With five seconds left in the first half and a fourth-down play to call, Syracuse went with what seemed like the safe bet.

Just 8 yards away from the end zone, SU sent out Ryan Norton to tack on a field goal and cut the Terrapins’ lead from 18 to a two-score differential.

But Norton pushed his 25-yard attempt wide left and punctuated an ugly first half of football with a discouraging ending.

“We didn’t lose this game on a missed field goal kick in the second quarter,” said Tim Daoust, SU’s defensive line coach who also heads the special teams unit. “We can circle a lot of plays that happened on offense, defense, and the kicking game that contributed to this loss.

“Obviously, that would’ve been a nice one to switch the momentum, but it didn’t happen.”

On a day Syracuse’s offense struggled to translate its red-zone trips into touchdowns, the special teams units were also at fault in the Orange’s (2-1) 34-20 loss to Maryland (3-1) on Saturday in the Carrier Dome. Norton’s misfire and a blocked punt by Maryland highlighted the uglier moments in SU’s loss.

Norton, who missed a pair of field-goal attempts from more than 40 yards out at Central Michigan last Saturday, hit a 35-yarder on the game’s opening drive to give SU an early lead over Maryland.

But walk-on Cole Murphy connected on his only field goal attempt and is making a push for Norton’s starting job.

“We know Cole has a strong leg and he’s proven that throughout the week,” Daoust said. “We’ll move forward and evaluate that position like every other position on the team.”

Norton came in for a 44-yard try later in the first quarter, but after a false start set SU back 5 yards, Murphy went out to replace him, and drilled the 49-yarder.

But midway through the second quarter, Maryland made Syracuse pay for its special teams blunder. The Terrapins broke through the Orange’s punt protection to deflect a Dixon boot and set the UMD offense up in the red zone for a touchdown.

From watching it live, Daoust said, he thought UMD simply executed faster than SU did on the punt.

And when the Orange turned back to Norton heading into halftime, he couldn’t come through.

“Before halftime, we could have cut that thing down with a field goal,” head coach Scott Shafer said, “and had a little bit of a feeling coming into the locker room that ‘Hey, a little momentum.’

“It’s such a game of momentum, and then we missed the field goal there and it was disappointing.”

Published on September 20, 2014 at 6:59 pm

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb