Taj Smith heard all the talk last week — talk about how Syracuse might lose to perennial Division I weakling Buffalo on Saturday; how the Orange football program would hit a low point if that happened.

‘It’s in the back of your head, of course — you think about, if you lose to Buffalo, are we really that bad?’ Smith said. ‘I just got tired of hearing of it, to tell you the truth.’

Smith and his fellow receiver Mike Williams made sure to kill off all that talk Saturday. The duo came up with big downfield receptions at crucial moments for Syracuse, including a game-changing 60-yard haul by Smith in the second quarter, propelling Syracuse to a 20-12 victory over Buffalo before 30,897 fans at the Carrier Dome.

Smith and Williams each finished with 113 receiving yards, marking the first time since 1993 that a pair of Orange receivers has topped the century mark. Their exploits in the air helped Syracuse (2-6) snap a three-game losing streak and prevented it from losing to Buffalo for the first time since 1899.

‘The pressure is off,’ Williams said. ‘I say the pressure is gone. I think it’s a new season right now.’

For a while, it looked as though the doomsday talk by SU’s detractors wasn’t that implausible. The Orange traded field goals with the Bulls and stood pinned inside its 1-yard line deep in the second quarter with the score tied, 3-3.

Less than four minutes later, Syracuse led, 17-3, thanks to its big-play threats.

It all started when Andrew Robinson zipped a 60-yard pass down the right sideline to Smith to move Syracuse into Buffalo territory and more importantly, give the offense some much-needed breathing room.

‘He made some timely throws; some big throws,’ Syracuse head coach Greg Robinson said of his quarterback. ‘That is not really a surprise to me. Some people, I remember one time earlier in the year questioned his ability to throw the deep ball.’

The big aerial blow seemed to kickstart the Orange, as it punched the ball into the end zone for a 10-3 lead behind another Robinson pass and four carries by freshman Doug Hogue. Hogue, who had entered the game in the first quarter after starting tailback Curtis Brinkley injured his right leg, plunged into the end zone after a six-yard carry with 52 seconds left in the half, capping a 99-yard touchdown drive.

Greg Robinson said after the game that Brinkley will likely miss the remainder of the season with a broken leg.

Syracuse wasn’t done. Buffalo’s Terrell Jackson fumbled the ball on the ensuing kick return, and Robinson, in the fourth play of the drive, found Williams streaking untouched into the left corner of the end zone. Syracuse had just racked up two touchdowns on Buffalo in the span of 37 seconds.

‘It’s a great thing when you have a lot of playmakers on your team,’ Andrew Robinson said. ‘It’s not just Taj Smith and Mike Williams. It’s a lot of other guys that can stretch the field, and if I can do my job and get the ball to them, they can make the plays and that’s a great thing to have.’

Williams has snagged a TD reception in his last five games, tying a Syracuse record held by NFL standout Marvin Harrison and two other receivers.

Buffalo chipped away at SU’s lead in the second half with two field goals to begin the second half, but Smith hauled in a 38-yard pass deep in the third quarter that set up a field goal, stretching the Syracuse lead to 20-9.

That was enough cushion for the Syracuse defense, who held Bulls tailback James Starks, who rushed for a school-record 231 yards the previous week against Toledo, to just 70 yards on the ground on 20 carries. The Orange also switched its tactics and rushed Bulls quarterback Drew Willy with just a three-man line, allowing him to dink and dunk his way to 286 passing yards but no touchdowns.

‘He’s a good scrambler, and on top of that, he really can spread it around very well and in quick fashion,’ Greg Robinson said. ‘Our intent was to make him have to throw the short balls.’

Williams, a native of Buffalo, derived a little extra satisfaction from his big day, because he had jawed good-naturedly during the week with his close friends on the Buffalo team, Naaman Roosevelt and Domonic Cook, over who would prevail Saturday.

On the first play of the game, Cook, who covered Williams most of the game, again taunted Williams that he would not catch a single pass all game.

Williams reeled in his first catch midway through the first quarter, and then another one, and another. He snagged seven passes in all.

‘(Cook) started coming down and saying, ‘Good pass, good pass. Good catch, good catch,” Williams said, smiling. ‘He kept getting tired, and he kept saying, ‘Good catch.”

Buffalo couldn’t do the same to limit Syracuse’s firepower in the air, and that made the difference in Saturday’s game.

‘We say all the time that we’ve got to have a great game for our offense to do good,’ Williams said. ‘Our two wins came when we had a great game. That’s how we look at it every time. If we don’t get a win, it’s on us. That’s how we take it every week.’

Published on October 19, 2007 at 12:00 pm