Taj Smith heard all the chatter last week – talk of how Syracuse might lose to perennial Division I weakling Buffalo 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 fellow receiver Mike Williams made sure to kill off all that doomsday talk Saturday. The duo came up with several crucial downfield receptions, including a game-changing 60-yard haul by Smith in the second quarter, to propel Syracuse to a 20-12 victory over Buffalo before an announced 30,897 fans at the Carrier Dome.

Smith and Williams each finished with 113 receiving yards, marking the first time since 1993 that two Orange receivers topped the century mark in the same game. Their aerial exploits helped Syracuse (2-6) snap a three-game losing streak and prevented it from suffering its first loss to Buffalo (3-5) since 1899.

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

But for a while, it looked as though SU’s detractors were right. The Orange traded field goals with the Bulls in the first quarter and stood pinned inside its 1-yard line deep in the second with the score tied, 3-3.

When the halftime horn sounded four minutes later, Syracuse was leading, 17-3 – thanks to its big-play threats.

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

‘He did a nice job throwing those deep balls,’ Syracuse head coach Greg Robinson said. ‘Some people, I remember one time earlier in the year, questioned his ability to throw the deep ball.’

The big play seemed to kickstart the Orange, as it punched the ball in for a touchdown and a 10-3 lead five plays later. Freshman Doug Hogue, who had entered the game after starting tailback Curtis Brinkley broke his right leg in the first quarter, capped the 99-yard drive by plunging into the end zone from six yards out. The injury will force Brinkley to miss the rest of the season.

Even with less than a minute left after the Hogue touchdown, Syracuse wasn’t done. Jeremy Sellers recovered a fumble on the ensuing kick return, and Robinson found Williams streaking untouched into the left corner of the end zone just four plays and 32 seconds later.

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

‘It’s a great thing when you have a lot of playmakers on the 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’re going to make the plays, and that’s a great thing to have.’

Buffalo chipped away at SU’s lead with two field goals to begin the second half, but Smith halted the Bulls’ momentum when he hauled in a 40-yard pass to set up a third-quarter field goal, stretching the Syracuse lead to 20-9.

That was enough cushion for the Orange defense. It held Bulls tailback James Starks, who rushed for a school-record 231 yards the previous week against Toledo, to just 62 yards 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 to 286 passing yards but zero touchdowns.

Syracuse, on the other hand, took enough of an advantage on the openings Smith and Williams enjoyed down the field, and that made the difference in the contest.

‘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 21, 2007 at 12:00 pm