Syracuse Football: Poor OL play dooms Orange in tough loss vs Pitt

Poor coaching leads the Syracuse football squad to their doom vs the Pitt Panthers. Here are all the lowlights and what went wrong.

The Syracuse football team through seven games already has more losses than the 2018 version did in 13. Here’s why poor offensive line play ultimately doomed the Orange vs the Pitt Panthers on Friday night in the dome. Syracuse ended up losing 27-20 here’s how it all went down.

First half

Syracuse won the toss and chose to defer to the second half. Which revealed an injured Andre Cisco finally made his return to the Orange.

Although we aren’t sure what was more shocking, Andre suiting up when he wasn’t projected to or No. 1 wideout Trishton Jackson dropping what appeared to be at the very least a big game and could’ve been a touchdown on the first offensive drive of the game for Syracuse.

Speaking of frustrating, the Orange offensive line decided to be saloon doors for Halloween this year. Constantly allowing pressure into the backfield on run and pass plays alike.

On a key third-down play in the first quarter, Syracuse kept two extra blockers in (Moe Neal and Aaron Hackett) which means they had seven men in protection (including the five offensive linemen) and lost to a four man rush from Pitt almost instantaneously that can’t happen.

The Orange are at home, in primetime, there’s no excuse for lack of communication or recognition of who is blocking who.

Other things that aren’t acceptable is pre-snap offensive penalties at home. What excuse do you have? The crowd is on your side, that shouldn’t happen.

Syracuse entered the game with 55 penalties on the season, only 5 teams out of 130 possible college football teams had more. Which amounted to over 444 negative penalty yards.

When teams are undisciplined and shoot themselves in the foot, it’s hard to move the ball offensively.

Although when you get a turnover on special teams that helps. The Orange are known for their running backs historically but you might as well call them “Special Teams U” based on their recent success over the last several years.

After some drops and bad protection, it appeared that Syracuse was in some trouble. When they punted the ball away, Maurice Ffrench muffs it and the Orange get new life in Pitt territory.

After some strange play calls and referee confusion, the Orange finally tie up the game at three-all with under four minutes remaining in the first quarter.

Although the tied ball game wouldn’t last, the Pitt Panthers pulled a page out of the NC State playbook and duped the Orange on a double-pass trick play.

Initially, it was ruled an illegal forward pass, but upon further review, the referees deemed it legal and the Panthers opened up a 10-3 lead entering the second quarter.

Speaking of trickery, for a moment Dino Babers opened the quarterback controversy door ajar. Clayton Welch came into the game, much to the approval of Orange fans.

Syracuse had the ball on their own 42-yard line on third and six, Babers threw Welch out there. He did a wildcat 23-yard run to give the Orange offense life.

Although the quarterback switch would only last one play as Tommy DeVito came trotting back out.

It gave the offense an injection, Syracuse drove to the two-yard line and Dino Babers called out the field goal unit. Syracuse settled for a 10-6 deficit early in the second stanza.

Throughout the rest of the first half, Babers flirted with a quarterback rotation between plays. Late in the first half, he stuck with Welch for several plays featuring designed runs and passes.

Sadly that wasn’t enough as the Orange appeared lifeless throughout the first half and Pitt capitalized. Heading into the break the Panthers opened up a 24-6 lead.

First-half nuggets:

• Trill Williams suffered an injury around the lower-left ankle area. He couldn’t walk off the field under his own power and was in serious pain. Early speculation indicated it was a serious injury.
• Pitt accomplished its season average in rushing yards in the first half (116 yards rushing).
• Orange continues to give up sacks (six allowed in the first half vs the Panthers).

Second half

Despite the Orange receiving the ball, it was much of the same early in the third quarter. The most noteworthy play happened early in the third quarter, Tommy DeVito on a scramble gets drilled in the right shoulder and fumbled the ball.

He remained motionless on the field for a few moments before walking off under his own power. Which resulted in another quarterback change for the Orange with Clayton Welch re-entering the game.

Then suddenly the play of the game transpired with Welch delivering a 95-yard bomb to Taj Harris for the first Orange touchdown of the game. The dome had started to grow stale with the lack of plays, then suddenly there was a noticeable buzz brewing.

Although similar to the NC State game, the Orange defense kept them in the game throughout waiting for the offense to breakthrough.

Rex Culpepper also made an appearance because Clayton Welch’s helmet came off, all we needed was a David Summers appearance to really make this a party.

All kidding aside, Syracuse had a chance to make it a one-possession game early in the fourth quarter on a long field goal attempt but Andre Szmyt missed it keeping the score 24-13 with 14:13 remaining in the fourth quarter.

It took the Orange over 11 minutes to find paydirt again, Clayton Welch found Aaron Hackett for the short touchdown making it 27-20 with 2:44 remaining in the game.

On the drive, it appeared that Pitt lost the ball on a fumble by the running back. Syracuse seemingly took over, the call on the field was Syracuse possession, but there didn’t seem to be concrete evidence to overturn, yet that’s exactly what the referees did.

Pitt ended up converting on third and short for the final dagger as the Panthers bled the rest of the clock.

Some interesting nuggets:

• A few former Orange studs made their return to the dome: Ryan Nassib, Jay Bromley,
• Eight NFL teams were represented by scouts at the Pitt vs Syracuse game on Friday night.
  • Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, Miami Dolphins, Kansas City Chiefs, (two) Buffalo Bills scouts.

Up next the Orange take the road to play the Florida State Seminoles. That game will kick off on Saturday, October 26 at 3:30 p.m.