Scott Shafer knew this season wouldn’t be smooth sailing all the way through.

Syracuse lost too much talent. He knew moving on without Ryan Nassib, Alec Lemon and Justin Pugh, among others, wouldn’t be easy. The hiccups would come; it was just a matter of when and how often. Responding to those bumps and bruises would be the most important thing.

“I anticipated things to be what they were at times,” Shafer said at his press conference Thursday morning.

Shafer said he was pleased that Syracuse’s season-opening game against Penn State came down to the fourth quarter. SU had a chance to win the game in the final minutes.

Moving forward to Northwestern, he said one key is winning the first-down battle. The goal is to get four yards or more on first down at least 60 percent of the time. He called the goal lofty, but said it will be critical come Saturday.

Said Shafer: “That’s an area that we’ve really worked on, and the kids have done a good job.”