Syracuse Football: Orange defense was simply spectacular in BC blow-out

The Syracuse football offense, finally, came alive in the third quarter of the Orange’s Atlantic Coast Conference showdown with long-time rival Boston College on Saturday afternoon in Central New York.

But the ‘Cuse defense is what won this game for the Orange, in my humble opinion. Syracuse football magnificently shut down the Eagles offense for virtually the entire 60 minutes, and three monster touchdowns by the ‘Cuse in the third quarter led to the 21-6 outcome in the Orange’s favor on the Hill.

The ‘Cuse has three contests left in the 2021 regular season, with two of them on the road (versus Louisville and N.C. State) and the home finale against a good Pittsburgh squad.

So from my perspective, Syracuse football needed to take care of a struggling Boston College group inside the Carrier Dome to give the Orange (5-4, 2-3) a realistic shot of potentially reaching bowl eligibility.

The Syracuse football defense was absolutely stellar in the romp over Boston College.

I don’t want to sit here and say that the Eagles (4-4, 0-4) have the most prolific offense in the country, because they don’t. But that shouldn’t take away from what the Orange defense did to BC on Saturday afternoon.

According to cuse.com/sidearmstats, the Eagles ran a total of 72 plays for 251 yards, for an average of 3.49 yards per play. The Syracuse football run defense really impressed me.

Check this out. Boston College had 40 rushing attempts for a paltry 71 rushing yards, or a meager 1.8 yards per rush. By comparison, the Orange had only seven more rushing attempts, but 293 rushing yards, for an average of 6.2 yards per rush.

I acknowledge that Syracuse football running back Sean Tucker and quarterback Garrett Shrader each had a long rushing TD, so the team’s overall rushing yards got a significant boost from those two plays.

Still, for the ‘Cuse defense to limit the Eagles to fewer than 2 yards per rush is positively fabulous. What’s more, Boston College was 5-of-18 on third-down plays and 1-of-3 on fourth-down attempts, including a crucial Orange stop of the Eagles on fourth-and-goal at the two-yard line with about four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

I don’t care who the opponent is, that kind of defensive effort wins ballgames. Whenever Boston College would near the end zone, Syracuse football would come up big, holding the Eagles to a pair of field goals.

A big shout-out goes to senior defensive lineman Kingsley Jonathan, who registered a career-high three sacks for a ‘Cuse defense that produced a total of five sacks in helping lead Syracuse football to its second ACC victory in a row.