MIAMI – The Syracuse secondary couldn’t wait for halftime.

For 29 minutes they lost receivers and watched Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey find every one of them. The locker room seemed like a haven. Maybe that’s why – trailing by 17 points with less than 30 seconds left in the half – three SU defensive backs committed one of the biggest mistakes in a series of defensive blunders that led to a humiliated 59-0 laugher at the hands of the Hurricanes.

On third-and-7 at the Orangemen’s 31-yard-line, Miami wideout Andre Johnson caught a Dorsey pass in the middle of the field. Johnson looked up to see SU safety Keeon Walker and Syracuse cornerbacks Will Hunter and Willie Ford closing in on him. Like all of the 52, 896 fans in attendance, Johnson thought it would be a harmless gain.

‘I caught the ball and I thought I would maybe get a couple more yards, but that would be all,’ Johnson said. ‘I saw them all coming, and I thought I was about to be tackled.’

He wasn’t. Running to his right, Johnson came within inches of the three defenders and then halted. He switched directions and headed toward the left sideline. All three SU defenders did nothing but watch Johnson sprint into the end zone for a 24-point Miami lead.

‘I thought they were going to get him,’ defensive backs coach Brian Stewart said. ‘You go down, 17-0, at the half, and you can feel good about coming onto the field because there is no momentum on their side.’

Instead, Miami went into the locker room with a 24-0 lead and an even bigger advantage in momentum.

‘Even at the end of the first half, they looked really tired,’ Johnson said. ‘They already looked defeated.’

They looked defeated because of two pass interference calls on cornerback Latroy Oliver in the first five minutes. They looked defeated because Miami’s receivers dissected and abused SU’s bump-and-run coverage for 131 yards and three touchdowns in the first half. They looked defeated because they had filled the stat sheet with enough defensive mistakes to allow Dorsey to stand comfortably on the sideline and watch the fourth quarter.

‘We were upset about a lot of things at halftime,’ Ford said. ‘We got away from the little things we have been doing the last eight games. We didn’t do the little things in our bump coverage, and they took advantage of that.’

‘Today the guys had their hands down on bump coverage,’ Stewart said. ‘You got to keep you hands up. Today, the receivers got of the line quickly with a big release because our technique was off.’

After halftime, SU switched to a zone scheme, hoping to blitz more and put pressure on Dorsey, who the Orangemen sacked just once in the first half. The second half results: zero sacks, 100 Miami passing yards, another Miami passing touchdown and at least a share of the Big East title for the Hurricanes.

And SU defense that had given up just seven passing touchdowns in its first 10 games gave up four to Miami.

‘We thought they would be a little tougher,’ Dorsey said. ‘We had a great game plan coming in, but we knew Syracuse had a tough defense to prepare for. When you have this kind of game against a team like that, it takes you by surprise.’

‘From the way everybody was taking, I thought they would be real tough in the secondary,’ Johnson said. ‘We expected them to be tough. And to be honest with you, they really weren’t.’

Published on November 19, 2001 at 12:00 pm