No. 8 Notre Dame Deals Unranked Syracuse It’s Second Straight Loss

Story and Photo By Robin Deehan

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - In front of the largest crowd ever for a college football game at MetLife Stadium No. 8 Notre Dame beat unranked Syracuse 31-15 Saturday night to remain unbeaten at 4-0.

In spite of forcing five Irish turnovers, Syracuse dropped to 2-2 on the season suffering its second straight loss.
 

“I thought our kids played extremely hard, physical football,” SU head coach Scott Shafer said. “I was really pleased with a lot of the things that were going on, especially in that first half.”

First Half

Syracuse failed to capitalize on a fumble recovery and an interception and after a scoreless first quarter with both SU and ND trading punts, the Irish struck first. Quarterback Everett Golson connected with Will Fuller for a 23-yard touchdown pass with 10:56 left in the first half.

SU’s offense didn’t do the defense any favors when it went three and out on the very next possession, giving the defense only a two-minute rest.

Notre Dame was able to capitalize on a tired SU defense when Golson threw a bomb down field to find Fuller again for a 72-yard score.   

“The defense did a great job, they gave us the ball, and the offense fell short a couple times," SU quarterback Terrel Hunt said. "I put that on myself and I’ll just go back to the drawing board and get better next week,”

Desperate to score, SU made a 55-yard drive down field resulting in a 38-yard field goal from Cole Murphy to get SU on the board going into halftime.

Second Half

Syracuse's first drive of the second half looked promising with a 33-yard reception by Jarrod West and back-to-back runs by Prince-Tyson Gully. 

But on the next play, Hunt was picked off by Matthias Farley, who brought the ball back to the Notre Dame 40-yard line.

Notre Dame took advantage of the interception when Golson floated a ball to Corey Robinson for an eight-yard touchdown extending the Irish lead to 21-3.

On SU’s next possession the Orange men looked as though they were about to go three and out, but Riley Dixon faked the punt and ran 42-yards before being brought down at the Notre Dame 30-yard line. 

The fake punt wasn’t enough and Notre Dame got the ball back four plays later after SU couldn’t convert on 4^th and 1.

“We got the ball down the field, we weren’t able to get in the end one where we wanted to get it,” Hunt said. “It was frustrating but you have to play on.”

SU’s best chance at finally seeing the end zone came after Durell Eskridge recovered another Notre Dame fumble. this one by Greg Bryant near the end of the third quarter. 

Starting at its own 28, SU marched down the field in a drive that included a 28-yard completion to West and a 25-yarder to Steve Ishmael. Hunt ran the ball in for a seven-yard touchdown, improving the score to 21-9. But Notre Dame blocked the extra point.

SU then attempted an onside kick that was recovered by the Irish, resulting in another touchdown when Golson connected with Torii Hunter Jr. for 13-yards to make the score 28-9.

After a missed field goal by SU’s Murphy, Eskridge forced another turnover by intercepting Golson and returning it for a 29-yard pick-6 SU touchdown closing the gap to 28-15. An attempted two-point conversion failed.

SU attempted its second onside kick of the game that was also recovered by ND, got into field goal range and scored the last points of the game for a final score of 31-15.

A Solid Defensive Effort

The Syracuse defense put up a solid effort forcing the number eight team in the country to turn the ball over five times. The fact that the Orange failed to convert those turnovers to points was not lost on Shafer.

“I am pleased with our defensive effort tonight but we did still give up 517 (yards- officially it was 523) so that’s not good enough,” Shafer said.

On top of Eskridge’s pick-6, he also finished the game with a season high nine tackles but said that wasn’t enough.

“We could have played with these people,” Eskridge said.  “We had a good shot to win this game and again we have beat ourselves and the only think we can do is get ready and come in tomorrow and go to work,”

Record-setting Night

The 76,802 in attendance made up the largest crowd ever for a college football game at Metlife Stadium.

ND’s Golson also set a Notre Dame record by completing 25 consecutive passes between the second and third quarters.

Looking Ahead

Syracuse has a short week to prepare for its next game. 

“We have to come back tomorrow and concentrate on the little things, the penalties, the ball disruption, the scooping and scoring, the little thing we have to come back and go to work on that tomorrow.” Eskridge said.  “We have a big week ahead of us with Louisville coming in on Friday night.”

Syracuse will host Louisville (4-1, 2-1 ACC) in the Orange's first ACC matchup this Friday, with kickoff scheduled for 7pm.