Alton Robinson shot three yards down the field before the right tackle even left his stance.

Syracuse’s 6-foot-4, 249 pound defensive end curled to his right and locked on to his target: Connecticut’s starting quarterback, David Pindell.

A burst of speed and one punishing hit later, UConn was six-yards worse off than before, buried at its own four-yard line on second down as SU’s defensive line celebrated one of its six sacks.

Robinson underscored Syracuse’s (4-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) 51-21 win over UConn (1-3, 0-1 American Athletic) Saturday in the Carrier Dome with three sacks. SU’s defensive line lived in the Huskies’ backfield all game, keyed by disruptive work from its own defensive tackles. And all the success up front bled to the rest of the defense.

“I think it’s a good mix of that front seven guys, front eight guys,” Babers said. “I think they’re really working well together.”

Syracuse’s first big play in the backfield wasn’t even a sack. After deferring the opening kickoff to the Huskies, Pindell proceeded to march his offense down the field.

On 2nd and 4 from SU’s 24-yard line, Pindell took a shotgun snap, faked a handoff and cocked back his right arm to throw a screen pass to the left. The ball popped free as Pindell jerked his arm to a stop and before he fully turned to fall on it, the Orange’s Josh Black already had.

SU scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive.

“I like the way the defense came out early and got those stops so we could get that lead,” Babers said.

Asked about defensive ends such as Robinson and Kendall Coleman, Babers said their ability to get into the backfield is often dependent on the work the two defensive tackles, including Black, are doing.

By easily shedding interior blocks and being disruptive in the run game, Babers said, the tackles set up one-on-one matchups on the outside for the ends to exploit.

In part due to strong tackle play, Alton Robinson took advantage of one-on-one matchups to get to the quarterback. Max Freund | Asst. Photo Editor

“It’s absolutely crucial,” Coleman said of the tackles

“And I greatly appreciate those guys for it. It makes my job a little bit easier outside,” he continued, smiling.

So easy that on Robinson’s first sack, he went untouched around UConn’s right tackle and almost overran Pindell, before wrapping him up and dropping him. As he got up, Robinson stood over Pindell and pumped his arms up and down before celebrating with his teammates.

When Coleman recorded his lone sack in the second quarter, he too exposed a tackle, bursting around UConn’s left edge and flushing Pindell right. Eventually, Coleman tracked Pindell down and dropped him from behind.

Soon enough, more than the defensive line got involved as Antwan Cordy and Kielan Whitner each recorded sacks.

“Any time we’re bringing linebackers and stuff like that,” Babers said, “that means that the defensive linemen are in one-on-one matchups. (The offensive line) can’t cheat a guard, they can’t slide, they can’t get an extra guy there.”

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After the game, Babers said the domination from the front seven affects the back end of the defense. The less time a quarterback has to throw means less time a receiver needs to be covered.

And when a quarterback is flushed and on the run, he makes interceptable throws, such as the one freshman free safety Andre Cisco took from UConn’s backup quarterback, Marvin Washington, in the fourth quarter.

“When you’re moving the quarterback off the spot,” Babers said, “you’re going to have a chance for something good to happen. Either a pick in the back end, kind of like Cisco got, or at least an incomplete pass because they’re not comfortable sitting on their spot in the pocket.”

But Saturday was ultimately Robinson’s. If he wasn’t sacking or hitting the quarterback, he was probably being held.

Whoever he lined up against, he dominated.

In the depths of the Carrier Dome after the game, Robinson didn’t have a bead of sweat on him. He only answered a few questions and mostly kept to himself.

When asked about how he went about terrorizing Pindell, a dual-threat quarterback, Robinson answered briefly.

“First thing’s first as a pass rusher,” Robinson said, “you want to keep the quarterback in front of you. Keep him in the pocket. That’s all.”

The last four hours on the football field told more than enough, anyway.

Published on September 22, 2018 at 10:08 pm

Contact Andrew: [email protected] | @A_E_Graham