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TALLAHASSEE, FLA. — Dino Babers is looking to the bye week, and specifically getting more players healthy. But the main concern today was simply keeping his quarterback afloat.

In the postgame press conference, Babers said Garrett Shrader was pulled in the second half due to suffering food poisoning from the night before at dinner. Babers added that Shrader tried to stay hydrated and play through, but by the second half, Shrader was too weak and sweating too much.

“It was one of those things where we were trying to keep him going, trying to keep him going,” Babers said. “But then it just came to a point where he was just getting too weak in the game and we just needed to make a change.”

At Doak Campbell Stadium against No. 4 Florida State, the dehydrated Shrader spent most of his afternoon getting hit, throwing incomplete passes and turning the ball over. His pass catchers weren’t much better. The receiving core couldn’t combine for 100 yards until less than two minutes left in the third quarter. Even with LeQuint Allen Jr. rushing for 110 yards, SU couldn’t get in the end zone.

The Syracuse (4-3, 0-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) offense struggled yet again, this time in a 41-3 loss to No. 4 Florida State (6-0, 4-0 ACC). SU has only scored three touchdowns in its last 12 quarters and finished the first half against the Seminoles with less than 100 yards. The second half didn’t get much better, with Shrader being replaced by Carlos Del Rio-Wilson and Babers making a questionable decision to punt. It comes to the detriment of a Syracuse defense that contained FSU quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Jordan Travis in stretches. The Orange now head into their bye week without a win in conference play.

Babers said the reason for the combined 24 points in the last three games was because of talented defenses. He said the offense will improve later in the year against weaker defenses.

“You’re going to see more time based off of the d-lines you’re playing,” Babers said. “The quarterbacks will be able to make more decisions.”

Against the Seminoles, the talent discrepancy was extremely apparent. On the opening drive, Shrader immediately got sacked and a false start penalty ensured a three-and-out. On the next drive, the Orange tried to use Allen Jr., but that led to a 3rd-and-6 situation where Shrader got his pass swatted at the line of scrimmage.

Florida State also anticipated many of Shrader’s quarterback keepers with defensive lineman Jared Verse and linebacker Kalen DeLoach frequently in the quarterback’s face. On SU’s third drive, Shrader went for a one-on-one jump-ball matchup with Damien Alford. It didn’t work as FSU’s Azareye’h Thomas didn’t let Alford get any space.

After the Orange made a goal line stop in the second quarter, Shrader was pinned four yards behind his own goal line. On 3rd-and-13, Shrader rolled to his right and searched for Umari Hatcher deep down the right sidelines. Hatcher pulled it in, but he was out of bounds. The offense continued to have no answers. Allen Jr., even with a season-high in rushing yards, noted the lack of offense, but felt like it would be OK heading into the bye week.

“We just had a couple of mistakes that we couldn’t overcome,” Allen Jr. said.

On the other side of the ball, the Jordan-Travis-Keon-Coleman connection emerged early. Travis found the receiver four times for 44 yards on the opening drive. With Jason Simmons Jr., wrapped all over him, Coleman leaped and made a one-handed catch in the middle of the field for a pickup of 27 yards. Travis found Coleman two more times before a toss to Lawrance Toafili set up 1st-and-goal. With these plays, Travis eventually rushed in for the first touchdown of the afternoon.

As the Orange brought some pressure on a 3rd-and-5 in the second quarter, Travis hit Coleman on a slant for a pickup of 12 yards. On the next play, Travis’ pocket collapsed, but he tossed a 58-yard touchdown pass to Coleman down the left side. Coleman burned Syracuse cornerback Isaiah Johnson via a quick move inside to get Johnson to bite. With Johnny Wilson out of the game, Coleman finished the first half with six catches, 114 receiving yards and one touchdown.

Aside from Coleman’s production, though, FSU struggled to score points. In the second quarter alone, the Seminoles had two turnovers on downs. There was the 4th-and-goal stop where Marlowe Wax got in Travis’ face and forced a throw into the back of the end zone. On the next drive, the Seminoles tried a wildcat run on 4th-and-1 but didn’t make it. This was not going to be a blowout like against the Tar Heels. This would be different.

But Syracuse did nothing with these breaks.

The next drive saw Shrader thread the needle to find Alford for a catch on the right sidelines. But a screen pass to Allen Jr. went for a loss of four and on the next play, Shrader rolled to his left and looked for Donovan Brown on the wheel route. But no one was open, so he threw it away.

One drive later, Babers made a puzzling call. Allen Jr. had a 27-yard rush and Shrader moved the ball downfield with passes to Hatcher. But the offense stalled in the red zone. With the Orange down by three scores, they lined up for a field goal.

Before Brady Denaburg could make the 32-yard kick, though, a delay of game penalty was called. SU still lined up for a field goal. This time, Denaburg’s kick on a 37-yard attempt went wide left. As fans expressed their frustrations with the call, Babers was very matter-of-fact.

“They didn’t try to pitch me on making them stay out there and I didn’t think about it,” Babers said of the call to kick a field goal.

By the middle of the third quarter, Shrader was pulled and Del Rio-Wilson was in. He finished the day 9-of-21 with 99 yards and a completion percentage of 43%. This change did very little to affect the final outcome, though.

Del Rio-Wilson had a ball tipped at the line of scrimmage. And then on 3rd-and-7, Del Rio-Wilson fed the ball into D’Marcus Adams, but FSU cornerback Renardo Green broke it up. And on another confusing call from Babers, the Orange punted on 4th-and-7 from their own 48-yard line. In Del Rio-Wilson’s second drive, SU went three-and-out.

Between Del Rio-Wilson’s drives, Toafili scored a 50-yard rushing touchdown up the right side and Hykeem Williams found the end zone on a pass from FSU’s backup QB Tate Rodemaker. In a different year and venue, the Orange’s defeat was an even worse repeat of their 38-3 loss to Florida State last year at the JMA Wireless Dome.

“Just being efficient,” Allen Jr. said of what needs to change on offense. “Just every play, getting positive yards and stuff like that and just getting the whole offense momentum going.”

But Babers insisted that health and easier opponents would make things better for the offense. While Babers said he did not expect the three games to be this dominating, he knew Clemson, North Carolina and the Seminoles were “good teams.”

“I’d be very surprised if the offense does not go back to exactly the way it looked previously,” Babers said.

Published on October 14, 2023 at 3:48 pm

Contact Henry: [email protected]