Syracuse’s season broke Saturday afternoon.

Swarms of Orange tacklers gave hope to a pair of backup quarterbacks who traded time under sideline headsets, shuffling on and off a field behind an offensive line full of knee braces.

But after three quarters, two minutes and 15 seconds of proving equal to the top team in their division, Duke, like so many Orange opponents this season, tore open an overstretched team that was too hurt to respond.

And in front of 39,331 on Saturday afternoon in the Carrier Dome, Syracuse (3-7, 1-5 Atlantic Coast) lost the game to the No. 22 Blue Devils (8-1, 4-1), 27-10. With it, SU’s players lost bowl eligibility and the would-be good memories that come with making a bowl. Afterward, they left the Dome like they had for all but one home game this season, with a loss, just on Senior Day and with the most permanent disappointment of their year.

“No one on this team really expected this season to go this way,” freshman middle linebacker Zaire Franklin said.

He started at the heart of a defense that’s given the Orange a chance at every game. Franklin said he wanted to win for his senior teammates on Saturday. There were seven of them starting on the defense that limited Duke to 259 yards of total offense.

The Orange was without AJ Long, who started the season as SU’s third-string signal-caller, too. With Austin Wilson and Mitch Kimble running the offense in his absence, Syracuse head coach Scott Shafer said he expected problems. They came. Wilson threw a pair of interceptions, Kimble misread some options plays and still, the Orange was tied with the Coastal Division leaders with one quarter remaining.

“If the ball’s in your hands in an interception opportunity, you got to make that play,” Shafer said on Thursday.

On Saturday, Brandon Reddish made that play, out-jumping Jamison Crowder and picking off Boone at SU’s 2. For just the sixth time all season, a team had taken the ball away from Duke.

“You always have hope when you get a turnover,” Shafer said.

But in four plays Syracuse gave the ball and the game back. The first left left tackle Sean Hickey on his hands and knees. The second was an underthrown pass by Kimble, who was playing after SU’s 13th quarterback change of the season. Rob Trudo jumped offside on third down before Kimble overthrew Jarrod West.

And on fourth, Riley Dixon stood behind a punt unit that Shafer said was thinned out by the rest of the team’s injuries and booted the ball to Crowder.

He cut inside the right hash marks around midfield, glided outside of them around the 25 and was looking behind him, seeing no tacklers by the time he reached the 7 before he high-stepped into the end zone. The point-after attempt gave Duke a 17-10 lead with 12:45 left in the game. SU’s offense wouldn’t get another first down for the rest of the game.

When Riley Dixon’s ninth punt of the day boomed to the Duke 26, Clay Cleveland was left standing behind the play between a pair of flags for his face mask penalty against the Blue Devil’s Jake Kite. The 15 yards SU lost on the play were more than the Orange gained in the fourth quarter.

As the Duke safety exchanged words with Cleveland, he pointed to the pair of flags on the field. And Cleveland, one of 28 seniors honored before the game, could only turn away and retreat to the sideline with two games and a few minutes left in his career.

Said Hickey: “I felt coming into this year we were a good team, and I still, deep down believe that when we have all the pieces that we are, but it was too much for us to overcome.”

Published on November 8, 2014 at 3:55 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_