Syracuse hasn’t won in 41 days. The Orange is in the worst tailspin in Doug Marrone’s three seasons as head coach, dropping four in a row after once looking like a team on the rise.

Yet somehow, still, much of those feelings of regret can be alleviated. With one win against Pittsburgh, SU can become bowl eligible in its fifth attempt to do so.

And in a last-ditch effort to right the ship, Syracuse’s players and coaches are just trying to make football fun again.

‘It’s like a playoff game, really,’ running back Antwon Bailey said. ‘Like a playoff game. We win, we in, we lose, we out. So we got everything on the table.’

Despite dropping four games and falling into last place in the Big East, Syracuse (5-6, 1-5 Big East) is still on the cusp of reaching bowl eligibility for the second consecutive season. And the Orange faces a Pittsburgh (5-6, 3-3 Big East) team that also wants to make a bowl through a win in its regular-season finale. Though they haven’t lost four straight games, the Panthers fell in an attempt to qualify for a bowl game last weekend, so Saturday’s game at Heinz Field (noon, ESPN2) will have a playoff atmosphere.

For Syracuse, it’s a strange predicament to be in considering the team once stood at 5-2 after whooping then-No. 11 West Virginia on Oct. 21.

‘A lot of times, as you get older in life, you don’t get many second chances,’ Marrone said in his Monday press conference. ‘You definitely don’t get a lot of third, fourth, fifth or sixth chances. We’re in a position now where this is our fifth opportunity. … You have to take advantage of it, and we haven’t been able to do it for four straight weeks.’

Bailey, along with other players, said the big emphasis going into this week has loosened up. Playing more freely. SU left tackle Justin Pugh said it’s a mindset that brings him back to high school, when he was just able to get on the field and have fun with friends.

Syracuse has nothing to lose by leaving it all on the field Saturday. A loss and SU’s seniors never play another game for the Orange.

It’s a new calm that Pugh said starts up top with the coaching staff.

‘Obviously (Marrone) sets the tone for the practices,’ Pugh said. ‘He goes in the meetings and kind of gives us that lighthearted mood, maybe throw a joke, which is very rare, but he gives us a little something. Kind of makes everyone a little more at ease, not as tense.’

Syracuse has pressed the issue a bit in recent weeks, as the Orange hasn’t found the solution to stop the landslide that is its season. The win over the Mountaineers and the jubilation that followed is a distant memory at this point.

The disappointments of a game given away at Connecticut and crummy showings in three other double-digit losses during the losing streak have piled the weight upon the Syracuse players’ shoulders.

But the Orange is facing a Panthers team that perhaps can relate. After all, Pittsburgh had to survive after losing its best playmaker, running back Ray Graham, to a gruesome knee injury Oct. 26. And in Todd Graham’s first year as head coach, he hasn’t gotten consistent quarterback play to run his spread offense.

Graham said in his Monday press conference Syracuse is a mirror to what the Panthers have endured this year. Though both teams have had plenty of downs, there may still be a bowl game waiting for whichever can put those letdowns behind fastest.

‘If we win this next game and we become bowl eligible, I feel like everybody, the level will go from way down to way up high,’ SU tight end Nick Provo said. ‘Because everybody’s shitting on Syracuse, saying they suck, but if we get that next win and get bowl eligible, then what are they going to say then?’

The Orange stares at two possibilities in this Pittsburgh game: Syracuse can become bowl eligible for the second straight year, something that hasn’t been done since 2003 and 2004. Or it will endure a long offseason — and will still be on a losing skid entering 2012.

‘Obviously in this game there’s a lot at stake because if you win, you get to play another game,’ Marrone said. ‘You can start on the foundation of correcting some of the things that have happened, and it’s easier to do that on the field than off the field.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on November 30, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr