Syracuse Struggles in Pittsburgh for 8th Loss of the Season

Story and Photo by Emily Dick

Pittsburgh-- It was a record day in Heinz Field Saturday, but not for the Syracuse Orange.

Syracuse was dominated in a 30-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Panthers (5-6, 3-4 ACC), a team that relied on record performances from young talent to crush one of the Orange’s last hopes of finishing its season (3-8, 1-6 ACC) on a high note.

Pittsburgh sophomore wide receiver Tyler Boyd passed the 1,000 yard receiving mark (1,077), making it the third time the Panthers have had a player reach that mark, while also having another player, sophomore tailback James Conner, reach 1,000 yards rushing (1,600) in the same season.

Missed Opportunities

It looked, right away like it was going to be an ugly game for the Orange when Boyd returned the opening kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown. Luckily for the Orange, the touchdown was reversed on a holding call.

Pitt gave Syracuse another gift when Panthers kicker Chris Blewitt missed his first field goal attempt from 42 yards out.

The Orange regained the ball after the miss, but on the first play of the drive, running back Prince Tyson Gulley fumbled. Pittsburgh recovered and scored its first touchdown of the game on Conner’s one-yard rush four plays later.

The Orange had a chance to answer on the next drive, marching down the field 58 yards in 10 plays. Quarterback A.J. Long threw a deep pass to the back corner of the end zone, but Pittsburgh cornerback Lafayette Pitts intercepted it for a touchback.

Freshman Quarterbacks

For the second quarter, Syracuse head coach Scott Shafer made some adjustments, replacing Long with redshirt freshman quarterback Mitch Kimble.

Kimble was in for three Syracuse drives; one ended in a missed 34-yard field goal attempt by Cole Murphy, and another ended with an interception. He had no completions on six attempts.

By halftime, the Panthers were leading the Orange 17-0.

"You see a couple things here and there out of both those kids, and they were promising, but the consistency level is not where it needs to be, especially with some of our decision-making processes,” Shafer said of his quarterbacks after the game.

"Both of them played like freshmen."

 

Don’t call it a comeback

Syracuse came out strong on the first drive of the second half.  Long returned to the game and led the Orange offense 75 yards down the field.  

His connection with freshman wide receiver Steve Ishmael saved Syracuse early in the drive on third and long, and later they connected on a 46-yard pass play.

Long then handed the ball off to Ron Thompson for a one-yard rush into the end zone.

It was still a two-possession game with the Orange trailing the Panthers 17-7, with more than 11 minutes left in the third quarter, but Syracuse failed to create opportunities to score.

Pitt continued attacking and scored on every drive of the second half, except the last drive when the Panthers took a knee to end the game.

The Panthers finished with 445 total yards while the Orange put up 255 total yards. The only category Syracuse passed Pittsburgh in was turnovers. The Orange gave up the ball three times on two interceptions and a fumble, compared to one interception given up by the Panthers.

Pitt had possession nearly 40 minutes of the game, almost twice as long as Syracuse, which made missed opportunities even more damaging for the Orange.

The loss was Syracuse’s eighth loss in nine games.

“We got beat up real bad early against a really good conference schedule, a very difficult schedule, for nine weeks," Shafer said. "But no excuses. Hasn't been good enough. Hasn't been good enough.”

Breaking records

Boyd became the second Pittsburgh player to reach 1,000 yards receiving for two consecutive seasons. Last year, as a freshman, he totaled 1,174 yards. The first player to do it was Larry Fitzgerald in 2002 and 2003.

Boyd had seven catches for 126 yards and one touchdown, his fourth consecutive 100-yard game and fifth this season.

Conner set an ACC record for most rushing touchdowns in a single season on the first touchdown of the game, it was his 22^nd of the season. He also tied the Pittsburgh team record set by Tony Dorsett in 1976. Conner sat out the second half with an apparent hip injury.

What’s next?

After the game, Long said he refuses to let his team get beaten down by another loss.

"What's the point of hanging your head and feeling sorry for yourself when you have another opponent?" Long asked. "I mean, you don't want to go into a week and get blown out 59-3 or 59-0. Next week, we have Boston College and they barely lost to Florida State today. We can't hang our heads or we're going to get thrashed, and we're going to look like a joke in the ACC.

The Syracuse Orange will finish its season next Saturday at Boston College (6-5, 3-4 ACC). The Eagles are coming off a tough, last second loss to Florida State.

As for next season? According to Shafer, it’s too soon to look ahead.

“Right now we're trying to fight to get these seniors another victory, feel good about finishing and also feel good about modeling tough situations with adversity," Shafer said. "You don't just throw it in and look at next year. That's what losers do."