PITTSBURGH – Both teams came out firing. One ran out of bullets, too busy shooting itself in the foot.

Both the Syracuse and Pittsburgh football teams boasted powerful offenses and struggling defenses coming into their game Saturday, a sure recipe for a shootout.

Only Pitt delivered on that promise, turning a shootout into a blowout.

Taking advantage of an Orangeman offense that pulled a vanishing act after the first quarter, Pitt defeated SU, 34-14, at Heinz Field before a homecoming crowd of 61,421.

On its second drive of the game, Syracuse (4-3, 1-2 Big East) convincingly slammed the ball 80 yards to take a 14-7 lead. After R.J. Anderson’s 2-yard touchdown run with 2:16 left in the first quarter, Syracuse didn’t score and earned just three first downs. Syracuse gained 195 yards, only 69 of which came after halftime.

‘With the exception of that one drive, we just didn’t execute, flat out,’ SU tight end Joe Donnelly said. ‘The Playmakers was nonexistent today. We came out and faded away. We disappeared.’

Most conspicuously absent was Anderson. He completed only 8 of 17 passes for a meager 49 yards, easily his worst statistical performance this season. Syracuse’s offense began to dissipate after Anderson – who previously had not committed a turnover – gave Pitt the ball on two consecutive offensive plays.

The second gave away possession. The first gave away the game.

With the game knotted at 14, five minutes before halftime, Anderson and running back Walter Reyes ran an option. When Anderson turned upfield, the pair separated too far, causing Anderson’s lefty pitch to fall at Reyes’s feet.

Reyes slipped, and Pitt cornerback Bernard Lay scooped the ball one-handed and sprinted 20 yards to the end zone, giving Pitt a 21-14 lead.

‘I don’t know if we ever totally recovered after that,’ SU head coach Paul Pasqualoni said.

When Anderson tried to fire back, he drew blanks. He threw his first interception in 178 passes, a lofted heave off of his back foot to a double-covered Johnnie Morant.

Though Pitt couldn’t capitalize on the interception on the scoreboard, it soared with momentum as Syracuse sunk further into futility.

‘With our offensive weapons, 49 yards passing is unacceptable,’ Donnelly said. ‘We didn’t show up today. That’s on all the skill players. We didn’t do our job.’

Indeed, SU’s offense produced no big plays. Its only first down in the second and third quarters came when Pitt blocked a Brendan Carney punt and Diamond Ferri advanced it 15 yards. That was also SU’s second-longest play of the game, only a yard less than Rashard Williams’s 16-yard, first-quarter reception.

SU’s offensive meltdown came as a surprise one week after the Orangemen victimized Boston College for 407 yards, especially considering Pitt came into the game giving up 407 yards per game.

The offensive incompetence marked a fatal collapse after a promising opening quarter for the Orangemen. On Pitt’s disastrous first possession – on which it faced a second and 41 – punter Andy Lee bobbled a snap. After Anthony Smith tackled Lee, the ball flipped up to Steve Gregory, who ran 10 yards for a touchdown.

That score, followed by the impressive 80-yard drive, gave the Orangemen confidence – possibly too much.

‘We came and rammed the ball down their throats,’ Donnelly said. ‘I felt like everyone was just happy, complacent or something. It’s 14-7 and people are happy. You’re not going to beat Pittsburgh with 14 points.’

Or 49 yards passing. Or 69 second-half yards. Or eight penalties for 70 yards. Number after number served as a sobering testament to SU’s self-inflicted letdown.

‘We hurt ourselves,’ Anderson said. ‘Throwing picks. Fumble the ball. You do that, you can’t win.’

‘I’m going to keep saying it,’ Reyes said. ‘We shot ourselves in the foot.’

Because of it, Syracuse missed its chance to join the upper-echelon of the Big East. For now, its still stuck on the second tier.

‘It’s a huge missed opportunity,’ Donnelly said. ‘It’s going to take one loss to be the champion of this conference. It kind of takes us out of the running.

‘Everybody’s upset. Everybody’s pissed off. We just don’t finish games. We don’t play four quarters of football. We feel like we gave away another win.’

Published on October 26, 2003 at 12:00 pm