Dino Babers Supports Defense in Loss to Duke
Syracuse, NY — Someone smarter than me once said “don’t ignore in victory what you would otherwise address in defeat.” Now sitting at 1-3 following their 38-24 loss to Duke, Syracuse hasn’t experienced the thrill of victory enough to ignore issues that have them near the bottom of the ACC. Still, optimism was high following their first win against Georgia Tech two weeks ago. The era of good feelings lingered into the bye and Orange fans were disgusted to see their team listed as underdogs against an 0-4 Duke team.
The Blue Devils were only favored by two, yet they walk away from the Carrier Dome touting a 14-point win. Despite finishing +4 in turnover differential, Syracuse was unable to keep this game within one score. Why? More than likely, it’s because of the beyond lopsided rushing totals for the two teams.
Duke ran all over Orange defenders, gashing Tony White’s 3-3-5 for 363-yards on the ground. The Blue Devil tandem of Deon Jackson and Mataeo Durant each tattooed their fair share of would-be tacklers. Jackson led Duke rushers with 171-yards (5.6 AVG) while Durant nearly matched that gaudy number with 166-yards of his own (7.1 AVG, 2 TDs).
Meanwhile, Syracuse was suffocated in the ground game. Orange running plays accounted for only 28-yards on 23 attempts for an embarrassing 1.2 yards-per-carry average. Overall, Syracuse was out-gained 645 to 286 offensively.
A lot of praise was bestowed upon White’s scheme for the amount of turnovers it’s been able to generate, which is now responsible for 14 takeaways in four games. One riddle his platoon has been unable to solve, however, is how to stop the run. This isn’t a problem unique to the Duke debacle. Orange opponents are averaging a whopping 231-yards on the ground per contest. It has played a hand in all three losses and could have cost Syracuse the game against Georgia Tech, who rumbled for 275 rushing yards in their 37-20 defeat.
During his brief postgame press-conference, Syracuse head coach Dino Babers hesitated to find fault in his team’s defensive effort.
“They gave up a lot of yards rushing,” Babers said on Saturday. “But if you ask me, 'If they can give up those yards and get me those turnovers,' I take that. I wouldn't look at those guys (defense) so much.”
Four Duke turnovers were only able to yield seven Syracuse points. The seven points came with zero offensive input as LB Geoff Cantin-Arku took matters into his own hands with a 28-yard scoop-and-score early in the second quarter.
Duke finished the game having run 50 more plays than the Syracuse offense (Duke - 102, SU - 52). The Blue Devils also had the edge in time of possession, holding the ball almost 20-minutes longer than the Orange (Duke - 39:43, SU - 20:17). Babers maintains that the disproportion in plays-called is the main reason his defense crumbled against the run once again.
“When you get a play count that high on a defense that that's as active as our defense, it's not fair to really believe that those kids can go that many snaps at that pace, especially when you're not holding your own on the other side of the ball,” Babers said in support of his defense. “Yes. We missed some tackles, but they were out there a long, long time.”
The Orange offense wasn’t completely helpless, though. In what might be the most bizarre development of this young season, Tommy DeVito continues to have success with his deep ball. His two touchdown passes went 79-yards to WR Taj Harris and 53-yards to TE Luke Benson. His four touchdown passes in 2020 have gone for an average of 55-yards. With as many times DeVito is chucking it deep, people start to wonder if this has suddenly become the Orange’s offensive philosophy. Babers clarified after the game that they were just taking what the Duke defense was giving them, but their struggles in the intermediate game contributed to the frequent three-and-outs.
“We had short throws and we had some deep throws,” Babers said when asked about his offense. “We just didn't hit on a lot of the short throws, which was really important in keeping the chains moving and keeping the play count up for the offense and down for the defense.”
DeVito’s long-distance connection to Benson could prove to be his last scoring toss of 2020. Following his fifth sack on Saturday, DeVito was forced-off the field and into the locker room. The red-shirt junior was unable to make the trek under his own power, later seen leaning on a pair a of crutches. Babers did little to spark optimism for an eventual DeVito return this season.
All signs point to back-up Rex Culpepper taking snaps for Syracuse moving forward. Culpepper has one week to prepare for unbeaten Liberty, who will travel to the Carrier Dome to cap-off the Orange’s three-game home stand.
