The Syracuse Orange had a season’s worth of lowlights in their blowout loss on Thursday night to the Pittsburgh Panthers. But one play in particular was so embarrassing that it wasn’t even worth an acknowledgment from ESPN broadcasters Matt Barrie and Dan Mullen.
Syracuse starting quarterback Kyle McCord has been terrific at times for the Orange this season, coming into the Week 9 game ranking inside the top 10 in all of FBS in passing yards on the year.
Thursday night’s game painted an entirely different picture for McCord, who had one of the worst games you’ll see from any quarterback at any level of college football all season long.
Despite throwing for over 300 yards as he has in every game thus far this season, McCord simply wasn’t able to take care of the football, throwing five interceptions in the game, three of which were returned for touchdowns by Pittsburgh.
Syracuse QB Kyle McCord threw three pick-sixes and four INTs in the first half against PITT.
“It’s just been that kind of night,” Matt Barrie.pic.twitter.com/W1sEXgXW82
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 25, 2024
The second half was largely non-competitive after Pittsburgh went into the locker room with a 31-0 lead through two quarters. So by the time the last three minutes of the fourth quarter came around, both Barrie and Mullen appeared to be out of gas when it came to criticism for the Orange.
Of all the embarrassing moments in the game for McCord, perhaps the worst came with 2:32 remaining in the fourth quarter when McCord sacked himself by tripping on the turf after getting Syracuse into the red zone.
When it came time to break down the play, Barrie instead opted to “leave it alone” instead of further piling onto McCord.
“I’m just gonna leave it alone,” said Barrie. “Fourth down.”
announcer after Kyle McCord sacks himself
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) October 25, 2024
Given how the game had gone, not much more than that really needed to be said about McCord’s battle with the turf monster. Any more than that would have been Barrie simply beating a dead horse in this situation.
It’s gonna be a tough game for McCord to live down after the excellent season he has had to this point. But at least Barrie showed some mercy when it came to his final embarrassing moment of the game.
