SMU's Second-Half Rally Falls Short in Halloween Loss to Syracuse

SMU has specialized in second-half magic all season, but on Halloween, the trick came from the other sideline.

Syracuse beat the No. 19 Mustangs 30-27 at the JMA Wireless Dome on Saturday, scoring the winning touchdown on a 2-yard pass from Steve Angeli to Noah Meyers with 17 seconds remaining.

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SMU falls to 6-2 overall and 4-2 in the ACC.

The first half belonged to the Orange. Angeli opened the scoring with a 26-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-1 in the first quarter, and Syracuse added 13 unanswered points in the second behind two Tom Woody field goals and a 1-yard Ahmad Miller touchdown.

SMU managed nothing in the second quarter, going scoreless after a Jalen Hale fumble gave Syracuse the ball at the SMU 38-yard line. The Mustangs trailed 20-10 at halftime.

Whatever Rhett Lashlee said at halftime worked for about 20 minutes. SMU opened the third quarter with an 85-yard, 10-play drive that ended in a 14-yard touchdown pass from Kevin Jennings to Yamir Knight, cutting the deficit to three.

The defense took over from there, forcing punts on three consecutive Syracuse possessions spanning the third quarter and the start of the fourth.

The biggest swing came when Angeli was called for intentional grounding in his own end zone, giving SMU a safety with 12:07 remaining.

SMU took the free kick and went 68 yards in seven plays. Kendrick Raphael punched it in from 13 yards out, and Derrick McFall converted the two-point try to put the Mustangs ahead 27-20 with 9:04 remaining.

After engineering the go-ahead drive, Jennings and the offense managed a three-and-out that included a 6-yard sack, then turned the ball over on the final possession.

Syracuse sacked him four times overall, including losses of 17 and 12 yards that killed promising drives.

Syracuse scored the final 10 points all in the last 6 minutes. Woody hit a 26-yard field goal at the 5:26 mark to make it a one-score game, and the Orange closed with an 11-play, 68-yard drive that took more than three minutes.

Angeli converted a fourth-and-1 with a 7-yard completion to David Clement, then found Calvin Russell III for 15 yards and Daunte Bacheyie for another 15 to reach the 2-yard line before throwing the game-winning touchdown.

Jennings played most of the day at an exceptional level, finishing 29-of-36 for 351 yards and two touchdowns without an interception. He averaged 9.8 yards per attempt against a defense that had just upset North Carolina on the road.

The running game never materialized, either. SMU finished with 70 yards on 31 carries, and Raphael was held to 51 yards on 14 attempts after back-to-back 100-yard games.

Yannick Smith led the receivers with five catches for 95 yards. Knight added six catches for 80 yards and a score, while Jalen Cooper had five for 53.

Sael Reyes paced the SMU defense with 10 tackles, while Jimmy Wyrick and Brandon Booker each had eight.

The pattern is worth noting, too. SMU is 11-0 at home in ACC games since joining the league in 2024 and considerably shakier away from Ford Stadium.

Both conference losses this season have come on the road, at Louisville and now at Syracuse, and the Mustangs have yet to look like the same team outside Dallas.

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The loss complicates things without ending them. SMU now needs to win out to have a realistic College Football Playoff case, and the schedule does not get easier with trips to Notre Dame and Stanford in the final two weeks.

The ACC title picture is more forgiving. SMU still controls its own destiny in the conference race, and the next two games come at Ford Stadium against teams in similar positions. Virginia Tech visits Friday night, followed by Wake Forest on Nov. 14.