Syracuse-South Florida Post-mortem

In between the time the game ended and now, Syracuse committed nine more turnovers. 

Hey, we shouldn't feel bad.  It's not the first time USF has forced seven turnovers from it's opponent.  Louisville (2007) and Houston (2002) feel our pain.  But it's not like we were alone out there.  I mean, the first eleven plays of the game made for a comedy of errors on both sides:

In one of the strangest football stats ever, the teams committed five turnovers on the game’s first 11 plays, with the Orange losing two fumbles and an interception and the Bulls losing two fumbles.

"It was like a high school game out there," Daniels said.

Dave Rahme talks about how those seven turnovers thwarted Syracuse's winning plan for the game.

To produce the shocker Marrone planned to take the ball on the opening kickoff and cram it down South Florida’s throat, to jump in front, stay in front into the half and then let the overconfident Bulls, who were 74-5 when leading at the half but only 16-44 when trailing at that point, start to point fingers at each other in the locker room.

Alas...

The offensive line certainly took the brunt of the USF force and Doug Marrone thinks they did a decent job all things considered:

"I thought there were times when they did a tremendous job."

It's like getting a 75% tremendous.

On the injury report, it was tight end Nick Provo who was standing on the sidelines in a sweatsuit by the second half.  He injured his knee in the game and his status for next week is up in the air.

Some more thoughts and notes on the game:

• Those five interceptions and two fumbles? Oh, you can just call them SU's seven deadly sins...Bud Poliquin
• SU-South Florida Recap...Brent Axe
• South Florida coach on the seven turnovers: "We needed every one of them to win"...Dave Rahme
• Turnover City dooms Orange to 34-20 loss against South Florida...Donnie Webb
• Secondary remains question mark on Orange defense...Jared Diamond
• Turnovers mask Syracuse's clear improvement...Jared Diamond
• Paulus' 5 interceptions doom Syracuse in 34-20 loss to South Florida...Matt Ehalt
• South Florida's B.J. Daniels shows off rocket arm on touchdown pass...Dave Rahme
• The Devil Tuns The Ball Over...Three Idiots on Sports
• Monday Morning QB...Orange44

Syracuse did end up taking one for the team in a sense.  The Big East team, that is.  Since USF won, remained undefeated and is now ranked, this Thurday's showdown with No. 8 Cincinnati has become a marquee game for the conference.  You're welcome, everyone.

The loss also actually cost Syracuse a chance to be on national TV this week.  ABC passed over the SU-WVU game and it will now be played at noon and broadcast on the Big East Network.