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The sloppiness, the costly penalties, the near turnovers. The dreadful first half. Taking a lead. Blowing a lead. Yet, somehow, none of it mattered when Oronde Gadsden II ran toward the corner of the end zone, a Syracuse lead and a 3-0 start to the season in sight, if the pass was dropped in perfectly. 

It was. Garrett Shrader, in shotgun at the 25-yard line, looked for Gadsden’s post corner route the whole way, even while absorbing a huge hit. The ball was placed perfectly, too far for corner Bryce Hampton to make a play, but in a spot where Gadsden just had to stick out his hands, make sure his feet were in bounds and begin his celebration, one that led to Dino Babers pulling his groin trying to control Syracuse’s exhilarated sideline. 

The pass didn’t just cap off a seven-play, 50-yard drive in the game’s final seconds, it added one last note to a wacky, sloppy, yet incredible back-and-forth college football composition produced inside the JMA Wireless Dome on Saturday. After looking lost offensively in the first half, Syracuse scored 29 points in the second half. SU blew its 10-point lead in the final minutes, needing a heroic last-minute drive to have the final say in a game that saw seven lead changes, 212 combined yards in penalties and a 42-point fourth quarter. 

And when it was over, Syracuse (3-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) stood on top of Purdue (1-2, 0-1 Big Ten), 32-29. 

“This is a spiritual type of feeling right here,” Babers said postgame. “To win a game like that, to have the scoreboard go back-and-forth from the third quarter to the fourth quarter, the highs and lows …. Luckily it finally came to an end and everything was intact, and Syracuse is 3-0.” 

For a moment — maybe several of them — it didn’t look like SU could pull it out. It was a messy game, and one Syracuse was lucky to win. It committed nine penalties, nearly committed multiple turnovers and trailed for a majority of the afternoon. Purdue quarterback Aidan O’Connell threw for 424 yards while Shrader mostly struggled, but by game’s end, it didn’t matter. Syracuse, after dominating its first two opponents, squeaked out a win by making plays when it mattered the most, Gadsden’s two scores at the forefront.

The 25-15 lead that the Orange held with eight minutes left in the game disappeared quickly, with O’Connell executing a comeback by attacking SU’s secondary with ease. He threw two touchdown passes less than six minutes apart to put the Boilermakers ahead, 29-25. 

After throwing two touchdowns earlier in the second half, Shrader and Syracuse’s offense suddenly couldn’t move the ball after taking the 10-point lead. But when it mattered most, down four with less than a minute left, Shrader converted. It was a situation, the one-minute drill, that the Orange had prepared for extensively (almost every single day since spring camp, Shrader said). Syracuse benefited from two costly Purdue penalties that forced it to kick off from its own 10-yard line after taking the lead. Courtney Jackson returned the kickoff to midfield, and after six incompletions — and two Purdue penalties — Shrader hit Gadsden in the face of pressure, emulating what he did against Virginia Tech last fall. 

“That’s what guys do, that’s what leaders do,” Babers said of Shrader. “They battle.” 

Syracuse took its 10-point lead after Caleb Okechukwu notched a pick-six when O’Connell threw a weak pass under pressure. It seemingly secured an SU win, but O’Connell had more in store. He found his go-to receiver, Charlie Jones, for two pass plays of over 50 yards, and put Purdue in position to win. Mitchell Fineran missed a 41-yard field goal attempt that would’ve tied the game, but Syracuse kept handing O’Connell the ball back. He found tight end Payne Durham for an 11-yard touchdown that gave the Boilermakers the lead with 51 seconds left. 

It was a sloppy affair from start to finish — Purdue committed 13 penalties for 138 yards, including seven in the game’s final minute, and both teams made mistakes at critical junctures. Purdue had an extra point blocked, Andre Szmyt missed a 40-yard field goal after hitting from 50 earlier in the game and Steve Linton jumped offsides before sacking O’Connell on 3rd down. Six plays later, Purdue scored to make it 15-10.

But all was forgiven when Shrader and Gadsden were able to connect for their first score. The tight end, who has taken on an expanded role since Chris Elmore went down against Louisville, had a career day, notching six receptions for 112 yards and the two touchdowns. On the first, SU lined up on 4th-and-1 with Tucker and Josh Hough behind Shrader. Gadsden was put into motion on the right side, and with Shrader looking to toss to Tucker or keep it himself, the sophomore snuck by everyone uncovered. With help from a Damien Alford block, and “some Michael Jackson-type moves,” as Babers called them, Gadsden’s 46-yard score gave Syracuse a one-point lead. 

Outside of Gadsden’s two touchdowns and another scoring drive in the third quarter, SU’s offense — which averaged almost 40 points in its first two games — looked sluggish. Shrader entered the weekend with the nation’s third-highest completion percentage but finished 13-of-29 (44.8%) on Saturday. Even when given time in the pocket, Shrader couldn’t find open targets against Purdue’s man-to-man defense, forcing him to frequently pull down the ball and run. Purdue held Shrader to just 35 first half passing yards, and Tucker to 42 rushing yards, his lowest first half total since the Pitt game last November. 

“They had a great game plan … I credit our lack of success to me not making routine plays,” Shrader said. “But we were able to overcome that, and guys were starting to get open and we just settled into the game and came out with a good result.” 

Purdue, meanwhile, used a heavy dosage of screens and throws to Durham to move the ball. After the pick-six, the Boilermakers found Jones, an Iowa transfer who is the team’s leading receiver. The Orange blitzed heavily, and O’Connell was able to drop in the necessary throws to put the Boilermakers in front. 

But Shrader, even after six straight incompletions in a game where he struggled passing the ball, was well prepared for SU’s game-winning drive. And he only needed the one throw to give Syracuse a 3-0 start to the season.

Published on September 17, 2022 at 4:20 pm

Contact Connor: [email protected] | @csmith17_