Syracuse outsmarts Pitt with wildcat offense in Yankee Stadium win

Almost to the point where he had one hand tied behind his back, Syracuse quarterback Garrett Shrader suited up against Pitt on Saturday with an injured shoulder.

Advantage, Pitt, right?

Not quite. Not in this season of repeated despair for the Panthers and coach Pat Narduzzi.

Syracuse coach Dino Babers surprised Narduzzi by installing a wildcat offense, using it regularly throughout the game and ignoring his passing attack. Pitt had no answer and allowed 235-pound tight end Dan Villari to rush for 154 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries in the Orange’s 28-13 victory at New York City’s Yankee Stadium.

Pitt (2-8, 1-5 ACC) has lost four in a row and eight of its past nine games. Syracuse (5-5, 1-5) snapped a five-game losing streak with its first ACC victory.

Narduzzi said he had watched Syracuse use the wildcat sparingly in previous games this season.

“Mostly in goal-line packages,” he said. “They ran a couple with (running back LeQuin Allen), but nothing to the magnitude and the formations they were in (Saturday). Totally different. Good job by them.”

Safety Javon McIntyre said the wildcat “definitely caught me off guard.” He respected what Syracuse was able to do, but he said, “It wasn’t what they did. It was more about what we did wrong.”

Syracuse mostly used three players in its run game, and the Orange ended up 4 yards short of having three 100-yard rushers. Allen rushed 28 times for 102, and Shrader added 96 on 14.

Shrader threw only two passes and completed one for 5 yards and a touchdown. His 21-yard scoring run in the third quarter erased Pitt’s 13-7 halftime lead.

Overall, the Orange ran 66 times for 382 yards and attempted only eight passes, completing four for 17 yards. Before Saturday, Syracuse was averaging 153.1 yards on the ground.

Syracuse was in such total control that Pitt’s offense possessed the ball for only 22 minutes, 34 seconds while committing four turnovers.

“They did a lot of different stuff that we had not practiced,” Narduzzi said. “We tried to adjust as we went. Obviously, tackling had something to do with it, and we’ll watch that, who missed and where we executed wrong. We didn’t tackle well.”

Syracuse delivered a thorough beating, holding Pitt to only one touchdown — that’s three games in a row the Panthers crossed the goal line only once — and chasing quarterback Christian Veilleux from the game in the fourth quarter.

Pitt trailed only 14-13 late in the third quarter when safety Donovan McMcMillon stopped Allen 1 yard short on the goal line on fourth down. The momentum did not last long.

Veilleux, who threw for 149 yards in the first half and 12 after halftime, fired a pass into the belly of Syracuse cornerback Jayden Bellamy, who returned the mistake 23 yards for a touchdown and a 21-13 lead.

Veilleux lost a fumble on the first play of the fourth quarter — his second of the game on botched handoffs — and Villari responded with a 27-yard touchdown run.

At that point, Narduzzi had seen enough. He replaced Veilleux with sophomore Nate Yarnell, who completed three of five passes for 48 yards.

“We put the ball on the ground with that ball-handling deal, which just can’t happen,” Narduzzi said.

Asked if Veilleux will remain the starter for Thursday’s game against Boston College, Narduzzi said he wasn’t sure.

“We’re going to look at the tape and find out.”

Yarnell led Pitt across midfield once, but Rodney Hammond lost a fumble at the Orange 35-yard line.

Pitt was fortunate to escape the first quarter facing only a 7-3 deficit. Syracuse dominated the line of scrimmage through the first 15 minutes, rushing 18 times for 108 yards. Shrader’s only pass was a 5-yard touchdown flip to tight end Maximillian Mang.

Pitt temporarily solved the mystery of the Syracuse run game, at least in the first half, and that allowed the Panthers to grab their 13-7 lead at halftime.

Veilleux hit Bub Means for a 67-yard catch-and-run to the 15-yard line to set up a 10-yard scoring strike to Konata Mumpfield. Ben Sauls kicked field goals of 35 and 33 yards, but Pitt was shut out in the second half.

Faced with a short week, Pitt will start practice Sunday — something that would have happened, win or lose — while the coaching staff tries to figure out where it and the players went wrong.

“It starts with me. I take full responsibility,” Narduzzi said. “It’s my job to get 74 guys we bring on the road all ready to go. It starts with coaching, putting our guys in position to make plays. We obviously didn’t do that.”