Behind star quarterback Lamar Jackson, Louisville football overpowers Syracuse

The Syracuse Orange football team’s chance to pull an upset quickly slipped away against the No.13 Louisville Cardinals on Friday night.

With a final score of 62-28, the Cardinals stay undefeated, while the Orange drop to 1-1 on the season and 0-1 in ACC play.

“We’re bruised, we’re not broken,” SU head coach Dino Babers said in his postgame press conference. “We’ll come back.”

Photo: Michael Santiago

Amba Etta-Tawo prepares to catch one of his 2 touchdowns of the game.

Louisville scored on its first possession of the game when star quarterback Lamar Jackson threw a 72-yard pass to James Quick within the first 15 seconds of play. Two and a half minutes later, Jackson ran into the end zone himself for a seven yard score.

The Orange closed the gap later in the first quarter, when sophomore quarterback Eric Dungey threw a 15-yard pass to senior Brisley Estime for a touchdown.

The second quarter had a little more back and forth than the first, with two touchdown passes thrown from Dungey to redshirt senior wide receiver Amba Etta-Tawo to make the score 35-21 at halftime. But, Lousiville ran away with the game in the fourth quarter, scoring 20 unanswered points.

Etta-Tawo proved himself for the second week in a row, not only with the two touchdowns, but continuing to make plays throughout the game. The Maryland transfer has found incredible chemistry with Dungey so far and has been a standout receiver for The Orange. He eclipsed the 100-yard mark for the second straight game, finishing with seven receptions for 104 yards.

Etta-Tawo and the Syracuse offense did its job, putting up 28 points against a top-15 team, but the defense couldn’t find a way to stop Jackson.

The Heisman Trophy contender was a force to be reckoned with for the Cardinals. In the second quarter, he ran for a 9-yard touchdown leaping over a Syracuse defender on his way to the end-zone. The play is one of SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays of the Week.

“I’m not sure anybody could catch him,” Babers said of the Louisville superstar.

Jackson set an ACC record of 610 total yards in a single game and scored five total touchdowns. He passed for one and added four more on the ground.

Jackson led an offense that racked-up 845 total yards, the most ever recorded in a single game by a Syracuse opponent.

“It’s tough, it’s tough competition out there,” Dungey said. “Louisville’s a great team, there’s a lot of great athletes.”

Much of Louisville’s success came from their running off-tackle technique. By doing this, they were able to create space for ball-carriers down the sidelines, which led to quick scores. Meanwhile, the Orange had difficulty running the ball up-the-middle. Louisville outgained Syracuse 414-133 on the ground.

The Orange will be back in action at the Carrier Dome on September 17 at 3:30 p.m. against the University of South Florida for alumni weekend.

Notes:

Louisville defenders went down with injuries on multiple occasions when Syracuse had the ball in the red-zone, causing a stoppage of play. This resulted in boos from the Carrier Dome fans.

With the outcome of the game already decided, Jackson was removed in the fourth quarter and replaced by redshirt junior Kyle Bolin. He completed his only pass for 20 yards.