Ravian Pierce’s feet grazed the Carrier Dome turf and the orange-clad crowd erupted.
The tight end secured Syracuse’s game-winning touchdown in double overtime against North Carolina on Saturday, which came on a play that has become a familiar ploy from SU.

The Orange (5-2, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) set up Pierce for the touchdown with a wide open look from a pop pass. Generally, the play involves a tight end slipping behind the linebackers while they and the rest of the defense follow a run fake.

Syracuse used this play for a touchdown against Florida State, a wiped-out fourth-down conversion at Clemson and most recently for Saturday’s walk-off win.

Here’s a breakdown of the game-winning touchdown (all screenshots via ESPN).

Pre-snap

Syracuse lines up a shotgun set. One running back, Moe Neal, is to Tommy DeVito’s right. Jamal Custis is wide right and Nykeim Johnson and Taj Harris and to the left.

Pierce (blue rectangle, above) lines up as an upback, tucked behind the offensive line. In previous iterations of this play, Pierce has been lined up as a down blocker at the end of the offensive line.

North Carolina is lined up in a Cover 0, with no safety help in the middle, not an uncommon look from a backed up defense.

Play fake

DeVito takes the snap and fakes to Neal (yellow rectangle, above). Pierce (blue rectangle, above) moves to a hole in the offensive line and at this point in the play, appears as a lead blocker for Neal.

Seeing this, North Carolina’s linebacker and safety (red rectangle, above) are traditionally taught to follow Pierce, as the pulling blocker will lead them to the hole.

DeVito looks at the defenders the whole time, reading them and recognizing their mistake of playing the run.

Watch how the Tar Heels’ react to the play fake before DeVito pulls the ball away.

Pierce breaks open

The linebackers bite the fake and get sucked into the mess of defensive and offensive linemen. With no help behind them, Pierce slips past the Tar Heels’ linebackers and breaks into an undefended end zone.

Pass protection holds up, so all DeVito needs to do is flip the ball to Pierce and win the game.

Game over

This look has worked for Syracuse this year in part because Dino Babers picks good spots to use it — for a touchdown against Florida State, two weeks later trying to pick up a critical fourth-down conversion against Clemson and then late for a touchdown to beat UNC.

Syracuse also rarely targets Pierce, who had missed the last three weeks with an undisclosed upper-body injury, or the other tight ends.

The senior lined up in the backfield, on the end of the line of scrimmage and sometimes split out wide against the Tar Heels, but wasn’t targeted until the final play. When he was used in the passing game, UNC was flat-footed.

Published on October 22, 2018 at 11:49 pm

Contact Andrew: aegraham@syr.edu | @A_E_Graham