Dom Amore: Fighting for a fallen teammate, UConn came up inches short in OT loss to Syracuse

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EAST HARTFORD — The UConn and Syracuse players had stopped and were kneeling near the 20-yard line as Javon Brown, lying flat in the end zone after a near TD pass was broken up, was stabilized and lifted onto a stretcher for transport to a local hospital.

Once he was secured in place, his UConn teammates ran over to the end zone to offer support as Brown was carried off. Then the Huskies, down 14 points, got back in their huddle and resumed their uphill fight to catch Syracuse from far behind.

“We love him dearly, it was hard seeing him go down,” said quarterback Kalieb Osborne, who, himself, took a 15-round heavyweight bout’s worth of hits and kept getting up. “We love him for who he is. We’ve got a brotherhood we’ve built here throughout the fall and winter and everything. So we just know to come together and strive for one another and play our heart out for one another, so that’s what we did.”

UConn football falls to Syracuse in overtime, 42-41, after epic second-half comeback

Over the course of the long afternoon at Rentschler Field, the Huskies overcame what coach Jason Candle called “nine minutes of some of the worst football” he’d ever seen. They overcame a 20-point deficit and played the kind of game that should teach their fans to leave the parking lot and get into the stadium on time, to leave the concourses and sit in their seats, to stay put to the very end. But in an ultimate game of inches, the inches all around them, UConn came up an inch or two short and lost to the Orange in overtime, 42-41, before a crowd announced as 35,883.

“Inches. It’s a game of inches,” Osborne said. “So you’ve got to get those inches at important times.”

Osborne can learn to make better reads, get rid of the ball quicker but, damn, the kid is tough — and when he gets the ball off, it’s pretty. He threw for 314 yards, and threaded a needle to Trey Cornist for a touchdown in OT to put the Huskies in position to win, but Syracuse scored on a 4th-and-17 pass and, pushed closer by the 19th penalty called during the game, a facemask, Syracuse went for two points and the win. Quarterback Amari Odom pushed forward to get the very last few inches Syracuse needed, confirmed by replay that the crossed the plane.

“Emotionally a draining game, in a lot of ways,” Candle said. “You fight back, you’re down multiple scores, you’re able to fight back and get within striking distance. Just a lot of ebbs and flows that happen in a college football game. Tons of adversity in 50 minutes of football, I’m super proud of our team for responding, doing the things to fight back. Down but never out.”

Syracuse plunged what sure felt like the mortal dagger early in the third quarter. On 4th-and-23, coach Fran Brown chose to neither punt nor try a long field goal, as if the Orange were no longer taking UConn’s defense seriously. Odom found Daunte Bacheyie wide open for a 34-yard touchdown pass, making it 34-14. Fans began leaving, the student section, with busses warming up, began to thin out.

Then UConn sprang to life, Cyncir Bowers scoring on a 10-yard run. With a chance to get within one score, Osborne threw it into the end zone for Javon Brown, who went up with defender Nazir Ward. Brown nearly came down with the ball, but landed awkwardly and did not get up. The nature of his injury was not disclosed.

“We’re praying for him and his family for him to pull out of this thing in a positive manner,” Candle said. “There’s enough emotional change and duress throughout any college game, and that was a good game today. Then you add that to it. We’ve got third down and 10 we’ve got guys in tears in the huddle. They’re worrying about their brother and worry about him being okay and we’ve got to go get a first down.

“That’s the emotion of what we do. For our team, that’s a tough thing to go through, but once that cleared out and that situation was where it needed to be, our guys kept fighting and kept plugging.”

UConn did not score on that drive, but Brown went for it again on another fourth down, this time in Syracuse territory and UConn stopped them at the 43. With a second chance to make it a one-score game, Osborne hit Xavier Watson for a touchdown. Then UConn’s offensive line ripped open a huge hole on the next series and Bowers ran for 71 yards to tie the game, the steep hill was climbed.

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“(Javon Brown), that’s our brother, man,” safety Braedyn Moore said. “We’re going to fight for our brothers and that’s what we did.Ultimately, we just had to respond. He’s in our prayers.”.

Jayden Price made the biggest defensive play for UConn, an interception near the goal line with 5:51 to play. The Huskies began a long drive toward the winning points, but a potential first down became a 4th-and-1 after a dicey spot of the ball. From the Syracuse 32-yard line, a crucial false start penalty pushed it back to 4th-and-6 and the Huskies couldn’t convert.

Syracuse got only close enough for a 44-yard field goal try, kicker Shay Barker, who’d missed an extra point and a shorter field goal earlier, missed this one to set up overtime. After scoring, UConn was one broken-up pass away from winning, victory was wrested from its grasp.

It was a draining day, an excruciating loss for sure — but not the kind of loss that buries a season or demoralizes a fan base. On the contrary, UConn (2-3) showed it can compete with any team left on its schedule, with the grit it showed Saturday. Certainly, the ACC could do a lot worse the next time decisions are made than have thrilling games like this on its schedule week to week, flawed as both teams were.

“We left some plays out there, there’s no question about that,” Candle said. “To question our resolve and our toughness and our fight, our want to win, our want-to to get better, I don’t think that was ever a question today.”

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