Pardon Joe Donnelly’s French.

Excuse the junior tight end for feeling the Syracuse football team’s offensive woes call for more than clichs and euphemisms.

“I hate to say it,” Donnelly said, “but we’ve really pissed away the first quarter of every game. That’s terribly frustrating. We have a lot of talent, but for some reason we’re just giving away quarters.”

Considering Syracuse (1-6, 0-3 Big East) ranks sixth in the Big East in total offense, that’s a trend it can ill afford — even against lowly Rutgers (1-6, 0-3), which visits the Carrier Dome at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.

Following perhaps the most inept offensive performance of the season, against West Virginia, Syracuse head coach Paul Pasqualoni announced quarterback Troy Nunes would replace R.J. Anderson as starter.

Although Nunes has played well at times — particularly at Auburn, when he led Syracuse on a last-minute, game-tying drive — he faces the daunting task of igniting a seemingly flame-retardant offense.

“It’s really a sense of urgency,” Donnelly said. “We haven’t held up our end of the bargain. It doesn’t matter who’s playing quarterback.”

The statistics show differently. Anderson has completed 43 percent of his passes and tossed eight interceptions to four touchdowns.

Nunes, meanwhile, has a completion percentage of 61, with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Syracuse also seems more apt to open its playbook with Nunes. Despite playing parts of four games, he’s completed just 24 fewer passes than Anderson, who’s started every game.

Some of that should be attributed to two of Nunes’ appearances coming with Syracuse way behind (Pittsburgh and West Virginia). But it also illustrates the confidence the SU coaching staff has in the fifth-year senior’s knowledge of the playbook.

“He has more than a pretty good knowledge,” offensive coordinator George DeLeone said. “He would be the one guy on our team that knows a tremendous amount about football, has a lot of football savvy.”

DeLeone admitted Syracuse has scaled back the playbook at times to accommodate inexperience.

“We’ve cut back unbelievably with this team,” DeLeone said. “We have inexperienced players that haven’t been around, that haven’t played. Part of that shows.”

On defense, too. The offense has repeatedly put the defense on the spot with turnovers. In the first quarter last Saturday, the offense twice gave West Virginia the ball inside SU territory.

The Orangemen have turned the ball over 19 times this season (10 interceptions, nine fumbles), a sharp contrast from last year, when SU prided itself on ball control.

Though, on occasion, he has been victimized by tipped balls, Anderson is a poster-child for the turnover turnaround. He threw just two picks last year.

“You can’t win a game turning the ball over,” Donnelly said. “Last year, we were a team that prided ourselves on turnovers. And right now, we’re just not holding on to the ball.”

Time of possession bears that out. Syracuse has lost that category in every game, meaning even more field time for the defense.

“People wonder why our team is losing in the fourth quarter,” Donnelly said. “It’s because our defense is tired. In the Temple game, it’s not that they gave up points. They broke. They got tired. It’s the offense’s fault. (The defense) can’t get the blame for that.“

Maybe not all of the blame, but it at least deserves some. After all, Syracuse ranks last in the Big East in pass defense, rush defense and overall defense.

“You can’t blame it on anybody,” safety Keeon Walker said. “We’re just not making plays, and I don’t want to blame it on anybody but us.”

Luckily for Syracuse, Rutgers ranks last in the conference in scoring offense, averaging just 15 points.

Defensively, the Scarlet Knights are second-to-last.

Will that statistic and a new starting quarterback be enough to give SU its first victory over a Division I-A opponent?

“Don’t know,” DeLeone said. “We’ll see.”

Published on October 24, 2002 at 12:00 pm