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NEW YORK — Syracuse led Minnesota in almost every stat line in the Pinstripe Bowl. The Orange finished the day with more passing yards, rushing yards, first downs and time of possession than the Golden Gophers. Garrett Shrader threw at a more efficient clip, and true freshman LeQuint Allen looked better than Minnesota’s Mohamed Ibrahim, who has second-most rushing yards in the country. Syracuse’s offense was inconsistent. At its best, it marched down 86 yards in 46 seconds to score a touchdown. At its worst, Shrader was under throwing receivers and tossing interceptions.
Shrader just threw too many errant passes, and the Orange were stalled too many times on pivotal drives. Syracuse’s fifth possession began at the nine-yard line with it down 28-13. Slowly, the Orange made it down the field to the Minnesota 40 yard line. But a hold and two incomplete passes set up a 4th and 16. A once-promising drive — a chance to move Syracuse back within a possession — ended when Darnell Jeffries swallowed up Shrader outside the pocket and sacked him on a 4th-and-16.
Syracuse wasn’t projected to be in a bowl game at the season’s start. But after six-straight wins, it was a foregone conclusion, then a 1-5 finish put their bowl game in limbo. In Syracuse’s (7-6, 4-4 Atlantic Coast) 28-20 loss to Minnesota (8-4, 5-4 Big 10) in the Pinstripe Bowl, Shrader played sloppily, and Allen became a focal point. Syracuse also bottled up Mohamed Ibrahim, and couldn’t adjust to Athan Kaliakmanis and Tanner Morgan’s passing.
Here are some observations from the Pinstripe Bowl loss:
New faces on defense
Syracuse was no stranger to losing marquee names throughout the season on defense. Whether it was Stefon Thompson during week one against Louisville or Garrett Williams midway through the season against Notre Dame, the Orange have had to adapt with personnel that — at certain positions — didn’t think they’d see a prominent role this season. After a flurry of players entering the transfer portal, Syracuse once again played short staffed. SU began the day without seven players that started for it week one.
The day before the Pinstripe Bowl, Mikel Jones announced that he will enter the 2023 NFL Draft, but didn’t specify if he’d play in the bowl game or not. Thirty minutes before kickoff, he walked out with the rest of the team for stretches in sweatpants, and Anwar Sparrow followed alongside him without pads on. Derek McDonald was reported out, leaving Leon Lowery and freshman Kadin Bailey on the second level of the defense, making their first career starts for Syracuse.
To end Minnesota’s second possession, interim defensive coordinator Nick Monroe dialed up a five-man blitz that included Bailey, who burst through the Golden Gophers’ line essentially untouched. He made a swim move around the left guard, and sacked Kaliakmanis. Then, as Minnesota held the ball over the first-down marker to wind down the second quarter, Tanner Morgan sat in the pocket as he surveyed his heavily-covered receivers. Lowery stormed toward the line on a delayed blitz, spun around a blocker and gobbled up Morgan before he could escape, rendering the drive ineffective. The Golden Gophers punted away, and the Orange executed an 86-yard touchdown drive to end the half.
Mohamed Ibrahim bottled up
Syracuse knew Mohamed Ibrahim, who finished 2022 with the second-most rushing yards in the country, was going to be the feature of Minnesota’s offense. Golden Gopher offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca admitted last week that its plan was to establish the run game early, which became evident in the first quarter. Ibrahim rushed for 40 yards on seven carries, shifting through the Orange’s front five en route to an average 5.7 yards per carry.
As the first quarter wound down, Minnesota began its first touchdown drive of the game with a play-action pass to Daniel Jackson, exploiting the overzealous Orange against the run. Then, a read-option that Ibrahim kept went for eight yards — it began a meticulous drive that spanned six plays, 62 yards and ate up 4:32 of clock, putting Syracuse behind 7-0. After being the talk of the game, Ibrahim finished with 71 rushing yards and a touchdown on 16 carries, not nearly as effective as Minnesota expected.
For once, though in a loss, Syracuse handled a star running back. Whether because of injury or Minnesota coaching staff making a personnel change, Ibrahim hardly got the ball in the second half, leaving Trey Potts as the No. 1 back.
LeQuint Allen is now Syracuse’s top running back
LeQuint Allen played sparingly in his first season with Syracuse, as one-time Heisman candidate and 1,000-yard rusher Sean Tucker ate up the majority of carries. But when Allen played, he served as a shifty backup for Tucker with sparks that showed the former three-star running back could blossom into a prolific rusher.
But Allen was the guy on Thursday, with Tucker declaring last week for the NFL Draft and forgoing the bowl game. Like Tucker, he was often used as a receiving threat for Shrader, but finished the first half with just 35 yards rushing and nine receiving yards off of three receptions. His highlight run was a 29-yard burst on the second play of Syracuse’s second third-quarter possession. He swung outside, slipped a tackler and bulldozed two linebackers before speeding off to the Minnesota 40-yard line.
After that, Syracuse leaned on Allen more, as he was the rusher or receiver on seven plays during the Orange’s third drive of the second half. Juwan Price came in for a 2nd-and-6 run, but was swiftly taken out, giving Allen the short rest he needed.
Passing struggles
Without Tucker, it seemed as though Shrader was going to be the focal point of a Syracuse offense that also lacked Courtney Jackson. The bowl game was supposed to be the first showcase of what the Orange’s new offense, with Shrader as the distributor and offensive coordinator Jason Beck calling the shots, could do in 2023. Instead, it put up 13 points, the fewest since it scored just three points against Florida State, and acted more so as a stoppage to Syracuse drives than a way to extend it and get the Orange in the red zone.
Early on, Beck worked in more play-action screens than Syracuse utilized throughout the season. But would-be blockers were out of position or blown past, which ultimately wrecked the play call and, more often than not, left Syracuse with negative yardage. But starting with the 86-yard drive at the end of the first half — which featured three completions over 20 yards — Shrader began connecting with his receivers.
Then, still buzzing from two-straight Allen rushes for a combined 37 yards — including a run in which the freshman broke past three tacklers — Shrader readied himself in the shotgun. He quickly found Oronde Gadsden II on an out route, the same one he’d hit multiple times before. But Shrader underthrew the pass, allowing Minnesota defensive back Coleman Bryson to jump the route, grab the interception and speed off for a 70-yard pick-6 to put the Golden Gophers up 21-10.
Tanner Morgan enters, continues solid passing game
Throughout six seasons with Minnesota, Morgan has had the most wins out of any quarterback in Golden Gopher history. But despite being medically cleared to play in the Pinstripe Bowl, head coach P.J. Fleck opted to start Kaliakmanis for the third straight game. Kaliakmanis played in 10 games this season as Morgan dealt with a few concussions, finishing with 866 passing yards, 151 rushing yards and a running touchdown.
Kaliakmanis finished the day with 80 passing yards on 7-of-9 throwing before he went down in the second quarter with an injury. Many of the throws came off of play-action sets, when the second level of the Orange’s defense were spread thin and sliced up with passes across the middle or to either sideline. Despite facing an inexperienced quarterback, then a cold one off the bench recovering from another concussion, the Orange allowed 110 passing yards in the first half and 138 total passing yards throughout the game.
That success against Syracuse’s depleted secondary continued — and at a much higher rate — when Morgan entered the game to finish out the second quarter. The Golden Gophers still relied on their run game to lift them over the Orange, but Morgan finished the afternoon with 58 yards on 4-of-7 passing.
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