Louisville football: Takeaways from victory over Wake

Louisville football wins the turnover battle and runs away from Wake Forest.

It took until the last game of the season, but Louisville football finally pulled off what fans of the program have been clamoring for.

Though it was ugly at times, Louisville football pulled away from Wake Forest by flipping the narrative on the Demon Deacons.

The game started about as ugly as possible with the Cardinals going three and out on four of the first five drives.

However, Louisville scored 21 points and racked up 209 total yards in the second quarter to go up for good on Wake.

The Cardinals pulled away 45-21 behind a fantastic game plan from the coaching staff. Here are some key takeaways from the win.

Louisville football won the turnover battle

Entering the game, the storyline was that Louisville football was dead last in the country in turnover margin. And as for Wake Forest? The Deacs were No. 1 in the country in that Category.

You can’t have more of a juxtaposition between the way two teams value the ball. Wake quarterback Sam Hartman had not thrown an interception all season. Wake’s defense specialized in forcing opponents to cough up the ball.

It was Louisville, however, who won the turnover battle for the first time all season. The Cards forced a pick and a Wake Forest fumble while not turning the ball over for the first time all season.

Louisville scored 10 points off of Wake Forest turnovers and looked intentional with the ball on offense; especially in the second half.

Louisville football offense and defense complimented each other well

Secondly, the Louisville offense and defense worked extremely well together.

When the Cardinals’ offense and special teams got off to a poor start, the Louisville defense forced two three and outs and two more possessions with only one first down.

Louisville set the tone on the ground with redshirt freshman Jalen Mitchell. Mitchell reeled off long runs on inside zone plays for 70 and 47 yards. Louisville pounded away on the ground and used plays to Marshon Ford and Dez Fitzpatrick to sustain drives.

Defensively, Louisville looked prepared for a unique Wake Forest offense. Players like Yaya Diaby and Lovie Jenkins took massive steps forward. Mainstays like Dorian Etheridge and Monty Montgomery caused confusion for a high-powered Wake offense.

The coaching staff has not lost the locker room

“It’s been a crazy year, not just week,” Satterfield said in the postgame. While 2020 has been a wild year, you could definitely surmise that the last two weeks have been even more hectic around the football complex.

After Satterfield spoke with South Carolina about its vacant coaching position last week and poorly fielded questions during his Monday presser, Louisville’s players came to his defense on social media.

For Louisville to have a sloppy start and then rebound to score 45 points in the final three quarters speaks volumes to the culture Satterfield and his staff has instilled. The Cardinals started three freshmen on the offensive line and six freshmen overall on offense. They also rotated in a ton of young players on defense. Yet, Louisville played disciplined football and turned in a performance to feel good about heading into next season.

As outsiders, we can feel whatever way we want about how the last few weeks have been handled. However, the coaching staff still has complete respect from this team, and that was evident on the field on Saturday.

Welcome to the offseason. I’m sure there will be nothing to talk about.