Doug Marrone had a clear objective in mind Saturday in the Carrier Dome.

‘Again, our thought is to put a game out there,’ Marrone said to a crowd of reporters in the Dome end zone. ‘It’s what a lot of people wanted. It’s what I wanted as a coach. It’s what us coaches wanted. I think it is what our players wanted. The level of competition definitely increased in their mind.’

Analyzing that increased competition 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage, SU’s head coach Marrone scrutinized 16 more plays than he did last year in SU’s annual Spring Game. Of the 104 total plays, his offense scored one touchdown. Of the 88 plays last year, his offense scored four touchdowns.

In terms of points, a drop-off occurred — even if the offense returns nine starters for 11 spots from last season’s Pinstripe Bowl-winning team.

A real game is what it was billed as and what it became for the SU players. The White team, led by defensive coordinator Scott Shafer, defeated the Blue team, led by offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, 13-7. Two teams lined up opposite each other, defensive players alongside offensive players on each sideline. The same did not occur last year, as the SU offense defeated the defense 66-58 in a special scrimmage scenario.

But for Marrone, Saturday was merely the continuation of spring practice — even if 4,206 fans attended the game. Removed from his head coach’s headset, he stood in the same spot he does for every spring practice. It was the same stoic stance SU fans fell in love with through the past year since the Orange’s 2010 Spring Game.

And Marrone displayed the same body language as he did when seeing the SU defense outplay the Orange offense for the majority of practices in the last month and a half. With the end of Syracuse’s 2011 spring practice, questions are still plentiful for the Orange offense. And those questions are there for the simple fact that a Syracuse defense — one that returned much less than the Orange offense — ended spring as the more polished and successful unit.

The single touchdown scored by two Syracuse offenses validated that. Even if returning SU starting quarterback Ryan Nassib feels his offense has made clear strides this spring.

‘I think me and the receivers are starting to have really good chemistry,’ he said. ‘We were starting to throw the ball without them looking, and they would be there to make the plays.’

Mental errors may have decreased substantially, but still, offensive success was rare to come by this spring. Points especially.

The stars of the spring were supposed to be offensive. SU returned four of five offensive linemen. Its four best pass-catching threats all returned in wide receivers Marcus Sales, Alec Lemon and tight end Nick Provo. Van Chew returns as well, but he missed most of the practices and the Spring Game due to injury. Nassib began his third consecutive spring as SU’s starter. And Antwon Bailey was finally given the opportunity to be the feature back with Delone Carter gone, after splitting reps with him the past two seasons.

On the other side of the ball, one starter in Phillip Thomas returned in the secondary, while another, Shamarko Thomas, was hurt. Marquis Spruill returned in the linebacking corps, but moved from outside to middle linebacker. And the interior of the defensive line was gutted.

But practice after practice — whether in Rochester, N.Y., or inside the Dome or Manley Field House — the defense won out more often than not. Thomas vocally led a hard-hitting defense that fostered the positive surprises of the spring. Freshman linebacker Dyshawn Davis was another surprise, as well as the mature and clutch play of linebacker Dan Vaughan — who played like a deserving starter this spring after once being thought of as a forever benchwarmer.

But Saturday, in the context of a real game, Vaughan and his bruising hits led the defense in a resounding victory. Yes, the defense won, even if this was the kind of ‘game’ Marrone wanted to supply for fans.

And with the defense’s successes against the offense, the questions not only still linger for the offense, but are amplified. The reason for that? In the 2010 Spring Game, the offense defeated the defense 66-58, despite the fact that Marrone and Hackett’s offense had only been implemented for a month. In 2010, Carter was suspended from playing, and Nassib and Bailey were a year younger.

But Marrone, Hackett, Bailey and Nassib aren’t reading into Saturday’s lack of offense at all. There were two reasons for that. One: Nassib and Bailey each looked solid, as the quarterback threw for 227 yards while maintaining a presence in the pocket and the running back ran for 118 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries. Two: The offensive line wasn’t together. The unit was scattered among the White and Blue squads.

‘The O-line is a different case, ‘cause they really perform as a unit,’ Nassib said. ‘So when you split them up, it is a little bit different. We knew that was an issue going in.’

It became a glaring issue, as three of SU’s starting offensive linemen failed to lead the Blue team to a single score, albeit with a backup quarterback and running back.

By the end of the game, and the spring, the offense hasn’t taken the step forward it hoped it would.

This was supposed to be the spring where the offense took off. This was supposed to be the spring where touchdowns were scored. This was supposed to be the spring where the offense was better than the defense.

Instead, this was an OK month for the offense. Just OK. And even though Hackett was content with it, he realized there is still much work to do before Wake Forest comes to the Dome on Sept. 3.

Points need to be scored.

‘That is the story, and that is the way it was last year, and we have got to get out of that,’ Hackett said. ‘That is the No. 1 thing. That is the No. 1 challenge. We have got to make points, and that is about touchdowns and not field goals.’

Tony Olivero is the development editor at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at [email protected].

 

Published on April 18, 2011 at 12:00 pm