Louisville Football: Cards Give Away Win to FSU in Final Minutes

Louisville football’s had to win today against Florida State, but instead blew a 14 point lead and dropped their second straight.

How did we get here? Are we a basketball school only? Is it time for the coach to go? Is Puma the QB? I have so many questions and not a lot of answers about Louisville football’s 2-3 record.

It feels like we’ve said it every week, and we may continue to say it, but when Louisville football took the field against Florida State it was a game that was as “must win” as it gets. The Cards took a massive beat down at the hands of Virginia, which left the fan base wondering if there was another winnable game on the schedule. FSU, led by first year coach Willie Taggart, had equal amounts of question marks after their 2-2 start, and needed a win just as much.

Bobby Petrino was quiet this week about who would start at QB, but it was no surprise when Jawon “Puma” Pass ran out with the starters. It was his hot start, combined with good execution on third down and several nice runs from Trey Smith and Hassan Hall, that helped the Cards get their first, first half offensive touchdown on the season.

Confidence has been one of the biggest pieces missing from the game of Puma Pass, so several big completions early to Dez Fitzpatrick, Micky Crum, and Jaylen Smith were welcome sights for the Louisville offense. The defense who had struggled to get off the field this season on third down, did a great job of making plays – holding the Seminoles to two for seven at halftime.

Nothing may have been more important through the first half for Louisville than the start for star wide receivers Jaylen Smith and Dez Fitzpatrick. The two had combined for just 18 receptions for 247 yards through four weeks, after reaching the same total through just two weeks of the season last year. The two receivers finished the first half with eight receptions for 124 yards and a touchdown, nearly half the output of the season thus far.

Puma Pass would finish the first half with 191 yards passing and three total touchdowns while the defense held FSU to just 76 yards passing and 60 yards rushing, making it their best half of production.

The second half was a completely different story, as Louisville slowly began reverting back to their ways of the first four weeks of the season.

Things looked to be going Louisville’s way until Florida State QB Deondre Francois tossed a 55 yard touchdown on the first play of a drive, which sucked the life out of the Cards and Cardinal Stadium. After the score, Puma Pass, who had taken a nasty hit the drive before, hit TuTu Atwell for 55 yards down the middle of the field putting the Cards in scoring territory only to overthrow Dez Fitzpatrick twice and Tutu Atwell once on what would have all been scoring plays. Louisville settled for a field goal, putting the score at 24-14.

Florida State eventually moved the score to 24-21, before Louisville forced a three and out and got the ball back and began on a drive that was meant to finish the game. After 7 plays for 50 yards, Louisville looked as if they were going to be able to close the game out and escape with a victory.

Until an untimely Puma Pass interception. After a nice 3rd down conversion, Louisville had the ball on 1st and 10, an obvious passing down. Instead Pass, faked the run, stared down a receiver over the middle and his pass was picked off – giving Florida State the chance to tie or win the game.

Then it happened. The play that described the Louisville season all at once.

On third and five with under 1:30 seconds, Deandre Francois dropped back and threw a short pass over the middle to Nyqwan Murray, who took it 58 yards to the house – putting Florida State up 28-24.

With 1:15 seconds left on the clock Louisville started on their own 20 yard line. After a first down sack, a second down overthrow, Florida State sealed the game picking off Puma Pass on third down.

For Louisville this was a game that they 1000% should have won. They did everything in the first half, and came out in the second half with great energy. But bad tackling, bad coverage, bad play calling and several bad passes and drops led the Cards to lose the game.

The good: For the first time this season Puma Pass looked like the QB that everyone thought he could be coming into the season. He had pressure in his face a lot of the game and still managed to make some big time throws. Pass finished with a career high 306 yards passing and two touchdowns, but unfortunately threw two picks in the fourth quarter that cost the Cards the game.

The bad: After driving 50 yards down the field and ready to finish the game, Puma Pass opted not to hand the ball off on first down – instead throwing an interception that led to Florida State taking the lead 28-24 with less than 2 minutes to go.

MVP: With a loss like this no one deserves the MVP nod today. Even with an incredible first half Louisville packaged the game up and gave it to Florida State as a gift.

LVP: Second half Louisville was awful. After keeping Florida State to just over 130 yards of total offense in the first half, the defense struggled mightily in the second half giving up a total of 234 total yards and three touchdowns by Deondre Francois (two of which were for 50+ yards).

Stat of the Day: Louisville held Florida State to just 136 yards in the first half and just seven points. In the second half it was a different story, as the Cards allowed FSU to score 21 points and gave up 234 yards.

Tweet of the Day: Yep. It’s officially basketball season.

You guess? I have 38 million reasons why you shouldn’t be guessing.

For Bobby Petrino and the Louisville football program there are now serious questions about if there is another winnable game this season. Since coming to Louisville the Cards have had expectations of winning at least 8 or 9 games, and to think that a potential 2-10 season is in store, brings up the question of whether or not Petrino is the man for the job. Expect more on this later in the week from Big Red Louie.

There will be no time to hang heads as the Cards will have just six days to prepare for Georgia Tech and their unique triple option offense. Georgia Tech is the 43rd best offensive team in the country, and the third ranked rushing team, which likely spells trouble for Louisville.

Cardinal fans, I have no words to encourage you and I do not expect you to keep your heads held high. It is now time to panic.