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Syracuse defensive back Rob Hanna stared down Virginia Tech’s offensive line with two minutes left in the fourth quarter. He was five yards away from the line of scrimmage, standing directly behind linebacker Stefon Thompson while the Orange trailed by two.

But as Hokies’ quarterback Braxton Burmeister started his cadence in shotgun, Hanna started to creep up closer to the line, all the while remaining behind Thompson. After the snap, Hanna bolted forward, separating himself from Thompson with a free lane at Burmeister. Hanna wrapped up the quarterback 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, giving the Orange’s offense one more chance to win the game — an opportunity they met.

In Syracuse’s 41-36 win over Virginia Tech, the defense made up for early mistakes with big plays like Hanna’s late against the Hokies. Linebackers Mikel Jones and Thompson led the defense in tackles, combining for 18 tackles. The Orange finished with 65 yards off tackles for loss with three sacks in the outing. But SU struggled stopping Virginia Tech’s rushing attack, allowing 260 rushing yards from the Hokies despite entering the game as the 26th-best rushing defense in the country. 

The Orange’s struggles against the run started with the linebacker core, who were unable to get tackles at the second level. This season, the group has been the strongest unit in the defense after giving up the fifth-most rushing yards nationally in 2020. The bunch coined a name for this shift — a “mob mentality.”

“It was the mentality that we had all summer and all winter because of the season we had last year,” linebacker Geoff Cantin-Arku said. “We knew that we had to get our things together.”

Linebacker Marlowe Wax said that this mindset made its way to the rest of the defense, highlighting the aggressiveness and pursuit from all 11 players that they expect on every play. But early against Virginia Tech, SU’s linebackers were pulled up to the line of scrimmage and completely stopped by the Hokies offensive line. On Virginia Tech’s first drive, Burmeister took advantage of the hole in the middle of the field and used the option to gain 25 yards on three carries.

The reason for Burmeister’s success was the lack of a “QB spy” for Syracuse’s 3-3-5 defense, a role that was filled by Mikel Jones in previous games. Jones went up to the line of scrimmage on most plays, leaving the middle of the field open for Burmeister to run through. 

Burmeister was not the only player to expose Syracuse’s holes in the defense. Running back Malachi Thomas did most of the damage. Thomas — who’s career-high was 33 yards heading into the game — finished with 151 yards and three touchdowns. In the first half, Virginia Tech had 109 yards on 26 rushing attempts, averaging 4.2 yards per carry. 

In the second quarter, Thomas scored his first touchdown of the afternoon, dragging Jones four yards for the score. But the play before that, Burmeister had picked up a first down on a rush to the outside, where he was met by Cantin-Arku and cornerback Adrian Cole.

Cole was starting his second game of the season, replacing Garrett Williams, who was out with an unknown injury. Williams was crucial for the Orange with open field tackles on rushing attempts from the opposition, while Cole — and later on Aman Greenwood — were unable to make quick tackles.

Late in the second quarter, Syracuse’s defense settled in, stopping the Hokies from getting points on multiple drives. With 12 minutes left in the period, the Orange sent blitzes on every down at Virginia Tech, allowing linebacker Cantin-Arku to tackle running back Tre Turner seven yards behind the line of scrimmage. Thompson blitzed on the ensuing third-and-15, sacking Burmeister to force fourth down.

In the second half, as Syracuse’s offense started to click as well, Syracuse continued to blitz the Hokies. Once again this opened up the middle — the most sensitive spot in SU’s 3-3-5 defense — if all the linebackers went up to the line to add pressure.

“We came out in the second half and played better, that’s something we need to do to be the team we want to be,” head coach Dino Babers said. 

On third-and-1 with five minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Orange sent all their linebackers at the line in order to try and cause a fourth down and give their offense an opportunity to erase a two-point deficit. Thomas took a handoff and with good blocking, he had an empty hole with only SU’s defensive backs to beat. He got past all of them, running 47 yards to extend the Hokies’ lead.

Despite the miscues on the last drive, the Orange maintained the pressure on Virginia Tech’s offense, continuing to send at least two blitzers at the Hokies, willing to give up the passes in order to stop the run.

After the Hokies picked up a first down through a catch by Tayvion Robinson, they pounded two runs up the middle. But the center was now sealed as Jones stayed back while Wax and Thompson blitzed. Jones met Thomas two yards past the line of scrimmage, and on the next play Duce Chestnut tackled Robinson on another rushing attempt, halting the Hokies go-ahead drive.

Published on October 23, 2021 at 6:56 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu