Three passes fell into the arms of Ben Lewis in the end zone. None were touchdowns.

Lewis lost the first one, a throw from Terrel Hunt, as he fell out of bounds. The second, a throw from running back Prince-Tyson Gulley, was called back for an illegal man downfield penalty. The third, from wide receiver Jarrod West, Lewis dropped.

Syracuse wasn’t scoring. There were 12 minutes left in the second quarter and SU, down by nine, was well on its way to losing to Louisville.

When the Orange (2-3, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) finally did so, 28-6, it was in front of what little remained of the 37,569 that came to the Carrier Dome on Friday night. For the second week in a row, the Orange’s defense held an opponent in check while its offense sputtered the team to defeat — this time against the Cardinals (5-1, 3-1).

“We just didn’t get it done,” Gulley said.

The Orange had opportunities. Its defense gave the team plenty. It just didn’t do much with them.

On SU’s second drive of the game, it earned first-and-goal at the Louisville 5, only to settle for a field goal after a run by Gulley, a pass over Josh Parris’ head and Lewis failing to keep a sideline pass in bounds in the end zone.

Louisville then drove 65 yards on 10 plays for a touchdown and a lead the Cardinals never gave back.

An Orange three-and-out followed, but its defense forced Louisville to punt from its own 48. With second-and-10 on the SU 1-yard line, Hunt checked out of a power run and into a pitch to Adonis Ameen-Moore, remaining in shotgun. Louisville defensive end B.J. Dubose stuffed Ameen-Moore in the end for a safety to give the Cardinals a 9-3 lead.

“It was just a power play that gave us a different technique and he checked it, tossed it out and we couldn’t get the block,” SU offensive coordinator George McDonald said.

Riley Dixon came on to punt away the ensuing kick off. He’d finish the game with as many points as anyone on the Orange offense.

On the first half’s final drive, Hunt picked out West in double coverage at the Louisville 2. But when SU lined up there were two seconds remaining. A three-second runoff meant the Orange had to run a play or end the half.

Hunt spiked the ball. Syracuse head coach Scott Shafer took responsibility afterward.

“We were a second short, shame on me,” Shafer said. “Poor job by Coach Shafer on that one.”

The Orange entered the fourth quarter with six points from a pair of Cole Murphy field goals. Hunt sustained an apparent left ankle injury on SU’s first drive of the period. He returned one play later, to boos from an emptying Carrier Dome crowd.

“It looked terrible out there, it looked terrible,” Gulley said. “We knew it looked terrible.”

With 7:12 left in the game, Hunt was on his back again. SU right guard Nick Robinson and other Orange linemen fought for what could’ve been a fumble for all they knew, around the Orange 25-yard line. They had little else to fight for. They were down by 20.

Their quarterback was struggling to sit up, much less walk while the referee flagged him for intentional grounding. With the help of two Syracuse trainers, Hunt limped off — to light applause from inside a Carrier Dome that was more silver, from the emptying bench seats, than orange.

When the rest of his SU teammates left the field, they did with a loss from offensive struggles that are only piling on.

“You can (say) ‘Hey, don’t, just relax,” McDonald said. “But at some point it’s like — ‘F*ck.’”

Published on October 3, 2014 at 10:37 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_