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At the start of the second half against Pittsburgh, Syracuse’s defense took to the field first. Though the Orange had folded twice already on offense, they had held the Atlantic Coast Conference’s best offense to only 14 points — the lowest amount the Panthers had scored in an opening half since their win over Clemson.

SU was successful in the first half against the run, holding Pittsburgh to only 40 rushing yards. But its only strength started to fold. On the third play of the drive, running back Vincent Davis broke five tackles to get inside Syracuse’s 30-yard line.

Three plays later, Stefon Thompson sacked quarterback Kenny Pickett — the first and only sack of the game. But he was called for a facemask. Two plays after that, tight end Gavin Bartholomew emerged wide-open in the end zone on a play-action pass, a concept the Orange hadn’t seen much of till that point against the Panthers. With Bartholomew’s score, Pittsburgh took a two-score lead, a margin it would only build upon by the end of the night.

“The offense just came out and had a better scheme than us,” defensive back Duce Chestnut said.

In Syracuse’s (5-7, 2-6 Atlantic Coast) season finale, the Orange were unable to carry a strong start on defense throughout the entirety of the game, falling 31-14 to Pittsburgh (10-2, 7-1 ACC) at the Carrier Dome on Saturday. Chestnut picked off Pickett once and made four tackles in the loss. Mikel Jones also finished with a career-high 16 tackles, but struggles against Pickett and the Panthers passing game led to 209 passing yards and four touchdowns from the Heisman Trophy candidate.

Pittsburgh entered the game as the ACC’s best offense, averaging 43.9 points per game. Still, the Orange held the Panthers scoreless in the first quarter, stopping them on their first three drives. SU also held Pittsburgh to only one first down on its first two drives. Chestnut said that the Orange’s strategy heading into the game was to limit Pickett, which led to their success early in the game.

“He’s a guy that’s up for all the awards possible for a quarterback,” Chestnut said. “So we had to go out there and limit big plays and do what we do best.”

The Orange were able to get pressure on Pickett by blitzing with linebackers — Jones, Thompson and Marlowe Wax. While SU only recorded one sack, Pickett was forced out of the pocket on many plays, which helped Syracuse in the first quarter. On the Panthers’ second drive of the game, Pickett was forced to roll out on a third-and-3 as Jones and Wax faked a blitz. Pickett ended up throwing the ball out of bounds because none of his receivers were open.

“That quarterback is the best quarterback in the conference,” Syracuse head coach Dino Babers said. “What our defense did against him was really good.”

Chestnut and the rest of the defensive backs also succeeded in guarding against bubble screens by bolting up after seeing players like receiver Jordan Addison start the bubble motion directly after the snap. This allowed Chestnut to get two tackles in the first quarter, halting quick gains from Pittsburgh.

With a third-and-short on its third drive, Pittsburgh attempted a screen pass again, this time towards Garrett Williams. Like Chestnut, Williams saw the play from the snap, hopping out in front of a blocker to prevent the first down.

But Pittsburgh got into a rhythm at the start of the second quarter as Chestnut said the Panthers were able to properly “adjust” to the Orange’s defensive scheme. Instead of forcing quick passes, Pittsburgh started to spread the ball out more while also sending its tight ends on deep routes to force Syracuse’s linebackers into coverage.

Midway through the second quarter, Pittsburgh finally got on the board, stringing together 11 straight plays of positive gains. Pickett was able to find tight ends Lucas Krull and Bartholomew — who were supposed to be covered by the Orange’s linebackers — three times on the drive.

After reaching the red zone, the Panthers ran a screen pass to running back Rodney Hammond Jr. for his first reception of the game. Because of its miscommunication, Syracuse didn’t have a single player within 5 yards of Hammond, allowing him to get to the front pylon with ease from 15 yards out.

On its next drive, Pittsburgh capitalized on a short field after a three-and-out from the Orange’s offense, getting to Syracuse’s 25-yard line. With a second-and-1, defensive lineman Kingsley Jonathan was able to pressure Pickett, but he threw the ball away before Jonathan could take him to the ground. Babers said Pickett was able to make these “NFL guy” plays during the entire game, getting rid of the ball as the pressure came in his face.

“It’s hard to keep those guys down continuously,” Babers said. “(Pickett) was throwing the ball away exactly at the right time.”

With a third-and-1, Pickett dropped back into the pocket, this time with no pressure in his face. While the Orange thought the Panthers were going to run the ball, Pickett found Addison open on a deep bomb, lobbing the ball over Justin Barron for the score.

“Their coach did a good job of just recognizing what we were in and just adjusting. It took us time to get adjusted to what they were doing, switching the things up a little bit,” Jones said.

In the third quarter, the stops that the Orange made earlier in the game on bubble screens started to disappear as well. Pittsburgh sent blockers at Chestnut and other defensive backs at different angles, chipping them out of the way from making plays. On a third-and-3 at the end of the third quarter, Addison broke off a tackle from Chestnut and made a 20-yard gain on a bubble screen.

After another catch for 8 yards, Addison bubbled out after the snap again, looking back at Pickett for the pass. Chestnut was briefly stopped by a block, and by the time he got to Addison, he was too late to make the tackle. Five yards away from the end zone, Addison cruised inside for a touchdown as he was untouched by any Syracuse defender to give Pittsburgh a 28-7 lead.

In the fourth quarter, the Panthers started running the ball more often to move the clock faster, picking up short gains with Davis and Hammond to move the chains. With a first-and-10 at Syracuse’s 39-yard line, however, Pittsburgh took a shot deep, trying to get in the end zone one more time.

Chestnut was able to make up for his earlier mistakes against the bubble screen, using what he said was his strength in man-to-man coverage to intercept Pickett’s long heave. But instead of taking the touchback, he ran out to the 7-yard line — a mistake he made in Syracuse’s season-opener against Ohio which Babers said was a “freshman” move.

The Orange finished the ensuing drive with a three-and-out, unable to score more than 14 points by the end of the game. Chestnut said the defense wasn’t able to “limit Pickett” and follow the instructions in defensive coordinator Tony White’s 3-3-5 system.

“Coach White has a great defensive scheme, and our defense is top-15 in the country when we do what he asks us to do,” Chestnut said. “It was an OK season, but we expected more from us.”

Published on November 28, 2021 at 2:07 am

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu