Legends of the Pen: Nothing Comes Easy

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Oct. 1 Legends of the Pen: The 1984 Team Was Special
Oct. 20 Legends of the Pen: 1970 Squad Had Great Turnaround

When checking scores of football games, one always hopes to find his/her favorite team's score listed on the left, the opponent's on the right.

Unfortunately, last week SU's score was on the right.

Louisville and Syracuse are two teams trying to get back where they were awhile ago. Of the two, it appeared the Orange had the upper hand. SU was 6-2 and had won three conference road games while losing one at home against Pittsburgh in mid-October. The Cardinals entered with a 4-4 mark but had lost 11 straight Big East road contests.

The Orange had a few other items that should have pumped the home forces:

favored by six points
only three spots out of cracking the Top 25 in the weekly polls
The New York Times, Daily News and New York Post were all covering
A noisy crowd of 40,000 and a lovely sea of Orange
Syracuse had already clinched a non-losing season (for first time since 2004) while a win would have meant the first winning campaign since 2001.
And, oh, yes, we might as well mention it--bowl eligible

Across the field, the visiting team was without its starting quarterback and leading rusher and had lost to Cincinnati and Pittsburgh while beating Connecticut. The Cards had been picked to finish eighth in the pre-season coaches' poll.

Well, after its first possession, Louisville was ahead, 7-0. Ok, Orangemen, time to get to work. And they did. On the third play after the kickoff, QB Ryan Nassib connected with Alec Lemon for 51 yards and Ross Krautman's kick tied matters.

The two foes swapped TDs and Krautman, only a frosh, hit from the 23 for a 17-14 lead at the half.

The second half belonged to the visitors. Behind, 21-17, SU missed a golden opportunity to move back in front when Nassib had a wide open pass in the end zone dropped. Krautman hit from 42 yards out and that was it for the day.

In its three losses, Syracuse has been outscored 59-20 in the second half.

The effort, as always, was there< but not the execution. Coach Doug Marrone summed matters up rather succinctly in the post-game press conference: "Nothing comes easy in this game."

Three games remain: at Rutgers, home vs. UConn and former Big East member Boston College. One game at a time is all the Orange has to concentrate on.

Injuries have made the thin ranks even thinner. But a good season still can be a very, very good one and with all the rewards that will come with it.

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