No More Excuses for the Syracuse Defense
Coaches love complimentary football. They love it when the defense sets-up the offense with premium field position. They love it when the offense can sustain drives to keep their defense off the field. And they especially love it when defensive turnovers are converted into offensive points.
Through the first two games of the 2020 season, the Syracuse defense had no offensive support in its valiant effort against ACC powers North Carolina and Pitt. Though losses were logged, fans, media, and even head coach Dino Babers recognized winning attempts from the nation’s stingiest secondary.
Flakes began chipping off defensive coordinator Tony White’s new 3-3-5 against Georgia Tech, but it was nothing glaring enough to distract onlookers from the Orange’s first win of the season. More luster was lost after getting steamrolled by Duke. But Babers was still hesitant in placing full blame at the feet of his defense. After all, they were on the field for 50 more plays than their Blue Devil counterparts.
Now, after getting burnt by the Liberty Flames 38-21 in their first ever win over an ACC opponent, there’s no more excuses for the Syracuse defense.
“You can't win the football game if you can't stop people from rushing the football,” Babers said bluntly to kick-off his postgame press conference on Saturday. We've got to plug up the middle. We got to stop those doggone runs.”
There was absolutely no plugging to speak of as Liberty likely saw a better run defense going against their scout team in practice. The Flames torched Syracuse defenders for a total 338-yards rushing and an average of seven-yards per carry. This marks the second consecutive week the Orange have been bled for 300+ yards on the ground. They now allow an average of 231 rushing yards per contest and opponents are good for at least two ground scores per game.
When asked about his defense’s biggest concern, the normally unshakable Babers briefly flirted with a four-letter f-bomb.
“We've got to friggin' start tackling the football, OK? We've got to tackle.”
Beyond the obvious tackling misery, Babers said there was a specific aspect in Liberty’s rushing attack that gave his defense fits.
“They're basically running an option offense,” Babers explained. “If you're going to run an option offense, you've got to stop the dive. We did not stop the dive. If you stop the dive, you have a chance of stopping the offense. If you do not stop the dive, the offense will do what it did today.”
What happened Saturday was a repeat of last week: two different opposing running backs eclipsing the century mark between the tackles. The only difference is Duke had its top rushers at its disposal. Liberty, on the other hand, made due with back-ups. According to ASeaOfRed.com, “starting running back Joshua Mack, a New York-native, did not play against the Orange as he was dealing with an illness.” That didn’t matter at all as stand-in backs Shedro Louis (172 yards, 17.2 AVG.) and Peytton Pickett (120 yards, 5.0 AVG) managed just fine on their own.
Like any potent option attack, defense’s have to account for a mobile quarterback. This was another assignment Babers says his guys didn’t adequately address.
“When you have an exceptional running quarterback, we had guys that were responsible for him,” Babers assured members of the media. “But when you have a big defensive end responsible for a guy like that, the guy just says, 'I can beat that defensive end,' and then all of a sudden it turns into a footrace because he doesn't have him boxed in enough, the guy gets outside of you. We've got to be smarter in that situation and put a different type of cat on that dude."
That dude was Flames QB Malik Willis, who was in his second game back from a left arm injury. The good news is, when you’re playing Syracuse, you rarely have to use your arms at all. Willis made use of his legs instead, running for 70-yards on 12 carries and penetrating the end zone once on his feet. When Willis got bored running, he decided to toss the ball around for 182-yards through the air and added a passing score for good measure.
Liberty was Syracuse’s one and only non-conference opponent on the schedule and next week’s match-up has an orange-clad, injury prone David taking on a top-ranked Goliath. While Syracuse was chasing the Flames, Clemson was stomping out Georgia Tech 73-7. Oh yeah, there’s also this:
It appears the Orange have a near impossible task ahead. But if you ask head coach Dino Babers, the team lining-up across from Syracuse is basically irrelevant at this point.
“The way we're playing, it doesn't matter who we're playing next. We’ve gotta decide whether we’re going to go out there and play.“
