Louisville football: Three instant takeaways from loss to Virginia

The team lacks what it takes to be a winning football team

This team fails to do simple things the right way. Things like holding on to the football seem hard for this year’s squad. They lack simple discipline no matter which way you cut it.

When you have veterans like Malik Cunningham and Dez Fitzpatrick putting the ball on the turf in key situations, it really just gives you fits as a fan, coach, or teammate. The team has now turned the ball over a whopping 18 times in eight games including three more on Saturday against Virginia.

Players like C.J. Avery, Monty Montgomery, and Russ Yeast did not have good games. They missed tackles and were out of position a multitude of times. These are seniors and juniors making the biggest mistakes of the game.

Montgomery was a guy who had not been practicing due to being quarantined for some sort of period of time. So, we can put some blame towards that factor.

I said earlier in the week to keep expectations low with the team coming off of Covid. That still stands today. The team looks like they have never found any rhythm during this season and it shows on game days. It showed the same lack of rhythm against Virginia.

They are also dealing with the world’s virus crisis in their own locker room.

Winning games becomes difficult when so many different things are in flux.

With all of that said, it’s a broken record to this point. The team cannot hold on to the football and the defense just makes a few too many mental mistakes that allow teams to take control of games. That has been the case all year long.

The Cardinals continue to find odd ways to lose amidst poor play

This one continues to be a constant trend. The Cardinals dominated Virginia in most facets you would expect to garner a winning performance in a football game. However, that did not happen.

Louisville had 478 yards of offense to Virginia’s 368. That’s a fairly large margin of difference.

In addition, Louisville put up eight (!) yards per play in this game. Virginia had 5.7 yards per play. Need I say more to how weird these losses are.

If anything, this just proves that turnovers will absolutely kill you in any form or fashion. Louisville’s big plays often led to a three-and-out to follow it up. It’s honestly hard to fathom how this team lost this game.