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Jawhar Jordan looked to escape from the backfield and find an open hole when he rammed into the back of offensive lineman Airon Servais. As Jordan fell toward the ground on 3rd-and-11, the ball lept out to his right. 

Syracuse’s run play trailing by 11 in the fourth quarter hadn’t been successful. Pittsburgh recovered the fumble inside the Orange’s 30-yard-line and was set up to push the game to a three-score lead. Even as the defense kept the Panthers off the board, SU punted on 4th-and-6 from its own 41-yard line with seven minutes to go on the next drive. 

The next and final time Syracuse’s offense took the field on Saturday, quarterback Tommy DeVito was no longer under center. Rex Culpepper finished the game at quarterback. Pitt had sacked DeVito seven times and held him to 32 passing yards on nine completions. 

The Orange offense, which head coach Dino Babers had expected to improve from last weekend, stumbled for the second consecutive week. No. 25 Pittsburgh (2-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) gave Syracuse (0-2, 0-2) multiple short-field opportunities and extra possessions to try to rally in the second half, but it didn’t matter. Despite five possessions starting or moving inside the Pitt 40-yard-line, the Orange managed just 10 total points in a 21-10 defeat to the Panthers at Heinz Field.

“We did score a touchdown, so there’s some improvement there,” Babers said. “But we still have a long way to go offensively.”

From the opening drive of the game, the same issues that plagued Syracuse in its loss to North Carolina persisted. Unable to develop a consistent rushing attack, Babers and offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert tried to dial up more quarterback rushing and option plays. 

The offense has a package for Culpepper to come in to try to get first downs and points, Babers said postgame. After DeVito tried the quarterback run and Pittsburgh stuffed him at the line, Culpepper walked onto the field for a 3rd-and-3 in the red zone. He tried a keeper again and failed, too.

“We need to take a long hard look at what we do in the red zone,“ Babers said.

DeVito was optimistic Wednesday that the Orange’s offense was closer to clicking than Babers suggested Monday. Last week, Babers excused DeVito’s inefficiency in the loss to UNC for lack of execution and connection, saying the absence of a real offseason affects the passing offense the most. He expected DeVito to make a jump from game one to game two. 

“I know the media likes to go straight to the quarterback, and there’s a lot going on out there, and we need to look at the tape,” Babers said. “Speculation over that stuff isn’t going to do anybody any good.”

But Pittsburgh’s defensive line, which sacked SU nine times in 2019 and seven times on Saturday, stifled the Orange’s entire offense. Syracuse barely eclipsed 200 yards in the 31-6 loss to UNC. And on Saturday, they failed to cross 200 yards — finishing with 171, 69 of which came on one long touchdown. 

As the offense sputtered and Andre Szmyt settled for a field goal, Pittsburgh’s offense finally broke through for a touchdown to give the Panthers a 7-3 lead in the opening quarter. DeVito left the game with a minor injury after taking a sack on the next drive, and Culpepper entered again, this time as the actual quarterback.

“We have to find a way that we can protect (DeVito),” Babers said. “We’re not going to get that young man hurt, we’ve had 14 sacks and at this stage we’re going to set the record. And I don’t plan on setting the record in 2020.”

Culpepper’s first play resulted in a 69-yard touchdown, one pass lofted to Taj Harris that gave SU the lead for a fleeting moment. It appeared that maybe the Orange’s offense had the spark it needed, similar to last year’s meeting in the Carrier Dome when backup Clayton Welch launched a 94-yard catch-and-run touchdown to Harris on his first play after coming in for an injured DeVito. 

Welch finished the game against Pitt last season, leading a late comeback attempt with two touchdowns before an eventual 27-20 defeat. Babers went back to DeVito on Saturday, and the Orange didn’t score a point after he returned. 

The Orange’s defense battled for the entire game, much like it did last week for three quarters. The Orange held Pittsburgh to 21 points and 4.3 yards per play in the game and, save for a few penalties, made a play every time a play was required. 

When Pittsburgh was driving to extend the lead to two possessions at the end of the first half, a Tyrell Richards sack pushed Pitt into a longer field goal that led to a botched snap. When the Panthers pushed inside the SU 30-yard-line midway through the third quarter, Mikel Jones stepped in front of a Pickett pass to set up the Orange with good field position.

Babers went back to DeVito to start the second half. A few plays later, after the Orange had again moved inside the Pittsburgh 40-yard-line, DeVito floated a screen pass to freshman Sean Tucker off his back foot. The ball sailed over Tucker’s head and into the diving arms of Pitt defender Paris Ford. It was a chance for the Orange to take the lead. Instead, it sprung a Pittsburgh touchdown drive that pushed the Panthers to a double-digit lead. 

Last week, DeVito didn’t see an open Aaron Hackett in the end zone, and Sharod Johnson dropped a touchdown. This week, Airon Servais whiffed on a block, and DeVito was sacked on a fourth down on one third-quarter drive. On the next one, he threw an interception. While the SU defense kept feeding the offense advantageous field position and turnovers, the Orange reciprocated the same to Pittsburgh offensively. 

With four minutes remaining in Saturday’s contest, Culpepper fired high for his receiver on the SU sideline on 4th-and-6. Despite being down just 11, Babers didn’t bother to use his timeouts. 

“Once that expired,” Babers said. “It was going to be really difficult to win with two scores.” 

He stood on the sideline and watched as the clock ticked away and his team fell to 0-2, amassing fewer yards in two games of 2020 than the 2018 team averaged per game. 

Even if his offense did get the ball back, they hadn’t moved the ball in eight quarters of football in 2020.

Published on September 19, 2020 at 3:31 pm

Contact Anthony: amdabbun@syr.edu | @AnthonyDabbundo