Syracuse vs. Pittsburgh Postmortem

by Sean Keeley on Nov 9, 2009 1:08 PM EST

On Wednesday, Syracuse players and coaches marveled about how amazing their practice has been that day. It was pretty much the only bright spot in all of last week for Syracuse football, culminating in the 37-10 drubbing at the hands of the Pitt Panthers:

A tumultuous week ended with the Orange offering its poorest performance of the season. Hammered by injuries and reeling from the defection of Mike Williams and the suspension of three front-line players, Syracuse committed three turnovers and had no answers in the second half of a painful blowout loss to an old rival.

The Panthers rushed for 247 yards against the best-run defense in the Big East. Freshman tailback Dion Lewis rushed for 118 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries. Pittsburgh wide receivers gained 117 yards on end-arounds.

Pittsburgh quarterback Bill Stull picked apart a wounded secondary for 225 yards and a touchdown as the Panthers defeated their rivals for the fifth straight year.

The final salt-rub in the wounds? Tight end Cody Catalina and safety Max Suter will both miss the rest of the season with injuries.

Suter sustained a left radius fracture, which was surgically repaired on Sunday, Nov. 8 by Dr. Irving Raphael. Catalina sustained a right knee injury and will have surgery in the near future. Raphael will also perform Catalina’s surgery.

The lone bright spot on the day? Delone Carter again. Carter put up solid stats and showcased some extremely noble effort fighting for the Orange all day, even out-rushing Pitt's Dion Lewis.

The leading rusher in the game was Syracuse’s Delone Carter, who gained 143 yards on 17 carries. He broke a 58-yard run on the game’s second play and nearly had 100 yards by the end of the first quarter. No tailback had rushed for 100 yards this season against the Panthers.

"That’s fine, but it really doesn’t matter to me unless I win," Carter said. "All the yards and all that, it really doesn’t mean nothing to me unless I get a W."

Paulus and Nassib combined for three picks though two of them weren't their faults entirely. In fact the Mike Williams-less receivers didn't help out the QBs very much at all.

Syracuse's receivers didn't do Paulus and Nassib many favors, either. On several key third downs, they cut their routes shy of the first-down marker. Two such instances stalled promising drives in the first half, when the score was still close. Faced with the ensuing 4th-and-shorts twice in the first half, Marrone opted to punt.

More links and game stories after the jump: