Head coach Scott Shafer sees two sides to it.

Syracuse’s first bye week gives the Orange’s injuries a little more time to heal, but also makes the team wait an extra week to get back on the field and correct its issues.

“You feel extremely lucky to some degree that you pulled out an ugly victory,” Shafer said during the Atlantic Coast Conference coaches’ teleconference on Wednesday. “The good thing about a wake-up call with Villanova playing a good football game against us —and all credit to them —is that there’s a sense of reality quicker and it hits you in the face.”

Syracuse is 1-0, but it wasn’t pretty and Shafer knows it. If Villanova had converted a 25-yard field goal with 12 seconds left in regulation or its two-point attempt at the end of double overtime, SU would’ve lost its eventual 27-26 win against the Wildcats on Friday night in the Carrier Dome, but Syracuse escaped its faults.

SU travels to Mount Pleasant, Michigan, to play Central Michigan on Sept. 13, starting a stretch of nine consecutive weeks with a game before the next bye week.

“I was not pleased with the way we played,” Shafer said. “Whatever you put on tape, what you see on video is either coached or allowed. And there were way too many things on that video tape that I allowed to happen.

“I need to get my team locked in and a more disciplined unit that’s focused in on playing the game the way we expect to play.”