CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Syracuse kept finding new quarterbacks Saturday night, and by the finish the Orange were asking a fourth arm to rescue a game they had let slip away.
What started as a promising road performance ended in a 28-25 loss at Virginia, dropping Syracuse to 0-3 in ACC play and 2-3 overall. It also stretched the Orange’s losing streak against Power-Four opponents to 11 games.
For Fran Brown’s team, the frustration was not just the final score. Syracuse led 17-7 at halftime, then went cold while Virginia kept chipping away. The Orange were shut out for much of the second half, missed two more field goals and never fully recovered after a special teams breakdown flipped momentum.
Syracuse’s quarterback situation kept unraveling as the night wore on. In only its fifth game of the season, the Orange started their third different quarterback and finished with a fourth. Former five-star recruit Malachi Nelson made his first start for Syracuse and completed 55% of his passes for 217 yards and a touchdown before leaving with an injury.
Georgetown transfer Danny Lauter took over and nearly pulled off the comeback. He hit Christian Brothers Academy alum Daunte Bacheyie on a 46-yard touchdown pass with 2:50 left, then found Justus Ross-Simmons for the two-point conversion to cut the deficit to three.
But with little time left and no timeouts, Syracuse had to go the length of the field after Virginia pinned the Orange deep in their own territory.
The missed chance at the end fit the rest of Syracuse’s night. After Virginia made it 21-17, the Orange faced a 4th-and-3 near midfield and chose to punt.
The snap went bad, Jimmy Gregg had to catch the ball with his knee on the ground, and the play became a turnover on downs. Gregg was crying on the sideline as a coach comforted him, and Virginia took over at the Syracuse 34-yard line before pushing the lead to 28-17.
Special teams had already hurt Syracuse before that. Shay Barker handled kicking duties again with Tripp Woody out, and the freshman missed field goals from 46 and 40 yards wide left. Barker is now 3-of-7 this season, with every miss coming from at least 40 yards.
The Orange also could not sustain the offense they showed early. Syracuse asked Nelson to manage the game, but the run game never gave him much support.
Outside of Tylik Hill’s 48-yard burst, the Orange averaged just 2.5 yards per carry against a Virginia defense that was there to be attacked. Jekail Middlebrook was held to 6 yards on four carries, aside from a 20-yard run.
Still, Syracuse found some answers in the first half. The Orange leaned on short passes, options and play-action to open things up, and Nelson flashed the talent that made him a five-star recruit in 2023. He connected with Umari Hatcher for a 51-yard gain on Syracuse’s second drive, then later dropped in a slot fade to Hatcher for a 13-yard touchdown.
At halftime, Syracuse had 100 more yards than Virginia and held a 5:36 edge in time of possession. The Orange also protected Nelson well, not allowing a sack in the first half and giving up only one hit. The mistakes were limited early, too, with just two tackles for loss and two holding penalties.
Then the game turned. Syracuse managed only 4.25 second-half points per game against FBS opponents, and Saturday fit the pattern.
The Orange have now been outscored by an average of 10.5 points in second halves against FBS teams. After scoring 27 first-half points in last week’s win at Connecticut, Syracuse managed only seven after halftime there.
In the losses to Pittsburgh and California, it scored three and six second-half points, respectively.
Virginia took advantage. The Cavaliers finished with 169 rushing yards and three touchdowns on the ground. Beau Pribula, who had been held to 38 first-half passing yards, added 81 second-half passing yards and threw a 43-yard touchdown as Virginia pulled away.
Syracuse still gave itself a late shot. Down 28-17 inside the final three minutes, Lauter entered and immediately sparked the offense with the touchdown to Bacheyie and the two-point throw to Ross-Simmons. That made it 28-25, but Syracuse burned its second timeout on a late substitution and had to defend with only one left.
The defense did its part, but the offense was left needing 87 yards in 63 seconds with no timeouts. That proved too steep, especially for a team that had already cycled through four quarterbacks by the end of the night.
Syracuse finishes its three-game road trip with two losses and heads home still searching for its first ACC win since Sept. 20, 2025 against a high-powered Louisville offense.
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