Syracuse Orange Football Season Comes to Heart-Wrenching End vs Pitt Panthers

This one hurt most of all. 

A faithful crowd of Orange students and alumni filled Heinz Field with cheers usually reserved for the Carrier Dome and supported their beloved Otto the Orange when a montage celebrating Roc the Panther came across the Jumbotron. 

In a game that was never out of reach, it all came down to what is considered the final Orange drive. 

Down six with three minutes to play, the Syracuse Orange would have to channel that cardiac kid spirit that carried them at the onset of the 2011 season. 

Ryan Nassib could redeem himself for the fumble earlier that led to another Pitt Panther score by simply orchestrating one more miracle. It felt as if this game, this season, had been building for this drive.

Everyone was electric and buzzing as Nassib found his favorite target of the season, Alec Lemon, for 12 yards over the middle to start the comeback. The Orange rushed into their no-huddle and it looked as if they had rhythm on offense for the first time in weeks. 

Then, with the fateful dive of Brandon Lindsay as Nassib wound up to throw a strike to Jarrod West, the ball popped free and the Orange faithful become silent as stone when the Panthers' Antwuon Reed ran the fumble in for a score. 

To add insult to injury, on the next Orange possession, Nassib once again found Blue and Gold as his pass was deflected into the waiting hands of Andrew Taglianetti.

In retrospect, the box score stats show that Pitt was the better team and deserved their 33-20 victory. The Orange committed six turnovers and had ten penalties, though the validity of these are debatable. 

However, the Orange had dominated the ground game, once again relying heavily on Antwon Bailey's 53 tough-earned yards. The surprise of the game was sophomore Jerome Smith.

Channeling the spirit of another former Jerome who played in the Steel City, "The Bus" ran over the Pitt defense for 56 yards on ten carries, the highlight being his ten-yard bulldozing of Pitt linebackers for a touchdown to cut the Panther lead to three.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of this loss, and season, is that Doug Marrone's squad had the talent to win this game as well as other Big East games this season. Especially so on this sunny Pittsburgh afternoon, the Orange found ways to make the game difficult.

They fumbled twice to kill promising drives and give the Panthers prime field position. They started off drives looking for 15 yards due to delay of game or false-start penalties, already putting the pressure on Nassib and Bailey to make a big play. 

In essence, they played as "un-Doug Marrone" football as you can get. This offseason is going to raise questions with the talent departing and calls for Doug Marrone's job have already been put out there (more on this later in the week). 

Ultimately, although many viewed 5-7 as a reasonable finish for the Orange, no one ever thought it would be this painful.

In the words of seniors Dan Lyons and Adam McMonagle "That's Syracuse football: just good enough for expectations."