EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — This Doug Marrone showed plenty of emotion. Unlike the post-West Virginia Marrone that held in his emotion without so much as a smile, Saturday’s version reflected the frustration of a 28-21 loss to Connecticut.

Following Syracuse’s turnover on downs with 1:31 remaining that sealed his team’s second consecutive loss, Marrone removed his headset and threw it to the ground in disgust. He handed his now-useless play card off to a member of his staff and stood with arms crossed at midfield.

When an assistant reached out to Marrone, offering another piece of paper, the SU head coach snatched it away angrily.

‘The second half, we scored every time we touched the ball except for that last drive,’ Marrone said.

Uh, coach. That’s not actually true.

After two brilliantly executed touchdown drives to open the second half, SU turned the ball over on each of its final two possessions — both a reflection of simplistic, repetitive play calling. An interception by Ryan Nassib with 9:05 remaining was converted into the eventual game-winning score by the Huskies, and UConn defensive tackle Kendall Reyes batted down a fourth-and-6 pass to halt SU’s final drive.

As the second half wore on, a core group of four plays became the staple of the Syracuse offense. Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett returned to the well time and time again. It led to huge games from wide receivers Alec Lemon and Dorian Graham and tight end Nick Provo, but it also led to both turnovers, as the Huskies — and everyone else in the stadium — knew what plays to expect.

Connecticut was fed a heavy diet of out routes to Provo via play action and bootlegs, slants to Lemon or end-arounds to Graham.

That’s it. No effective running game, unless you count 33 yards by Graham on four reverses. No threat of deep passes. (Syracuse attempted only one deep ball all game to Van Chew in the first quarter.) By the fourth quarter, not a shred of deception.

‘I thought they would (expect it), but we kept getting them,’ Hackett said. ‘So it’s kind of hard when you’re sitting there and you don’t call it because you never know if they’re going to get it.’

Seven of Nassib’s nine completions on the Orange’s two touchdown drives in the second half went to Lemon and Provo. The former finished with arguably the best game of his career, hauling in nine catches for 157 yards and a touchdown. The latter remained Nassib’s security blanket with seven catches — four of which resulted in first downs — for 53 yards and a touchdown.

But eventually, the Huskies caught on. Linebacker Sio Moore read Lemon’s route on a bootleg by Nassib and jumped in front to pick off a pass in the fourth quarter to set up the game-winning score.

‘I was just reading the release of the wide receiver and following him on the route,’ Moore said. ‘I knew we needed a big play, so I just made one for us.’

And it was on SU’s final drive that UConn demonstrated its ability to predict — correctly — the majority of plays the Orange called.

On first-and-10 from its own 20, Graham was smashed in the backfield by Tywon Martin for a loss of 7 on a reverse as Hackett tried to ‘sneak one more in there’ against the Huskies.

Later in the drive, the desire to force the ball to Lemon doomed the Orange. On third-and-6, Nassib zipped a ball down the middle on a seam route, but Connecticut safety Ty-Meer Brown broke up the play easily. He read it all the way.

Then, with one last chance, Nassib went back to Lemon on the quick slant pattern that worked all game long. But UConn defensive tackle Kendall Reyes recognized the blatant repetition and extended his arms to bat the ball to the ground on fourth down.

‘You want to keep trying to make them play it and make them cover it,’ Hackett said.

Well, coach, they did cover it. Against the 106th-best pass defense in the country, SU failed to connect on a single pass of more than 30 yards — because it didn’t try after the first quarter.

The exciting offense promised to fans by Marrone, his staff and his players all throughout camp was reduced to a video game-esque series of 5-yard out routes and slants.

Nassib was so focused in on Provo and Lemon that by the end of the game, the official Connecticut spotter in the press box began guessing the outcome of each play. It was beyond predictable and beyond ineffective.

A far cry from the flea-flicking, wide receiver-throwing offense of weeks gone by.

Michael Cohen is the sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at mjcohe02@syr.edu or on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.

Published on November 6, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13