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Syracuse pulls off improbable upset of No. 18 Louisville

Sep 22, 2007 - 10:06 PM LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Ticker) -- Syracuse pulled off perhaps the biggest upset in the history of the Big East Conference on Saturday.

Andrew Robinson threw four touchdown passes as the Orange dumped No. 18 Louisville, 38-35, in a monumental upset.

Coming in winless and more than a five-touchdown underdog, Syracuse (1-3, 1-0 Big East) stunned the Cardinals home fans who hadn't seen their team lose here since 2003. Louisville's 20-game home win streak was second in the nation behind USC.

"Nobody coached well today, including myself. I take full responsibility. Nobody played well today. We did not play well enough to win the game," Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe said. "We had far too many penalties (12 for 105 yards) and if you want to blame somebody for that, blame me."

Robinson finished 17-of-26 for 423 yards - a career-high - and no interceptions as the Orange beat beat the Cardinals for the first time since October 3, 1992.

"They were trying to stuff the run and that's where Andrew Robinson did such a great job," Syracuse coach Greg Robinson said. "I don't even know what his stats were, but they had to be darn good. The guys around him did a good job. They caught the ball well, it was really good to see."

After facing a three-score deficit, Louisville made things interesting late.

With the Cardinals down 38-21 with under four minutes to play in regulation, George Stripling scored from two yards out to bring Louisville within 10 points. An onside kick attempt was recovered by Syracuse, but Robinson gave the Cardinals (2-2, 0-1) new life when he fumbled the ball away on the ensuing drive.

Brian Brohm then found Patrick Carter for a five-yard TD, bringing the Cardinals within 38-35 with 56 seconds left.

The onside kick by Art Carmody was Louisville's final mistake of the day as he nubbed the ball just four yards off the tee, allowing Syracuse to take possession without fielding the kick.

"It started at the beginning of the week. We gotta have faith in ourselves," Syracuse senior defensive end Jameel McClain said. "It came from the whole week. We had to believe in ourselves.

"For me, it doesn't matter who you line up against. We are all football players and we are all human. There are no superhumans in the world. It was a great opportunity to play against a great team and a great win for us. It was something that we needed."

Though it came in a losing effort, Brohm was 45-of-65 for 555 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions. He set career highs for completions, attempts and yardage.

However, it was the Orange who ruled the day. Robinson set the tone on the first play of game as he found Taj Smith wide open for a 79-yard touchdown pass.

After a sloppy opening quarter, the high-octane Louisville offense finally got on track at the 12:59 mark as Brohm connected with Scott Kuhn for a four-yard score.

The 7-7 tie lasted just seconds as Max Suter returned the ensuing kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown.

With just under six minutes to play in the half, Louisville drove to the Syracuse 31 and faced a 4th-and-10. The Cardinals opted to go for the first down but the try failed as wide receiver Mario Urrutia was unable to haul in Brohm' pass.

Five plays later, the Orange extended their lead to two touchdowns as Robinson and Da'Mon Merkerson hooked up for a 42-yard strike.

"As a team we kept going. We kept grinding and if we did everything we had to do, we knew we would be successful," Merkerson said. "With the other games, we knew the mistakes we made were because of us. We were beating ourselves.

"We knew we had to stick together going against a great team like Louisville with a great offense. We definitely had to be together on this one."

Things looked to be turning around in the second half when Brohm fired a 35-yard touchdown to Harry Douglas, cutting the deficit to 21-14 with 6:27 to play in the second quarter.

With the pass, Brohm added to his Big East record with his 15th career 300-yard passing game. It also nailed down the seventh consecutive 100-yard receiving game for Douglas, who left the game late with what appeared to be a serious right leg injury.

Before he he was forced out of the game, Douglas piled up a game-high 205 receiving yards on 12 receptions.

Robinson restored the 14-point lead just 43 seconds later with a 60-yard touchdown pass to Smith, who caught four balls for 173 yards.

The Cardinals' next drive ended abruptly as Brohm was intercepted by Jameel McClain, who raced to the Louisville 13-yard line before being dragged down.

Though they didn't get in the end zone, Syracuse made it a three-score game with a 26-yard field goal by Patrick Shadle.

This was the second straight loss for Louisville, which was ranked No. 9 before last week's 40-34 setback to Kentucky.

"You have to prepare the same way for every game and I don't think that we prepared well enough for this game," Cardinals junior center Eric Wood said. "I don't think everyone played well enough to win this game and the score showed.

"I could kinda feel that we weren't ready to play this game and as a leader of this team, I take responsibility for that and I can guarantee that it won't happen again."