Wake Forest and Louisville football continues to be the weirdest rivalry in the sport after another wild finish.
For Louisville football, it’s biggest ACC rival may also be the corniest team in the ACC.
From WakeyLeaks to wild finishes and insane circumstances, there’s been a general air of unpleasantness between the Cards and Wake under Dave Clawson.
The Cards and Demon Deacs added another memorable moment to the dumb rivalry, this time because of drama on the field among those in pads and some of those… not dressed.
An overview of some big take aways from a tough loss.
Louisville football continues to show signs of improvement
Before we get into all of the little things that made this a painful loss for Louisville football, it’s important to recognize that Louisville football maintained the trajectory it had been on entering the game.
Against a top 25 opponent with a unique offense and on the road, Louisville outgained Wake Forest on the ground and through the air. The Cards were even on turnovers and hit on multiple big plays down the field, continuing to trend upward as the season progresses.
Louisville has averaged 36.6 points per game over the last 3 games, outgaining its opponents by nearly 100 yards.
Satterfield’s play-calling much improved
One reason Louisville football is trending in the right direction is head coach Scott Satterfield’s ability to mix things up and take advantage of his weapons on offense.
In Louisville’s first two games, it was apparent that the Cardinals were struggling to adjust without former OC Dwayne Ledford. As a result, the offense was bland and unbalanced with a run-heavy attack.
Since then, however, the Cards have seized momentum by gradually returning to the brand of football that made them exciting in 2019 and, sometimes, in 2020.
Louisville has added a lot of window dressing pre-snap and during plays. Receivers like Jordan Watkins and Amhari Huggins-Bruce are being utilized all over the field. Louisville has thrown in a little read option, a little pistol formation, and even some traditional option plays. Louisville is passing far more often on early downs and looking to beat teams over the top with the deep ball.
Amid the madness, UofL continued to be aggressive on offense. Is Satterfield finally beginning to show what his brand will be? Here’s to hoping so.
Louisville failing to seize momentum
On the other side of things, Louisville football ultimately took an L in this game because of its inability to capture momentum.
The mark of a good team is its ability to take advantage of good breaks. Louisville’s defense was called upon a few times to step up, and it often did in big ways. But when Wake was down and UofL had opportunities to push the lead to multiple possessions or pull even, they failed to capitalize.
Louisville had an opportunity to break the game open late in the first while knowing that it would get the ball first in the second half. Instead, Louisville turned this stretch of the game into a 10-0 deficit with a muffed punt and two three and outs.
UofL front 7 failed to apply pressure
Without defensive lineman Ashton Gillotte and linebacker Monty Mongomery, the Louisville football defense could not get home the way it had in the previous three games.
Louisville often only rushed three and this gave Wake QB Sam Hartman time to dissect the Cards’ secondary.
Guys like Derek Dorsey and Ramon Puryear stepped up and had their moments. However, it will be interesting to see how the Louisville football defense adjusts going forward.
Mental errors creeping back in
You can blame officials, conservative play-calling, or any number of things on this loss. No, like, you actually can. Still, the obstacle that Louisville football ultimately must learn to overcome is itself.
Cunningham played a masterful game, but he missed two WIDE open receivers for easy touchdowns in this game. I’m talking maybe once in a season kind of mental errors from Wake Forest. For all the good that the UofL QB has done, if he completes just one of those passes, this game takes a completely different tone.
We saw the first real consequence of UofL being without Braden Smith on Saturday. In a crucial situation, his replacement Josh Johnson didn’t look the ball in on a punt return. That resulted in the three points that ultimately cost the Cards the game.
Louisville also had a facemask penalty, two necessary defensive holding calls, and multiple blown coverages that left Wake receivers wide open.
From the coaching staff, the clock management was less than ideal. This was particularly noticeable late in the game when UofL allowed 13 seconds to run off the clock before using the first of its three consecutive timeouts to stop the clock. Instead of having 35-40 seconds to drive for a game-tying field goal, Louisville only had enough time for two plays.
Bonus: Breaking down the bewildering officiating
Finally, it has to be discussed. We’ve got to talk about how horrifying the officiating was in this game.
Look, to err is human. I understand that. Mistakes are going to be made in every game by every player, every coach, and, yes, every official. That’s why, in most games, I will let officiating mistakes slide. It’s their job to get things right, and for the vast majority of the time, college football officials do a good enough job to not impact the eventual outcome of the game.
With that being said, what the actual f*ck was that on Saturday?
Not only did the officiating hurt the Cards, there is no way around saying that it impacted the outcome of the game.
Here is just a brief overview of some of the calls we saw on Saturday.
- :04 2Q: Wake snaps, hands off, and advances the ball a half yard. The ball carrier, Christian Beal-Smith, does not immediately go down. On replay, no whistle can be heard. Perhaps it was the 29,077 fans in attendance-some of whom were quite literally sleeping on picnic blankets- were screaming in horror because their coach just ran the ball with 4 seconds left in the half. Perhaps it’s because the play was never blown dead.
The officials WENT TO REPLAY and decided to add 1 second on the clock. - :30 2Q: Pass intended for Wake receiver Jaquarii Robinson is tipped, Robinson catches the ball with two hands, but uses the ground to secure the ball. The pass is called a completion on the field. After official review, the play stands as called.
- 11:25 3Q: Louisville completes a pass for 24 yards to Justin Marshall. Ball is advanced to Wake Forest 20 yard-line. The play is called back because of an alleged hold on Louisville tight end Isaac Martin. Martin, who is engaged in a block downfield lets go of a defender and puts his hands straight up in the air. Martin continues to run down field with nothing but his pelvic region even remotely close to the Wake forest defender.
Play moves Louisville from the opposing redzone to its own 46. Cardinals punt 3 plays later. - 6:47 2Q: Malik Cunningham had his helmet knocked off while sliding to the ground. By rule, Cunningham had to come out of the game. Louisville called a timeout in order to allow Cunningham to go back in. Though the rule book states that Cunningham may check back in because of the called timeout, officials would not allow him to enter the game until the next play. Louisville could not convert on the 3rd down play and was forced to punt the ball away.
- 7:48 3Q: Louisville’s Marvin Dallas runs into the path of Wake Forest returner Taylor Morin, but exits his view and is more than 5 yards behind him before catch attempt is made. Morin muffs the punt, but Louisville is penalized 15 yards.
A 46-yard touchdown drive ensued after the called kick catch interference.
There were more instances of just blatant stupidity. However, these plays alone greatly influenced the outcome of the game.
Louisville football hosts Virginia this Saturday at 3 PM.
Replay of the Cunningham helmet removal appeared to show a grab of his face mask. It also resulted in a scratch to his eye. As for the 1sec add, the replay appeared to show that the clock did not start on the snap.