Syracuse football fails to NC State, 36-29, ball in 4th

Syracuse, New York – A small team of wives of coaches, family members and friends from the program lined up outside the Carrier Dome holding signs in appreciation for a 1-8 soccer team as ‘she got off the bus on Saturday morning.

The campus had already emptied due to the new coronavirus. No one was allowed to enter the building – not even the head coach’s wife. This small group included the Senior Day festivities leading up to the final home game of a season everyone wants to forget in what has been an unforgettable year.

Syracuse entered the game on a six-game losing streak, shutout last week by a losing team for the first time since Boston College in 1972. There have been so few bright spots in a season full of downs, the pre-game signs amounted to one. touchstone images from 2020.

At the end of a 36-29 loss to North Carolina State, another materialized.

>> Box score

With 24 seconds left in the game and SU just 7 yards from a potential score, Rex Culpepper rushed out onto the pitch hoping a receiving target would emerge. When he was sacked with no downtime, Culpepper threw the ball in fourth place with just seconds left, masochistically ending SU’s best chance at his first win in two months.

As SU nears the finish line next week at Notre Dame, its most endearing quality has been being one of two ACC schools to survive so late in the season without being tripped by a Covid issue. In a college football season marked by postponements and cancellations, SU hung its hat on one small consolation: we played them all.

The much needed payoff for getting through that bumpy ride almost came two days after Thanksgiving. No one will celebrate this team outside of central New York. It will go down in history as one of the worst records in school history. And yet, for one day, SU almost made us forget it all – until one of the biggest blunders of the year.

The defense harassed the NC State quarterback with four sacks and a first-half safety. Twelve of Orange’s 22 points in the first half went to special teams and defense. Freshman Trebor Pena’s 98-yard kickoff return score was SU’s first since Dorian Graham against West Virginia in 2011.

Later in the first half, cornerback Ifeatu Melifonwu delivered a punishing shoulder to CJ Riley to pop the ball into the air and into the hands of Mikel Jones, who sent it back to the 5-line. yards. Syracuse settled for a short basket. The defense then forced a safety when NC State quarterback Bailey Hockman threw a pass back out of the end zone to avoid a sack.

Syracuse built their biggest lead since the Georgia Tech game on September 26, it’s just one win this season, and the offense has shown more life than it has had in months, Culpepper topping out a 60-yard touchdown pass and shaking a hard blow to shoot. a dart to Taj Harris for a score of 13 yards.

SU took a 22-14 lead at halftime and only succumbed to the lead at the start of the fourth quarter when Emeka Emezie pointed a ball while he was covered by Melifonwu to give NC State a lead 33-29 before a failed two-point try. .

From there, it was mostly a walk to a familiar end, with NC State bottling up the run, chasing an end with their 6-foot-3, 265-pound transfer defensive lineman from Penn State and barely surrendering to the -above. until Harris tiptoed in-bounds on a deep throw over the sideline with 4 minutes left in play to move the ball through midfield.

This sparked the endgame threat that could have turned out to be the kind of storybook everyone was hoping for when they got off the bus more than four hours earlier.

Instead, a miserable season had one last cruel twist before it came to an end.

More SU football coverage:

5 seniors made a final lap in the Dome. Is this a sign that they played their last home game? (instant take-out)

Best and Worst of Syracuse’s 36-29 football loss to NC State

You note the Orange after the loss of the NC state

Syracuse QB JaCobian Morgan won’t play against NC State

Former Syracuse football All-American, Cowboys strength coach Markus Paul dies at 54: ‘Our hearts are broken’

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