Louisville football picked up their first ACC win since 2017 and did so with an explosive offense. We hand out game balls from the Cards 41-39 win.
696 days is a lot of time to go without an ACC win. Thankfully for Scott Satterfield and the entire Louisville football program, that streak came to an end on Saturday when the Cardinals defeated Boston College in an unlikely 41-39 shootout in a must-win game.
Coming off of a bye week and the devastating loss to Florida State, Louisville felt likely to rebound. All season we’ve seen the Cardinals fight back when pushed up against a wall, and with a big chance to pick up a much-needed win against BC as well as a ton of confidence, we saw it again on Saturday.
We all know the damage that Boston College has done to Louisville over the last two years behind AJ Dillon and Anthony Brown, particularly in the running department. But to this team, it didn’t phase them.
They came out swinging early in a game where they honored the Greatest of all Time, Muhammad Ali, and when pushed into a corner they responded in a big way. Behind the play of Micale (Malik) Cunningham and Javian Hawkins, Louisville got off to a hot offensive start producing big play after big play, both on the ground and through the air. The first four drives for Louisville included a 47 yard run by Javian Hawkins, a 23-yard pass from Micale Cunningham to Dez Fitzpatrick, a 59-yard touchdown pass from Micale Cunningham to Seth Dawkins as well as a 14-yard pass from Micale Cunningham to Tutu Atwell.
Accuracy, precision, patience, accuracy, following the game plan to a tee – all of those described the play of Cunningham while also describing the opposite of what we saw on defense from the Cardinals. Unfortunately for him, the day would come to an end early due to injury, forcing freshman Evan Conley into the game in crunch time. He certainly responded, helping to lead Louisville on what would be the game-winning drive.
As Louisville lit up the scoreboard, Boston College joined the fun as the two schools combined for an incredible 766 yards of total offense and 50 points at halftime. Despite the struggles in the secondary and an injury to Cunningham, Louisville kept fighting.
The defense made stops when they needed, including their first pick of the season in the fourth quarter, and helped to do their part late – forcing the ball into the hands of the Louisville offense with just a few moments to go.
Ultimately, Louisville finished the game by way of a 41-yard field goal from Blanton Creque before forcing the Golden Eagles into a turnover on downs to finish the game with a win, 41-39.
Let’s take a look back at what was the most impressive performance of the young season by handing out our weekly game balls to the players who stood out most.