MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — On the rare occasions that Central Michigan quarterback Cooper Rush had time to pass, there was no one to pass to.

Julian Whigham, Brandon Reddish and the rest of Syracuse secondary’s blanketing coverage forced CMU into a short game of slants and simple outlet passes. The Orange pushed up its corners and denied those passes too as SU (2-0) shut down Central Michigan (2-1) 40-3 Saturday at Kelly/Shorts Stadium. SU reduced the Chippewas offense to averaging just 5.4 yards per reception with a 53 percent completion rate.

“I’m extremely pleased with the defense,” SU defensive line coach Tim Daoust said. “It’s not the front four. It’s all of them. We play with those safeties in the box, tight and our linebackers downhill.”

Whigham said SU knew going into the game that Central Michigan couldn’t do much in the air against man coverage, allowing the Orange to press up as it prefers to. CMU was also missing Titus Davis, its first-team All-Mid American Conference wide receiver due to a knee sprain.

The secondary essentially had one job — stop the short balls it could see coming.

“It simplifies itself,” Whigham said. “When they’re trying to do the same thing over and over again, you start to figure that out. Unfortunately we didn’t get any picks off of it, but it was coming.”

With the deep ball all but out of the question, the temptation of Syracuse defensive backs to undercut routes for interceptions was the greatest threat CMU’s air game posed.

On a third-and-long, Whigham said he thought CMU would try a deep out route to the outside and figured he’d bait the pass, then cut in for an interception. Instead, Central Michigan ran a post route over the middle. But Whigham adjusted and closed off whatever window Rush might have had.

Said Whigham: “We just had a field day, really.”

Published on September 14, 2014 at 4:15 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_