completions that proved just enough to beat the Orange.
Linebackers: A
Syracuse’s linebackers were its most impressive position group Saturday. Its middle linebacker duo, Antoine Deslauriers and Chris D’Appolonia, were phenomenal and largely part of the reason SU remained in the game so long.
D’Appolonia ended with 11 tackles, two tackles for loss and SU’s lone sack, while Deslauriers added nine and three, respectively. Keyshawn Johnson also produced SU’s only quarterback hurry Saturday off the edge, which led to an off-target Sagapolutele pass, though no linebackers besides Deslauriers and D’Appolonia did much to stand out.
Secondary: B
The Orange’s secondary held their own through most of the game. They held Sagapolutele to just 21 completions for 182 yards, snapping the signal-caller’s 14-game streak of at least 200 passing yards.
Chris Peal was burnt a few times in coverage, particularly on a deep ball to Ian Strong midway through the second quarter, but Nazir Ward looked like a viable No. 3 corner behind Peal and Demetres Samuel Jr.
SU’s secondary only allowed Sagapolutele to engineer one true scoring drive — the other started at the 29 due to an Angeli interception — and forced Cal to punt seven times.
Special teams: F
Syracuse’s special teams gave away the game. Tripp Woody went 2-for-4 on field goals, including a 31-yarder off the upright and a 46-yard attempt to tie the contest with 1:35 left in the fourth that fell well short of the goalposts.
Meanwhile, costly penalties erased two enormous punt returns from Davien Kerr and Samuel. At the end of the first half, Kerr scooped a punt in no-man’s land and took it 75 yards into field-goal range before an illegal block in the back penalty killed the Syracuse faithful’s jubilation. A quarter later, Samuel scampered 81 yards to the house, only for the same penalty at the start of the return to take the points off the board.
The unit’s only saving grace was Jimmy Gregg executing a fake punt in the first quarter by completing a jump pass to linebacker David Omopariola, which resulted in a Woody field goal.
Coaching: C
While this game was sloppy, there’s not much Syracuse’s coaching could’ve done to prevent mistakes. The main thing to blame them for is the exorbitant amount of penalties and lack of discipline.
The Orange finished with 15 penalties for 132 yards, and a few came after the play. Ward was called for unsportsmanlike conduct after celebrating a third-down stop, and Samuel received another following a second-quarter punt return.
SU was also a bit too reliant on the run when holes were clearly not opening. And when Syracuse did pass, it was often Angeli throwing a prayer in one-on-one sideline matchups, which were hit or miss.
