Doug Marrone is going to look at the tape. He has to. But that doesn’t mean the Syracuse head coach has to see errors from every unit during every single film session.

He doesn’t.

This week, Marrone was expecting to see few — if any — flaws in the Orange’s cornerback play from Saturday’s 29-3 win over Akron. He said as much Monday. His defensive flanks — including Big East Defensive Player of the Week Mike Holmes — were pretty much perfect.

‘I don’t know if we’re going to find anything (wrong) on the tape in terms of how (the SU cornerbacks) played,’ Marrone said. ‘There’ll be less to correct with them with the way the corners played in that game and the scheme that we were in, but everyone else has a chance to improve greatly.’

From a team standpoint, the Orange will be hard-pressed to improve upon the individual accolades it attained Monday morning. After the first week of the season, two Syracuse players were selected as the Big East Players of the Week. Sophomore quarterback Ryan Nassib was picked as the conference’s offensive player of the week, while Holmes was tabbed as the conference’s defensive player of the week.

It was the first time since 2004 the Orange won both the offensive and defensive weekly team awards. Last season, SU registered two winners in the same week when kicker Ryan Lichtenstein won the special teams award and current Tampa Bay Buccaneers No. 1 wide receiver Mike Williams won the offensive award.

And the dual-accomplishment within the same week came as a result of a simple variable for Marrone: winning.

‘I think those things happen when you win,’ Marrone said.

The win, the accolades and the performances came in just Holmes and Nassib’s first starts at their positions. Each didn’t hesitate in racking up numbers, even if those numbers were in facets of their game each was expected to provide the least in.

For Holmes, the senior’s highlight from Saturday came via a punt block. For Nassib, the classic drop-back quarterback scampered for 58 yards, including a 45-yard run to the Akron one-yard line, just seconds before the game ended.

He went 17-for-27 for 229 yards with two touchdowns in his first game under center. Holmes, who started at cornerback for the first time after starting at free safety last season, registered six tackles to go along with a 57-yard defensive touchdown, resulting from the blocked field goal he ran back in the third quarter.

The touchdown, which saw the speedster Holmes — who is also the team’s starting punt returner — pull away effortlessly from three Zip defenders, provided the Orange with a 23-3 lead with fewer than five minutes left in the third quarter.

Live, and on film, the play lasts fewer than 15 seconds. But it is seconds full of errorless football on the part of the SU defense.

And it came on a special teams play for the corner. His performance seeped into the part of his game fans expected the least from: punt blocking. And the gunner from the flank rounded out his game with the defensive highlight from this past weekend.

On the Orange’s first- through third-down defense, Holmes was a part of that standout group at corner Marrone lauded.

Holmes partner in the secondary, Max Suter was equally impressed with Holmes and the cornerbacks play throughout the rest of the game. Suter is expecting the same this weekend against Heisman Trophy candidate and Washington quarterback Jake Locker.

‘Our corners played lights out against Akron,’ Suter said. ‘They have been playing lights out all summer, and those two corners that we have are awesome players. They are going to make plays for us, even with Locker. If our corners do what we are taught, we’re going to be fine.’

Akron’s receivers only gained 111 yards through the air. SU relinquished fewer yards through the air once last year — 104, in a 31-13 win over Rutgers. Just one Akron receiver caught more than two passes, Jeremy LaFrance with seven.

But Holmes did perform poorly in one aspect of his game Saturday. On punt returns, Holmes dropped one and failed to return another on kick interference.

As for improving that part of his Big East Player of the Week’s game, Marrone, once again, provided a succinct answer.

No tape needed.

Said Marrone: ‘We’ll address that during the week.’

Lichtenstein… or Krautman?

After Saturday’s game and at his weekly Monday press conference, Marrone declined to delve into the Orange’s situation at kicker. Heading into summer camp, returning sophomore starter Ryan Lichtenstein was slated to start for the Orange. But in the third week of camp, Lichtenstein left practice early after attempting just one field goal.

In the practices since, Krautman has kicked with the first team as Lichtenstein has been slow to come back. Marrone said SU was resting Lichtenstein throughout the end of camp and never named a starter at the position heading into the Akron game.

On Saturday, Krautman got the start and converted on a 47-yard field goal. He also missed an extra point and had another one fail due to a botched snap.

With the inconsistent performance from the freshman on Saturday, Marrone was asked Monday where the situation is currently. Marrone said Lichtenstein is working his way back, but he said Krautman should be the starter come Washington Saturday in Seattle.

‘(Lichtenstein) is OK now,’ Marrone said. ‘But we’re happy where we are with Ross (Krautman), we’re happy with his kickoffs. … But right now, it should remain status quo unless something changes throughout the week.’

This and that

Marrone lauded the play of his freshmen Monday, hinting many may start as soon as this season. Said Marrone: ‘Some may end up being starters.’ … Marrone said on Monday that in preparation for the Huskies, the Orange will ‘make a lot of changes this week, practice-wise.’ … The blocked field goal leading to Holmes’ touchdown was confirmed as Doug Hogue’s block. The block was originally credited to Chandler Jones.

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on September 7, 2010 at 12:00 pm