Syracuse Orange Football: Takeaways from 41-13 loss to #19 Pitt

The twin curses of Pat Narduzzi and Syracuse Orange football after a bye week combined to create a real plague as SU was quickly defeated by the Pitt Panthers 41-13. As the half-blood Yinzer among us, I take full responsibility… but since there's nothing I can actually do to fix the problems, I'll just point them out to you.

Fran's first butterfly

No one can deny that what Fran Brown has done for this program in such a short amount of time is remarkable. I have been a supporter of his since his first press conference. But tonight he made some of his worst decisions as a head coach — and they could have terrible long-term implications.

If someone could please tell me why Kyle McCord was there the entire game, I would love to know. Did he want to get him back to 300 yards and continue that streak? Did they need to make up for the lack of passes in their last H2H clash? Was it so that he could work himself out even more for future games?

Simply put: Kyle should not have seen the field in the second half. Not after his miserable start and the huge hole he dug the Orange into. I understand that you want him to have a good ride so he can feel better next week, but that wasn't going to happen this time.

Add to that the fact that Oronde Gadsden was spotted in street clothes some time after a hard hit in the second half, and I'm getting flashbacks to close calls with Sean Tucker two years ago and especially with Garrett Shrader last season at Virginia Tech. I thought we were past the unnecessary injuries…

Nevertheless, in the aftermath, Fran apologized to everyone involved with SU. Kudos for some sense of responsibility.

Refund the champagne? It was a good gift!

I saw a comment in the game thread about Fran Brown asking Ohio State University head coach Ryan Day for the hyperbolic bottle of champagne. It was a joke, but let's be honest: One bad game, no matter how bad, doesn't change the fact that McCord was a savior.

Yes, he made some terrible reads, especially on the two pick sixes in the first half. But it's not just Kyle. The O-line was by far the worst it's been this year, perhaps since Tommy DeVito was under center. At the worst times there were punishments. There were a few drops and a near touchdown at Gadsden's fingertips.

Kyle had to shake off being just a car ride away from the CFP. He can shake off this game too.

The defense didn't change the game, but it didn't give up either

It could be overlooked in all attacking errors, but this time Elijah Robinson's side of the ball did well. Pitt had 217 total yards on offense and just 73 yards on the ground. With the front seven still sore, that alone is an encouraging sign for the 4-2-5, even now that Marlowe Wax is back.

The biggest “what if” of the season might not be if Elic Ayomanor was doubled at the end of the Stanford game, but if Alijah Clark had an interception on the first play of the game this time. Even if the ride ended in a threesome, that would have been the ultimate dampener for the roaring Pitt crowd on Thursday night.

Instead, it was McCord's errant pass that went back into the striped end zone of the non-Heinz Stadium, sending the home crowd into a frenzy and kicking off a long weekend. SU at least also has those extra two days to put this behind them.