SMU blows a 27-20 fourth-quarter lead and loses to 4-4 Syracuse

SMU had No. 19 next to its name, a 27-20 lead with nine minutes left and a quarterback who had completed almost everything. It left the JMA Wireless Dome with a 30-27 loss to a Syracuse team that came in 3-4.

Steve Angeli threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Noah Meyers with 17 seconds left, and costumed students stormed the field on Halloween.

The Mustangs did the hard part. Down 20-10 at halftime, they scored 17 straight points: Kevin Jennings hit Yamir Knight for a 14-yard touchdown, the defense sacked Angeli for a safety, and Kendrick Raphael ran 13 yards for a score before Jennings found Derrick McFall for two. That was 27-20 with 9:04 to play.

Then SMU could not close. Syracuse kicked a 26-yard field goal with 5:26 left, got the ball back and went 68 yards in 11 plays. Angeli converted a fourth-and-1 with a play-action throw to tight end David Clement. Two 15-yard completions put the Orange at the 2, and on second down Angeli faked a handoff, rolled left and found Meyers wide open in the flat.

Here is the RANT take. Jennings did his job. He completed 29 of 36 passes for 351 yards and two touchdowns without an interception, and Yannick Smith (95 yards) and Knight (80) kept getting open. The rest of the operation let him down. SMU ran for 70 yards, gave up four sacks that cost a combined 52 yards, fumbled twice and was flagged nine times for 90 yards. Syracuse did not turn it over once.

A ranked team with playoff talk does not get to lose that game. Syracuse had lost four of its first seven, and its quarterback had thrown five interceptions in two starts before last week's win at North Carolina, according to Syracuse.com. Angeli finished 21 of 34 for 200 yards, and that was enough.

SMU is 6-2, and its path to the ACC title game just got much harder. Syracuse is 4-4 with two straight league wins and its first win over a ranked team since November 2024, per The Daily Orange.

What to watch: Whether SMU drops out of the rankings this week, and whether Syracuse can carry this into next Saturday's noon game against Clemson.