Since surrendering 63 points one early September afternoon, Syracuse has relied on its defense.

To get stops when it couldn’t score. To create momentum swings when the offense could make none of their own. To have a chance to win. 

“They’ve had a better season than us so far and they’ve had our back plenty of times,” tight end Aaron Hackett said.

But Syracuse’s (3-6, 0-5 Atlantic Coast) defense was missing in action all Saturday afternoon in the Carrier Dome, giving up 58 points, a program-record 496 rushing yards and in a single quarter surrendering four touchdowns of 50-plus yards. Boston College (5-4, 3-3) ran away from the Orange by doing exactly what everyone thought the Eagles would do — ground and pound with play-action passing — and SU looked hapless trying to defend it at times. 

The result: A 58-27 pounding that kept the Orange winless in conference play and asking questions about a defense that, until today, was the bright spot for Syracuse. 

“They just got tired of hitting (AJ) Dillon and his backup,” head coach Dino Babers said. “And those play-action passes, they just break your back.”

Boston College’s offensive recipe is simple, leaning on NFL-caliber running back Dillon, the other backs and their talented offensive line to blow back opponents and set up the play-action pass. To limit it, you start by stopping Dillon. 

Syracuse knew as much, as Babers said earlier in the week the game would hinge on the “elephants and hippos” up front. Practices with the scout team were as close to live as they could be the past week, defensive tackle Kenneth Ruff said. With sophomore Markenzy Pierre and freshman Garrison Johnson standing in for Dillon — albeit undersized mock ups — the SU defense practiced all week against the power running Boston College would employ. 

But familiarity with the problem wasn’t enough to solve it. SU was hurt, in part, because it didn’t have the depth to constantly rotate defensive linemen and linebackers through. They subbed as much as they felt possible, Babers said, but without having the starters out there, SU didn’t have as much of a chance. 

And even when SU’s starters were on the field and rested, it didn’t matter much. Syracuse didn’t overstack the box with the play-action threat, relying instead on linebackers and linemen to execute their assignments and hope someone cleared their block to get a stop. The Eagles offensive line began manhandling SU’s line at times, firing off the ball on run plays, creating havoc in Syracuse’s front seven and trusting that one of its 235-pound-plus running backs would come out the other side with positive yardage. 

On Boston College’s only touchdown of the fourth quarter, Dillon took a handoff inside SU’s 10 and didn’t see a hole. Instead, he plowed forward into a clump of one BC blocker and three SU defenders. From the 2-yard line, the 245-pound running back drove the four bodies, and himself, six feet into the end zone.

“There’s nothing schematically that you can do,” Ruff said. “It’s like a bar fight. You’ve just got line up in front of somebody and try to beat them. Do whatever you can do to slow AJ Dillon down.”

Syracuse would’ve been perfectly happy to let Boston College churn out long, running drives like it did on the first possession of the game: A 13-play, 71-yard drive ending in a field goal. BC steadily picked up chunks in the run game from the start, but the Eagles had to drive “the long way,” as linebacker Andrew Armstrong put it, to 10 first-quarter points. 

After the first quarter, and Boston College’s incessant run game had netted the Eagles 160 yards, they struck. Safety Evan Foster crashed to the line of scrimmage with the snap of the ball, seeing quarterback Dennis Grosel turn to give the ball off. As a result, he didn’t see Kobay White slip behind him — and the rest of the defense — for a walk-in 64-yard touchdown down the middle of the field on a play-action pass. SU’s safeties got fooled on another near identical look for a 50-yard score 7 minutes later in the quarter.

Those scores, sandwiching an SU field goal, put Boston College up, 24-20, and for good. 

“Anytime a team just continues to keep on running the ball, you get comfortable fitting up stuff,” Foster said. “Sometimes blow a coverage here or there, just gotta be on focus and keying on our man and continue to just do our jobs.”

As Boston College surged ahead, Syracuse’s defense crumpled. 

A three-and-out followed the second passing touchdown. BC got the ball back with around six minutes until halftime. The Orange stuffed Dillon on first down, but on second down he took a trap 51 yards for a touchdown. 

Another Syracuse three-and-out followed Dillon’s rushing touchdown. Boston College fielded the punt with four minutes left. Then, Dillon’s backup, David Bailey, went 74 yards untouched to make it 38-20. 

SU fumbled before it could go three-and-out following Bailey’s touchdown. With 2:38 until halftime, starting from the Syracuse 30, Boston College handed it to Dillon four-straight times. Two quarterback sneaks picked up a crucial first down and then, with 26 second left, Boston College ran play-action for a wide open touchdown. 

“What we really needed to do is limit the big plays,” Armstrong said. “First drive of the game we made them go a long way and they ran the ball almost every play, held them to three points. And that’s what we needed to do throughout the rest of the game.”

Syracuse’s defense knew exactly what was coming on Saturday and it still got run over.

Published on November 2, 2019 at 5:39 pm

Contact Andrew: aegraham@syr.edu | @A_E_Graham