Syracuse Downs Rutgers With Late Field Goal

PISCATAWAY, N.J.—After a four-and-a-half game hiatus from meaningful game time, Rutgers quarterback Tom Savage finally got significant snaps. While the move was an improvement over freshman Chas Dodd, it wasn’t enough for a fourth-quarter comeback.

Following a San San Te missed 45-yard field goal, Syracuse methodically drove downfield, and Ross Krautman hit a 24-yard field goal—the eventual game-winner to put Syracuse up 13–10.

With 1:07 left to play, Savage and co. got the ball at their own 30. Savage hit Jeremy Deering on a 10-yard pass to get things started, but that would be the only positive play of the drive.

Keith Stroud hauled in a two-yard pass off a tipped ball, then had a deep pass thrown in his direction, but way out of bounds before Savage was sacked by Syracuse linebacker Brandon Sharpe on 3rd-and-8.

“I saw Jeremy [Deering] running across the field,” Savage said. “It was going to be a scary throw going across the middle like that but I was going to try and set up my feet and throw it across, but I obviously didn’t feel the guy coming from behind and he [Sharpe] just got me.”

Savage would have nowhere to throw on 4th-and-17 and just got a pass off before he was sacked, turning the ball over on downs.

Struggling throughout the first half, Dodd was yanked after going 3-of-11 for 30 yards.

“Sometimes you just got to do what you believe is best. Sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong. You got to do what you think at the moment,” Schiano said. “That’s what we, as a staff, felt gave us the best chance to win the game today.”

When called, the sophomore signal Savage caller was ready.

“Being a backup, you’re only a play away from getting in there, so you just got to be prepared. So I wasn’t really too nervous,” Savage said. “I been out there before obviously so it was fun getting back out there.”

A season removed from setting the Big East all-time passing yards and touchdowns marks for a freshman, Savage didn’t make a strong enough case to take back his job. The Springfield, Penn. native finished 6-of-12 for 76 yards.

Savage completed his first two passes of the game to Mark Harrison, driving the Scarlet Knights down the field for their first score when Deering bounced outside for a 19-yard touchdown run—the first of his career—out of the “Wild Knight.”

“I was supposed to run it up inside,” Deering said. “But I saw an open hole on the outside and just took it.”

The drive gave Rutgers their first lead of the game at 10–7.

With running back Joe Martinek not taking any snaps due to an ankle injury, and only a handful of runs out of the conventional offense, Rutgers leaned on the Wild Knight and the true freshman Deering, in particular.

“The opportunity to run the football against a blitz-heavy defense,” Schiano said. “We thought it would be affective.”

Deering’s 19-yard run was one of a career high 29 rushes for 168 yards.

“I thought Jeremy [Deering] did well. Jeremy did exactly what we asked him to do. He’s certainly growing up. He’s getting better,” Schiano said. “At the end of the day, it wasn’t enough. We need to be able to do more offensively.”

A couple of possessions after the Deering touchdown, Syracuse knotted the game at 10–10 with 3:19 left in the third quarter.

Despite a season high six sacks, two fumble recoveries, and an interception, the defense couldn’t hold the Orange in the final minutes, surrendering the game-winning field goal.

“At the end we just didn’t execute like we had been at the beginning,” defensive end Alex Silvestro said. “They were executing, they were getting the ball down field, and we didn’t do a good job stopping them.”

Bowl Eligible

With the win, Syracuse (7–3, 4–2 Big East) is bowl eligible for the first time since 2004.

The Scarlet Knights (4–5, 1–3 Big East) five straight bowl trips is in jeopardy, as they need two wins in the next three games to become eligible.

Rutgers has lost three straight, all of which have come after teammate Eric LeGrand was paralyzed from the neck down.

But it’s remains something the team won’t use as a cop out.

“I don’t want to make excuses,” linebacker Antonio Lowery said. “You have to go out there and execute. You have to execute on the little things and we didn’t.”

Tune in every Friday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. EST on WRSU-FM as Matt Sugam co-hosts Scarlet Football Fever discussing Rutgers football as well as the N.Y. Jets and Giants.