Coming off their first loss of the young season, Jeff Brohm and his Cardinals looked to get back on track against new ACC opponent SMU, who’s playing good football through their first five games.
Louisville’s self-inflicted wounds were the main reason why they found themselves behind against Notre Dame last week, so the first step in the right direction is protecting the football, which they did this afternoon. The defense was also a major concern in the game, as they made a below average offense look like a well-oiled machine, however defensive coordinator Ron English still hasn’t found a scheme that works for his unit.
The Mustangs won the opening toss, elected to receive, and then proceeded to march down the field with no resistance from Louisville’s defense whatsoever. It looked more than easy. If the Cardinals are facing a mobile quarterback, they’re in for an extremely long day, because they can’t seem to stop them at all. SMU’s Kevin Jennings looked similar to Jayden Daniels this afternoon, getting whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.
Luckily, the Cardinals still have playmakers on offense that will keep them in most of these games if the offensive line can give Tyler Shough enough time in the pocket. They’ve had their issues these past two weeks, but for the most part they’ve been able to hold up. Shough drove Louisville right back down the field and answered with a touchdown drive on his own. He found his favorite target Ja’Corey Brooks in the end zone, which has been a common theme in every game this season. The Alabama transfer is as good as advertised and it wouldn’t surprise me if he finished this year as the top receiver in the ACC.
After some early offensive success, the Cardinals became stagnant and settled for two field goals before halftime. While the defense on the other hand still can’t seem to figure it out, giving up a 59-yard touchdown run on a quarterback draw. For the second week in a row, Louisville went into halftime with a double digit deficit (24-13).
The third quarter was more like the Louisville team we remember from a season ago. The Cardinals started off with the ball and immediately got right to work. Tyler Shough and Isaac Brown led the offense all the way down the field and capped off the drive with a touchdown on fourth & goal. That drive was followed up by an insane 86-yard catch and run from Ja’Corey Brooks, who continues to make plays for this offense
The defense still gave up a couple of huge plays, but they kept the Mustangs out of the end zone on back to back possessions, which is huge when your offense comes out and scores two touchdowns to eliminate the deficit. After the game was tied at 27-27 a piece, both defenses tightened up for a stretch and there were multiple punts back and forth between both teams.
SMU was able to find their rhythm on offense once again, as they drove down the field with relative ease all the way into the red zone. The Mustangs rushed the ball up the middle for a big gain, but a Louisville defender was able to rip the ball free for what looked to be a fumble, but it was overturned on the referee replay. The runners knee was still above the ground when the ball was moving, so to overturn that call in that situation is just abysmal. The Cardinals went from having all the momentum, to none at all after that ruling.
The defense went on to give up an easy touchdown and Louisville’s offensive line struggled to buy Shough some time in the pocket, which resulted in a turnover in the end zone on fourth down.
Overall, a terrible display of football from a Louisville team that looks discombobulated. This is a team that had College Football playoff aspirations, but those are just about over. Now the Cardinals will have to find a way to keep their heads above water, because any team in the ACC can move the ball on this defense, they’ve seriously been that bad and missing star cornerback Quincy Riley certainly doesn’t help.
All eyes are on Jeff Brohm and especially Ron English to fix this situation or Louisville’s going to be in for a long, long season.
The Cardinals will be back in action next Saturday on the road against Virginia at 3:30 P.M. (ET).
