Louisville and Syracuse each came into Saturday night’s matchup at the JMA Wireless Dome reeling from close losses and experiencing disappointing seasons thus far. Louisville touted a 3-3 record with all three losses coming by a field goal, Syracuse with a 2-3 record and two of their losses by a field goal.
For Syracuse, the quarterback position has been a revolving door. Day one starter Steve Angeli last saw action a month ago against Pitt. Backup Amari Odom showed promise in relief, throwing five touchdowns against Connecticut but was ruled out for Saturday.
Insert former five-star prospect Malachi Nelson for the Orange. Nelson, playing for his fourth school in four years (USC, Boise State, UTEP), got his second start for the Orange. Early on he connected with his top target Umari Hatcher twice for 106 yards, including a 41-yard touchdown to put the Orange up 10-0 early. Hatcher came into the game Top 20 in the country in receptions, yards and touchdowns. For the night he would end up with 13 receptions for 224 yards and the touchdown.
The Louisville offense went three and out their first drive, then Lincoln Kienholz threw his first interception since the Wake Forest game. On the third possession, the Cards settled in and struck quickly with a 35-yard pass to Treyshun Hurry, a 40-yard pass to Lawayne McCoy and a five-yard touchdown scamper by Keyjuan Brown.
The Cards would get a defensive stop on Syracuse’s third drive, then the rest of the half turned into a back-and-forth affair with the quarterbacks shining. On a 3rd-and-2 at their own 18, Kienholz kept the ball around the right side and followed his blockers 82 yards to put the Cards back in front 14-10. The touchdown burst from Kienholz was the longest TD run by a quarterback in school history, breaking Malik Cunningham’s record of a 75-yarder against Kentucky in 2018.
Nelson marched the Orange back down the field in six plays and found Calvin Russell III for his first receiving touchdown of his career, a 24 yarder. 16-14 Orange.
Kienholz made another huge third down play on Louisville’s ensuing drive finding Tre Richardson for 48 yards, hitting him perfectly in stride. After a Jaleel Skinner 16-yard catch and near touchdown hurdling a defender, Kienholz snuck in from one yard out for his second rushing touchdown of the night. The Cards were back in front 21-16 with 9:30 left in the first half. Kienholz has 10 rushing touchdowns on the season through seven games.
Syracuse would take most of the rest of the half with a 15 play, 88-yard drive capped off by an Ahmad Miller 20-yard touchdown run. The score was now 23-21 Orange, but there was still time on the clock in the half.
Isaac Brown had one of the most dominant performances on the ground in Cardinal History against Florida State, rushing for 235 yards. Against Syracuse he could not get anything going on the ground, rushing nine times for 11 yards. Isaac needed to find other ways to get involved. He had the lead block sealing the edge for Kienholz’s 82-yard touchdown in the first half and to end the half he took a simple check down 46 yards for a touchdown, putting the Cards back ahead 28-23 at the half.
For the half, the Cards had 367 yards to Syracuse’s 302. Each team was penalized five times in the first half. Syracuse came into the game dead last in the country with 100 yards per game in penalties. Louisville was 6-for-7 on 3rd down, while Syracuse was 2-for-7.
The scoring cooled off to start the second half. Each team went three and out with their first possession. Syracuse drove the ball 58 yards on their second possession but fumbled at the five-yard line with Tyler Thompson on the recovery for the Cards. Thompson had his best game of the season coming up with two sacks and three tackles for a loss to go with the fumble recovery.
Kienholz threw his second interceptions of the day in the third quarter, his first multiple interception day as a starter. Kaleb Beasley would return the favor and pull in his fifth interception of the season, making him the first player for The Ville to record 5+ interceptions in a season since Jaire Alexander in 2016.
For the third quarter, the Cards were only able to produce 10 yards on 13 plays, converting for one first down. Syracuse had 79 yards on 23 plays.
The defense continued to make plays in the fourth quarter. Cam White made his first interception of his Cardinal career off a Stanquan Clark tipped pass. The interception set up Louisville at their own 37-yard line. A Jackson Voth 27-yard reception, followed by a Lawayne McCoy 23-yard catch setup Keyjuan Brown for a five-yard touchdown run. Keyjuan now has four multi-touchdown games in his Louisville career.
Louisville would get two more stops via turnover on downs to seal the deal. It was not pretty, many issues that plagued the Cards during their 2-3 start were on display again, but the Cards found a way to win on the road 34-26.
Demeco Kennedy led the Cardinals in tackles with nine, including two solo stops and a tackle for a loss. Jabari Mack, who was ruled eligible on Friday, had eight tackles and a pass break up on a third down in the fourth quarter to hold Syracuse to three points on the drive, their only second half points. Clev Lubin had eight tackles and Jerod Smith II and AJ Green each notched a sack.
The Ville came up with eleven tackles for loss and five sacks. For the game, the Cards had 10 penalties for 90 yards to Syracuse’s 8 for 88 yards. The Orange turned it over three times, to Louisville’s two.
Syracuse outgained the Cards 462-425, running 83 plays for the game. Coach Jeff Brohm is now 10-9 in games where his team is outgained.
Coach Brohm’s opening statement on the game:
“Well, we’re proud of our team. We showed grit, toughness, and found a way to win. Kind of a tale of two halves. I thought the first half our defense was not playing well, and they gave up a lot of easy plays, and then they got together and got some confidence. Flip side, their offense kept us in the game. We had some big plays again and some scores and found a way to get a lead at half. So, that was big. Then, the second half, kind of totally different. Offense was stagnant and stale and couldn’t make plays. While they moved the ball, we got some really good turnover and found ways to knock the ball out and get the ball back. Then, we found ways to tighten things up at the end. So, just a good team win. A lot of things to work on and improve and get better, but I was proud that we stuck together and played until the end.”
Louisville heads into the bye week (4-3, 3-2 ACC) with a focus on getting healthy and continuing to search for a way to put together a full game from both sides of the ball. The Cards are back in action on Halloween, hosting the Stanford Cardinal. Stanford is 3-4 after beating Elon 34-7 on Saturday. Kickoff time should be announced Monday around noon.
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