Ryan Nassib was helpless. As the Syracuse quarterback tried to improvise — to do anything — to get the Orange back in the game, his offensive line left him unprotected from an all-out, suffocating blitz.

Surrounded, Nassib had nowhere to scramble. On fourth-and-goal from the 3-yard line, during a crucial fourth-quarter drive, the play was lost. He tried to hurdle South Florida linebacker Sam Barrington and got up in the air, but he came right back down with Barrington. He pushed the ball up toward the end zone, a feeble flip that was out of the reach of tight end Beckett Wales.

SU was two yards away from pulling within six points. But second, third and fourth downs combined produced a loss of yards as the Orange offensive line crumbled.

‘They ran an all-out pressure, the play we had against that pressure wasn’t the best,’ Nassib said. ‘So I tried to, maybe I should have, I probably should have audibled to have something else.’

The three plays in which SU got stuffed at the goal line by South Florida took the enthusiasm out of the Carrier Dome crowd and allowed the Bulls to retain a comfortable double-digit cushion. They also encapsulated a performance by the Orange offensive line that made Nassib’s night grueling in Syracuse’s 37-17 loss to USF on Friday. Nassib was sacked three times and flushed out of the pocket to make a rushed throw on many other plays.

After failing in its attempts to fuel a strong running game early, Syracuse relied more on the pass — and then relied more on Nassib’s legs — as he rarely had sufficient time to throw.

‘Most teams are going to pressure us, and we’ve got to pick that up,’ SU left tackle Justin Pugh said.

SU head coach Doug Marrone and his players said there was nothing about USF that surprised them. It was just bad execution on Syracuse’s part.

That was the case with the offensive line as much as anywhere else on the field. The Orange came out with a game plan centered on running the ball, which it failed to carry out.

After an 8-yard run by running back Antwon Bailey to start the game, he gained 1 yard on second-and-2. Then running back Jerome Smith was met by USF defensive tackle Keith McCaskill at the line of scrimmage on third-and-1.

‘Third-and-1, you can’t have a guy get beat,’ SU center Macky MacPherson said. ‘It’s just not possible. You can’t have that happen against a team like USF.’

Syracuse’s first seven offensive plays were runs, but they resulted in zero points for the Orange on the scoreboard.

After three drives in which Pugh said South Florida ‘came out and punched us in the mouth,’ SU relied heavily on Nassib.

On its final three drives of the first half, the Orange ran 23 plays. In 19 of them, Nassib dropped back to pass. Six of those became forced runs or sacks.

Nassib took three-step drops, looked at his first reads and ran for it if they weren’t open. There was no time to go through a progression. It’s why he finished the game with a peculiarly high 10 carries.

‘You can’t expect him to step back there in two seconds and make a play like that, so that’s on us,’ Pugh said.

Nassib looked even more impatient in the pocket in the second half. Trying to establish a rhythm in the third quarter, Nassib began a drive with a short 6-yard completion to Jarrod West.

But on the very next play, USF linebacker DeDe Lattimore manhandled his blocker and blinded the SU quarterback for a loss of 6 yards.

‘I think about myself,’ Marrone said of the lack of time for Nassib. ‘I have to get them in situations in practice where we can make those plays because we do make them during the week of practice.’

For a moment on one fourth-quarter drive, it looked like the Orange would overcome the faulty protection to get back in the game.

Down 23-10, SU drove into the red zone and reached the USF 7-yard line. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Bailey pushed his way down to the 2.

But on second-and-goal, Bulls defensive end Julius Forte burst through the Orange line unblocked to stop Bailey for a loss. And on that fourth down from the 3, SU’s comeback hopes — and Nassib — went down with the offensive line.

‘That’s on us, the offensive line,’ Pugh said. ‘We got to go establish the physicality, and I take 100 percent blame on myself for not going out there and being as physical as I should have been.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on November 11, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr