CINCINNATI- Just drop it.

The Syracuse football team conversed in the locker room after its 17-3 loss to Cincinnati and found that was the best way to leave the mess they left in front of 20,146 fans at Nippert Stadium.

Interestingly, the solution aimed to prevent bickering in the locker room was just one of the many mistakes Syracuse showed on the football field. The SU receiving corps dropped seven passes and accounted for only 119 yards.

‘We can’t go back and catch the ball now,’ said wide receiver Mike Williams, who had one reception for 31 yards and a dropped pass. ‘It’s game over. We lost the game. So we basically said let it go and focus on the next game.’

Syracuse (3-6, 0-4 Big East) would like to forget about many aspects of the Cincinnati game. But it’s going to be hard considering SU has so many corrections to make in two weeks when it faces South Florida.

The loss extended SU’s Big East losing streak to 11 games. If it wants to stay bowl-eligible, the Orange has to win out against USF, Connecticut and Rutgers-and then rely on outside help.

While the Bearcats’ matchup on Saturday seemed within reach, it paralleled Syracuse’s game against UConn last year when the 26-7 loss caused a downward spiral. Both games followed tougher competition, leading some to think SU could use that experience and earn wins against inferior opponents.

But it proved just the opposite. At the end of the first quarter, Syracuse totaled -18 yards of total offense. At halftime, the numbers improved to 39 yards. At the end, SU finished with 180 yards. Delone Carter stepped in as the main tailback, contributing with 85 yards. But even his modest performance could not overcome the Orange’s 61 total rushing yards.

The changed offensive line-Carroll Madison at left tackle, Marvin McCall at right and Corey Chavers benched-did little to shake things up.

‘I am very frustrated,’ SU head coach Greg Robinson said. ‘We’re better than that. I think we’re more capable on offense than what we just played today. I give the defense credit. But we have to score points.’

The only worse offensive performance took place in SU’s season opener against Wake Forest on Sept. 2, when it finished with 136 yards of total offense.

Fortunately for the Orange, it could’ve fared worse if not for SU’s defensive stops, which made the game close, although not respectable.

On Cincinnati’s second drive, Kevin Lovell kicked a 20-yard field goal. It could’ve been a touchdown but the Bearcats had the benefit of favorable field positioning.

On the other side, Syracuse continued to squander favorable situations. Inside the 10-yard line, the Cincinnati defense stuffed Carter for no gain and a loss of two yards on a 2nd-and-1 and 3rd-and-1, respectively. What should’ve been a touchdown simply resulted in a Patrick Shadle field goal to tie the game, 3-3, with 7:56 left in the second quarter. The SU defense continued to bail the offense out. With Cincinnati facing fourth down at the 1-yard line in the second quarter, defensive end Jameel McClain and linebacker Kelvin Smith leaped to stop running back Butler Benton.

‘I felt like Superman,’ said McClain, who finished with nine tackles. ‘I knew I was going to go over the top on the first play because, sometimes, that momentum will help out the whole game.’

But it didn’t.

On its first drive in the third quarter, SU riddled itself with penalties. They amounted to 30 lost yards in a drive Carter stood out. To make it worse, punter Brendan Carney bobbled a snap that forced him to kick the ball 16 yards out of bounds.

‘That hurt a lot,’ Carter said of the penalties. ‘Just to be there and experience it happen, you think, ‘Damn, what’s been going wrong? Why can’t we all just click as a team?’ We have to overcome it.’

But it couldn’t on the next drive. UC’s Greg Moore broke the game open with a 2-yard run for a 10-3 Bearcat lead. Statistically the game still stayed in reach until Derrick’s Stewart 37-yard touchdown catch made it 17-3 with 9:47 left in the game. But with how SU’s offense functioned, Moore’s touchdown arguably clinched the game in an offensive-riddled day.

‘I’m never mad at the offense,’ McClain said. ‘We’re a whole team. I’m mad at us. I’m mad at me for not doing more. You can’t point any fingers at anybody because this is a team. We have to fight to the finish. So if we lost, it’s as a team and that’s how it’s going to go.’

Williams and McClain acknowledged they expected their development to be stronger at this point in the season. But in the meantime, players just want to drop it and let it go. It’s been a long nine weeks.

‘It’ll help with guys getting away from football a little bit and getting away from the coaching staff to get our minds right,’ SU quarterback Perry Patterson said. ‘We’ll figure out if we want to be there. We’ll see if guys want to come to practice, work hard and finish the season on the right note. It’s good for us. It’s coming at the right time.’

Published on June 4, 2007 at 12:00 pm