One question remains for Louisville football: Where do we go from here?

After Louisville football’s devastating loss to Florida State on Saturday, the Cards sit at 2-3. Where do we go from here?

Moments after Quarterback Deondre Francois tossed a 55 yard touchdown on the first play of the Seminoles drive late in the third quarter, bringing the score to 21-14, I texted to the Big Red Louie writers “this game’s over for the Louisville.” Even with Louisville football winning, and holding a 98% win probability in the third quarter, I knew deep down inside that this team was going to find a way to blow the game.

I know, I know that wasn’t very positive of me.

While many fans who look at things with a glass half full approach likely saw this as a small stumbling block and just a botched play. I took the entire third quarter into consideration and the emergence of a hot Florida State from halftime, along with the sudden change in play calling and turn from what worked in the first half and assumed it would fall apart..fast. Unfortunately for me, the Louisville football team, and all of Cardnation, my darkest fears came true in the final moments.

We know how it ended. It was like having the Virginia basketball game unfold in front of our eyes all over again. Credit to Howie Lindsey for making the connection – but the Puma Pass interception by A.J. Westbrook  on 1st down and 10 with a little under 2 minutes to go was Deng Adel being called for traveling with 0.9 seconds under the basket.

Then the 58 yard touchdown toss from Deondre Francois to Nyquan Murray (the second 55+ yard touchdown in the second half, I remind you) was DeAndre Hunter (not Isaiah Wilkins) hitting the 30+ footer at the buzzer all over again. How? Why? What gods did we anger? Who or what needs to be sacrificed in order to regain our right standing? All of these questions ran through my brain as I frustratingly typed out a 1,157 word recap of the game, one that I must admit I had finished and ready to publish before the interception.

All joking aside one question remains.

After playing the best two quarters of the season in the first half against FSU – looking like a team who had fixed a lot of the issues that plagued them the week before – then to have it all ripped away at the very end… Where do we go from here?

The Cards sit at 2-3 staring down the barrel of two games in eight days against teams that both rank inside the top 30 in total offense, according to ESPN.com.

It seems fitting that after losing a game the way Louisville did, that the team would have just six days to prepare for the triple-option offense of Georgia Tech, a team they haven’t faced yet since joining the ACC.

Game-planning for Georgia Tech is never easy. Team’s with 7+ days to plan and practice still often give up huge amounts of yardage, even in wins. This season alone, Georgia Tech has rushed for an NCAA high 1,696 yards but sit at just 2-3 on the season. We all know Louisville’s defense has seen some improvement this season, but currently they rank 92nd in the country in total rushing defense.

The way I see it, things can play out one of two ways.

Going into Friday night, a ESPN prime time game, Louisville can either – one, build off of the first two and a half quarters against Florida State, where they absolutely out-played them in every facet of the match-up. This means they come back, use the two dynamic running backs in Hassan Hall and Trey Smith to set up the run game, and then attack downfield with Jaylen Smith and Dez Fitzpatrick. It’s so easy to remember the second half picks from Puma Pass, but let’s not forget just how good he was in the first half. Against Georgia Tech you have to score points and they are extremely susceptible to giving up big plays.

Or option two, Louisville can play like they did in the Virginia blow out loss and the final quarter and a half against Florida State. The players can put their heads down and play with a “woe is me” attitude, essentially giving up on the season and the coaching staff in the process. While many wouldn’t blame them for this, that type of attitude and play won’t help anyone. If Louisville doesn’t come out with an edge defensively and gives up 250+ yards on the ground to Georgia Tech, moving to 2-4 in the process, you can esentially kiss the thought of this season being a 7 or 8 game season goodbye.

Today when Bobby Petrino addresses the media at 4:30 he owes the fanbase an explanation of what happened in the final minutes of the game. Not only that, but how he plans to fix some of the issues that continue to rear their ugly head. We asked on social media today what he can do or say to make things a little easier, and unfortunately the answers were what you thought.

Fans are over it, and the support for him and his staff may be close to gone. By my guess Coach Petrino will have one more opportunity to get things right, and that will start with Georgia Tech this Friday night.