UofL Football Recap: The Governor’s Cup Comes Home

Pregame Notes:

It’s always Rivalry week in Kentucky, but today is the culmination of the most intense part of the year round rivalry hatred. Louisville is walking in to Kroger Field 7-4, after a dominating win vs Pittsburgh last week. The blue team led by Stoops is 4-7 and will not go to a bowl game this year. Louisville is currently on a 5-game losing streak, and for that streak to end, Louisville needs to take care of the football, run the ball, and force the young Cutter Boley into a couple of late or bad decisions in the passing game. If the Cards can shut down the run, and put points on the board, uk is going to have a hard time scoring more than 20 points this game. Isaac Brown needs 105 yards to eclipse 1,000 rushing yards his freshman year. I think he has that by the 3rd quarter. Go Cards, Beat uk, end the streak.

1st Quarter:

The Battle for The Governors Cup began with the kitties with the ball first. Tamarion McDonald forced the first turnover for the Cards as he just ripped the ball out of the hands of Jamarion Wilcox. However, Louisville wasn’t able to capitalize on the plus side of the field and was forced to punt after going 3-&-out. The Louisville defense forced a punt from the cats on their second possession. Louisville was able to find pay dirt this time with an Isaac Brown 1-yard touchdown run.  Louisville took a 7-0 lead heading into the second quarter.

2nd Quarter:

McDonald making a case for player of the game early, as he picks off Boley and returned it into uk territory. Shough’s touchdown to Bell was called back due to a penalty, so the Cards settled for a 20-yard field goal by Brock Travelstead to give the Cards a 10-0 lead. Louisville’s defense continued to frustrate and confuse uk’s freshman quarterback, as uk was forced to punt yet again. Duke Watson and the Cards just needed one play to gain 58 yards and a score a touchdown. Just like that, the Cards led 17-0. Brock Travelstead added another field goal to add to the Cards lead. Louisville had a chance to add to that lead late in the half, but a Chris Bell fumble ended that potential. Louisville got two interceptions in the quarter, including one in the end zone. The Cards shutout their opponent in the second quarter for the second consecutive week, as Louisville took a 20-0 lead into intermission.

Halftime Stats:

T.O.P:  15:56

Passing Yards:107

Rushing Yards: 149 (2 TDs)

Sacks: 2

T.Os: 3 (FF, 2INTS)

3rd Quarter:

Louisville went 3-and-out on their first possession of the quarter. The Cards defense appeared to have gotten a stop on 3rd down, but because Boley went down, it prompted a review. Upon review, the officials called targeting on Thor Griffith and gave uk a new set of downs. A new quarterback, Gavin Wimsatt, was inserted for the blue team, and he led them to pay dirt with a 4-yard connection with Ja’Mori Maclin to cut into the Cards lead. On Louisville’s next possession, they were able to move the ball and flip the field position with a punt. Wilcox was credited with his 2nd fumble of the game, this time the fumble was recovered by Louisville native Ramon Puryear, who returned it 20 yards for the scoop and score. The Cards lead went back up to 20 (27-7). The Cards went on a six-play, 60-yard scoring drive (all on the ground) that was capped by a 24-yard run by Duke Watson, for his second of the day. Louisville took a 34-7 lead heading into the final quarter. 

4th Quarter:

Wimsatt was able to connect with Maclin again for a touchdown, this time for 83 yards. The Cards lead was temporarily cut to 20 (34-14) again. On Louisville’s next possession, they only needed two plays to go 75 yards, thanks to the 67-yard touchdown run by Isaac Brown. The run not only extended the Louisville lead to 41-14, but it pushed Brown over the 1,000 yard rushing for the season. Coach Brohm used the blowout to get some snaps for a number of quarterbacks on the roster. Louisville dominates the kittens 41-14.

Final Stats:

Passing Yards: 128

Rushing Yards: 358 (4TDs)

Post Game Notes:

Louisville improves to 8-4 on the year and snap the losing streak to the team up the road. Louisville now holds a 16-14 series lead since the games resumed in 1994. The Cards were led on the ground by their two freshman running backs; Isaac Brown and Duke Watson, both of whom went over 100 yards rushing and had 2 touchdowns each. Tyler Shough finished the game with 128 yards passing, no touchdowns, but zero turnovers. The Cards dominated on the ground from start to finish in this one. The running backs got all the stats, but the offensive line deserves all of the credit for the performance in the run game and in pass protection. The defense delivered yet another stellar performance. The Cards forced a number turnovers, got a lot of QB pressures, and recorded 2 sacks. Give a lot of credit to McDonald as he really set the tone defensively with his opening drive strip fumble and recovery. Louisville will now rest up and await where they will be playing in the bowl game.