Syracuse rallied for an impressive 38-31 overtime win over Virginia Tech.

Here are the key takeaways from SU's sixth win of the season, which made them bowl eligible.

This is being written before all the day’s games are completed, but Marlowe Wax Jr. should be in line for his second “Linebacker of the Week” honor from the ACC after his performance. His return gives the defense a major impact performer and creates some depth in the back seven with Justin Barron’s ability to play at both linebacker and safety.

Mirroring Wax’s impact is LeQuint Allen’s tough running on offense, as evidenced by his hard running late in both the Virginia Tech and UNLV games. Both players are the emotional heartbeats of their units and it is easy to see their teammates feed off them.

While it was not the detonation delivered by Pitt’s defense, Virginia Tech took away one lesson from that film when it came to stopping the Orange offense. While their pass rush was not nearly as ferocious, the Hokies focused on taking away the short passing game that was SU’s bread and butter early in the season.

In particular, the Orange passing attack was really bottled up in the first half. It generated only 90 yards through the air at an average of 4.5 yards per attempt with just three completions that were good for double figures, the longest being the 18-yard gain where Darrell Gill Jr. fumbled.

Even SU’s big plays in the second half came on short passes. Justus Ross-Simmons’ 55-yard and 28-yard touchdown catches looks like deep shots on the scoresheet, but were short passes where he slipped through a tackle and went the distance. Trebor Pena’s 41-yard gain to set up LeQuint Allen’s first score was a screen pass where he was running in motion to set up a cluster of blockers when Kyle McCord got the ball out before the rush.

A separate note about short passes is that 3rd-and-15 may not be the best time for a double pass to a running back near the line of scrimmage.

Jackson Kennedy’s 44-yarder was the longest field goal made by the Orange this season. It was the first field goal attempt longer than 33 yards made by an SU kicker this season after Brady Denaburg and Jayden Oh had combined to miss five tries of 40 yards or longer.

At the same time, Kennedy’s last two extra point kicks were close to being blocked by an outside rusher after an earlier one was blocked by a rushed coming up the middle. Either Kennedy wins this job over the rest of the season or the Syracuse staff needs to shift to “no field goals and always go for two” the rest of the way, then get an established kicker out of the portal after the season.

A quiet key to Syracuse’s comeback was going 5-of-7 in the second half after a 2-for-7 mark before intermission. They also went for 6.79 yards per play after halftime after posting 4.90 yards per play prior to that.

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