CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — The Syracuse football defense preached all week about how things were changing.

Its secondary finally was intact. Its line was shoring up and stopping the run.

But Saturday, the SU defense was its same old incompetent self, giving up 511 yards and allowing 28 second-half points in a 41-20 loss at Boston College.

Watching this defense once again fail miserably produced a nauseating feeling so typical in this unwatchable, 4-7 season.

And, once again, the Orangemen were clueless afterward as to why their defense played like garbage. At this point in the season, those answers are unacceptable.

“It’s just disappointing,” said SU head coach Paul Pasqualoni, rightfully red-faced because he should be ashamed of the way his defense played. “We needed to be able to stop the run, and they ran the ball for over 200 yards.”

Indeed, the Eagles rushed for 227 yards and passed for 284. The Orangemen have given up more than 250 passing yards in eight of 11 games this season. The defense has allowed 500 or more yards in six games. Last season that happened once — against Miami.

SU defenders insisted that this year’s secondary woes would change when Maurice McClain replaced the ineffective O’Neil Scott at free safety.

Instead, the all-senior defensive backfield has yet to master the fundamentals of tackling.

On BC running back Derrick Knight’s 70-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter Saturday, McClain and cornerback Will Hunter missed tackles.

“This year, we weren’t aggressive as we were in the past,” Hunter said. “We come out prepared to shut guys down, and when it doesn’t work out that way, you have to take a step back and say, ‘Wow, what’s going on?’ ”

After Saturday’s game, Pasqualoni dodged that question about his secondary as skillfully as opposing receivers have dodged would-be SU tacklers this year. When asked about his defensive backfield, Pasqualoni waxed for a minute about BC quarterback Brian St. Pierre.

Thanks, coach, but we were hoping to hear a reason why your secondary is so abysmal.

Pasqualoni could start by recruiting cornerbacks who are tall enough to defend the average receiver. An undersized, 5-foot-7 guy won’t cut it. Latroy Oliver has proven that with his ineffective play this year.

“Things haven’t worked out the way we planned,” safety Keeon Walker said. “But we’ve still got to come out and play a good game (on Nov. 30) against Miami. We still have one game to get things on track.”

That’s ridiculous.

The day the Orangemen’s defense gets things back on track against an offensive juggernaut like Miami is the day SU stops missing Dwight Freeney.

All season, SU’s defensive linemen have downplayed the loss of the NCAA sacks record-holder entering this season. They insisted guys like Josh Thomas, Christian Ferrara and Clifton Smith could fill in.

On paper, that’s a reasonable argument. SU’s front seven features five juniors and a senior. But, save Louis Gachelin (8.5 sacks), the defensive line has disappointed. Saturday, it had zero sacks.

“Obviously, we’d like to play great on defense,” Pasqualoni said. “It’s frustrating, because there have been stretches where we have played great. In the Rutgers game, I thought we played very well.”

Congratulations.

As for Saturday’s performance, SU cornerback Steve Gregory said of SU’s second-half, defensive effort, “it just kind of fell apart,” then denied with a straight face that SU has big problems on defense.

Hunter was more honest.

“(In the second half), we just came out on defense and didn’t do what we were supposed to do,” he said. “The thing broke and just kept breaking.”

And, no matter what the Orangemen think, it’s not getting fixed this year.

Darryl Slater is an assistant sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear regularly. E-mail him at dpslater@syr.edu.

Published on November 17, 2002 at 12:00 pm