Three takeaways from Syracuse football Pinstripe Bowl loss to Minnesota

The Syracuse Orange have their four-game bowl streak snapped with a 28-20 loss. Minnesota Golden Gophers. It was a winnable game throughout, SU just couldn’t finish off some key drives. That’s not to say there weren’t positives from the game that can be taken away and carried into the offseason.

Here are the highlights:

LeQuint Allen looks legit

It looks like the Orange’s rushing attack is in good hands. When Sean Tucker went to the NFL, LeQuint Allen was taken in his place as the bell cow, and he showed why today. Allen rushed 15 times for 94 yards (6.3 YPC) and added 11 catches for 60 more yards through the air, making the Gopher defense look silly at points with sharp cuts and a pair of 20+ yards.

Remember, he put up those numbers for Garrett Shrader on a very heavy day. LeQuints certainly has the tools to succeed as a primary backer, so keep an eye on his development throughout the spring.

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First impression of Jason Becks attack

Beck’s offense showed shades of Robert Anaes’ offense from the regular season. There was some trickery in the first quarter with two reverse throws to Trebor Pena and a flea flicker attempt. As the game progressed, his game plan was streamlined and transitioned to an air raid scheme that was teased all year. A two-minute practice just before Halftime managed to cut the deficit in half. While the offense stalled in spots, especially when pass attempts got a little too aggressive in short yardage situations, there are two points to make.

First of all, this was Becks debut game under the name OC. We knew it wasn’t going to be perfect. Second, there was this crazy tactic of targeting more than one receiver that worked pretty well. It’s a shame Devaughn Cooper was the man to step up, if only because he’s gone for 2023. There were some flashes from Damien Alford as well. The thing is, the offense seems to be in decent shape under new management, and we’ll have to wait a bit to find out if it’s more.

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Careless mistakes

Hey, I said there are some positive ones. (As the old saying goes, 2/3 ain’t bad…)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – silly penalties and costly turnovers cost Syracuse the game. Orange only got back into the game thanks to Mohamed Ibrahim in the second half, true, but they never took the lead.

A 70-yard pick-six by the Gophers killed the momentum Cuse was building; Combine that with missed fumbles, shanked punts and more offensive penalties that led to turnovers later, and you have the same problem that plagued Syracuse all season.

I know I avoided the defense, but it didn’t catch my attention. Justin Barron, Kadin Bailey, and Kevin Jobity all had moments to build on, and Nick Monroe did well as the interim DC. I’m curious to see how a 3-3-5 with a lot of new faces performs next season under Rocky Long.

At least this game showed the potential of some young players who will be fighting for key spots in next season’s team. No victory was expected here, but there was progress. We saw enough of that to hopefully satisfy the fans at the end of this chaotic football campaign.