No. 7 Georgia Tech storms past Syracuse

Haynes King put on a homecoming show to remember, and No. 7 Georgia Tech sliced and diced the Orange of Syracuse to the tune of a 41-16 win Saturday in front of a sellout crowd at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

King, Tech’s senior quarterback and Heisman Trophy hopeful, threw for 304 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 91 yards and two scores.

The Yellow Jackets (8-0) are 5-0 in the ACC for the first time in program history. They also won a 10th consecutive game at home and seventh consecutive conference game.

The Jackets scored on five consecutive drives at one point to break open a 3-3 game and racked up 543 total yards of offense. They also scored 24 points for the 12th straight game dating to last season.

“It’s close, but we’re not there yet,” King said on the team’s offensive performance. “We still have a lot of room for improvement, whether it’s pushing the tempo, getting people lined up, communicating, stuff like that. We’re almost there, but still not all the way there on our standard on what we wanna be and doing a complete game.”

Tech next plays at North Carolina State (4-3, 1-2 ACC) on Saturday. A kickoff time has yet to be announced for that matchup.

“I’m proud of the team, proud of the coaches. I thought we got better this week,” Tech coach Brent Key said. “That was the challenge on Sunday. Enjoy tonight and then tomorrow a new challenge comes. Another one-game season in front of us.

“All in all, I’m extremely happy to get win No. 8 on the season, extremely happy for these guys. But the thing I’m most happy about is I know they’re gonna come back in (Sunday) ready to work.”

Against Syracuse, Tech received the opening kickoff and started the day on offense, but quickly gave up possession when wide receiver Isiah Canion lost a fumble on the second play from scrimmage and Syracuse defensive lineman David Reese recovered at the Tech 42.

Yasin Willis broke a 41-yard run on the ensuing play and the Orange were knocking at the door, but a false start, gain of a yard on a running play, sack by Tech’s Jason Moore and Kyle Efford, another false start and 5-yard run forced Syracuse to kick a 27-yard field goal.

Aidan Birr kicked a 20-yard field goal on Tech’s next drive to tie the score at 3-3 with 6:16 left in the opening quarter.

Birr’s kick came after tight end Josh Beetham had dropped a certain touchdown reception on second down at the Syracuse 3. But Beetham made it up for that miscue early in the second quarter when, on fourth down at the Syracuse 21, King found Beetham for a 21-yard touchdown pass-and-catch, making it 10-3.

King went back to Beetham later in the quarter, rolling left on first down at the Syracuse 13 and dumping the ball into the flat for Beetham who turned and headed for the end zone, diving for the pylon to score Tech’s second TD of the day. That put the Jackets up 17-3.

Birr’s second field goal of the game was from 22 yards out and gave the Jackets a 20-3 lead at the break.

Tech totaled 322 yards of offense and averaged 7.9 yards per play in the first half. The Orange managed only 118 yards, 41 of which came on Willis’ 41-yard run on Syracuse’s opening possession.

Syracuse emerged from the locker room and scored in 41 seconds, getting six points on Rickie Collins’ 34-yard touchdown strike to Darrell Gill Jr.

But Tech countered nearly as quickly and got a 37-yard touchdown reception from Dean Patterson. The wide receiver took a quick out from King, got two key blocks on the perimeter from tackle Ethan Mackenny and guard Joe Fusile and raced down the left sideline before diving for the pylon.

King added a 2-yard rushing score to his day, capping a five-play, 65-yard drive by faking a toss sweep right and sauntering into the end zone to put Tech up 34-10. That’s how the scoreboard read going into the final 15 minutes.

“We’re getting closer to playing a full game. We’re getting closer. Good thing about that is, we hadn’t peaked yet,” Key said. “If I’m not mistaken, that’s kinda how you want it. You wanna play your best ball as you start rolling into the end of October and November. I thought we played the closest thing we have to a complete game.”

Will Dixon kept hope alive for the Orange with a 1-yard touchdown run with 7:58 to go. But Tech was not content to bleed out the clock, and King’s 4-yard run with 3:47 left put the Jackets up 41-16.

Syracuse’s Collins was 17-of-29 passing for 224 yards and a touchdown while also running for 41 yards. The Orange (3-5, 1-4 ACC) lost their fourth consecutive game.

Tech’s defense held an opponent to fewer points than the previous week’s game for the fourth straight game.