EVANSTON, Ill. – It was not hard for Greg Robinson to pinpoint the play. The point where the Syracuse head coach’s hopes for a season-opening upset in this, his make-or-break fourth season, all but disappeared.

In his press conference following the Orange’s 30-10 loss to Northwestern Saturday, Robinson kept coming back to Andrew Robinson’s third quarter interception – returned for a touchdown by Wildcats safety Brendan Smith.

‘When we got the setback and got the interception, I think that – I hate to say it deflates you,’ Robinson said. ‘… I thought right there was when we needed to respond, and I don’t think we got what we needed.’

No, Andrew Robinson’s third quarter gaffe wasn’t the only reason Syracuse lost its fifth-straight season opener.

But it certainly served as the defining blow during a second half in which the Orange reverted to its form from last season – playing porous defense and committing critical mistakes on offense.

Smith’s pick and return put Northwestern up, 23-10, igniting the 20,015 attendees at a sun-soaked Ryan Field and freezing the Syracuse players and coaches on the sideline.

That sideline had been buzzing 10 minutes earlier, after Curtis Brinkley’s touchdown run gave Syracuse a 10-9 lead less than two minutes into the third quarter.

Instead, the Wildcats scored the game’s final 21 points.

‘That’s obviously disappointing to put our team in a hole like that,’ Andrew Robinson said of the interception. ‘We gotta run the ball better, we gotta throw the ball better, we gotta protect better. We just have to do a lot of things better.’

Indeed, the familiar symptoms of last year’s 2-10 season showed up in the second half.

There was the inefficient offense. Syracuse managed 68 total yards and four first downs in the second half. Robinson struggled, going 5-for-12, while the Orange’s running back trio – Curtis Brinkley (who started), Delone Carter and Doug Hogue – combined for 22 rushing yards in the half.

There was the leaky defense (ranked 111th out of 119 teams last year), which after a bend-but-don’t-break first half was exposed in the second. Northwestern ran for 145 of its 269 rushing yards in the second half. Junior tailback Tyrell Sutton provided 144 of those yards on 21 carries (6.9 yards per carry).

Meanwhile, Wildcats senior quarterback C.J. Bacher ran Northwestern’s spread effectively, going 23-for-35 for 215 yards and three touchdowns, including two in the second half.

And while this defeat didn’t carry with it the embarrassment of last season’s 42-12 rout at home to Washington, it certainly bore some resemblance – with SU’s resolute first half dissolving amidst a flurry of Northwestern touchdowns.

All of which might lead Syracuse fans to ask: What has actually changed?

‘I really felt like that first half and even into the third quarter, I thought ‘hey we’re playing like I kind of expected us to,” Greg Robinson said. ‘It was really a nip and tuck game for a while there.’

One in which Syracuse was handed an opportunity to take control of.

On the first play of the second half, Sutton was stripped by defensive end Jared Kimmel, and senior defensive end Vincenzo Giruzzi fell on the ball at the Northwestern nine-yard line.

Three plays later, Brinkley shed what looked like a sure tackle from Wildcats defensive tackle Adam Hahn and raced into the endzone.

‘The defense got a turnover, and I got the touchdown, and I felt like the momentum had changed,’ Brinkley said.

That momentum quickly faded. On its very next drive, the Wildcats marched 76 yards on 13 plays, capped by a 12-yard touchdown pass to from Bacher to Sutton.

Then Andrew Robinson made his defining mistake. On a 3rd-and-4 from the 21, Robinson pitched a floater toward Donte Davis on the left sideline. Smith stepped in front of the pass and was escorted by a purple-clad convoy into the endzone.

‘I just misjudged the way the safety was rolling,’ Andrew Robinson said. ‘I threw the ball inside, which was a bad ball. I put that interception completely on me. I saw the blitz coming, I saw the safety rolling down, and he jumped the pass lane a little bit on me.’

With that pass went any chance that Greg Robinson could serve up a program-lifting win to start the season.

Instead, all his team offered in the second half was more of the same.

‘My biggest thing was when it was 16-10 and we threw that interception, we needed to respond,’ Robinson said. ‘That’s where a good football team has to be able to do that. And right now, we proved we’re not there yet.’

jsclayto@syr.edu

Published on September 1, 2008 at 12:00 pm