Syracuse Blown Out at #14 North Carolina

The Orange lost its second straight game as the Tar Heels dominate from start to finish.

Mike McAllister | Oct 7, 2023

Syracuse Blown Out at #14 North Carolina /

In this story:

Syracuse Orange

North Carolina overwhelmed Syracuse from start to finish as the Orange dropped its second straight. This time it was a 40-7 blowout at the hands of the Tar Heels. With the loss, Syracuse falls to 4-2 (0-2) on the season. Next up is at #5 Florida State on Saturday, October 14th.

The game turned on a controversial play in the first quarter. Trailing 3-0, Syracuse got a stop and forced North Carolina to punt. Denis Jaquez blocked the punt, which was picked up by Tar Heels punter Ben Kiernan. He ran with the ball and was hit hard by a pair of Syracuse defenders. He appeared to be about a yard short of the marker, but the ball was spotted for a first down. Replay showed he was clearly short, but after a review following a Dino Babers challenge, the play was upheld and North Carolina kept the ball.

The Tar Heels would turn that into a touchdown and the momentum would only grow from there.

Syracuse could not sustain any offense in the first half and the Orange defense struggled to stop Drake Maye and the Tar Heels all afternoon. Trailing 27-0 at halftime, Syracuse briefly showed life to start the third quarter with a 75 yard touchdown drive capped by a LeQuint Allen run. The Orange defense forced a field goal on the following possession, but Syracuse elected to punt on fourth and six in UNC territory in what was essentially a white flag for the game.

Maye and the Tar Heels offense torched the Syracuse defense all afternoon. Maye threw for over 400 yards with three touchdowns, while UNC ran for nearly 200 as well including a rushing score by Maye. In total, North Carolina racked up over 640 yards of total offense.

The lone bright spot for Syracuse was Umari Hatcher, who led the team with six catches for 85 yards including some really tough catches in traffic.

The Orange has a lot of questions to answer following two straight losses including this one in blowout fashion.

SUPPORT ALL SYRACUSE

SUBSCRIBE TO ALLSYRACUSE.COM NOW TO GET ACCESS TO EXCLUSIVE INSIDER CONTENT

FREE ALL SYRACUSE NEWSLETTER TO GET THE LATEST ORANGE UPDATES SENT TO YOUR INBOX

JOIN THE ALL SYRACUSE FORUMS FOR FREE AND DISCUSS THE ORANGE WITH OTHER FANS AND OUR STAFF

Published Oct 7, 2023

MIKE MCALLISTER

Title: Publisher All Syracuse Education: Roberts Wesleyan College Location: Syracuse, New York Expertise: Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting. EXPERIENCE Mike McAllister has been covering Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting for more than a decade. Mike's career started with his own free blog as a way to vent following sporting events. Shortly thereafter, a network of basketball sites called Coast 2 Coast Hoops asked him to run their Syracuse site. That site was called Nation of Orange, and Mike quickly established it as a go-to for Syracuse fans. After running Nation of Orange for several months, a position with the Syracuse site on the Scout network became available. After one year as the recruiting expert with Cuse Nation, he was named the publisher. Mike oversaw the transition from Scout to 247Sports, and ran the site on that network for years. Presented with the opportunity to join one of the biggest names in the sports journalism industry, Sports Illustrated, Mike jumped at the chance. All Syracuse was started from scratch by Mike and the Fan Nation team. It has now become a staple for Orange fans of various sports. Mike has broken news on recruiting, Syracuse basketball and football team information and has established himself as the top recruiting inside in the market. He has appeared on local radio shows, television broadcasts, national radio shows and much more. Mr. McAllister has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and Information Management from Roberts Wesleyan College.