A bit of good luck yesterday with the Syracuse v. Iowa game as it was shown from the Carrier Dome on ABC. In the end Syracuse lost 20 to 13 but did so in double overtime after Iowa made a heroic defensive stand at the end zone which, through a series of penalties, gave Syracuse about 27 chances to move the ball three inches to tie and drive the game in to a third overtime.
They didn’t pull it off against the #14 ranked team in the land but our man Brendan was in the heart of the game in many ways. Here are his stats:
| Kickoffs | |||||
| CARNEY,Brendan |
| Punting | ||||||
| CARNEY,Brendan |
He did not merely abandon the ball when he kicked. Called on to punt at one point, he drove Iowa back deep into its own end after his 66 yard kick. He then took a beating from an Iowa player which went unpenalized. But his real contribution goes un-noted in the stats. As ball-holder for the field goal kicker he turned an awful worm burner of a throw from the center with six seconds to go into a stable target instantly. That field goal tied the game and it had far more to do with the hands that held the ball than the foot that kicked it. Carney described the moment thusly:
Q: How did you get the snap on that field goal up?
A: When he snapped it, I caught it in the ground. Luckily, I was able to get it up and Patrick (Shadle) made it.
Brill. Next week: away to Illinois, which will be on ESPNU so will be on the zillion channel universe that is the screen in the basement…right in the middle of a kids party. Illinois lost 33-0 to Rutgers yesterday. There is hope. More Brendan here and here.