Syracuse defeated No. 11 West Virginia for the second year in a row, dominating Friday night’s game, 49-23.
The Orange had their way with the Mountaineers from the start to finish, controlling the clock and using their power backs and efficient passing offense to outplay WVU.
“They were very successful on first down, running the football,” said West Virginia defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel. “They executed just the way they wanted to do it. We have to get better.”
Syracuse outgained the Mountaineers 194 to 70 on the ground and converted 12 of 17 third down conversions in the game.
The Mountaineer defense struggled to stop anything the Orange threw at them. The Syracuse offense held the ball for more than 35 minutes, while WVU had the ball for just over 24 minutes.
Syracuse senior tight end Nick Provo caught three touchdowns in the game and was found wide open on more than one occasion. The last time a WVU opposing player caught that many touchdowns against WVU’s defense was in 2009 against Auburn, when Darvin Adams caught three for the Tigers.
“We had some missed assignments there and we were off on one of them,” Casteel said. “Anytime the guy is wide open, there’s probably a mistake some place. We just didn’t handle things very well. We have to learn from this.”
Early in the second quarter, a field goal by the Mountaineers cut the lead to four. But, the Orange drove down the field with a 14-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a quarterback run up the middle by senior Ryan Nassib to give ‘Cuse a 14-3 lead.
Junior quarterback Geno Smith connected with redshirt sophomore Stedman Bailey on a 64-yard touchdown pass to put WVU back in the game, on the next drive, but kicker Tyler Bitancurt missed the extra point and the Orange led 14-9.
Special teams continued to hurt the Mountaineers. On the next play, Syracuse kick returner Dorian Graham brought back the ensuing kickoff 98 yards, to give the Orange a commanding lead, 21-9, with about five minutes remaining in the first half.
Smith finished the game with 338 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. He was sacked four times by the Syracuse defense and never seemed to be able to get the offense in a rhythm when it needed to make a play.
“It’s been the same thing all year,” said West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen. “We are not a very efficient football team. We make some big plays, but we’re not efficient. We knew what they were getting into.”
WVU came out strong on its opening drive of the second half with a 14 play, 57-yard scoring drive. Junior running back Shawne Alston ran it in from inside the one-yard line, after converting a 1-yard fourth down play, putting the Mountaineers within a touchdown, 21-16 with 10 minutes to go in the third quarter.
Another long return on special teams for Syracuse put at midfield to start their first drive of the second half. Nassibcompleted a 29-yard touchdown pass to senior tight end David Stevens to answer the Mountaineers drive and open the lead back up 28-16.
The Orange scored touchdowns on four possessions in the second half, putting the game out of reach for any chance of a comeback by the Mountaineers.
“If we want to be a championship team we can’t look back,” said senior linebacker Najee Goode. “We played the worst game we could play… In the future we have to play better.”
Syracuse senior quarterback Ryan Nassib completed 24 of 32 passes for 229 yards and four touchdowns and senior running back Antwon Bailey ran for 125 yards and a touchdown.