Louisville Cardinals vs Syracuse Orange Recap

It was ugly. It was infuriating. It was Louisville football in the ill-fated Steve Kragthorpe era.

And yet, someway and somehow, the 60-minute mosaic created by the Cardinals on Saturday turned out to be quite beautiful when the final second had elapsed at Papa John's Stadium.

Walter Camp and the other father-founders of football must have been rolling over in their graves during this Big East game in the commonwealth of Kentucky. The Big East's two worst teams played patty-cake with each other, trying hard but lacking any sharp-pointed arrows in the quiver. The utter absence of offensive weaponry from both teams, combined with 13 total penalties and three turnovers, created the kind of contest that was every bit as bad as a Chiefs-Raiders or Browns-Bills NFL game.

How much of a clunker was this confrontation? Try out these facts for size:

Louisville passed for 117 yards... more than the throwing yards accumulated by Syracuse (110).

The Cards had a touchdown called back by a penalty, and the Orange drew nine yellow handkerchiefs from the Big East officiating crew.

Louisville's offense went 1-for-12 on third downs and totaled just 34 rushing yards.

The Cards finished with just 151 total yards in just under 26 total minutes of possession, good for an average of just under six yards per minute of possession.

The Orange, with just over 34 minutes of possession, could only accumulate 266 yards. Syracuse's yards-per-minute average: just under eight yards per minute. By way of comparison, the Oregon Ducks' yards-per-minute performance in their Nov. 7 loss at Stanford? Try just under 26 yards per minute. Yes, that's how big the difference is between an elite team and a pair of bottom-feeders.

And yet, in spite of all their stumbles, the Cardinals - once again showing the depths of their resilience and the constancy of their commitment - wouldn't allow themselves to accept defeat. Though not blessed with terrific talent, Louisville kept plugging away, and received a very rich reward when this afternoon was over.

When UL quarterback Adam Froman hit receiver Josh Chichester on a 15-yard scoring strike with just 1:24 left in regulation, a team that had been staring at a 9-3 deficit for the balance of the fourth quarter was suddenly tied. And when kicker Chris Philpott nailed the extra point - the same extra point Syracuse botched in the early stages of the final stanza - the Cards had been dealt a winning hand. When UL's Andrew Robinson then picked off Syracuse quarterback Greg Paulus on the Orange's next (and last) possession, that winning hand held up.

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This game was brutal, inelegant and cringe-inducing. Yet, it delivered Louisville its first Big East win in nine tries, and gave a relieved roster the knowledge that it can indeed persevere under very difficult circumstances.

Perhaps a new sheriff takes over for this team next season--it's likely, in fact, that Kragthorpe will be out the door. But once again, the Cards didn't stop playing for their coach. If a new boss enters stage left in 2010, the lads from Louisville will be able to stay the course in moments of adversity; with extra infusions of talent, they just might go places 12 months from now. That's more than a little cause for encouragement near the end of a very trying year.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer