Syracuse walked out of its ACC opener with a 21-18 loss to Cal, and the Orange had nobody to blame but the pile of chances they left behind.
This one never came down to a single bad break. It was death by a thousand missed opportunities - a drive that should have ended in seven and settled for three, a punt return wiped out by a block-in-the-back penalty, two missed field goals, a touchdown erased by another penalty, failed two-point tries, and three interceptions from Steve Angeli. In a game decided by three points, that kind of sloppiness is brutal.
The trouble started right away. Syracuse pushed the ball into California territory on its opening drive and looked ready to cash in for a touchdown, but an injury to running back Tylik Hill changed the sequence and the Orange had to settle for a field goal.
That was only the beginning. Before halftime, Syracuse had another chance to add points, but a block-in-the-back penalty on a punt return took away a big play and likely killed a field-goal chance. Instead of carrying more momentum into the break, the Orange went to halftime with points still sitting on the table.
The kicking game made things worse. Syracuse missed two field goals, a six-point swing in a game that finished with a three-point margin.
Special teams gave Syracuse another jolt when Demetres Samuel Jr. appeared to score on a punt return, but that one disappeared too after another block-in-the-back penalty. Another touchdown gone, another swing that never counted.
Even when the Orange got into position to finish, they couldn’t quite do it. Syracuse failed on both of its two-point attempts, leaving more points out there that might have changed the final stretch.
Then came the turnovers. Angeli threw three interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown that put Cal ahead with under 5 minutes left.
On the next sequence, he took a sack that turned a short field goal into a long one, and that kick was missed. Earlier, one of his interceptions came in the Cal red zone and wiped out another scoring chance.
Just before that, he had delivered a perfect pass into the end zone, but Justus Ross-Simmons dropped it.
The penalties kept stacking up, too. Syracuse was flagged 15 times, a number that kept the offense behind the chains and repeatedly erased positive plays.
Some flags directly took points off the board. Others just made it harder for the Orange to stay on schedule.
When it was all over, Syracuse could point to a long list of what went wrong: the missed field goals, the touchdown that didn’t count, the red-zone mistakes, the failed two-point tries, the interceptions, the sack, and the penalty before halftime. Any one of those moments might not have decided the game on its own.
Together, they left Syracuse with a loss it had every chance to avoid.
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