LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jim McKenzie sat at the interview table on the verge of tears. The normally cheerful and outgoing center appeared devastated. Just 30 minutes prior, he had watched Louisville escape with a come-from-behind win over Syracuse in the last two minutes of a game SU seemed to have wrapped up. He couldn’t stomach the result.

‘It’s a heartbreaker,’ McKenzie said. ‘They pulled it out at the end. It’s unfortunate. It’s a part of football. You got to play all four quarters, all 60 minutes.’

In a devastating loss that eliminated SU from bowl contention, the Orange couldn’t hold off Louisville in the final minutes of a 10-9 loss Saturday at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium before 33,223. Louisville’s go-ahead touchdown with 1:24 left proved to be the winning score, after the Orange failed to convert the extra point following its lone touchdown.

‘It hurts, that’s all I can say really,’ running back Delone Carter said. ‘We had it, we had it in the bag, and it slipped away from us.’

After struggling to find any offensive rhythm throughout the game, Syracuse (3-7, 0-5 Big East) stood one defensive stop away from victory with a 9-3 lead with just under four minutes to go. Louisville hadn’t looked particularly impressive through 56 minutes, managing only 106 yards of total offense up to that point.

Botched punt coverage, though, put the defense in a difficult situation and ultimately doomed the Orange. Earlier in the game, Louisville’s Trent Guy had a 94-yard punt return called back when the officials ruled him down by contact at the Cardinal 6-yard line.

This time, he took the punt 44 yards to Syracuse’s 45-yard line, and Louisville was instantly on the verge of taking the lead.

‘I feel like we have players on the field who have to make that play. It’s part of their responsibility,’ SU head coach Doug Marrone said. ‘…It’s just people not executing well.’

With the clock dipping closer to zero, Louisville ran a post play for 6-foot-9 Josh Chichester. Syracuse defensive back Da’Mon Merkerson never had a chance. Chichester caught the ball from quarterback Adam Froman to tie the game, and one extra point later, Louisville had a 10-9 lead.

SU’s missed opportunities, like Greg Paulus’ first-half fumble at the Louisville 28-yard line and punter Rob Long’s inability to field a snap from Max Leo on a PAT attempt, suddenly reared their ugly heads.

‘I think you have to execute, and that’s the whole thing you expect to execute at a high level, and to win football games, that’s what you have to do,’ Marrone said. ‘There’s nothing really crazy about this game. It’s about execution.’

Still, Syracuse had its chance. Mike Jones returned the ensuing kickoff to the Syracuse 46-yard line. All the Orange offense had to do was grab a couple of first downs before it could bring in Ryan Lichtenstein for a game-winning field goal.

It never got that far. On 2nd-and-10 at the Louisville 43, Paulus threw an accurate pass that bounced off new No. 1 receiver Marcus Sales’ chest. Louisville’s Andrew Robinson dived for the ball and grabbed it for the interception.

The play was originally called an incomplete pass, but a review confirmed the interception. The Louisville crowd erupted. The Cardinals had snatched victory away from an Orange team hungry for the taste of victory.

‘I’m not here to talk poorly against any player and really put it on one player, one play,’ Marrone said. ‘Was the ball behind Marcus? From my standpoint, I’m not going to lie to you, it looked a little behind him, but it looked like a catchable ball.’

Despite out-gaining the Cardinals, 266-151, holding Louisville to 34 rushing yards and sacking Froman four times, Syracuse left the Bluegrass State in last place in the Big East. The Orange outplayed the Cardinals for most of the game, but couldn’t come up with the knockout blow.

The sense afterward was one of disappointment mixed with devastation. Just like McKenzie, the normally joyous Anthony Perkins was somber, still feeling the effects of a brutal defeat.

The Orange never trailed Saturday until the final moments. With the game seemingly in hand, Syracuse couldn’t do what it needed to emerge victorious.

And with that went its fleeting opportunities of reaching a bowl game for the first time since 2004.

‘We did well overall, I thought we played hard, we had great effort, I was really proud of my teammates,’ McKenzie said. ‘But in the end, it was just one too many mistakes. There was a litany of them throughout the game.’

mrehalt@syr.edu

Published on November 15, 2009 at 12:00 pm