One of those wild and woolly games with neither team able to stop anybody on offense, the University of Louisville and Miami football teams seemingly scoring at will. Miami would take advantage of controversial official calls and UofL mistakes, to claim an outlandish 52-45 victory before a crowd of 59,115 at L&N Stadium on Saturday. The second largest crowd in Louisville history and they deserved a better outcome.
Not even the presence of former UofL quarterback great Teddy Bridgewater or Beverlee, the widow of former Coach Howard Schnellenberger proved enough incentive for the Louisville defense. The UofL defense has a hard time stopping anybody, much less Cam Ward, a bona fide candidate for Heisman Trophy honors. Ward would shred the Cardinals time after time, completing 21 of 39 passes for 319 yards and four touchdowns.
UofL running back Isaac Brown would give his team its only lead in the first half with a marvelous 43-yard to the end zone, putting the Cards up 7-3. But in the second quarter with the ball on the two-yard line, Brown would cough up the ball in his own end zone, giving Miami its first lead. UofL was the only team UofL was stopping this afternoon.
Still there was just enough suspense in this one for Louisville partisans to believe they still had a chance, matching Miami touchdown for touchdown until the fourth quarter. A highly questionable ACC officiating call would deflate UofL’s chances, with the ball being knocked out of Ward’s hands and UofL going the distance for a touchdown. After a prolonged official review, the call would be reversed, all but making it impossible for UofL to seriously threaten Miami.
A remarkable performance by Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough, completing 31 of 51 passing attempts for 342 yards and four touchdowns. Good enough to win in most games. But not when the UofL defense was unable to mount any semblance of a passing blitz.
One has to wonder what is going on with a defense that was expected to be much improved this year. A defense that was supposedly strengthened with the one of the nation’s highest ranked portal classes. There’s a reason many players are in the transfer portal and most of them are not good.
