Doug Marrone refused to call Sunday’s 23-6 loss to Connecticut the most frustrating of the year.

‘They are all frustrating, trust me,’ Marrone said. ‘They are all frustrating. All of the wins, you feel good about. And then you have to move on. I don’t think you can label one or the other.’

For the second game in a row his offense sputtered, this time lifeless to the UConn blitz. His defense held up for as long as it could, again, before succumbing to its own mind-lapse: a penalty within the SU five-yard line. And the opportunity to remain alive for a Big East championship was lost.

Still, to Marrone, this wasn’t the worst loss of the year. What was the third Big East home loss for the Orange and a 60-minute example of a struggling offense against the Big East’s worst defense was as disheartening as the rest. A loss — albeit a touchdown-less one — is a loss.

What, then, was different about Saturday?

‘It happened right now,’ Marrone said.

Now, as in the final conference game for the Orange. Now, as in a week after the Orange program soared to new heights with bowl eligibility.

Now, as in after Syracuse achieved all of its preseason goals, SU is limping to the end of the season. After nine games of progression, Saturday was the unequivocal regression.

Against the conference’s worst total defense (364.11 yards per game), the Orange averaged 2.2 yards per rush. The rest of the offense didn’t muster any element of a threat as well, as Ryan Nassib struggled to find any north-to-south success while his offensive line failed to protect him. The cat, thanks to the Huskies’ defensive muzzle, was out of the bag.

Even Rob Long — yes, Rob Long — muffed a punt 14 yards off the right side of his shoe. Everyone happened to succumb to the spell of poor play. SU was, in one word, bad. Bad to close conference play in a conference that many are regarding as the worst in BCS conference history.

That bad.

Because the loss happened when it did is the exact reason it was the most frustrating for SU all season. It may not be the lost road trip to Washington, or the 45-point pasting by Pittsburgh. And it may not have been the worst numbers-wise.  But it was, assuredly, the most frustrating.

One week after the Orange broke out of its bowl drought, it looked like a team in the midst of a deep offensive funk, one it won’t soon get out of. Syracuse tallied 131 fewer yards Saturday than the Huskies’ opposition averaged prior to Saturday, accruing only 235 yards.

Players looked confused, but if you ask Marrone, they weren’t emotionally drained. They also didn’t quit, as he felt his players played hard enough to tell them he felt such postgame. There weren’t any obvious excuses, and in his near seven-minute press conference he didn’t single out a paramount problem.

No excuses meant there was a lack of execution. And a lack of execution that led to nine penalties and several turnovers meant Marrone put the blame on himself.

But truthfully, as Marrone has guided SU to new heights much faster than expected, the blame can’t go on his shoulders. This is the man who might still be the favorite for Big East Coach of The Year. The elements of the game SU failed at against the Huskies were not his fault. The Orange just wasn’t good enough from a personnel perspective. And that is what made the loss so frustrating. Marrone’s ‘little things’ finally killed his team in all facets of the game.

This team will be going to a bowl. But with this loss, there are clear signs that SU is playing poor football. And that the offense best might not be good enough against bowl-caliber teams. That extra game in December might turn into a shellacking.

Because all of this hit the fan at the end of a game where SU could have remained in the Big East title talk makes it sting that much more for the Orange. Just 60 minutes earlier, anyone would have told you that it wouldn’t have been that way. It wasn’t meant to be that way.

Not now, at least.

But it was. It happened after everything. That’s why it hurts more than the rest.

Tony Olivero is an assistant sports editor for The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at aolivero@syr.edu.

Published on November 21, 2010 at 12:00 pm