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or the second-straight season, Syracuse enters its matchup against Clemson with an undefeated record. Yet, the Tigers are coming into the Dome with a .500 record through four games. Going back to last season, they’ve lost four of their last seven.
Last year, these teams were both 6-0 when they met in Death Valley. This time around, Syracuse has the home crowd and momentum going into their biggest matchup of the season.
Here’s what our beat writers predict will happen against Clemson on Saturday:
Anthony Alandt (3-1)
Oh the persisting pessimism
Clemson 35, Syracuse 24
The stars are almost perfectly aligning for Syracuse to beat Clemson on Saturday. The Orange have an absurd +134 point differential through a perfect 4-0 start. The Tigers are 2-2, fielding more questions about Dabo Swinney’s comments about the transfer portal and name, image and likeness deals than on-field semantics. Syracuse’s defense is a turnover machine, and Garrett Shrader looks as good as any quarterback under head coach Dino Babers at SU.
But dig a little past the surface. Yes, Clemson looked terrible against Duke in its season-opening loss, but the Tigers had more total offense, first downs, a better third-down conversion rate and a higher completion percentage. The Blue Devils capitalized on three costly turnovers, showing out in their biggest game in years. The loss to Florida State could have gone either way.
This is still a tremendously talented Clemson team that is going to test Syracuse more than it has been all season. At least when the Orange played in Death Valley last year, they had the experience of NC State, Purdue and Louisville under their belt. To make a coffee analogy, Clemson is the hot, dark, strong coffee that’s either going to jolt SU into a quality season or make it so jittery that they fold once again under the spotlight.
I just don’t see Syracuse being able to handle the move from easy nonconference teams to Clemson.
Wyatt Miller (4-0)
A misguided narrative
Clemson 24, Syracuse 20
Clemson’s season-opening disaster against Duke gave people the impression that Clemson was a bad football team. Then, they dropped their second game of the season in an overtime heartbreak against Florida State last week. At 2-2, Clemson is hearing words like “purgatory” to describe the state of their program. They may not be a Trevor Lawrence-led powerhouse with future NFL stars on both sides, but saying this Clemson team is bad is laughable.
Based solely on size and physicality, Clemson dominates the Orange up front. Last season, they sacked Shrader five times while running 31 more plays than SU. Clemson also has the No. 1 defense in the ACC in terms of yards allowed while also being fourth in scoring. The Tigers may have lost four of their last seven games, but they’ve gotten the ball into scoring position. Their biggest failure over the past two years has been execution. In those losses, their total yards margin is +196. They’ve blown multiple double-digit leads, scoring just eight touchdowns on 17 red-zone trips.
Syracuse’s point differential and lock-down defense at all three levels indicate the team’s legitimacy, but expectations should be tempered. Despite playing Clemson extremely close since joining the ACC, Syracuse is 2-9 against them all-time. To win, the Orange have to get going offensively. Without two of their top receivers, that could be a tough task against Clemson’s physical secondary. This is a must-win game for the Tigers. Head coach Swinney has a history of winning those games, and I think he’ll do it again on Saturday.
Henry O’Brien (3-1)
Pain
Clemson 31, Syracuse 28
In typical Babers fashion, he equated the physicality between the Orange and the Tigers to Clubber Lang’s quote in “Rocky III.” There’s going to be pain. And in terms of how the actual game will go, I’m expecting a painful ending for Syracuse. Clemson has gotten SU’s number in the final moments in both the 2021 matchup and the 2022 game in Death Valley.
The Orange defense will make Cade Klubnik’s life challenging as Rocky Long will draw up a number of creative blitzes and force Klubnik into a mediocre statline. But Syracuse will be unable to stop running back Will Shipley, who served as the difference maker last season. I think Shipley will have another 100+ yard rushing performance against SU and give the Tigers a slim, late lead.
Lacking Oronde Gadsden II didn’t make too much of a difference against Purdue or Army, but it will against Clemson. Similar to 2021 and 2022, the game will come down to another Shrader drive, looking for a tie. But the Orange will come up short, masking a solid ground game performance for Shrader and LeQuint Allen Jr. Maybe it will come down to a Brady Denaburg field goal, maybe a costly turnover. But as Mr. T once said, my prediction is pain.
Photo by Aidan Groeling | Contributing Photographer
Published on September 27, 2023 at 10:38 pm
