The blue door opened in the back of the press room and Greg Robinson walked in, a man with no answers, fresh off perhaps the worst loss of his four-year career at Syracuse, a 42-28 home defeat to Akron. Even for a head coach who has won seven games in his time at SU and lost 30, this was stunning, a snapshot of a team sinking into the abyss.

Robinson’s hands gripped the podium, his cheeks shining under the camera lights and his polo shirt unbuttoned and askew. He spoke for nine minutes but could give no reason why his defense, his program, had fallen so far. Why the Orange (0-2) had been unable to stop the Zips (1-1). Why his team lost at home to a program that had beaten only one other BCS-conference opponent ever prior to Saturday – and gave up 478 yards, 29 first downs and six touchdowns in the process.

‘If I knew that,’ he said, ‘I would have fixed it.’

If Robinson knew why, he might have prevented Saturday’s defensive debacle, a haze of missed tackles and blown assignments witnessed by 31,808 at the Carrier Dome.

If Robinson knew, his team might have stopped Akron quarterback Chris Jacquemain, who threw for 260 yards and three touchdowns on 20-for-26 passing – a clinic on how to run the no-huddle, spread offense against an undersized, overwhelmed opponent.

If Robinson knew, the Zips might not have run for 218 yards on the ground, buoyed by the tailback tandem of Alex Allen and Dennis Kennedy.

But Robinson only knew what went wrong, not why. So he blamed himself.

‘There’s no excuses for it,’ he said. ‘I just think that really, we like to think we were prepared. Obviously we weren’t.’

The bleakness of the defense overshadowed an awakening from the offense Saturday. New quarterback Cameron Dantley – named the starter this week in place of the struggling Andrew Robinson – converted 65 percent of his passes, a safe collection of short check-downs and dump-offs. He threw three touchdowns.

Curtis Brinkley and Delone Carter got into a groove after the first quarter and dragged the Orange back into the game. Brinkley rushed for 143 yards – a career high – and a touchdown, while Carter slashed for 77.

Except it wasn’t enough. A good day from the offense couldn’t fix a dreadful one from the defense.

‘They were calling the right plays on our defenses, we were making mistakes,’ said safety AJ Brown. ‘They capitalized on our mistakes.’

Akron capitalized early and often, surging to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Jacquemain tossed a 33-yard strike to Andre Jones on the Zips first drive, beating cornerback Mike Holmes – a blown coverage, Greg Robinson said afterwards. Two drives later, Kennedy broke loose on a 35-yard scamper into the end zone on third-and-23 – an embarrassment, Greg Robinson said.

That set the tempo for the day. Third and longs offered little solace, only more gloom when the Zips converted. Akron converted 10-of-14 third downs total.

‘Coach (Robinson) had a right to be mad at us,’ said defensive tackle Art Jones, who had five tackles and a sack.

But there was a chance to salvage this one, on a day when the defense was outclassed by a team picked to finish last in the Mid-American Conference East Division.

The offense started to grind away at the deficit after the opening quarter. It was 28-14 at the half, but things tightened. Brinkley and Carter went to work. Early in the fourth, Dantley scrambled and found Nick Provo as the tight end slid to the ground in the back of the end zone to tie the game at 28.

But Syracuse could not hold. Jacquemain led a 10-play, 78-yard drive to answer, hitting Jones for another touchdown. Holmes was again beaten in coverage.

On the ensuing drive, the Zip defense swarmed Carter in the backfield on a fourth-and-1 at the Akron 46.

There was 4:50 to go, but it was over and the fans understood, energy leaking out of the stadium as they headed for the aisles. The Orange had been unable to stop Akron all day. Why now? They were right.

Jacquemain hit tight end Merce Poindexter for an 18-yard touchdown five plays later and the defense walked off the field, heads down, just as the fans had – ugly symmetry for a program facing its lowest depths.

‘The fans have every right to be upset and be disappointed,’ Robinson said afterward. ‘What can I say?’

As he spoke, a boom microphone toppled over and slammed into the ground, a bang! that resonated through the press room.

This is Syracuse football in 2008: double-digit losses to MAC teams, equipment malfunctioning at random and a coach desperate for answers – and none in sight.

ramccull@syr.edu

Published on September 7, 2008 at 12:00 pm