Last Sunday, Syracuse players sat in the locker room listening to head coach Dino Babers. All eyes locked on Babers as he compiled a list of numbers on a whiteboard. He capped the marker, put it down and the room fell silent.

Printed on the whiteboard read the scores from Louisville’s repeated onslaughts of Syracuse in 2016 and 2017 – 62-28 in 2016 and 56-10 in 2017. Lamar Jackson’s hurdle was a signature Heisman moment. The Cardinals scored effortlessly and relentlessly. Babers pointed at different players, mostly seniors, senior linebacker Kielan Whitner said. He asked repeatedly how many of those players had ever beaten Louisville. The room remained silent, aside from Babers. The answer was none.

“You see what they did to us,” Whitner said. “It cut deep for a lot of us.”

In the four games against Louisville since joining the Atlantic Coast Conference, Syracuse was outscored 187-61. But the great thing about football, Babers said, is you only have to beat a team once. He told his team they play games one game at a time, and the matchup with Louisville in 2018 was simply the third game in the second half of the season. The players nodded and said “okay,” Babers said.

Against Louisville in the Carrier Dome on Friday night No. 13 Syracuse (8-2, 5-2 ACC) avenged those previous four meetings, dismantling Louisville (2-8, 0-6) 54-23. The defensive unit, which the Cardinals repeatedly shredded year after year, smothered the Cardinals, forcing five turnovers and making 10 tackles for losses, including six sacks.

Babers’ message lingered with his defense all week. Practices were more intense defensively, Alton Robinson said. Players always want to go out and beat up on teams, but this week felt different.

“The effort was high and the results showed at the end of the game,” Robinson said. “If (opponents) don’t (take the defense seriously), they should.”

From the beginning of the contest, Syracuse dismantled Louisville defensively. The Orange didn’t allow any first quarter points and held the Cardinals to just two first downs while forcing three punts. But as strong as the defense was in the first quarter, SU suffocated Louisville in the second.

Syracuse forced turnovers on four-straight Louisville possessions, allowing the offense to unleash a 30-0 run in less than nine minutes. During those four possessions, Syracuse never once began a drive in its own territory.

“I’m not even sure I’ve been a part of something like that in 35 years,” Babers said.

On the third turnover – a fumble by Jawon Pass – Pass attempted a rush to the outside but was fronted by SU defensive end Kingsley Jonathan. As pass attempted a hesitation move, he lost control of the football and watched his third-straight turnover from the ground as Jonathan pounced on it at the Louisville 22-yard-line.

Jonathan hopped up and held the football straight in the air with his left hand, while he pounded his chest with his right, showcasing the fumble recovery to the nearly 43,000 fans packed into the Dome.

Only minutes before, Andre Cisco nabbed his fifth interception of the season, more than Syracuse had in the entirety of 2017. The Orange continued to mount a lead on their ACC-leading turnover margin, as two interceptions, two fumbles, and a turnover on downs padded their mark further.

“I can’t say enough about the defense,” Babers said. “Those guys are fantastic and they really do cross T’s and dot I’s.”

The pass rush, which is tied for 16th in the nation, proved relentless again tonight, sacking Louisville quarterbacks six times, tying a season-high, and forcing the Cardinals to rotate between three different signal callers.

Late in the third quarter, ahead 44-7, Robinson blew by Louisville’s right tackle, Lukayus McNeil, a 6-foot-6, 328-pound redshirt senior. As he shed McNeil and tossed aside running back Trey Smith on his way to pummeling Pass into the turf, deep in Cardinal territory and forcing a punt.

Robinson jumped to his feet and flexed in front of the exuberant crowd, before jogging back onto the sidelines.

Babers’ message planted itself in the heads of his defense. No one was going to allow what happened the last two years to happen again this Friday night. On Sunday, Babers called out his players, Whitner said, he pointed deep into their chests in the locker room.

“Have you beaten Louisville,” Babers said to his players one-by-one. “Have you beaten them?”

Going around the room, each player thought silently about what they had heard and what they saw on the board. Heading into this contest with its best start since 2001, Syracuse had to deliver on their promise not to let it happen again, and they had to do it defensively.

“When you really sit and think about that it’s like they didn’t have any respect for us and we knew that going into the game.” Robinson said. “We had to earn our respect.”

Published on November 10, 2018 at 1:19 am

Contact Matt: mdliberm@syr.edu