PITTSBURGH — The stage was set for Ryan Nassib and the Syracuse offense to erase a mistake-filled game and do away with a four-game skid. Three minutes remained and all SU needed was a touchdown to clinch bowl eligibility.

‘We do two minute every day during practice,’ senior wide receiver Alec Lemon said. ‘We score every time. We were ready to take this ball down and score and go to a bowl game.’

The drive started with a 12-yard catch by Lemon to move Syracuse out from its own 6-yard line. On the next play, Nassib scrambled to his left. But he didn’t feel Pittsburgh linebacker Brandon Lindsey closing on him from behind as he readied to throw.

Lindsey poked the ball away from Nassib, and it floated directly into the hands of Pittsburgh cornerback Antwuan Reed, who snatched it out of the air and returned it 20 yards for the game-sealing touchdown.

And just like that, Syracuse’s collapse from conference-title contender to missing the postseason was complete.

Pittsburgh knocked off the Orange 33-20 in front of 40,058 fans at Heinz Field on Saturday, dooming SU (5-7, 1-6 Big East) to a losing record and preventing it from reaching a bowl game. Syracuse committed six turnovers that led to 20 points for the Panthers (6-6, 4-3 Big East) and ultimately cost the Orange the game. SU closed the season on a five-game losing streak after starting the year 5-2.

‘We had an opportunity to get some things done this season,’ SU head coach Doug Marrone said. ‘It’s a shame that we weren’t able to accomplish that.’

Entering the game, Pittsburgh was worst in the Big East with a minus 5 turnover margin. But that didn’t stop SU from coughing the ball up six times, the most forced by the Panthers since their 2002 season opener.

The game started nearly as disastrously as it finished for Syracuse.

Pittsburgh pooched the opening kickoff to an open spot near the 20-yard line at the home team’s sideline, and Dorian Graham couldn’t dive onto the football, allowing the Panthers to recover. They then scored on the next play to take a 7-0 lead 10 seconds into the game.

SU kept possession on the ensuing kickoff but didn’t hold the ball long. A miscommunication between Nassib and wide receiver Van Chew led to an easy interception in the flat by Lindsey. That led to a Pittsburgh field goal and 10-0 edge before Syracuse had run three offensive plays.

‘When you’re sitting there and you fall behind 10-0, there’s a little bit of, ‘OK, what’s going to happen?” Marrone said.  ‘And they haven’t quit. But you start thinking, ‘Here we go. This is going to be a good test right here.”

Syracuse answered quickly on the next possession, capped off by Antwon Bailey’s touchdown on a 26-yard catch-and-run on a screen pass to pull within 10-7. The teams then went back and forth until halftime with the Panthers taking a 20-10 lead into the break.

And on the first drive of the third quarter, momentum swung in SU’s favor when Chandler Jones picked off a swing pass and brought it back deep into Pittsburgh territory. Jerome Smith capitalized for the Orange with a 10-yard touchdown to put the score at 20-17.

But things unraveled for Syracuse from there.

After another Panthers field goal, Nassib was stripped from behind as he tried to scramble for a first down, which set up another Pittsburgh field goal to put them in front 26-17. SU moved into Panthers territory on the next possession, but Jarrod West fumbled while trying to pick up extra yardage to end the drive.

‘It’s just crazy,’ offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett said. ‘Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. There were just some unfortunate incidences when the ball was on the ground.’

And just like the four straight losses that SU suffered entering this game, the Orange still had a chance to overcome four turnovers with one final drive to save the game and the season.

But that all came to an end on one last disastrous play.

‘(Nassib) was about to take off and run and just went to pump fake a guy,’ Hackett said. ‘And a guy came around the corner, just reached out and just clipped the ball. You can’t plan for that kind of stuff.’

And with that, the promising drive that could have saved the season fell apart. So did the promising season itself. Pittsburgh took a 13-point lead, and SU’s final drive of the season ended in another turnover when Nassib was picked off for the second time.

‘I really don’t have any words,’ Lemon said. ‘You feel like you just had it coming off of West Virginia and coming off these losses. Sending our seniors home like this, the gut feeling is hard to explain.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on December 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm