Syracuse, N.Y. — The Syracuse University football team lost to Boston College, 34-12 at the JMA Wireless Dome on Saturday afternoon to take up residence in the basement of the ACC.
Syracuse finishes the season at 3-9 and sputters into a critical offseason on an eight-game losing streak like a car trying to navigate a busy highway on four flat tires.
SU’s dreadful effort was played before an estimated crowd of just over 15,600 patrons, which is about what a Syracuse-BC men’s basketball game would draw here.
Syracuse University should immediately mail out a refund to anyone who paid to witness it.
If you are a fan of the home team utilizing that grand football innovation known as the forward pass, this was not the game for you.
In that department, the most exciting visual was of an injured Steve Angeli throwing the football on the dome turf before the game as he continues his recovery process from a torn Achilles.
Most of quarterback Joe Filardi’s pass attempts, if you could even call them that, were quick snaps thrown horizontally with the hopes the intended receiver would make chicken salad out of chicken-you-know-what.
Syracuse lacrosse head coach Gary Gait had to be relieved that Filardi, also a star lax recruit at long-stick midfield, was kept out of harm’s way in that sense.
Filardi finished 10-of-18 for 65 yards against the Eagles.
It’s perplexing to believe there isn’t another quarterback on the Orange roster capable of running a functioning offense, but Angeli’s season-ending injury at Clemson brought to light that exact nightmare scenario.
Angeli played four games for the Orange and finished as the team’s leading passer with 1,317 yards. The Orange didn’t win a game after Angeli went down at Clemson.
Meanwhile, BC managed to scratch out 296 passing yards and four rushing touchdowns to provide evidence of actual offensive football in the dome on Saturday.
Saturday’s snooze-fest was in stark contrast to the thrilling season finale played nearly a year to the day when Syracuse pulled off the largest comeback in program history over Miami before a roaring JMA Dome.
Syracuse and BC went into halftime with a total of 243 yards between them and 18 pass attempts.
Former SU offensive coordinator Jason Beck (now at Utah) had to be smiling somewhere as outgoing senior tight end Dan Villari was tasked to resurrect the jerry-rigged Wildcat offense that dragged an injury-plagued SU team over the finish line to a 6-6 regular season in 2023.
Good for Villari that he collected a 1-yard rushing touchdown in his final game at Syracuse, which registers as the only positive you can take from the day for the Orange.
The difference at the JMA Dome on Saturday afternoon was all it carried SU to this time was the offseason, and a rapidly growing list of questions about Fran Brown’s operation.
Only 280 days until Syracuse football can show us the answers.
