In the week leading up to Sunday’s season opener against West Virginia, Syracuse head coach Greg Robinson stressed the importance of forcing turnovers.

Robinson noted teams that have three more turnovers than their opponents win roughly 95 percent of the time. Sunday’s 15-7 loss to the Mountaineers, however, fell in the miniscule five-percent range.

Syracuse forced five turnovers, three more than West Virginia did, but didn’t turn any of them into points.

‘We played pretty well,’ Syracuse senior linebacker Kellen Pruitt said. ‘We caused a number of turnovers. It was a shame we couldn’t capitalize off the turnovers. But a great defense has to find a way to win.’

Syracuse allowed 339 yards of offense and just two field goals to West Virginia. The Mountaineers defense scored the other nine points, so Syracuse’s defense wasn’t to blame for all 15 points. That didn’t console them.

‘It obviously wasn’t enough,’ Syracuse senior cornerback Steve Gregory said. ‘Maybe we needed one more turnover. That’s our goal, pound, do whatever it takes to win the game. And we didn’t accomplish that.’

Linebackers coach Steve Russ agreed.

‘We didn’t play well enough – bottom line,’ Russ said. ‘You have to find ways to win football games. You win football games as a team. It’s a ridiculous notion that you win football games on one side of the ball.’

West Virginia had three drives of more than 50 yards Sunday but only one resulted in scoring.

The Mountaineer’s first drive took them 68 yards on eight plays before SU safety Anthony Smith forced a Jason Colson fumble that Tanard Jackson recovered inside the 15-yard line.

SU lineman Nick Santiago also forced a Colson fumble in the red zone with 14:05 remaining in the game. Santiago reached his hand around Colson as he was tackling the running back and jarred the ball loose, allowing Smith to recover and thwart a West Virginia scoring chance.

‘We pride ourselves on flying around and playing 100 miles per hour and I think we did that to an extent,’ Gregory said. ‘Obviously we’re going to look at the film and see where we’re at it. We’re definitely going to get better. This defense that you saw today is not going to be the defense that you see next week.’

Robinson, who also serves as the defensive coordinator, stressed the importance of forcing turnovers throughout spring and preseason practices. It’s been a staple of his previous units and his defensive background was one of the main reasons Director of Athletics Daryl Gross hired him. Gross wanted to keep Syracuse in games with a strong defense, and that’s exactly what happened Sunday.

Syracuse allowed fewer than 339 yards on defense just three times last year. SU averaged 427 yards and nearly 29 points against last year. The Mountaineers alone netted 423 yards against the Orange in 2004, so Sunday’s result showed promise.

The area where players and coaches agreed there could be improvement on defense was tackling. Playing against a tandem of running quarterbacks, Syracuse failed to make the initial tackle numerous times.

‘I knew our guys were going to play real hard,’ Robinson said. ‘There are things that we could have done better, and they are going to continue to get better. The question asked earlier, is the tackling perfect? No it wasn’t but it can be improved, and when we improve that we will play even better.’

Published on September 3, 2005 at 12:00 pm