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COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — It was smooth sailing for No. 7 Syracuse in its first game of the season last Friday.
It was fun. It was dominant. It was, in Titans coach Mike Knight's words, "easy." But things were a bit different Thursday against No. 11 Brighton.
"Last week was an easy football game for us, so the kids kind of panicked a little bit early on like, 'Oh, it's not this easy right now,' and so, like, we had some adversity," Knight said.
The Titans were able to overcome that adversity and rode a strong defensive effort to set up a late game-winning drive in a 23-17 road win over the Bengals in a top-15 showdown.
"It felt like we never could get control of a football game," Knight said. "They were doing a good job with their scheme, and they were probably feeling the same thing."
Indeed they were, and you can look no further than the quarterback struggles between the two teams.
The two veteran quarterbacks — Syracuse's Jake Hopkins and Brighton's Jack Johnson, who are both three-year starters — each threw three interceptions Thursday, and it could have been even worse.
On Johnson's lone touchdown of the night, a 30-yard connection to tight end Myles Peters, the ball bounced off a Syracuse defender's hands and then popped up into Peters' arms as he strolled into the end zone.
With how the defenses were playing Thursday, the offenses needed a bit of luck. Syracuse's lone touchdown in the first half came on a double pass trick play, and the Titans even attempted a fake field goal to keep a drive going.
Syracuse even needed some things to break its way during the game-winning drive in the fourth quarter.
The drive was kept alive by a pass interference on third-and-long, and the Titans later picked up a first down by what looked to be less than an inch. A play after the conversion, Hopkins found Shaun Blanton for an 18-yard touchdown to put Syracuse ahead 20-17 late in the fourth quarter. Hopkins finished the night throwing 19-of-36 for 201 yards and the score.
The senior quarterback may have led the game-winning drive, but the win was set up by Syracuse's defense.
"We're not the biggest, scariest defense out there, and so we have to play with a lot of passion and heart," Syracuse's Preston Haney said. "I think that's what we did tonight."
The Syracuse defensive front got home on Johnson to force a stop that led to Syracue's late touchdown drive. Senior safety Trevin Shaw made an open-field tackle in the final minutes to stop Brighton's own potential late-game heroics, and cornerback Keller Facer had two of the Titans' three interceptions in the game.
Syracuse was able to stop Brighton twice in the closing minutes to preserve its lead — and that came after Brighton had found some offensive rhythm, scoring on two consecutive drives to take a 17-10 lead entering the fourth quarter.
"Just got to step up," Facer said of the mindset on the final drives. "We've gotta do what we do. We've got to hold them so we can make those plays. We've got good enough players."
They stepped up, and now Syracuse knows it can win even when things aren't so easy.
"It gives us a lot of confidence," Knight said.
