The Syracuse coaching staff preaches a simple philosophy when it comes to third down, especially for third-and-long.

‘Third-and-long, that’s our down,’ said secondary coach Jim Salgado. ‘When we try to talk to our guys, (we say) ‘Hey, that’s our down. When we get out there, we’ve got to get off the field.”

But so far this season, that hasn’t been the case.

Third down has been rough for the Orange (0-3): The defense has allowed offenses to convert 60 percent of the time, with the SU offense converting just 20 percent of its own. Even worse, the Orange has been beaten 10 times on a third down with more than seven yards to go.

Ten times, with four touchdowns. Sift through the wreckage and pick a collapse, any collapse:

*Against Northwestern: 3rd-and-12 at the Syracuse 16. Red zone coverage breaks down and quarterback CJ Bacher hits receiver Jeremy Ebert – uncovered on the play – for a touchdown.

*Against Akron: 3rd-and-23 at the Syracuse 25. Tackling and inside leverage break down as Zips tailback Dennis Kennedy, running a draw, slips outside the tackles and breaks away for a startling, crowd-numbing score.

*Against Penn State: 3rd-and-8 at the Syracuse 17. A blitz doesn’t get to quarterback Daryll Clark and Deon Butler, on a fade pattern, streaks past Syracuse cornerback Mike Holmes for Penn State’s second touchdown on the day.

The Orange will look to avoid those lapses, starting Saturday when it hosts Northeastern (0-2) at 3:30 p.m. at the Carrier Dome. It’s something that needs to be corrected heading into Big East play, which starts next week.

Because the reasons for the meltdowns are a microcosm of the defense’s overall struggle: missed assignments, missed tackles and blown coverages. And because the conversions do more than extend drives, they deflate morale.

‘For us, we have to win on third down,’ said sophomore Kevyn Scott, the starting strong safety. ‘It’s a killer to get there, stop them on first down, stop them on second down, even get them a loss of yardage on second down. It comes 3rd-and-long, and they get it?

‘That’s a killer.’

That makes things tough on an already struggling defense, a unit ravaged by injuries and dotted with young players – opponents average 42.3 points and 507.3 yards a game this year against the Orange. So the coaching staff has to prepare the unit as the best it can.

The staff works with the players throughout the week on different situations such as goal line sets or third-and-long sets. They run scrimmages to preview what the opposing team will offer on Saturdays.

‘You go out and you correct the things that are giving you problems,’ said linebackers coach Dan Conley. ‘Some of those are, you know, getting the kids in the right positions. That’s what we do.’

But practice is one thing. Once game day comes, things go wrong. Tackles are missed. Coverages fall through.

‘It’s all missed assignments,’ said freshman cornerback Dorian Graham, who got his first extended action in the secondary against Penn State. ‘We just need to get better technique-wise and execute our plays.’

Salgado emphasized the importance of each player performing his role on those key third downs. If the quarterback has extra time to throw, the secondary can only cover receivers for so long. If a tackle is missed, the other players can only minimize the damage. Kennedy’s long touchdown in the Akron game – ‘unacceptable,’ Salgado said – was the result of a player giving up inside leverage and letting a the tailback break outside.

‘So it’s everybody, together,’ Salgado said. ‘Believe me, we’ve been hitting it. We know we need to get that fixed.’

ramccull@syr.edu

Published on September 18, 2008 at 12:00 pm