It’s as bad as you thought it was
The Syracuse Orange offense finally faced an opponent who completely shut down the passing game and did it without a relentless blitz.
Pat Narduzzi and staff gave Syracuse the look that they were selling out at the line of scrimmage to stop the run, then they dropped into coverage and took away the middle of the field. Syracuse started the game trying what had worked the first six games and were completely stymied.
You can see from Kyle McCord’s passing chart that the Orange was unable to make Pitt pay on deep throws. It’s the first time all season that Syracuse’s QB hasn’t connected on these throws and that allowed Pitt to keep extra defenders in the middle of the field.
As much as people want to say the Orange need to run the ball, what they really need to do is find ways to get yards after catch/contact. If teams want to emulate Pitt’s strategy, then Syracuse needs to hit some big plays either through scheme or individual effort. We’ll see if extra rest allows for more usage of Trebor Pena this weekend against Virginia Tech.
The Hokies have the top pass rush grade in the ACC according to PFF, but also the second-worst coverage grade in the conference. We’ll see how the Orange choose to attack them, but don’t be surprised if early deep shots are called on Saturday. If Syracuse can hit a big play early, it can open up the short-passing/running game that the Orange prefer to play.