Vincenzo Giruzzi knows where home is – the other team’s backfield – and he knows how to get there. He just hasn’t done it enough this season. His team hasn’t gotten there enough either. Because, to Giruzzi, ‘getting home’ means sacking quarterbacks, and the Orange have just four sacks in four games.

‘We’ve been putting good pressure, but as far as getting home,’ Giruzzi said, ‘we have to improve on that.’

Syracuse (1-3) opens its Big East schedule Saturday with another home game – and another chance to get home – when it hosts Pittsburgh (2-1) at noon in the Carrier Dome. So while stopping Panthers running back LeSean McCoy will be important, drilling quarterback Bill Stull matters too.

Nick Santiago leads the team in sacks with 1.5, while Arthur Jones and Anthony Perkins each have one. Giruzzi has a half sack. Jones, despite dealing with almost constant double-teams, also has four tackles for a loss.

The lack of a disruptive pass rush has hurt the past two years. After notching 34 sacks in 2006, the Orange tallied nine in 2007. And while the defense is on pace for more this season, there are still problems. Quarterbacks average 278 yards a game against this defense. Syracuse has allowed 13 touchdowns passes.

In last week’s 30-21 win over Northeastern, the Orange was unable to sack Huskies quarterback Anthony Orio, who threw for 293 yards and two touchdowns. But the defensive line did get after him, head coach Greg Robinson said at his Sunday press conference.

‘I thought the other day that there was a pass rush,’ Robinson said. ‘I thought the quarterback did well under pressure. He also escaped a couple times.’

Said Perkins, who comes off the bench in the defensive line rotation, ‘We get there, we just go to get them down.’

But sacks aren’t everything, Perkins said. If the pressure alters the offense’s execution, that makes a difference. Here’s one example: On a 2nd-and-8 against Penn State, Perkins burst through the line and blew up a screen pass, forcing quarterback Daryll Clark to throw an incompletion. To him, that’s as good as a sack.

‘I know that at least he had to move,’ Perkins said. ‘So I know that he has to make a wild pass or he’s just going to throw it away. If he throws it away, I count that as a sack. Because, he didn’t do anything. The ball is still at the same line of scrimmage.’

Co-defensive coordinator Derrick Jackson agreed with his lineman. ‘I’d love to sit here and say that we lead the country in sacks,’ Jackson said. ‘But at the end of the day, if pressuring the quarterback forces the guy to make a poor decision, throw an interception, not complete passes or give our secondary and linebackers help, I’m content with that.’

The problem is that the pressure hasn’t always been consistent. Right after Perkins blew up that screen play, Daryll Clark threw a touchdown pass.

Before the season, the defensive line set a goal: lead the Big East in sacks. Conference play starts Saturday. Time to get started. Time to get home.

‘We’re going to have stop the run,’ Giruzzi said. ‘And then when we force them to pass – to do things that we really don’t want to do – then we have to get home.’

ramccull@syr.edu

Published on September 25, 2008 at 12:00 pm