LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The worst season in Syracuse history finally came to an end Saturday night.

At least this time Syracuse gave its fans hope that it could win.

An interception after a bobbled pass and a missed field goal off the left upright during the fourth quarter killed Syracuse’s hopes in a 41-17 loss to No. 17 Louisville at Papa John’s Stadium in Louisville.

The interception led to a Louisville field goal and the clonk off the left upright by SU freshman kicker John Barker left Syracuse trailing by 10, rather than within one score with 8:42 remaining.

Louisville added a pair of tack-on touchdowns during the final 3:32, making the score hardly indicative of Syracuse’s chances at winning for the first time since Sept. 10, the second week of the season.

‘We played our best game,’ SU head coach Greg Robinson said. ‘We looked like a functional football team.’

Instead of a momentum-building upset to conclude the year, Robinson ended his first season as head coach with nine straight losses.

Few were as close as Saturday night, the first winnable game for SU since a 22-16 lost to Cincinnati on Oct. 29. Syracuse must take solace in a close loss as it heads into the offseason. No other Syracuse team had ever lost 10 games before Saturday night.

When redshirt freshman tailback Paul Chiara scored with 6:29 remaining in the third quarter on a 24-yard touchdown run, Syracuse trailed by just a touchdown, 24-17, and the Orange looked like it might avoid the dreaded 10-loss plateau.

Syracuse junior quarterback Perry Patterson completed 19 of 39 passes for 259 yards with a touchdown and played one of his best games of the year.

After turning three first-half Louisville turnovers into just three points, Syracuse still had a shot halfway through the third quarter. As a 35.5-point underdog, not many people gave Syracuse that chance.

‘They haven’t played great but they have fought and battled to the bitter end,’ Robinson said. ‘It didn’t surprise me a lick. It was nice to see they could finally function like a football team.’

Syracuse’s defense forced Louisville out on three plays on the following drive and injured Cardinals’ starting quarterback Brian Brohm. On third-and-8, Brohm scrambled for seven yards but Kellen Pruitt twisted him to the ground. Brohm sprained his knee and did not return.

‘We thought we were going to pull it out,’ SU linebacker Kelvin Smith said. ‘It came down to the fourth quarter and we were still in it. We took their quarterback out. We thought we were going to win the game.’ Redshirt freshman Hunter Cantwell replaced Brohm the next drive and picked up one first down before SU forced another Cardinals punt.

Patterson threw an interception on SU’s next drive, handing Louisville an easy field goal and a two-score lead on the final play of the third quarter. Facing a third-and-12 from his own 25, Patterson looked over the middle on a slant to Tim Lane, who bobbled the catch into the air, allowing defensive end Zach Anderson to it off and advance to the SU 27.

Art Carmody kicked a 44-yard field goal four plays later with 12:37 remaining in the fourth quarter to give Louisville a 27-17 lead.

Syracuse’s offense mounted another charge the following series but an intentional grounding penalty pushed SU into deep field goal range.

On second-and-3 from the SU 46, Patterson completed a 43-yard pass to Rice Moss, advancing SU to the Louisville 11. Patterson was called for intentional grounding on second down all the way back at the 30-yard line.

Patterson was in the pocket but threw toward the sideline. The closest receiver was about 10 yards away and the referee hesitated a moment before pulling a flag.

On third-and-30 from the 31, Patterson looked over the middle to Lane, who stretched high for the ball, but dropped it coming down.

John Barker hit the left upright on a low, line-drive kick, the third time he’s hit an upright on a kick this year. That miss all but ended SU’s shot an upset with 8:42 remaining in the fourth quarter.

‘We make that field goal, it puts the pressure back on them,’ Robinson said. ‘It’s going to be an interesting ball game. It didn’t come out that way.’

Two possessions later Louisville added a touchdown with 3:32 remaining on a 9-yard run by George Stripling. A 57-yard reception by tailback Kolby Smith on a short pass set up that score and the Cardinals added another touchdown on an 89-yard run by Stripling the following drive.

Robinson accepted blame for the scores. He said he inserted most of his reserves on the field when Stripling scored the second time with 38 seconds remaining, anticipating that Louisville would run out the clock.

‘I put some people in that don’t even play defense thinking they were going to take a knee,’ Robinson said. ‘And they ran it. They’re allowed to do that. We had nobody to make a play.’

A reporter asked Robinson after the game how he felt going into the offseason after about as bad a first year as a coach could endure. A few weeks ago Robinson said he didn’t feel as great about the prospects. But now, after back-to-back weeks of encouraging performances against Top 25 teams on the road, Robinson feels a little bit better.

Even if he did go 1-10.

‘I’m sick to my stomach about how this ended because we were close,’ Robinson said. ‘But I saw a lot of encouraging things out there. I wish there was another season to play right now. Absolutely, I want to play….We finally got it going, let’s go again. I’d play (Louisville) again. Doggone it.’

Published on November 25, 2005 at 12:00 pm