PROVO, Utah — Tight end Lenny Cusumano dropped a sure-fire touchdown pass, Syracuse’s secondary watched nine different Brigham Young players catch passes and the Cougars marched to scoring drives of 71, 80 and 99 yards — all in the first half.

Somehow, though, Syracuse found itself tied at 21 late in the third quarter of last night’s season opener with a realistic chance to beat BYU.

But the Orangemen — plagued by foolish mistakes and a laid-back defensive scheme — could only tread water for so long. Eventually, BYU’s relentless hit-‘em-with-the-run, kill-‘em-with-the-pass attack became too much to handle. Syracuse’s defense broke down, yielding a 42-21 BYU victory in front of 65,612 fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

“We couldn’t keep up with them on defense,” cornerback Will Hunter said. “They confused us early, and we never got back together. When we did have chances, we shot ourselves in the foot.”

In BYU’s first possession, three different players lined up behind center. Starting quarterback Bret Engemann, who threw for 388 yards, received the snap the first two plays. Then receiver Reno Mahe caught and ran with the snap on the third play. Finally, on the sixth play of the drive, back-up signal-caller Lance Pendleton took the snap and ran an option.

On three different plays of that opening possession, BYU lined up with five, three and two wide receivers. By the time Syracuse had the right players on the field, it was too late. The Cougars marched 71 yards — 63 through the air — in just over five minutes for a 7-0 lead.

“That wasn’t the way we wanted to start,” linebacker Jameel Dumas said. “We got prepared for that crazy offense, but you can’t anticipate the speed of it. As soon as you finish one play, they’re at the line of scrimmage again. They just had us off balance from the start.”

But with eight minutes left in the second quarter, Syracuse had a chance to win back some momentum. With SU down 14-7, freshman running back Damien Rhodes carried four times for 50 yards to give the Orangemen a fourth-and-goal chance from the BYU 1-yard line.

Quarterback R.J. Anderson rolled right to misdirect the defense and lofted a pass to a wide-open Cusumano.

Thinking Syracuse had just tied the score, the crowd let go a collective moan. But the ball rolled of Cusumano’s chest, and the tight end doubled over as if he’d taken a punch in the stomach.

“No excuses. I’ve got to make that play,” a somber Cusumano said. “Whether the ball got tipped or not, it should have been caught. It was a touchdown, and I didn’t make the play. There’s no worse feeling.”

What BYU did next must have had Cusumano hiding on the sideline. The Cougars methodically marched 99 yards for the longest drive in school history to go ahead 21-7.

“That opportunity was there inside the 1, and that really hurt us not to get it,” SU head coach Paul Pasqualoni said. “We didn’t miss a single one of those chances last year, and not getting it there kept us off balance.”

Syracuse fought back in the third quarter, tying the score at 21 before the defense caved. The SU front four couldn’t put any pressure on Engemann, and the Orangemen secondary looked lost against BYU’s everyone-plays-receiver offense.

When Engemann wasn’t picking Syracuse apart, running Marcus Whalen was. He ran 19 times for 142 yards, giving BYU a multi-faceted attack that proved too much.

“We sat back too much on defense, and maybe that’s because we were tired by the end of the game against them,” Hunter said. “We had some chances but we just didn’t stop them — ever.”

Published on August 29, 2002 at 12:00 pm