Ritchy Desir sprang for a lofted pass just inside the North Carolina State sideline and beat Bo Hines to the ball, but couldn’t hold onto it.

The ball dropped to the Carrier Dome turf. The Wolfpack’s first drive was effectively over, as Niklas Sade came on to kick and make a 43-yard field goal. It was the only way NCSU (5-4, 1-4 Atlantic Coast) could score on the Syracuse (3-6, 1-4) defense for all but 57 minutes and 46 seconds of the game on Saturday, when the Wolfpack beat SU 24-17.

“Today I don’t think we did enough, we didn’t create any turnovers,” senior defensive end Robert Welsh said.

It was the Orange defenders that brought the 40,787 in to Carrier Dome to their feet. They pummeled N.C. State quarterback Jacoby Brissett for eight sacks and a loss of 58 yards. They held Wolfpack rushers to 3.5 yards per carry and forced eight punts.

They also lost, leaving a dominating unit to mourn its inability to force a turnover, to take the ball away from an average offense and give their own, worse offense an extra chance.

“We know they’re struggling, but I guess you win by percentages,” freshman linebacker Zaire Franklin said. “So if you can keep giving them opportunities, eventually they’re going to score.”

N.C. State’s offense barely did. The Orange pass rush got to Brissett too quickly. He could avoid the first blitzer and sometimes the second, but he was held then brought down repeatedly.

The heat SU brought became inevitable. As soon as the quarterback saw pressure, his eyes dropped. There weren’t going to be any downfield outlets on the run. Just more of the SU defense swarming to the ball, jumping into each other in celebration afterward and making way for the Orange offense.

N.C. State went ahead 17-14 in much the same way Welsh scored against Wake Forest two weeks ago, dropping a defensive end of its own into coverage to run back an interception.

The Orange defense couldn’t pull off the feat of sending a 250-pound lineman barreling into the end zone or have one of its defensive backs snare a ball out of the air from a taller opponent.

SU’s was beating itself up for not getting a turnover.

“I think they beat us in turnover margin and they did score a touchdown, so as far as that, N.C. State, their defense outplayed us today,” Franklin said.

He also said that the team relies on the defense for its energy — that regardless of how the offense plays, the team should be able to look at its defenders, smiling, reveling in hit after hit and think “‘Ah man, those guys are really going crazy.’”

He added that playing defense for the Orange on Saturday was simply fun. It was fun to watch.

Chasing down Brissett was like chasing down Terrel Hunt in practice, Franklin said, just that the SU defense was allowed to hit him.

The unit kept N.C. State’s offense off the field for all but 5:25 of the third quarter. But Syracuse scored seven points with its possessions. The Wolfpack scored eight.

It left SU head coach Scott Shafer praising a defense that delivered and a team that’s just persevering.

“It’s like Monty Python,” Shafer said. “Remember that Monty Python show where the guy loses his arm, loses his other arm, loses his leg, he’s still fighting? That’s our kids right there. We’re just running out of arms and legs.”

Published on November 1, 2014 at 10:11 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_