Everyone expected a blowout. One team — Syracuse — was presumed to be vastly inferior in all three phases. Fans likely made other plans during the fourth quarter because it would be no contest by then.

West Virginia was supposed to be the team to score 49 points and Syracuse was supposed to score 23.

But some bizarre, inverted version of that scenario took place instead — all in front of a nationally televised audience on ESPN. The Orange displayed a juggernaut offense, a tenacious defense and a dynamic special teams unit that dismantled the Mountaineers, to come out on the winning end of a 49-23 rout.

‘They completely dominated us on all three sides,’ West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen said. ‘There won’t be any finger-pointing. This was a team loss. We have to give Syracuse credit for having more energy and being more excited to play.’

This came out of nowhere. After a three-point win over lowly Tulane, whose head coach resigned last week, Syracuse destroyed the No. 11 team in the nation Friday, breaking the Mountaineers’ will. The Orange looked like the team that was unanimously picked to win the Big East back in August, not West Virginia. Syracuse played like the team that could represent the Big East this January in the Bowl Championship Series.

There’s now a new aura surrounding this team. SU could very well be ranked by the time it plays another game in the Carrier Dome (Nov. 11 vs. South Florida). No longer is Syracuse considered to be so lucky for having a winning record. The Orange lost to Rutgers, but it now feels like SU must be the better team. Rutgers couldn’t do that to West Virginia.

The saying goes: You are what your record says you are. And pretty or not, Syracuse is a 5-2 team. And Friday was pretty.

‘I’m very excited. We stuck together as a whole unit, offense, defense, special teams,’ safety Phillip Thomas said.

Now, in the next two weeks, Syracuse will probably be favored to win road games at Louisville and Connecticut. UConn was just on the other side of a West Virginia blowout, getting shredded 43-16 on Oct. 8.

Syracuse was another UConn. The result was going to be the same Friday.

But when WVU quarterback Geno Smith tried to duplicate that performance Friday, the Orange defense gave him fits. None more prominent than when the Mountaineers tried to score before the half to cut into a 21-9 deficit. He threw into triple coverage in the end zone, and Orange safety Jeremi Wilkes came away with a pick.

Later, after taking a hit on the last play of the half, Smith sat on the ground as everyone ran into the tunnel at halftime, one of the last ones to head to the locker room as he walked slowly off the field.

‘Me, personally, I saw a little change in his game and in his eyes,’ defensive tackle Deon Goggins said. ‘So we did what we planned to do.’

A month ago, Syracuse couldn’t rattle Matt Barkley as he threw five touchdowns on a poor SU secondary. But the bye week has reinvigorated and improved the health of Syracuse, who at 1-1 in the Big East can still make a run for the conference title.

And five winnable games remain on the schedule: Louisville and UConn, then South Florida, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.

It’s not exactly murderers’ row. The Cardinals and Huskies have inconsistent quarterback play. USF is 0-3 in the conference. Cincinnati’s at the top of the Big East but was obliterated by a 3-4 Tennessee team. Pittsburgh’s offense is an utter disaster.

Syracuse has problems, too. But none of those five teams have put together as complete a performance as SU’s on Friday.

A BCS bowl, whether it’s Orange, Sugar or Fiesta, is out in the distance but creeping closer.

Marrone didn’t say anything outrageous after the game. He actually didn’t say much at all, deflecting credit for the win and in some ways deflecting the importance of the win itself.

But string together a couple of more wins over teams the Orange should beat, and the next time Marrone’s at the podium in the Dome, after a Friday-night win over South Florida, it will be hard for him to keep calm over what would be an 8-2 Syracuse team.

‘I think we were much closer to get those three phases,’ Orange head coach Doug Marrone said. ‘ … We’ll go back and look at it, and I’m sure there are a lot of things that we need to improve on as we go forward in this season, but it’s always easier to do that after a win.’

Mark Cooper is an asst. sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at mcooperj@syr.edu or on Twitter at @M_Coops_Cuse.

Published on October 22, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr