UofL Football Recap: Mustangs Outlast The Cards

Pregame Notes:

Good afternoon Card Nation, your 22nd-ranked Louisville Cardinals return home after a disappointing loss to Notre Dame in South Bend. The loss was the Cardinals’ first of the season. Louisville will take on 4-1 SMU, who has scored 108 points in their last 2 games, with wins over FSU and rival TCU. Both teams are coming in 1-0 in ACC and are looking to remain undefeated in conference play. 

1st Quarter:

A very uncharacteristic start by the Louisville defense as they allowed SMU to march right down the field, and score on a 5-yard run by the tailback. The Louisville offense, quickly answered the SMU scoring drive with a drive of their own, bouyed by a 58-yard catch by Ahmari Huggins-Bruce. The SMU offense looked unstoppable early on as, they were able to score another touchdown. This time a 10-yard pass by their back-up QB Preston Stone. On the Cards second possession, Brock Travelstead connected on a 46-yard field goal to cut the SMU lead to four (10-14). Louisville trailed 10-14 heading into the second quarter.

2nd Quarter:

After punts by both teams in the quarter, just as it looked like the Louisville defense was finding their footing, a designed QB run on 3rd-and-2 went 59 yards for a SMU touchdown. Louisville had their chance to answer with a touchdown of their own, but a missed assignment here and a misread pass there. The Cards had to settle for their 2nd field goal of the game. They trailed 13-21. On SMU’s final possession of the half, they were able to connect on a 55-yard field goal to extend their lead to double digits (11). The Cards trailed SMU 13-24 going to intermission.

Halftime Stats:

T.O.P:  15:55

Passing Yards: 144

Rushing Yards: 33

Sacks:

T.Os: 

3rd Quarter:

On Louisville’s first possession of the half, Donald Chaney Jr, scored from 1 yard out. Isaac Brown had a huge 53-yard run that helped the Cards get into the red zone. After Louisville’s defense came up with a huge 3rd down stop and forced a field goal by SMU, Tyler Shough and Ja’Corey Brown connected on an 86-yard touchdown pass (7th longest in program history). With just under 6 minutes remaining in the quarter. The score was tied up at 27. 

4th Quarter:

After deciding not to kick the field goal and failing to convert on 4th and 1, the Cards turned the ball over on downs on the SMU 27 yard line. SMU went on an 11-play, 89 yard touchdown drive to take a 34-27 lead. Louisville drove down the field, but a costly sack on Shough made 2nd, 3rd, and 4th down extremely difficult to generate any success with SMU’s dominant pass rush. Tyler Shough threw an interception in the end-zone on 4th down with just over 4 minutes remaining. Louisville wasn’t able to stop SMU from running the ball and the clock out and SMU defeated Louisville 34-27.

Final Stats:

Passing Yards: 329 (2 TD’s)

Rushing Yards: 132 (1 TD)

Post Game Notes:

Louisville drops their 2nd consecutive game and falls to 3-2 on the season and 1-1 in ACC play. The Cards looked out of sync for most of the game. Louisville flirted with danger in their previous games with the quarterback run, and just like Notre Dame, the quarterback run spelled doom for the Cards. Ja’Corey Brooks led all receivers with 121 yards and 2 touchdowns. Louisville allowed a total of 481 yards on defense. SMU’s quarterback had 113 rushing yards and 291 passing yards. This is the 2nd consecutive game where Louisville wasn’t able to generate a sack on defense. In the other hand, Shough was sacked 3 times. Louisville heads on the road to face Virginia, a team who always plays Louisville tough. Louisville vs Virginia will be at 3:30 pm.

Check out the presser here: