Louisville has won 10 games this season, their first time since they won the Sugar Bowl in 2013. Jeff Brohm has had these Cardinals rolling for a majority of the season, but they haven’t been as good in these last two outings.

The Cardinals lost to their hated rival Kentucky two weekends ago particularly due to crucial turnovers that the Wildcats were able to capitalize on, but that game can always go either way with everything that comes behind it.

Time to put that one behind them and focus on the task at hand now, and that’s to win the ACC Championship. Jeff Brohm wanted to beat Kentucky badly, but a conference championship win in your first year at Louisville could cheer him up.

This game, however, was an absolute disaster, particularly for Jack Plummer, who consequently had his worst performance of the season in this game. There’s no other way to put it, Plummer was flat out bad in this game and it was only getting worse as the game progressed.

Florida State was without their starting and backup quarterback this game, so the opportunities were there for the Cardinals all night, but they couldn’t find the end zone from anywhere on the field.

This is definitely one that Louisville would love to have back. Florida State didn’t do anything out of the ordinary in this game on offense, as their third string quarterback Brock Glenn had a hard time finding any type of rhythm in this game. Louisville’s defense bounced back well from a second half breakdown against Kentucky, making it difficult for the Seminoles to push the ball down the field. The front seven was in the backfield almost on every play, but the offense was in such a bind, it had little effect on the result.

To say this offense started off slow would be an understatement. There was some type of disconnect between the unit for the entire game. Jack Plummer’s accuracy was off to begin the game, but he had a couple of deep balls that could’ve easily been caught. After the first couple of drives, Plummer and the offense couldn’t generate positive plays. Give credit to the Florida State defense that has talented players at every position, but this was more of a meltdown of Louisville’s end.

The Cardinals went the entire first half without a solid drive and it was essentially the same for Florida State, who only scored three points to go up 3-0 at halftime. Both defenses were getting stop after stop, but neither team was able to take a step forward and complement the other side of the ball. The second half started off a little better for Louisville, as they finally got on the board and tied the game at 3-3, but soon as the offense put up points, the defense gives up a huge 73-yard run that put the Seminoles right on the goal line and they went on to punch it in.

Louisville had plenty of opportunities to answer, it just wasn’t their night to say the least. Even through all the bad drives that the Cardinals put together, the defense was relentless all game and had them in the best position to score a touchdown all night. After they forced another punt, the rushers got to the punter and made him run away from the pressure, but he couldn’t escape and it set Jeff Brohm’s offense up nicely at the Seminoles’ ten yard line. Louisville was right outside the end zone and it was four-down territory at this point in the ball game, this offense wasn’t going to get another opportunity to score like that.

Jack Plummer hiked the ball on first down and threw a lob pass to his tight end Nate Kurisky, who looked like he came down with the ball for a second until Tatum Bethune knocked it out at the last minute. The play was never reviewed, but it sure did look like Kurisky still had possession of the football when he landed on the ground, which would make that a touchdown. Jeff Brohm definitely regrets not challenging that play, but he still had another chance on third down to score s touchdown. Plummer then proceeded to throw the ball into a window that wasn’t there, and he threw an interception in the end zone to Tatum Bethune. A crucial mistake that ended Louisville’s chances of taking control in the game and they didn’t have another chance to score like that one for the rest of the game.

Florida State went on to score two more field goals to give them a 10 point advantage over the Cardinals and their offense had no answer for them. The offense let the defense down in this one and Jack Plummer was seeing ghosts all night. It couldn’t have came at a worse time for Louisville.

The Cardinals will have another chance to redeem themselves against the USC Trojans in the Holiday Bowl on December 27th at 8 P.M. (ET).