West Virginia Mountaineers @ Syracuse Orange Football Recap

Syracuse 49, West Virginia 23

Is it going to be that kind of a year in the Big East Conference? Evidently, it will be.

The BCS league with the most persistent identity crisis, the league whose 2010 champion lost four games before getting blasted in the Fiesta Bowl, is following the same basic path in 2011. The one team in the Big East with national chops and some shred of credibility in a big-game atmosphere has been eviscerated, making it very hard to see how this year's Big East champion will enter its January bowl game with fewer than three losses.

Once again proving that college football games are not played on paper, the Syracuse Orange, a team that had struggled to get past far inferior opponents through much of the 2011 season, hammered the heavily favored West Virginia Mountaineers by 26 points to catapult themselves into the thick of the Big East race. West Virginia entered the game with one of the nation’s most potent passing offenses, and it also took the field at Syracuse's Carrier Dome with the knowledge that it had played No. 1 LSU on relatively even terms through almost three full quarters. Late in the third quarter of a Sept. 24 game against LSU, West Virginia trailed by only six points (27-21), showing the nation that it could stand in the ring against an elite foe. West Virginia represented the Big East's most attractive BCS bowl participant, but now the Mountaineers' ability to win the Big East has been thrown into question. It's all because of a second straight loss to an emerging nemesis from upstate New York.

A relentless pass rush from Syracuse harassed quarterback Geno Smith from the outset. Smith was sacked four time and hurried or hit hard on countless other pass attempts. The Orange also picked him off twice. As has been the case in several games this year, the Mountaineers were never able to get a ground game established to keep the opposing defense off balance. WVU's offense was stifled and smothered with the same consistency and regularity which marked last year's 19-14 win for the Orange on the Mountaineers' home turf.

For Syracuse, the game illustrated just how far quarterback Ryan Nassib has developed under head coach Doug Marrone’s tutelage. Nassib’s accuracy and precision were downright surgical, as the emerging signal caller completed 24 of 32 passes for 249 yards and four touchdowns. More importantly, Nassib was never sacked, and the Orange were an impressive 12 of 17 on third down conversions. Nassib’s ability to keep the chains moving helped the Orange dominate the time of possession and keep the West Virginia offense off the field. Syracuse wore out West Virginia's linebackers and safeties with an assortment of wheel routes and seam patterns the Mountaineers were never able to adjust to. West Virginia received almost the entire preseason buzz in the Big East. On Friday, WVU ran into a buzzsaw, and now the Big East's prospects for a BCS bowl victory lie in tatters.

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By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer