Things didn’t work out so well for Louisville football against Ole Miss. Recapping the action + takeaways and game balls from the week one blowout.
When Scott Frost told Nebraska media “it looked like the same movie,” following the program’s loss to Illinois, it was alarming and honestly felt like some sort of parallel universe. I told myself that wouldn’t be Louisville football in its season opener against Ole Miss. We sat back and watched as fellow ACC programs tripped up in week one, cautiously optimistic that the Cards wouldn’t stumble down the same path. Unfortunately, the product on the field was eerily similar to much of what we saw in a 2020 season where the Cards finished 4-7.
The Chick-Fil-A Kickoff was one billed as a likely shootout thanks to high-powered offenses led by veteran quarterbacks Malik Cunningham and Matt Corral. Behind the strongest defensive performance of the Lane Kiffin era- who watched the game with an awful internet connection from home- the Rebels thoroughly dominated Scott Satterfield and Louisville football.
First Half
Following the 43-24 loss, Satterfield spoke on his team’s offensive struggles.
“We never got into a rhythm in the first half,” Satterfield said. “We never got the sticks moving.”
That was due, in part, to a near-perfect performance from Ole Miss defensively and the *surprising* return of the not-so-interesting playcalling which included runs, runs, and more runs.
After months of bragging on the offensive line, including OL coach Jack Bicknell calling the unit the “best he’s ever coached,” UofL again struggled to deal with the brute strength of an SEC program. Rushing just three and four defenders, the Rebels got constant pressure on Cunningham in the backfield, resulting in forced scrambles and rushed pass attempts. The Cardinals completed just five first-half passes in one of their worst offensive halves of football in program history. That led to some interesting comments by Satterfield coming out of the break.
On the other side of the ball, it wasn’t any prettier. The offseason hype didn’t quite carry over for Louisville as they allowed Corral and the boys to go crazy. Behind an NFL-level performance from Dontario Drummond, and the constant barrage of 10-yard plays from Jerrion Ealy, Snoop Conner, and Henry Parrish, Mississippi picked up first down after first down. Overall Mississippi finished with 569 yards of offense, raising some questions about the improvement of the Louisville defense.
There were bright spots, including the play of Yasir Abdullah and transfer Kenderick Duncan, but time and time again simple slants and screen passes resulting in big play yardage did the Louisville defense in. Ultimately the turnover battle went the way of Ole Miss, with the Louisville defense unable to come up with any forced takeaways.
Second half
Adjustments were finally made in the playcalling and passing game in the second half but they came far too late.
Cunningham had more time as the offensive line settled in and it resulted in a lot of guys “getting these balls.” However, Cunningham was never able to get comfortable. After the game he mentioned the defense throwing different looks than expecting, playing more coverage than blitzing. It wasn’t all on him as receivers struggled to get open, but as they did, you saw the potential for things getting going.
“It’s not any one player. It was overall as an offense,” Satterfield said. “We just got to do better and we did in the second half. That’s the thing I was proud about in our offense they came back with some really nice drives.”
The outcome wasn’t pretty and quite honestly there’s reason to be upset. Playcalling in the first half was questionable as Satterfield continued to rely on the same old plays despite saying all offseason things would be different.
As Ole Miss cut off the QB option runs, limited the success of first down hand-offs, and forced Louisville into tricky spots Cunningham and the offense were stifled. The second half was certainly better. But why did it even take that long? Especially considering what the staff has been saying.
“Our coaches did a good job at half of figuring out what we needed to to do to get some easier throws,” said Cunningham.
All in all, it was a forgettable night for Louisville football. Getting shut down completely in the first half by the worst defense in the country in 2020, having two key defensive players ejected for targeting (Monty Montgomery & Tabarius Peterson), and just not being able to ever gain any footing made Monday feel like a game that will sting for a long time.
Quick Hitters
- Louisville has to do something different in the play-calling department. The Cards can run off-tackle all they want, but it is going to continue to yield the same results. Louisville played behind the sticks all night, making an already suspect passing game force things on third-and-long over and over.
- The Louisville football defense is better. It’s an easy take to just say the Cards looked “bad” or “lost” on defense. Ole Miss has an electric offense that is likely to lead the country in scoring and total offense once again. Last season, Mississippi scored more than 40 points against Alabama, LSU, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Vandy. Louisville had a solid gameplan, had some impressive individual performances, and performed about as well as most expected given the circumstances. The school of thought all along has been that this will be a defensively oriented team. If the offense held up its end of the bargain a little more, the outcome is much different.
- I miss Micale Cunningham.
- Louisville’s running back room may not be everything that we expected in the offeason. The offensive line opened up holes on multiple occassions that Jalen Mitchell and Hassan Hall simply didn’t see. Hopefully a little film review can remedy some of the issues in the backfield. Side note: Zero touches for Maurice Burkley? What gives?
- The play where Braden Smith threw back to Cunningham should have been a touchdown if it weren’t for a freshman tackle missing his block. The fact that Cunningham had a convoy of 300-pound men and gained 6 yards is a travesty. The offensive line has to be better there. Also interesting; the staff quickly went to Michael Gonzales after starting Trevor Reid? It didn’t look like Reid ever was comfortable but the line did stablize as the game went on with Gonzales in the lineup.
- Louisville football has to find success against SEC opponents if it is ever going to earn respect. Not sure Mississippi State and Kentucky really count, either.
Game Balls
Louisville fans: Especially those who made the trip to Atlanta to watch that carnage. We deserve better. Thankful for bourbon in times like these.
Josh Johnson: Johnson has been on the roster for at least eight years now with little-to-no playing time dating back to Petrino 2.0. In a game where Louisville could not get anything going through the air, Johnson was sure-handed, hauling in 6 catches for 40 yards. It wasn’t sexy, but nothing was sexy outside of the red-on-red uniforms.
Abby the dog: The real MVP. 10/10 good doggo.
Kenderick Duncan Jr.: The Georgia Southern transfer lived up to his billing, particularly on rushing downs. Louisville struggled, as predicted when the safeties were pulled up and Mississippi threw over the top across the middle. However, Duncan is an absolute missile getting into the backfield and preventing the rush. He finished with a team-high 11 tackles and a sack. Not a bad debut.
Monty Montgomery: He made a pretty silly mistake being flagged for a totally unnecessary targeting call in the first half. However, it was apparent early on that Montgomery is the heart and soul of the Louisville defense.
CJ Avery: Getting the super senior captain back for one more year is going to pay dividends for the Cards as the season progresses.
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