Nico Scott has never seen anything like what transpired Saturday night inside the Carrier Dome. Maybe one trick play would have been par for the course. But four trick plays in one game? That’s something that shocked the junior cornerback.

‘Oh my gosh, I’ve never seen so many trick plays,’ Scott said. ‘Oh my goodness. Sometimes trick plays are something you can’t really prepare for, but they executed them and obviously they worked.’

Maine utilized two fourth down fake punts for first downs and two onside kicks in Syracuse’s 41-24 win over the Black Bears Saturday night. Syracuse’s inability to stop these plays allowed Maine to extend and start new drives that resulted in two touchdowns. Mostly, it allowed Maine to stay in the game.

‘I give the University of Maine a lot of credit,’ Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone said. ‘They came after us early on and did a lot of different things, and some people may call them trick plays but we have to defend those plays both from special teams and the defensive standpoint. We lost two possessions in the first half by them converting two fourth downs and wound up scoring on both those conversions.’

As the clear-cut underdog coming into the Carrier Dome Saturday night, Maine head coach Jack Cosgrove said his team took a different approach and got aggressive in their game plan. Maine quarterback Warren Smith said the squad’s theme was ‘going for it.’

The first shocker came after Maine cut Syracuse’s lead to 7-3 in the second quarter. On the ensuing kickoff, Maine kicker Jordan Waxman kicked a dribbler past the 40-yard line as Syracuse’s front line turned its back to run downfield and cover. Before the line figured out what had transpired, Waxman jumped on the ball to give Maine possession at its own 44-yard line.

Syracuse’s lack of focus on the play became pricey when Smith hooked up a 56-yard touchdown pass to Landis Williams to make it 10-7 in favor of Maine with 14:44 to go in the second. The other onside kick came late in the game to give Maine possession with 10 seconds left in the game.

‘I don’t think we were prepared for it,’ SU defensive end Chandler Jones said. ‘That definitely caught us off guard. There’s a play called surprise onsides and I think that’s what they did. We were all shocked. We had guys running back to go back for the blocks and the ball was just rolling by our feet and it was a missed opportunity of a big play.’

If the onside kicks were not enough, there were also two fake punts for first downs that stunned Syracuse’s special teams unit. The first one came in the second quarter with Maine on its own 26-yard line. In what should have been signs that a punt was not going to occur, quarterback Mike Brusko took the snap and found Desmond Randall over the middle for a 35-yard gain. No Syracuse defender was in the vicinity of Randall until linebacker Derrell Smith pulled him down at the Orange 39. Five plays later, Smith found Williams again for a touchdown to make it 17-10.

The second fake punt opened the second half. After SU forced Maine into a fourth-and-6 on its first possession, this time Maine used an end-around out of punt formation with Williams to register a first down. Within a span of 20 minutes, SU’s specials teams unit gave up two fake-punt first downs.

‘I just feel that we need to pay attention more and I think it was a fluke,’ Jones said of the second fake punt. ‘I think that play was a fluke and I mean all the credit goes to Maine, they did a great job. They came out strong and all the credit goes to them.’

Jones’ summation of Maine’s tactics seemed to be the central message of Syracuse’s players after the game. They tipped their hats to Maine for the great play-calling and didn’t seem too worried about the lapses on special teams.

Scott, though, had a different answer for the failure to stop the plays.

‘I’m just going to say (it was) them executing their assignment better than us, I’m going to leave it at that,’ Scott said. ‘Just great execution.’

mrehalt@syr.edu

Published on September 28, 2009 at 12:00 pm