Three games. Three crushing losses.

It’s starting to feel like one of those recurring nightmares. It’s the same old story of dropped passes, awful tackling, inconsistent drives on offense, bad penalties and a lack of clutch plays on defense. First downs remain a rarity, the same goes with defensive stops.

And in the end, Saturday’s final score epitomized a team that has shown little signs of improvement since the start of the season three weeks ago. Illinois trounced Syracuse, 41-20, in the Carrier Dome. The Orange has now lost three games by a combined margin of 86 points, and SU holds its first 0-3 record since 1986.

The announced crowd of 34,188 was the second smallest in the past 20 years at the Dome. And it certainly looked like that number could have been an exaggeration.

A disastrous showing on defense once again exemplified the worst of Syracuse’s problems. The Orange defense gave up 508 yards of total offense, including almost 400 yards rushing the ball.

‘There’s not much we can say,’ SU cornerback Dowayne Davis said. ‘Fundamentally, we have to play better.’

Last year, Syracuse snapped its 11-game losing streak with a 31-21 victory over Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, sparking a three-game winning streak. The Illini were not going to let SU get off easy this time, though.

Since the opening day loss to Washington, Syracuse’s defense has removed blame from the game plan and placed an emphasis on improving football essentials like tackling, plugging the opponent’s running game and marking assignments.

Two weeks after the season-opener, the defense still looks lost on the field. The Illinois running game trampled over the Orange. Three Illini ran for more than 90 yards, including running back Rashard Mendenhall, who had three touchdowns and 150 yards on 16 carries.

‘Sometimes missed tackles come down to athletes,’ SU head coach Greg Robinson said. ‘I’m not going to say what I see. You can teach fundamentals ’til the cows come home. Sometimes when you’re in position to make a play, you got to make a play.’

When the Orange cut the Illini lead to 20-10 in the third quarter, it seemed Syracuse finally had gained some momentum. A 62-yard screen pass to running back Curtis Brinkley – Syracuse’s longest play of the season – set up Jeremy Sellers’ goalline plow into the endzone. However, SU’s inability to make a stop on the ensuing drive put any control Syracuse had gained back in the hands of Illinois.

Illini quarterback Juice Williams capped the 80-yard drive with a 10-yard sprint for a score to make it 27-10. Williams utilized an option attack to confound the Syracuse defense, which stayed in nickel formation for most of the game to try to compensate for Illinois’ spread formation. On the next Illinois drive, a careless pass interference by freshman linebacker Mike Mele on third-and-long extinguished any last hopes that remained for the home team.

Once more, a breakdown in basics had devastated the Orange. Mendenhall took advantage of the penalty with a 50-yard touchdown run, making the score 34-10.

Mendenhall’s score punctuated the theme typifying this year’s Orange squad: The sequence starts with a missed opportunity by Syracuse; it ends with a score by the opponent.

‘When you’re playing the way we are, you’re looking for somebody (to make a play),’ Robinson said. ‘Early in the ballgame, I saw some situations for interceptions, some fumble opportunities we didn’t get. We got to make those plays and all of a sudden, you don’t let that offense proliferate.’

The offense continued its mediocre performances from the past two games. Dropped receptions, three-and-outs and poor protection characterized the SU offense, which scored half of its points against the Illinois second-team defense.

The stats looked decent on paper. SU quarterback Andrew Robinson finished 17-for-26 for 208 yards and no interceptions, arguably his best individual performance so far. But the offense’s numbers did little to alter the final score.

‘We showed we can move the ball,’ SU offense lineman Carroll Madison said. ‘We got to be able to finish. We got a lot of those drives inside their territory and didn’t get any points. We can’t do that. We can’t let that happen.’

The offense’s slow start put the Orange in an early hole. At halftime, Illinois led, 17-0. And Syracuse did not collect a first down on any of its first three possessions. A potential first down by receiver Taj Smith – who had his breakout performance in last year’s Illinois game – turned into a dropped catch on the first drive.

After another week of practice, the fundamental woes seem impossible to shake. The dj vu of blunders seen each weekend has left the Orange frustrated and spiraling further into a nightmarish season – where the simplest of mistakes seem almost inevitable.

‘We’re a team that is a work-in-progress – big time,’ Robinson said.

Published on September 16, 2007 at 12:00 pm