The opening five minutes of Syracuse against Notre Dame saw 36 point scored, a blocked extra point returned for two points and a kickoff return for a touchdown. By halftime, Syracuse was within six points. Take away the blocked PAT and give the Orange the field goal missed at the buzzer and it would have been tied. But the Fighting Irish opened the half with 17 unanswered points and stomped on SU, 50-33, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Here’s a look at where some players and units stood out.

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Brisly Estime, senior wide receiver

Brisly Estime was electric in the punt return game, catching three kicks and taking them a total of 128 yards. His best return of the day came with less than a minute left in the first half. Several Notre Dame players were within a few yards of Estime as he caught the ball at his own 12, but they stopped, apparently thinking he called for a fair catch. So Estime bolted forward, shed about three tackles, and was finally brought down at Notre Dame’s 14. The Orange scored a touchdown right before the half as a result of his return.

After the first week of the season, head coach Dino Babers took Estime off punt returns to save his energy for offense. But his replacement, freshman receiver Sean Riley, looked a bit shaky. Estime took the last punt in the fourth quarter against UConn last week and started taking punts in the second quarter this week. He already has the seventh-most yards in FBS despite being tied for 48th in number of punt returns, with seven. His 21.9 yards per return in second best.

Jessica Sheldon | Photo Editor

Zaire Franklin, junior linebacker

Syracuse’s defense did not look good against Notre Dame, but one player that shined in moments was Zaire Franklin. The middle linebacker came up with three of the defense’s biggest plays on the day. Franklin finished with nine tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, a sack and an interception.

He read a jet sweep play at the goal line and took down running back Josh Adams with a solo tackle at Syracuse’s 1-yard line. When Notre Dame had the ball on third down at SU’s 35 with about a minute left in the first half, Franklin darted in from pass coverage and took down a scrambling DeShone Kizer for an 11-yard sack, knocking UND out of field goal range. On Notre Dame’s next offensive play, Franklin jumped in front of a crossing route and returned the interception to UND’s 34 with 16 seconds left in the first.

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MORE COVERAGE:

• What we learned from Syracuse’s loss to Notre Dame
• Syracuse fizzles once again after hot start
• Big plays torch the Orange’s defense

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Eric Dungey, sophomore quarterback

SU’s offense was dwarfed by Notre Dame’s big plays, but Eric Dungey turned in another solid game. He threw the ball 51 times for 363 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He was the team’s leading rusher, ran for three scores and was able to draw the Fighting Irish offside at least four times.

His throws weren’t the sharpest again, but Dungey delivered in the red zone. SU abandoned the run game, putting the whole offense on Dungey’s shoulders, and he led it to 33 points. The offense did struggle after the opening two touchdowns again, but Dungey even slid twice on runs, which is an improvement for him.

Clare Ramirez | Presentation Director

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Syracuse’s big-play defense

The Tampa 2 is a scheme designed to bend, not break. Give up yards in small doses, not huge chunks. But again, the Orange was a major victim of big plays. Notre Dame scored four offensive touchdowns of more than 50 yards, including a 79-yard touchdown pass on the first play from scrimmage.

Even when it looked like SU had Fighting Irish running back Dexter Williams caught behind the line of scrimmage for a loss, Williams cut back left against the defense that over-pursued and trotted into the end zone after 59 yards with no one around him. Kizer’s 471 passing yards are the most in a win in Fighting Irish history, which dates to 1887.

Jessica Sheldon | Photo Editor

Kickers

Place kicker Cole Murphy entered the Notre Dame game coming off a week where he went 1-for-3 on field goals and booted two kickoffs out of bounds. It didn’t get much better for him on Saturday. Murphy had his first PAT blocked and returned for a score — not necessarily his fault — and then missed on a 40-yard field goal before halftime that would have brought the Orange within three points.

Punter Sterling Hofrichter had a rough day, too. He shanked one rugby-style punt from Syracuse’s 43 that went out of bounds after only 13 yards. He seems to have mishit several punts this season, but he’s tied for being the 10th-most used punter in the country, averaging 6.4 per game. His yards per punt average is 48th in the nation.

Hofrichter also mishandled a PAT snap as the holder, costing SU a point.

Jessica Sheldon | Photo Editor

Cordell Hudson, redshirt sophomore cornerback

Cordell Hudson did prevent himself from being hurdled again and made a few nice stops, but he was also apart of three of Notre Dame’s four offensive touchdowns that went for more than 50 yards.

On the very first play of the game, Hudson squared up Equanimeous St. Brown running laterally across the field toward him at about the Notre Dame 45. St. Brown cut up the field and Hudson just fell to the ground after only getting a hand on him.

On Notre Dame’s next offensive possession, Hudson covered St. Brown one-on-one. Hudson slowed up while St. Brown accelerated as the ball was thrown and St. Brown caught it a step ahead of Hudson, who face-planted into the ground again as St. Brown went in for a score.

Hudson was the man with backside contain on Dexter Williams’ 59-yard cutback touchdown run, but Hudson again was caught off guard with a cut up field and missed the tackle, only grazing Williams with his left hand.

Jessica Sheldon | Photo Editor

Published on October 2, 2016 at 3:35 pm

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus