Syracuse wrestled with the first five minutes it played against Louisville for the next 55.

First Lamar Jackson’s split Kielan Whitner and Antwan Cordy with a throw down the seam to James Quick on the first play of the game. Jackson set up a 7-yard touchdown run with a 61-yard pass on the next drive. He finished up his tear with a 72-yard run through SU’s defense.

After that first touchdown, Dino Babers walked away from the Louisville end zone, holding his hands behind his back, and stared up at the video board. He paced a few yards, placed his hands on his hips and watched a replay of Quick racing past Cordy and reeling in the pass from Jackson.

The play action fake had sucked the SU’s safety in and the sound out of the crowd before the anticipation for the Orange’s matchup with Louisville could be fully realized.

“That’s like our worst-case scenario situation,” Whitner said. “ That’s like our worst nightmare.”

The Orange (1-1, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) never fully recovered in the 62-28 loss to No. 13 Louisville (2-0, 1-0) on Friday night in the Carrier Dome. SU made the game competitive after it was shredded for 219 yards on three drives in five minutes, but it could never cut into the three-score lead enough to make a difference. The Orange came close a few times, facing just a 14-point deficit at halftime and for a period of the third quarter.

The Cardinals  left a comeback open for the Orange with drive-stifling dropped passes, turnovers and nearly wasted the work Jackson had done to give UofL a head start. Jackson’s lone mistake was an interception he threw right at the end of the first half to safety Daivon Ellison. In the game, Louisville broke SU’s record for yards allowed, broke the ACC’s record for yards in a game and looked just as potent as it had against Charlotte a week earlier.

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• Syracuse community reacts to the Orange’s 34-point loss

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“What we needed to do offensively when it came to the second half is find a way to get a touchdown,” Babers said, “find a way to get to 35, to make it where they felt like they were in the game

“As long as they’re sitting at 14, they’re not tightening up and then eventually they got away from us.”

After the 21-point outburst by Louisville, it scored 27 non-garbage time points. Syracuse used four quick-strike drives that took a combined 9:33 to travel 298 yards to get itself back into the game.

Quarterback Eric Dungey found Brisly Estime wide open in the first quarter to stop the Cardinals’ 21-point run, then SU used two second-quarter Amba Etta-Tawo touchdowns to keep the game within 14 points. Late in the third-quarter, SU cut the deficit to 14 points again after Dungey ran a quarterback sneak into the end zone. Each drive boosted the crowd noise a bit, and SU gained a little rhythm once it found success the first time.

Syracuse followed up the Dungey drive by pinning the Cardinals into a 3rd-and-18 and brought pressure. The defensive line collapsed around Jackson and linebacker Zaire Franklin blitzed through the line. Jackson sidestepped Franklin and Jonathan Thomas, cut through his offensive line and juked Carl Jones to get out of a tackle.

The run went for 33 yards.

Jessica Sheldon | Photo Editor

“When I think of his performance today, it’s really just him being a really good player,” Franklin said. “It was more guys were there and guys were in position … It kind of didn’t matter.”

Though the drive didn’t result in a touchdown, every time SU got within a fingertip of Jackson or Louisville, both seemed to escape SU’s grasp. The Orange didn’t have the speed or physical ability to keep up with either.

By the end of the game, it became apparent SU couldn’t make up a three-score deficit within a quarter’s time. On consecutive drives, UofL handed the ball to Brandon Radcliff and Jeremy Smith. The two running backs took runs 48 and 30 yards, respectively, for touchdowns.

They both went untouched.

Babers stared ahead with his hands again behind his back.

In the end, all he could do was what he had done before.

Published on September 10, 2016 at 3:03 am

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati