EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Durell Eskridge thought he had a pick-six.

Early in the third quarter, the safety saw a throw coming and he darted behind Will Fuller, looking to snare a pass with the whole field ahead of him. Instead, Fuller hauled it in easily for a first down and Eskridge was all alone, going the wrong way.

Syracuse’s night didn’t go too differently.

“They beat our rumps today. Simple as that,” head coach Scott Shafer said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to say, ‘We got beat.’ And we did.”

On a national stage, Syracuse (2-2) stood in its own way. A flurry of penalties and lack of offensive execution stunted the Orange’s hopes of reaching the end zone throughout the first three quarters. The result was a 31-15 victory by No. 8 Notre Dame (4-0) over SU at MetLife Stadium on Saturday night, seen by an audience of 76,802 in person and many more watching on ABC.

Although the Syracuse defense came away with five turnovers, the Orange offense couldn’t do enough with them to keep up with the Fighting Irish.

“It was pretty tough,” running back Prince-Tyson Gulley said of the UND defense, “but it was nothing that we couldn’t handle. We just didn’t show it, we didn’t get the job done.”

After Brandon Reddish dove to intercept a ball off the ground, a false start set the Orange back. SU then punted the ball back after a scoreless first quarter, and Notre Dame scored the game’s first points on the first possession of the second half.

On Syracuse’s first chance to match the Fighting Irish’s lead, a Brisly Estime false start stalled out another SU drive. A wide-open Fuller downfield turned into a 72-yard touchdown for Notre Dame on its first play of the next drive, which put Notre Dame up 14-0. 

Syracuse finally reached the red zone late in the second quarter. After two carries by Adonis Ameen-Moore went nowhere, right tackle Michael Lasker — filling in for an injured Ivan Foy, who never returned — pushed UND’s Romeo Okwara and was hit with a personal foul penalty that backed Syracuse outside the 30-yard line and into a third-and-33.

A Terrel Hunt scramble set up a manageable field goal from walk-on freshman Cole Murphy, which slightly cut into the Fighting Irish’s lead. 

“You really have to focus in (in the red zone),” left tackle Sean Hickey said, “and everyone on our line has fallen victim to that. We’re all guilty of it and we need to fix it.”

During SU’s first second-half possession, Hunt threw a pass off his back foot intended for Estime, who was never open. Matthias Farley picked it off and cut off another Syracuse drive that threatened to reach the red zone. Notre Dame cashed in the turnover for seven points and a 21-3 lead.

Even after a 42-yard Riley Dixon run on a fake punt, the Orange turned the possession over on downs when its line couldn’t get enough push on a Hunt sneak that fell inches short of the first-down marker.

“It’s frustrating,” Shafer said about his offense’s struggles. “That’s why I love football. It’s frustrating, but what the hell? Let’s go. We’ve got to move on.”

The SU offense did finally reach the end zone on a Hunt 7-yard run, and the defense followed suit. 

Eskridge finally got his pick-six, returning an ill-advised Everett Golson pass 29 yards for a score and cutting UND’s lead to 28-15 late in the fourth quarter.

But at that point, Syracuse’s shot at upstaging a national contender was gone before it could ever materialize.

“It’s not a moral victory. We thought we could play with them,” Hickey said. “I think we forget pretty quick. We’re not a team that’s going to dwell on what just happened.”

Published on September 28, 2014 at 12:03 am

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb