Syracuse, N.Y. — Dan Villari minted an epic rushing effort, but it was another Long Island native who flew under the radar playing near his hometown on Saturday afternoon.
Joe Cruz, of Holbrook, New York, made his first start at left guard, pulled right and sealed a key block to spring Garrett Shrader loose for a tone-setting, 34-yard run on the opening play of a 28-13 victory against Pittsburgh at Yankee Stadium.
Cruz is a cross-trained swing piece across the offensive line who stepped into the starting lineup with Jakob Bradford out with an injury.
SU’s patchwork offensive line has taken its lumps this season, yet it paved the way for Syracuse’s 382-yard day on the ground, the most it has ever had in an ACC game. Syracuse had 14 runs go for at least 10 yards.
All five starting linemen finished with above-average pass-block grades, according to Pro Football Focus, which evaluated an offensive makeover in which the Orange heavily relied on a Wildcat look with its tight end and running back taking direct snaps, some two-back formations and other on-the-fly scheme changes.
The Orange ran the ball 66 times on 74 snaps, its most attempts in a game since a 39-28 victory against Boston College on Nov. 24, 2001.
Villari, a former quarterback who converted to tight end, finished with 154 rushing yards, the most by a tight end in school history. He forced eight missed tackles by Pitt, according to PFF.
Starting quarterback Garrett Shrader was on the field for all 74 offensive snaps, but he shifted or lined up wide more often than he did behind center. He threw two passes, ran it 14 times for 96 yards plus a score, caught a pass and played 51 snaps in a run-blocking role, according to PFF.
No wide receiver had a catch, the kind of stat difficult to nail down when, exactly, that last occurred. Fair to say it’s a bygone era. Syracuse’s record book cites the fewest completions in a game, and four games are listed in which the team had none. The most recent came during Jim Brown’s senior season, a 13-9 victory against Penn State in 1956 at old Archbold Stadium.
“When you’re lost, when you’re struggling, sometimes whether you win or lose is not the case. You just want to be in the fight,” coach Dino Babers said after the game.
“If it doesn’t work, it’s not going to be pretty in here, but thanks to the man upstairs it worked out our way this time.”
Babers quipped immediately after the game he had not seen a clip of Shrader’s bizarre backflip as the ball zipped to the opposite side of the field on a double-pass play. That’s because, Babers said, he was too focused on watching the ballet up front by the linemen so critical to the offense’s success.
“We asked them to do something drastic and extremely different,” Babers said, “and you can’t pull that off without belief.
“They put belief in the scheme.”
Syracuse.com will publish game grades throughout the season, courtesy of Pro Football Focus.
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