Pregame Notes:
Good evening Card Nation. It’s finally Game Day!!! Coach Brohm kicks off his fourth season as head football coach of the University Of Louisville, with a Sunday night primetime game vs the top 10 ranked Ole Miss Rebels. Ole Miss has a new coach leading a team that won 13 games and lost to the Miami Hurricanes in the CFP semi-finals. Can Louisville contain QB Trinidad Chambliss and RB Kewan Lacy all game, or will they focus on slowing down the running game of Chambliss and Lacy and force Chambliss into making a couple of uncanny mistakes? Louisville’s defense is good and tonight is going to be a great test as to how good they are.
1st Quarter:
Coach Brohm elected to defer to the second half. An Ole Miss miscue resulted in a loss of 21 yards and later forced them to punt on their first possession. Louisville had some moderate success in the run game, enough to allow a big play action pass to TE Jaleel Skinner. Unfortunately, two delay of game penalties forced Louisville to kick a 25-yard field goal. Louisville took a 3-0 lead. On the Rebels next possession, they went for it on 4th-&-2 and got the first down, but Clev Lubin punched the ball out and forced a turnover for the Cards. Louisville wasn’t able to capitalize and add to their lead, and had to punt the ball away. Louisville led 3-0 heading into the 2nd quarter.
2nd Quarter:
Louisville made a big 3rd down stop to force Ole Miss to kick a 43-yard field goal. They made it and tied the game at 3 early in the quarter. Lincoln Kienholz overthrew a wide open Tre Richardson that would’ve resulted in a touchdown on their next drive. On 4th down, the Cards snapped the ball over the punter, giving Ole Miss the ball on the 12-yard line. Ole Miss needed 4 plays to take it 12 yards to take a 10-3 lead. The Louisville offense continued to struggle, as they continued to rack up negative yards. Ole Miss got the ball with the opportunity to put the game out of reach. A Stanquan Clark interception put an end to that threat. Unfortunately, Louisville struggled to move the ball yet again and had to punt on 4th-&-11. Louisville’s defense has been impressive this half. They held Ole Miss to another field goal attempt, this time Ole Miss missed. Louisville offense started to show some signs of life with the two minute offense, as the Cards we able to get close enough for Carson Hilbert to kick in a 46-yard field goal, and cut the Ole Miss lead to 4 (6-10). Cards trailed 6-10 heading into intermission.
Hatime Stats:
T.O.P: 14:44
Passing Yards: 46
Rushing Yards: 37
Sacks:
T.Os: 2 (1 INT, 1 FF)
3rd Quarter:
Louisville came out and decided to put a new emphasis on running the football. They just changed the way they ran the football. A misdirection jet sweep play led to a Tre Richardson 30-yard touchdown run, and gave the Cards a brief 13-10 lead. Ole Miss came right back with a 62-yard touchdown pass to give Ole Miss back the lead at 17-13. Louisville, and Lincoln Kienholz started to find their footing in Nashville, as they moved the ball, but had to settle for yet another field goal, this time from 45-yards out. On the next possession, Chambliss and Alexander connected on yet another 62-yard touchdown to extend their lead to 24-16. Kienholz answered with a 62-yard touchdown pass of his own to Tre Richardson. Louisville tied the game at 24 with a successful 2-point conversion. The Cards and Rebels headed into the 4th quarter tied at 24.
4th Quarter:
Ole Miss regained the lead on a 35-yard touchdown pass to Odom. The Rebels took advantage of Louisville in the Cover 3 again. Louisville miscues continue to haunt them as they have to punt the ball back to Ole Miss. Louisville appeared to have made a huge stop to get the ball back, but a horrible roughing the kicker call helped aide in the continuation of the Ole Miss scoring drive, as Chambliss scored from 5 yards out to extend the Rebels lead to 38-24. Give Louisville some credit as they kept fighting, and Kienholz found LaWayne McCoy for a 54-yard TD, cutting into the Rebels lead 31-38. The defense made a big stop and got the ball back for their offense. Kienholz and the Cardinal offense moved the ball down the field, and Kienholz used his legs on a 7-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 38 with under 2 minutes remaining. On Ole Miss’s final drive of the game they made key plays when they needed to and won the game on a 48-yard field goal as time expired. Louisville starts the season off 0-1, but learned a lot about their defense and their new signal caller.
Final Stats:
Passing Yards: 307 (2 TDs)
Rushing Yards: 162 (2)
Post Game Notes:
The Cards fall in their season opener to the better, more experienced team today. The early miscues on offense, wasting timeouts, & delay of game penalties must be cleaned up before SMU comes to town in week 3. The offensive line struggled all night to open up any holes consistently for Isaac and Keyjuan. They did however show their ability to pass block consistently. Once Lincoln settled into the game, we saw why he was highly ranked coming out of high school. Coach Brohm, definitely has some weapons on the outside and the tight end group is going to make some huge plays this season. What can I say about the defense? For the first half, they looked like a TOP 15 defense, but its down right impossible to keep this Ole Miss offense in check for the entire game, especially when your back up 4th string corner is defending the best and fastest receiver on the other team. Ole Miss exploited that matchup and abused the cover 3 zone. They were well prepared to see cover 3.
