The scene happened over-and-over again this season, 26 times to be exact. Syracuse quarterback Tommy DeVito drops back and searches for receivers, but he’s rushed. He often side steps one defender before they bring him down. Opposing defenders dance while a Syracuse offensive lineman reaches his hand out to help DeVito up.

In SU’s most recent game against North Carolina State, that scenario played out eight times. Only three teams in the country have allowed more sacks than Syracuse. It won’t get easier for Syracuse (3-3, 0-2 Atlantic Coast) this Friday when Pittsburgh (4-2, 1-1) enters the Carrier Dome with the second most sacks in the country.

“Obviously we aren’t playing at the level that we feel we need to be. That’s why we go out and practice every day,” redshirt junior lineman Airon Servais said.

Part of Syracuse’s offensive line struggles are simple. Three of the five linemen hadn’t started at game with Syracuse before the season. Right tackle Ryan Alexander is a graduate transfer from Southern Alabama while guard Dakota Davis, a redshirt sophomore, and tackle Carlos Vettorello, a redshirt freshman, are in their first season with increased roles.

Servais came into the year weighing 273 pounds and was slotted as a left tackle, but an injury to redshirt junior center Sam Heckel moved Servais back to the position he’s started at for the previous two years. After Friday’s game against Pitt, Syracuse’s patched-up offensive line will have played three of the top 10 defensive lines in the country. As Servais pointed out, the linemen on the other side of the ball are “on scholarship too.”

Eva Suppa | Digital Design Editor

But not all of Syracuse’s offensive-line issues are as simple as inexperience and playing against strong defensive fronts. The problems come down to a combination of noise, scheme and execution that reaches beyond just the offensive line. It’s unfair to just see the quarterback on the ground and only blame the big guys in front of him.

On one third down in the third quarter against North Carolina State, the Wolfpack blitzes targeted SU running back Moe Neal. NC State’s outside rusher pushed off Neal’s attempt at cutting his legs and ran loose for a sack.

“I took the right guy,” Neal said. “I just got to fit him better. I kind of hit him, then I missed and was lunging and stuff. So off-balance.”

Later in the fourth quarter, the Wolfpack ran a blitzing scheme which rushes two linebackers in the same gap. In many traditional blocking schemes, only one person would be responsible for a gap. So even as Neal partially inhibited pass rushers on both third and fourth down during a fourth quarter drive, an NC State defender still exploded into the backfield. The plays didn’t end in sacks, but the drive ended in a turnover on downs after pressure forced DeVito to throw the ball away.

As Clemson did to Syracuse a few weeks prior, NC State confused Syracuse with its pressure combinations, often starting with three-down linemen and then a combination of stand-up blitzers. Though Syracuse had the proper number of blockers to match defenders, the scheme didn’t always align. Blitzes are meant to exploit holes in protections, so if the defensive coordinator predicts the offensive scheme correctly, SU’s line is at a disadvantage.

On consecutive plays in the second quarter, NC State players ran free at DeVito. On the first play, the original pressure resulted from a defender beating tight end Aaron Hackett to the inside which prohibited DeVito from stepping up to avoid the pressure mounting on his right side.

The second came on a schematic mismatch. The Orange offensive line all stepped left off the line and Neal also plunged that way on a fake run. The NC State defense had designed a slant opposite of Syracuse’s movement and two unimpeded defenders nearly sacked DeVito.

Syracuse head coach Dino Babers said after last Thursday’s loss that noise from the crowd played a factor in communicating play calls and adjustments throughout the line. Syracuse has started three new offensive linemen this season and Babers noted for guys new to playing on the road it can be harder to hear.

Servais, who played at LSU in his fourth start, agrees with Babers. He remembered the speed of the game in general — the pace and the players on the other side of the ball — combined with crowd noise and jitters forced him into several penalties early in his career. He remembers false starting, or sometimes not even snapping the ball at center.

“A lot of that is just getting used to the environment and growing up,” Servais said. “I think our guys are getting a lot better with that and that’s one of those things (that) just takes time getting used to.”

The problems up front are fixable but require more reps for an inexperienced group. That takes time, perhaps too much time for a team fighting to stay in bowl contention.

“They’ll get better,” Babers said. “They’ll all get better and when they do we’ll be really good.”

Published on October 16, 2019 at 11:08 pm

Contact Josh: jlschafe@syr.edu | @Schafer_44