For its first two plays, the Syracuse offense worked to perfection.

In a complete transformation from SU’s season-opening win, the Orange moved rapidly down the field to start its first drive. A Ryan Nassib-to-Adam Harris completion and an Antwon Bailey cutback run up the middle put SU in Rhode Island territory after less than a minute.

But the third play disrupted Syracuse’s start-fast mentality and game plan. Nassib’s throw downfield intended for Alec Lemon sailed high and came down in the hands of Rhode Island cornerback Devon Dace.

‘I take personal responsibility for that first drive,’ Nassib said. ‘I made a wrong read. I made a bad read and all through the drive all the guys were ready to go. I looked in their eyes, and I saw for the first time this season that they were ready to go.’

While Nassib’s errant pass was Syracuse’s only turnover of the game, it set the stage for an uneven performance by the Orange offense — its second such performance in as many games. The Orange moved the ball down the field well Saturday, especially through the air. Ryan Nassib threw for a career-high 318 yards and carried an unusually one-dimensional offense on Saturday, accounting for all of SU’s points.

But Syracuse couldn’t finish drives, struggled to run the ball and scored only three times in its 21-14 victory over Football Championship Subdivision opponent Rhode Island.

‘A lot of that had to do with little mistakes,’ Nassib said. ‘One guy missing an assignment — I missed a few out there — and that’s just stuff that’s really unacceptable. For me, it’s unacceptable, and I know for a lot of the other guys it’s unacceptable.’

Much of the offense’s difficulties had to do with Rhode Island’s defense. While Wake Forest’s defense was able to stymie SU for most of the game because it caught the Orange off guard, Rhode Island came in with a different, unconventional defense that stacked the defensive box.

Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone said URI brought two safeties or linebackers up on the sides, making it almost a 4-4 formation in the box on defense.

Eight guys in the box meant gaps for Bailey were hard to come by. He finished with 43 yards on 13 carries.

‘We came out right off the bat trying to throw it,’ Marrone said. ‘That was the game plan from the beginning.’

Nassib tied the school record for completions in a single game with 29. He was fantastic apart from the pick on the opening drive, completing 78 percent (29-of-37) of his passes. The Orange’s wide receivers had a huge day, too. Van Chew caught eight passes for 134 yards and a touchdown, and Alec Lemon caught a career-high 10 passes for 94 yards and a score.

Yet Syracuse struggled to score and couldn’t put together consistent stretches of good offense. Bailey couldn’t get going against the URI defense, evident by his paltry 3.3 yards per carry.

‘When you have a team like ours, that’s a run-based team, you’re going to see (eight in the box),’ Bailey said. ‘So that’s just something that we got to get adjusted to.’

Syracuse put up 126 yards on offense and recorded nine first downs in the first quarter, but had only seven points to show for it.

The Orange did reach the end zone on its second drive, an 11-play, 73-yard grind that featured a fourth-and-5 conversation in Rhode Island territory to keep things moving.

On the next drive, Nassib completed three consecutive passes to three different receivers. URI’s aggressive defense near the line of scrimmage left the short out-route pattern uncovered, and Nassib took advantage.

But later on that third drive, the SU offense hit a wall — a common theme for much of the day. Bailey got banged up on a third-down run up the middle, and Jerome Smith was stuffed on a fourth-and-1 from the Rams’ 14-yard line.

Rhode Island took possession and put together a drive to tie the game.

Syracuse could have been up by 21 points in the first quarter. Instead, a few minutes into the second quarter, the game was tied.

While SU went on to win by one score, Nassib said the Orange’s blunders must be amended going forward.

‘You get down in the red zone, you got to put points on the board,’ Nassib said. ‘And it’s something we got to correct, and whatever we did, little mistakes, we got to make sure we go back, look at them, make sure we don’t do them again.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on September 9, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr