Film Review: Chunk plays from Duke gash Syracuse defense in Week 5 demise
In Saturday’s 38-3 loss against Duke, Syracuse failed to set the edge, leading to multiple chunk plays for the Blue Devils. Avery Magee | Asst. Photo Editor
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In Syracuse’s 38-3 loss to Duke Saturday, the Orange allowed 16 offensive plays of at least 10 yards. Fran Brown blamed his team’s defensive lapses on its failure to set the edge, allowing the Blue Devils to find open space outside the hash marks.
To “set the edge” essentially means the outside linebackers keep the opponent from getting the ball outside the tackles. Against a team like Duke, a spread offense that thrives off speedy halfbacks and strong outside receiving threats, it was paramount for SU to set the edge. If it didn’t, it would give up chunk plays. It knew the risks, and still didn’t execute.
The Orange sacked Blue Devils quarterback Darian Mensah twice and allowed Duke to tear through their defense by exploiting the edges. SU conceded 235 rushing yards on 37 attempts and 503 total yards. Duke had rushes of 49 and 39 yards, as well as receptions of 34, 25 and 23 yards.
Mensah and Co. picked apart second-year defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson’s man-to-man scheme, an unfavorable strategy versus a spread offense.
“We got to set firm edges,” Brown said postgame.
Here’s a film breakdown on three damaging big plays Syracuse (3-2, 1-1 ACC) allowed in its blowout loss to Duke (3-2, 2-0 ACC):
1st quarter, 3:12 — Duke goes 49 yards for early exclamation point
Freshman running back Nate Sheppard went ballistic against SU, notching over 200 yards from scrimmage, including 168 rushing yards. His biggest pop of the afternoon was one of his first touches of the game, a 49-yard rushing touchdown to put Syracuse behind 10-3 late in the opening quarter.
The Orange continuously let Sheppard run past them off the edges. On this play, a first-and-10 from just across the 50-yard line, Syracuse linebacker Gary Bryant III and JACK linebacker David Reese could not set the edge.
Mensah handed the ball off to Sheppard from the shotgun while the Orange rushed four, including Reese on the right edge. Bryant was positioned behind Reese to help out on a potential run play. After Sheppard received the handoff, Bryant charged outside of Reese to try and set the edge, but got sealed off by a textbook block from tight end Jeremiah Hasley.
Reese, meanwhile, was turned in the opposite direction by the time Sheppard ran past him — Duke right tackle Brian Parker II manhandled him and created a picturesque hole for Sheppard in the C gap. By the time Sheppard burst through the gap in SU’s defensive line, missed tackles from defensive back Cornell Perry and linebacker Antoine Deslauriers allowed him to cruise into the end zone untouched.
Bryant’s angle for the tackle was too wide, as Hasley easily stepped right and created a massive hole for Sheppard. Reese simply lost his rep against Parker. This play was the epitome of how Duke’s trenches controlled the edges against Syracuse.
2nd quarter, 12:01 — Cooper barrels into the end zone untouched
As a result of SU not setting the edges well, Mensah had virtually all day to throw. Either the Orange would keep him inside the pocket without causing pressure, or they’d allow him to scramble and make accurate throws toward the sidelines. At the same time, SU’s secondary fared poorly in the one-on-one matchups assembled by man-to-man defense.
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Here, Davien Kerr badly loses his assignment — Duke wideout Cooper Barkate — on a first-and-10 play where Syracuse didn’t generate pressure.
The Blue Devils lined up in 11 personnel from SU’s 34-yard line, with Hasley lined up as a fullback in the right side of the backfield. Sheppard stood to Mensah’s left while the Orange were in their signature 4-2-5, cover 2 man defense.
Kerr matched up alone with Barkate on the top of the field. After Mensah completed his cadence and faked an inside zone handoff to Sheppard, Barkate chopped his feet before cutting inside toward the middle of the field against Kerr. Ten yards past Barkate’s break, Kerr began to slip and gradually fell to the turf. Meanwhile, SU’s high safety — Perry — incorrectly bit on X receiver Sahmir Hagans’ route on the left side of the field, leaving Kerr without help.
Kerr laid on the ground when Barkate made the catch. He pranced across the goal line with no SU defensive back in sight. While Mensah calmly dropped back and tossed a 34-yard touchdown strike to Barkate, Reese barely drove Parker backward at all. His opposite edge rusher, Denis Jaquez Jr., was pushed so far off the edge by Duke left tackle Bruno Fina that he wound up nearly 10 yards behind Mensah at the end of the play.
2nd quarter, 0:37 — Sheppard gashes SU again
Down 24-3 with less than a minute left before halftime, Syracuse was in full-on desperation mode. The Blue Devils were receiving the second-half kickoff, so it was paramount that the Orange ended the first half with a stop. Then the same story repeated itself: Sheppard destroyed SU on an outside run.
On a second-and-8 snap from its own 24-yard line, Duke lined up in a pistol formation with Sheppard standing behind Mensah in the shotgun. Right before Mensah clapped his hands for the snap, Y receiver Jayden Moore motioned from the left to the right side just before Mensah clapped his hands for the snap. Moore timed it up so he’d receive a fake handoff from the quarterback before continuing his rightward motion. After the play-fake, Mensah handed the ball off to Sheppard on a dive.
If you pause your screen at the moment Sheppard gets the ball, you can clearly see how badly Duke’s offensive line ravaged Syracuse’s defensive line here. SU’s entire front four is sandwiched in the interior of the Blue Devils’ offensive line and not a single Orange player is occupying the right edge. All Sheppard had to do was make one cut toward the right sideline and follow Moore’s downfield blocking as the receiver sealed off a lurking Bryant in the second level of the defense.
After trotting along the sideline and moving past midfield, Sheppard got forced out of bounds by cornerback Demetres Samuel Jr., but not before the running back tallied a 39-yard gain. In a situation where the Orange could not afford Duke to kill them on the outside for a chunk play, they didn’t set the edge and paid the price for it.
