Dyshawn Davis knifed through the gap unblocked. As he charged full speed toward Rutgers running back Jawan Jamison, he knew he had the chance to do something special just two plays after Syracuse coughed the ball up on an Antwon Bailey fumble. 

The ensuing collision in the backfield brought the crowd to its feet and elicited a roar that was equal parts jubilation and recoil.

‘I saw the guard’s hands, so I knew that he was pulling,’ Davis said. ‘He gave me the look, so as soon as he pulled, I just hit the hole right away and I was clean. And I knew I had to make a big play.’

Davis’ hit resulted in a fumble, and SU cornerback Ri’Shard Anderson scooped it up to return it for a 66-yard touchdown less than one minute into the game. It was the beginning of a day in which the Orange defense continually bailed out Ryan Nassib and the offense to keep Syracuse in the game. But because SU ultimately fell short in a 19-16 double-overtime thriller, the defense walked sullenly out of the Carrier Dome knowing that its best performance of the season was all for naught.

For a unit fresh off back-to-back games in which it gave up an excess of 435 yards to Toledo and Southern California, Saturday’s effort was a drastic improvement.

Though the Scarlet Knights ran a staggering 95 offensive plays — more than either the Rockets or the Trojans in the past two weeks — the SU defense stifled Rutgers. Nearly 100 plays resulted in only 302 total yards for a meager 3.2 yards per play.

‘As a defensive unit … we had an incredible game,’ Syracuse middle linebacker Marquis Spruill said.

The forced fumble by Davis nullified Bailey’s fumble, which gave the Scarlet Knights the ball at the Syracuse 30-yard line. It was one of three instances during Saturday’s game in which the Orange defense made an important stop after a blunder by the SU offense, which turned the ball over five times.

After Nassib’s first interception of the game in the second quarter, the defense didn’t yield an inch after Rutgers drove down to the Syracuse 9-yard line. SU pushed the Scarlet Knights back 1 yard on the next three plays and only allowed a field goal.

In the third quarter, Syracuse kicker Ross Krautman shanked a 39-yard field goal, failing to extend the Orange’s lead to 13. But on the ensuing Rutgers drive, quarterback Gary Nova fumbled the ball as he was sacked by Mikhail Marinovich. Spruill came out of a scrum with the fumble recovery.

‘When your defense is playing like that and you turn the ball over, you don’t feel bad for yourself, you feel bad for that defense,’ Syracuse center Macky MacPherson said. ‘… You feel terrible, and they have the right to be upset because they played their butts off, and we didn’t do what we should have done, and that’s put points on the board.’

The Orange’s most impressive defensive performance came in a game where the unit was ravaged by injuries. Both Anderson and Keon Lyn, two of SU’s cornerbacks, wore casts on one hand. Starting strong safety Shamarko Thomas was out again due to injury, and safety Olando Fisher, who head coach Doug Marrone thought would be back this week, couldn’t suit up.

A ragtag secondary still found a way to control Rutgers wide receiver Mohamed Sanu, who is one of the best pass-catchers in the nation. He was held to 65 yards receiving after a 176-yard outburst last week against Ohio.

Free safety Phillip Thomas and linebacker Dom Anene bracketed Sanu in double coverage during portions of the game in an over-under scheme employed by SU defensive coordinator Scott Shafer.

 ‘They want to try and get him in open field and try to get him the ball, and that’s what coach Shafer tried to eliminate with me and Dom Anene, just trying to double-team him and get him tired,’ Thomas said.

And while Sanu was blanketed for most of the game downfield, SU’s defensive front turned in a stellar performance as well. Rutgers finished the game with 5 rushing yards on 38 attempts — an almost unheard of 0.1 yard per attempt — due to relentless pressure by the Orange.

The defense recorded five sacks, 11 tackles for loss and recovered three fumbles while harassing both Scarlet Knights quarterbacks used during Saturday’s game.

On a day when the Orange defense came up with four takeaways — the most since 2007 — it still walked off the field defeated. Though none of SU’s defensive players would pin the loss on the offense’s subpar performance, it was clear which side of the ball did its job.

‘There’s nobody to blame,’ Thomas said. ‘We’re all a team. We win and lose as a team.’

mjcohe02@syr.edu

 

Published on September 30, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13