Syracuse didn’t just hang 66 points on New Hampshire in its opener. The Orange also put together a defensive performance that looked nothing like the unit that gave up 24 to Colgate last season and later ranked among the ACC’s weakest groups.
Against the Wildcats, Syracuse held UNH to a single field goal while piling up five sacks, nine tackles for loss, an interception and three forced fumbles. One of those takeaways became a scoop-and-score in the fourth quarter, and the special teams unit added a blocked punt for a safety. Under new defensive coordinator Vince Kehres, the Orange came out flying.
After the game, Fran Brown pointed straight to the front seven as the engine behind the effort.
“It’s just good to be able to do a good job up front,” Brown said. “The trenches (are) where these games are won on offense and defense. I’m so happy that those guys got to do it.
“Coach VK wants the defense to make sure that they’re violent, and we all run to the ball and we all try to hit,” he added.
Keyshawn Johnson was the headliner off the edge, finishing with two and a half sacks. Tunmise Adeleye added half a sack and tied for second on the team with six tackles.
The first major swing came in the second quarter, when Johnson delivered Syracuse’s first sack of the season in emphatic fashion. On third-and-10 from the New Hampshire 25, Johnson came off the edge, beat an initial chip from tight end Colby Ramshaw and used a spin move around right tackle Ty Miles to get a free run at quarterback Brooks Bentley.
Johnson knocked Bentley down and jarred the ball loose at the same time, setting off a strip-sack sequence that ended with SU defensive tackle Nissi Ogebebor recovering the fumble. The Orange didn’t get the ball there, but they still forced New Hampshire into a punt from its own end zone after the 19-yard loss.
Syracuse followed that up on the next drive with a turnover of its own. On second-and-16 from the Wildcats’ 38, Bentley tried to throw through pressure from Johnson and 6-foot-3, 295-pound defensive tackle Rashard Perry.
Perry worked around center Luke Swaine, got a hand on Bentley’s pass attempt to running back Myles Thomason and tipped it to himself for his first career interception. Bentley brought Perry down at the 21, but the Orange lineman made sure the play counted.
“That’s really good for him because he barely would talk. He just goes hard,” Brown said of Perry’s development postgame.
“Everything he do, he gives you his all. He risks his body every day.
He’s inside at the nose. A lot of people don’t talk about how he clogs up holes.
He takes on double teams. So when (he gets) a chance to do that, I’m really happy for him.”
The takeaway barrage kept rolling in the fourth quarter, when Syracuse finally got some help from the ball bouncing its way. On first-and-10 inside New Hampshire territory, backup quarterback Tommy McLeish mishandled a snap after faking to running back Denzell Gibson.
The ball hit the turf, McLeish couldn’t corral it cleanly, and linebacker Zyian Moultrie-Goddard scooped it up and ran 26 yards for a touchdown. It was Syracuse’s third recovery attempt after Ogebebor’s earlier mishandle and Davien Kerr’s blocked punt that went through the back of the end zone, and it pushed the lead to 56-3.
Then the Orange turned around and did it again. Two plays into the next New Hampshire drive, McLeish handed off to Gibson on second-and-10 from the UNH 8, but the lane disappeared fast.
Jartavius Flounoy, the Georgia State transfer wearing No. 98, drove tackle Luke Rogers backward, swam through the block and met Gibson in the hole. Flounoy ripped the ball out, and freshman linebacker Gemaus Sackie fell on it at the 15 for another Syracuse takeaway.
That turnover set up an Amari Odom touchdown pass to Daunte Bacheyie, Syracuse’s ninth trip to the end zone on the afternoon.
For one afternoon, the Orange looked like a defense that could dictate terms instead of react to them. They were violent, disruptive and relentless - exactly the way Brown said Kehres wants them to play.
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