Anthony Perkins made his way toward the section of Syracuse fans at Raymond James Stadium, removed his helmet and took a bow.

The simple gesture by the SU defensive tackle put a stamp on a dominating performance by the Syracuse defense in a win over South Florida.

‘Defensively, they stepped up,’ SU head coach Doug Marrone said in an article published by The Daily Orange on Oct. 11, 2010. ‘I thought all of our guys played hard.’

Syracuse’s defense keyed its 13-9 road victory over South Florida last season. The Orange defense enforced its will on the Bulls and contained their offensive playmakers. SU pressured USF quarterback B.J. Daniels early, often sacking him four times, forcing two interceptions and holding the Bulls to just 219 yards in total offense. That disruptive performance led the Orange to the win despite its own struggles on offense.

SU failed to score a touchdown until it converted on a 14-play, 98-yard drive in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Ryan Nassib found Marcus Sales on a 3-yard touchdown pass that proved to be the game-winning score.

In a game with limited success on offense for either team, Syracuse’s defense ultimately made the difference and made that decisive drive possible.

The Orange entered the contest with a simple game plan: aiming to pressure Daniels on every play.

The Bulls arguably had their best drive of the game in the opening series. Daniels marched his team down the field, but with 31 yards standing between USF and the end zone, the quarterback made his first mistake of the game.

Daniels dropped back and threw a jump ball into the end zone that was picked off by SU cornerback Da’Mon Merkerson.

From that point on, Daniels was never comfortable in the pocket. The dual-threat quarterback was neutralized by a variety of SU blitzes that came from every direction. The Orange defense hit and knocked the quarterback down with regularity.

‘You don’t want him to feel comfortable,’ senior linebacker Doug Hogue said in the article. ‘Once he starts feeling comfortable in the pocket, starts running around and getting his own ‘swag’ and own groove and what not, that’s when we knew we were going to be in trouble.

‘So we were going to have to frustrate him. Keep him on his heels and make him make quick decisions.’

The defense did just that, forcing him to commit two costly turnovers.

Nassib didn’t perform much better. He completed only 12-of-22 passes and was held to just 129 yards passing. The starting quarterback overthrew open receivers, took bad sacks and, at times, the offense simply couldn’t move the ball.

But it didn’t matter. The defense carried the load.

Even though Syracuse’s defense had been picked apart earlier in the season by Washington and underperformed against Maine and Colgate, the Orange masterfully executed its game plan in the crucial Big East victory

‘That’s a thing of the past,’ Hogue said. ‘Now we just don’t care. We had a plan, and we executed it.

‘It was just about hitting this guy the whole game.’

—Compiled by Andrew Tredinnick, asst. copy editor, adtredin@syr.edu

Published on November 10, 2011 at 12:00 pm