For one half, the Syracuse defense stuck to its plan against Northwestern’s spread offense: Bend, but don’t break.

The Wildcats had 242 total yards in the first half, repeatedly moving the ball into Syracuse territory. But only once in the half did Northwestern score a touchdown.

‘An offense like that, you say you’re gonna stop these guys, but they’re going to make plays,’ said Syracuse linebacker Jake Flaherty.

That’s exactly what happened in the second half, when the Wildcats’ high-octane attack wore down the already thin Orange defense.

Northwestern scored a pair of second-half touchdowns and could have scored more in the fourth had it not chosen to bleed the clock. The Wildcats seemed to wear down the SU defense, which helped the hosts with some poor tackling in the second half.

It wasn’t that the Orange wasn’t prepared for Northwestern’s no-huddle, run-and-gun style, which often utilized four or five wide receivers at a time.

It’s just that as the game went on, SU couldn’t stop it.

‘They meant to use the whole field, and they’re good,’ said senior safety A.J. Brown, who led the Orange with 11 tackles and an interception. ‘We just got to make plays. It puts emphasis on certain people to make plays, and we didn’t do it to the best of our abilities today.

‘We just happened to miss a couple tackles, and they took their opportunities when they had them.’

Syracuse had a golden opportunity of its own in the third quarter, after a fumble recovery and a Curtis Brinkley touchdown run gave the Orange a 10-9 lead.

Northwestern responded with an efficient drive, marching 76 yards on 13 plays. That was capped by a C.J. Bacher touchdown pass to running back Tyrell Sutton to erase SU’s fleeting lead. Bacher added another touchdown pass in the fourth to ice the game.

The Wildcats senior quarterback finished 23-for-35 for 215 yards and gradually picked apart Syracuse young secondary that had been spread thin all game. When Bacher wasn’t throwing, running back Tyrell Sutton was slashing into SU’s defensive gaps, rushing for 144 yards.

‘I thought defensively, really for a long period of time, I thought we played pretty well,’ said Syracuse head coach Greg Robinson. ‘You can tell as it moved to fourth quarter, they had us kind of in their gun-sights. And I give them credit … We didn’t tackle nearly as well in the fourth quarter as we did in the first quarter.’

Receiver roulette

One of the biggest questions asked of Syracuse leading up to Saturday’s opener was if the Orange would be able to adequately replace suspended wide receiver Mike Williams.

The answer, at least for Saturday, was no.

The Orange’s makeshift receiving corps struggled in its debut, accounting for eight of SU’s 14 receptions. Donte Davis led the team with four catches for 38 yards. Lavar Lobdell, ranked No. 1, had just two grabs and dropped at least two other ones.

Freshman Marcus Sales and senior Bruce Williams each had one grab.

‘We gotta step up and make plays,’ Davis said. ‘If the passing game is going good then the running game is going good. If the running game is going good, that opens up the passing game, so it works both ways. But we definitely need to step up and make more plays.’

Then again, quarterback Andrew Robinson accounted for some of the passing game’s deficiencies. The junior had perhaps his worst game as a starter for SU.

‘I think (the wide receivers) did a pretty good job today,’ Andrew Robinson said. ‘They ran good routes and they did a lot of the things we asked them to do. I was off on a couple balls. A little high here, a little low there, that kind of thing. I just have to throw the ball better.’

This and that

Syracuse walked away from its opener without any major injuries. Redshirt defensive end Lamar Middleton and junior linebacker Mike Stenclik (knee) both left the game, but Greg Robinson said Sunday both were fine. Kicker Pat Shadle banged a 55-yard field goal off the left upright in the second quarter. The kick had plenty of distance. The Orange played three true freshmen in the game: wide receivers Sales and Van Chew, and defensive end Mikhail Marinovich.

jsclayto@syr.edu

Published on September 1, 2008 at 12:00 pm