EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.— Syracuse took the ball from Everett Golson. The Orange robbed his Fighting Irish of momentum. SU defenders even drilled him off his feet once.

But they couldn’t take the game from him anymore than they could prevent him from making history. When Golson turned to his left and hit Tarean Folston on a screen pass on 3rd-and-7 at the beginning of the second quarter, the game was tied. The No. 8 Fighting Irish’s (4-0) offense was contained and Golson’s greatest contribution to the game at MetLife Stadium was a pair of fumbles, one of which SU (2-2) recovered.

Before another pass left his hand and fell to an incompletion, he had dropped Syracuse into a 21-point deficit, reduced the Orange defensive backs to flapping at balls they couldn’t reach and tugging at receivers they couldn’t defend.

As Golson broke Syracuse to a 31-15 defeat, he set a Notre Dame record with 25 straight completions.

“They were effective and they beat our butts,” SU head coach Scott Shafer said, “so good job by Golson.”

The junior quarterback pelted the Orange off balance with screens and quick slants. His receivers caught the ball with either one man to beat or a lane of Fighting Irish teammates to slide through.

Golson’s first four passes were all screens and all completions. A Fighting Irish false start handed Notre Dame 3rd-and-7 on the SU 43. Dropping into its “Okie” defense, the Orange rushed three down lineman. Golson personally beat them all as he scrambled to the SU 23, then fumbled the ball into the hands of Brandon Reddish.

Syracuse was given a chance and the ball, but did little with either. Four more unsuccessful SU drives followed before Golson began punishing the Orange’s wastefulness.

“He exploited the defensive flaws we had,” SU cornerback Julian Whigham said.

With 11 minutes left in the second quarter, Golson hit Will Fuller for a 23-yard touchdown on a bubble screen. Fuller darted from the left side of the field, through the heart of the Syracuse defense and into the end zone to open the scoring.

One SU three-and-out and another Golson throw later, Fuller was running into the end zone untouched again. This time after torching converted cornerback Corey Winfield for a 72-yard touchdown catch.

“That’s not a good quarterback, that’s a really good quarterback with a great arm,” SU defensive line coach Tim Daoust said. “That’s going to happen if you don’t get consistent pressure on the quarterback.

Daoust said he won’t be sleeping on the bus ride back to Syracuse. The players Golson ran ragged will, Daoust said, but the coach has film to watch.

He’ll see a flash of quick passes at the line of scrimmage, where the Orange defenders could keep the Irish from scoring, push them off the field, but always have to return to it themselves against a quarterback they couldn’t beat.

Golson’s 25 straight completions led to 28 Notre Dame points. SU got nine in the same period of play. More than 35 minutes of game time ran off in the streak. When it ended, the game was all but decided. 

Everything that Golson made happen Saturday night, happened too fast for Syracuse.

“Our job’s to hit the quarterback,” Daoust said. “And at the end of the day, we didn’t get there fast enough.”

Published on September 28, 2014 at 2:49 am

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_