Greg Paulus left the field for the third straight time as the victim of his own actions. For the third straight drive, he had completed a pass to a South Florida defender and in the process pushed Syracuse’s turnover total to an unthinkable tally of seven.

When Paulus came to the sideline, he stopped around the 40-yard line and turned to the replay board to watch what had just transpired. He saw what the 40,147 in attendance at the Carrier Dome had witnessed: another ill-advised turnover.

So he turned around, quickly shaking his head. He had seen enough. A game that could’ve been won instead became a reminder of why Syracuse holds meetings every Friday on the importance of winning the turnover battle.

Syracuse’s seven turnovers, five via Paulus’ shaky arm, doomed the Orange in its 34-20 loss to South Florida in its Big East opener Saturday afternoon. The seven turnovers matched SU’s season total coming into the contest. USF scored 27 points off those errors.

The five interceptions Paulus threw matched a program record.

‘Turnovers are the key,’ SU head coach Doug Marrone said. ‘We didn’t talk about seven turnovers. We can’t win the football game if we turn the ball over seven times.’

Were it not for the blunders, Syracuse (2-3, 0-1 Big East) might’ve been able to pull off the upset. SU had more first downs (23 to 14), won the total yardage battle (344 to 333), ran more plays and won the time of possession by more than five minutes.

The seven turnovers, though, proved to be the most telling statistic.

It started early for Syracuse. On the Orange’s first three possessions, Delone Carter and Mike Jones both lost fumbles and Paulus threw the first of his five interceptions. Neither Carter nor Jones were hit particularly hard and appeared to fumble on their own accord. Paulus’ pick was the result of throwing behind tight end Nick Provo.

‘I think they (the USF defense) deserve credit,’ Paulus said. ‘They made plays on some balls, some of it’s on me, and it’s all on me.’

The turnovers became especially damaging in the second half.

After the Orange cut the score to 14-13 with a Mike Williams touchdown at the end of the first half, USF quarterback B.J. Daniels found Carlton Mitchell streaking down the Syracuse sideline for an 85-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 21-13 just 18 seconds into the half.

That was as close as the score would be.

On SU’s first drive of the second half, a USF defensive lineman hit Paulus as he threw and the ball floated right into the hands of Kayvon Webster. Eight plays later, Mike Ford carried Max Suter into the endzone to make it 27-13.

The next possession, Paulus tried to lob a screen pass to Antwon Bailey while being swarmed by the Bull’s defenders, but 265-pound lineman Jason Pierre-Paul hopped in front of Bailey and waltzed into the endzone. For good measure, Allen picked off his second pass of the game on the Orange’s ensuing drive.

Paulus had his worst game of the season, completing 25-of-46 passes for 269 yards and two touchdowns to go with the five picks.

‘I think you start to press a little bit,’ Paulus said. ‘I had a couple of bad balls and I have to keep learning and growing from those. Having that amount of turnovers puts your defense in a bad position.’

That’s not to say the Orange offense didn’t have its moments. There were times when SU moved the ball up and down the field with ease. Williams tore apart the Bulls’ secondary, catching a career-high 13 passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns. He jumped up to haul in two touchdown passes from Paulus that were both well-placed in the back of the end zone.

‘When we didn’t have the turnovers, it looked like nobody could stop our offense,’ Williams said. ‘But you put in the turnovers involved and we lose games. We had seven turnovers today and that’s what happened.’

Unfortunately for the Orange, those stretches of offensive dominance were few and far between. The only thing the Orange consistently did Saturday was hand USF possessions.

‘At the end of the day it’s very disappointing from a coaching perspective,’ Marrone said. ‘I’m sure the players are disappointed. I don’t know any team that has won with seven turnovers, which is unacceptable. It’s my responsibility as the head coach, and I have to straighten it out.’

mrehalt@syr.edu

Published on October 4, 2009 at 12:00 pm