The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Courth Hathaway

Greg Paulus left the field for the third straight time as the victim of his own actions. For the third straight drive, he had completed a pass to a South Florida defender and in the process pushed Syracuse's turnover total to an unthinkable tally of seven.

When Paulus came to the sideline, he stopped around the 40-yard line and turned to the replay board to watch what had just transpired. He saw what the 40,147 in attendance at the Carrier Dome had witnessed: another ill-advised turnover.

So he turned around, quickly shaking his head. He had seen enough. A game that could've been won instead became a reminder of why Syracuse holds meetings every Friday on the importance of winning the turnover battle.

Syracuse's seven turnovers, five via Paulus' shaky arm, doomed the Orange in its 34-20 loss to South Florida in its Big East opener Saturday afternoon. The seven turnovers matched SU's season total coming into the contest. USF scored 27 points off those errors.

The five interceptions Paulus threw matched a program record.

"Turnovers are the key," SU head coach Doug Marrone said. "We didn't talk about seven turnovers. We can't win the football game if we turn the ball over seven times."

Were it not for the blunders, Syracuse (2-3, 0-1 Big East) might've been able to pull off the upset. SU had more first downs (23 to 14), won the total yardage battle (344 to 333), ran more plays and won the time of possession by more than five minutes.

The seven turnovers, though, proved to be the most telling statistic.

It started early for Syracuse. On the Orange's first three possessions, Delone Carter and Mike Jones both lost fumbles and Paulus threw the first of his five interceptions. Neither Carter nor Jones were hit particularly hard and appeared to fumble on their own accord. Paulus' pick was the result of throwing behind tight end Nick Provo.

"I think they (the USF defense) deserve credit," Paulus said. "They made plays on some balls, some of it's on me, and it's all on me."

The turnovers became especially damaging in the second half.

After the Orange cut the score to 14-13 with a Mike Williams touchdown at the end of the first half, USF quarterback B.J. Daniels found Carlton Mitchell streaking down the Syracuse sideline for an 85-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 21-13 just 18 seconds into the half.

That was as close as the score would be.

Continued...

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