Syracuse, N.Y. - One week after a historic 66-3 victory over New Hampshire in Week 1, the Syracuse Orange football team lost the team's first game inside Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) play on Saturday.

Syracuse fell 21-18 against California inside the JMA Wireless Dome. The Orange had their chances, as we covered in our takeaways here.

Here are some other things to think about from the league opener.

Running back Tylik Hill started the game for the Orange and recorded a 55-yard run on his second touch of the game. However, Hill was injured on the play and did not return. After the game, head coach Fran Brown confirmed he had a quad injury.

The entire Syracuse offense only totaled 63 yards rushing after Hill's run/injury. The touches rotated between Shavane Anderson Jr., Demetres Sameul Jr., Steve Angeli, Ahmad Miller and Ju'juan Johnson. 

In Week 1, Anderson was named the ACC Rookie of the Week after a 102 yard, three touchdowns performance.

This week? Anderson had just 18 yards on nine carries. Not the same kind of impact.

Johnson, an LSU transfer, had just 46 yards on 15 carries, an average of barely three yards per carry.

Miller had just two carries for two yards.

The lack of total production on the ground forced Syracuse to pass more in the second half than it probably would have wanted to. There were several situations late where a first down on the ground would have gone a long way, but the Orange were unable or unwilling to use the rushing attack.

Angeli was just 24-of-49 through the air. He also had three interceptions.

In a perfect world, Syracuse would be more balanced in its offensive attack. As stated above, Angeli threw the ball 49 times in this game, whereas Syracuse had 30 rushes from players that weren't Angeli. 

Obviously, 30 rushes is still a good total number, but you'd like to see a more even 1:1 balance, especially when you have a lead, as the Orange did.

Syracuse led 12-0 in this game and 18-14, but wasn't able to salt away the victory. The lack of ability to run the game in key moments certainly contributed to that. The running backs themselves need to be decisive when hitting the holes, and the offensive line obviously needs to do a good job with creating holes to run through.

The Orange will have a quick turnaround as they get ready to play Pitt on Thursday night in the team's first road game of the year. This is also an ACC contest.

The rivalry game between the former BIG EAST, now ACC schools, is set to kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET.