EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — The starting offensive line that took the field for Syracuse had a combined one start coming into the season. Left tackle Michael Lasker started the first game of the 2014 season against Villanova, but that was it.

Between Lasker, Aaron Roberts at left guard, Colin Byrne at center, Evan Adams at right guard and Jamar McGloster at right tackle there were just eight starts of experience, including this season.

With starting center Jason Emerich, starting right guard Omari Palmer and starting left tackle Cody Conway out due to injury, Syracuse (2-2, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) employed a patchwork offensive line in a 31-24 win over Connecticut (2-2, 0-1 American Athletic) in East Hartford, Connecticut on Saturday afternoon. The team’s starting quarterback, sophomore Eric Dungey, had more starts coming into the game than the line combined, and he missed four games last year due to injury.

“I think anytime that those guys play their first game — eight starts out of an entire offensive line — that’s difficult,” SU head coach Dino Babers said. “We won the game so I’m happy with their effort.”

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Before the game, graduate assistant and former SU lineman Macky MacPherson acknowledged the line was a patchwork and needed to be scrappy to find success.

“This is war. This is a fight,” he yelled as the linemen stretched. “Punch them in the mouth,” another person called out.

Syracuse’s two-touchdown start, though, was more about catching Connecticut off guard on deep passes than it was offensive line dominance. Both touchdowns were from more than 30 yards and four deep passes took up 120 of the 134 total yards.

When the game settled down, the flaws on the line showed.

On SU’s fifth drive, the left side of the line caved in and Dungey went down on a sack. On the next play, a rusher got around the edge on a third down and hit Dungey, who was forced to just throw the ball into the dirt to avoid a sack. The QB sat on the ground holding his facemask until Adams came over to pick him up.

On third down the next drive, UConn defensive end Cole Ormsby got around the right edge past McGloster and hit Dungey, who had to rush his throw again and it fell incomplete.

“We got to a quick start and we kind of stalemated a little bit,” Lasker said. “But we picked it up in the second half and I think we grew as a unit this game.”

The line was better in pass protection than it was in run blocking. Syracuse finished with just 62 yards rushing on 26 carries — its lowest yardage on the year and least yards per rush average for a game this season. Dungey was sacked just once and hurried three times.

The running game is the offensive line’s responsibility, Lasker said.

On SU’s first drive of the second half, Byrne backed the team up to its own 9-yard line with a holding call on second down, wiping out a 5-yard gain. Then Roberts false started on third down two plays later to make it third-and-16 that SU did not convert.

Co-offensive coordinator Mike Lynch called the line together on the sideline and told the team to calm down and that it would be OK, Lasker said.

“I know we had some penalties,” Babers said. “We had some mental mistakes there’s no doubt about it but we’ve got to grow from there.”

Lasker said he’s unsure of the conditions of Palmer, Emerich and Conway. He said Emerich and Palmer helped the inexperienced players during film review and practice over the course of the week.

But for now those three are sidelined, leaving a patchwork, unproven group in their place.

“No one’s going to feel sorry for us,” Babers said. “Those guys have to grow up and we’ve got more games to play and we expect them to help us win.”

Published on September 24, 2016 at 8:03 pm

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus