Syracuse senior linebacker Ryan Guthrie stood away from the podium, where reporters peppered Dino Babers with questions about Tommy DeVito.

His face still lightly smeared with eye black, bruises up and down his shins and a worn look about him, Guthrie took a second to think about how it felt to get the defensive stops that Syracuse needed badly in back-to-back losses prior. He sighed.

“It was pretty emotional,” he said softly. “I’m feeling drained right now.”

Guthrie’s admission came after 12 total tackles in 60-plus minutes of football — a game where Syracuse (5-2, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) finally got the defensive stops to top North Carolina (1-5, 1-3), 40-37, in double overtime in the Carrier Dome. SU’s defense wasn’t close to perfect and has self-admitted shortcomings to work on. But after playing two weeks of losing football defensively, the Orange got the stops they needed when they mattered most.

“They played their hearts out,” Babers said of his defense after the game. He continued: “Results may not be that drastic, but I really felt that they were in tune with the gameplan.”

When DeVito threw an interception with 54 seconds left in a tie game, giving UNC the ball at SU’s 39, Syracuse’s comeback felt dead. On the edge of field goal range, the Tar Heels needed the smallest foothold to kick a game-winning field goal.

On first down, North Carolina quarterback Nathan Elliott targeted Anthony Ratliff-Williams. The ball promptly got knocked away by Ifeatu Melifonwu in coverage. On second down, Elliott threw to him again. Again, it fell incomplete.

Still out of kicker Freeman Jones’ range, UNC lined up for third down. Elliot took a snap and broke up the middle on a draw, but linebacker Andrew Armstrong muscled him down. Stuck between a punt and a too-long field goal, the Tar Heels opted to go for it on fourth down and were again denied by Melifonwu in coverage.

“That was awesome,” Guthrie said of the stop. “Yeah, we had momentum and we rode with it.”

North Carolina started the second overtime with the ball immediately following a touchdown-for-touchdown first overtime. With a chance to take a touchdown lead and put the pressure on the Syracuse offense, UNC kept the ball in Elliot’s hands for three-straight passes.

An Alton Robinson pressure, Kielan Whitner near-interception and Kendall Coleman sack later, the Tar Heels kicked a field goal to take a 37-34 lead, leaving the door open for a Syracuse game-winning touchdown. Five plays later, DeVito and co. provided.

Andre Cisco, who leads the Orange in interceptions, forced a fumble that SU recovered on Saturday. Josh Shub-Seltzer | Staff Photographer

SU’s newfound stopping-power on defense is no surprise to the players. After a demoralizing loss at Pitt — which followed a crushing loss at Clemson — the following Monday’s team-wide film session laid bare the issues Syracuse had.

“I was sick to my stomach,” Guthrie said of watching the film, which showed missed tackles, bad angles, a litany of plays that should’ve been made. SU spent the whole bye week “living with” the missed tackles, safety Andre Cisco said.

Big plays, like a 69-yard touchdown run or 68-yard touchdown pass, seared into the minds of SU’s defensive players. They watched with the whole team as missed assignments and bad tackles were pointed out.

“You have to live with how it looked on film,” Cisco said. “I couldn’t live with it. Just guys missing tackles, making the other team look way better than they are. Because I know what type of defense we are, and it’s not what we were at Pitt.”

But coaches didn’t berate. Rather than a “you missed this tackle” mindset, Cisco said, the message got framed as “We know you can make this play, so make it.”

Another change out of the bye week for the defense was a return to the idea of doing one-eleventh. There are 11 men on the football field for each team on any play. At times against Clemson and Pitt, Cisco said, it felt like players were gunning for big plays and trying to do more than their assignment, their one-eleventh.

On Saturday, Cisco said, everyone on defense focused on their one-eleventh all game. The notion manifested in defenders’ minds, often with verbal reminders in the huddle or on the sidelines.

“Do your job, do your job,” Cisco remembered teammates saying.

Syracuse didn’t make all the plays, though. North Carolina at times gashed the Syracuse defense. Elliott, the starting quarterback, threw for 321 yards and two touchdowns. SU gave up 179 net rushing yards. Big plays, like a long jet sweep and a punt-return touchdown from Dazz Newsome, still haunted the defense.

As the third quarter wore on, it looked again as if another rushing attack might break the dam and run away with the game. For several series, the Tar Heels attacked “niches” in SU’s defense and used them to beat back the Orange.

“Even if you do your job,” Cisco said, “you might miss a tackle or something like that.”

But in the big moments, when the game fully hung in the balance and Syracuse needed a stop, it got it.

“We weren’t perfect,” Cisco said, “but we were definitely a lot better.”

Published on October 20, 2018 at 6:59 pm

Contact Andrew: [email protected] | @A_E_Graham