Jeff Brohm just suffered his third loss of the season, and once again it was a game many thought Louisville should have won. The Cardinals entered the game with lofty expectations, as many thought this team would be a true contender in the ACC.
Louisville’s ACC title dreams are hanging by a thread after another crushing loss
However, after five weeks of football, it certainly looks like Louisville’s ACC Title dreams are close to dead. The Cardinals fall to North Carolina State 31-28, and Brohm, like many Louisville fans, wasn’t happy with the Cardinals' costly turnovers.
Louisville's three fumbles were crucial in Cardinals loss
Louisville has many areas to fix if it wants to turn this season around, but one area that stood out after the loss to NC State was turnovers. Brohm didn’t want to hear any excuses about the weather and the rain, and made it clear the Cardinals have to be better at taking care of the ball.
“Today was a turnover fest; the ball was on the ground too much,” stated Brohm. “Yeah, I know it was raining in the first half. Wet and all that, but we worked on that all week, so turnovers were costly to us on offense. We weren’t able to sustain drives, get the ball in the end zone, and started slow.”
Louisville fumbled the ball five times this afternoon, and NC State recovered three of them. And not only did the Cardinals turn the ball over three times, but all three led to Wolfpack points.
It didn’t take long for Louisville to cost the ball up this afternoon; on just the Cardinals' second possession, Keyjuan Brown cost the ball after a 59-yard drive and in the red zone. Then, in the third quarter, Lincoln Kienholz fumbled in Louisville territory. Both led to an NC State touchdown, including Kienholz's, which put the Wolfpack up 14-28.
Finally, Brown cost the ball up for the second time, and it was absolutely heartbreaking. Brown ran up the middle for 49 yards, but at the end of the run, NC State punched it out, forcing yet another fumble. The Wolfpack capitalized on the fumble to go up 31-28, which ended up being the final score.
The Cardinals can’t cost the ball up three times, especially on the road, and especially when they are trying to come back after being down 14. Louisville came close to pulling it back, but it fell just short after Brown’s costly fourth-quarter fumble, and now Louisville falls to 2-3.
And to make it clear, there is a lot that went wrong. It wasn’t just the fumbles. But what stands out after four quarters of football is something Brohm must fix moving forward if he wants to win eight games or more this year for the fourth straight year.
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