9… 9 penalties on this Louisville football team last weekend. Couple that with only 17 first downs and a 21 point fourth quarter by the Wolf Pack and it ruined trick or treat for the Cardinals. And it negated another great effort from Malik Cunningham. He had 219 yards and a touchdown in the losing effort. I loved the connection between him and Jordan Watkins last week. Watkins caught two balls for 83 yards and a score to lead the receivers.

The Cardinals are going to need this connection tonight along with a much more solid performance overall if they want to beat Clemson. And for the first time since that Saturday night in 2016, I think we have a chance to beat Clemson.

Still gonna be a tall task as this Clemson team put together a 13 point fourth quarter last week to beat Florida State. Tigers QB DJ Uiagalelei and RB Will Shipley led what looked to be an improving Clemson offense to a solid 377 yards in that matchup. Shipley is just finding his legs and could be a problem.

They are improving and still have tons of talent but are far from the well-oiled machine they usually are. Especially on offense. They went just 4-of-14 on third-down tries, coughed up three turnovers, and committed six penalties in their game against the Noles.

Regardless of their shortcomings on the offensive side of the ball this Clemson team still has a very solid defense especially their front four. Dabo hadn’t been happy with this group and called them out recently. They responded with a season-high five sacks last week. They were initially credited with a sixth sack, but the NCAA removed a sack from Xavier Thomas’ who forced a fumble behind the line of scrimmage.

I think this game will be a tale of the two defensive units involved. Louisville ranks 25th nationally with an average of 5.1 yards per carrying. Can Malik and company keep their defensive unit on the run today while sustaining drives and letting our defense rest?

This is where the Cardinal’s depth issue comes into play. Our defensive guys are worn out in the 4 quarter and haven’t been able to make enough plays to finish games. But they have been making plays. New guys stepping up each week. LB Dorian Jones in his first career start had nine stops and 1.5 tackles for loss last week.

This Louisville defense surpassed their 2020 total for sacks by picking up their 22nd of the season last week. Louisville has recorded a sack in all eight games in 2021. These guys are trying and are getting better. And help is on the way. Four-star DL Selah Brown committed yesterday. Shame he can’t suit up tonight.

Louisville QB1 Malik Cunningham has his bag of treats. How good has he been this season? Thrown for 1,684 yards good for 6 touchdowns on 63.4% passing while also leading the Cardinals in rushing with 480 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns this season.

Sadly his outstanding play has been ghosted this season by how poorly the defense has played at times along with some costly turnovers. Maybe he will break out of the shadows of darkness into a new light tonight by leading his team to a big primetime win.

This Louisville offense is not a skeleton crew and has some playmakers. Jalen Mitchell second on the team in rush yards behind Malik has 424 rushing yards of his own. While Hassan Hall and Trevion Cooley each have 200+ rushing yards on the campaign.

The ball has been flying thru the air like a witch on a broom for Marshon Ford. He leads the Cardinals in receiving with 30 catches for 313 yards. Four other Louisville receivers have joined the party and have at least 200 receiving yards this season.

Don’t think for a minute that this NC State team will be left bobbing for apples. Their offense has also been as hot as a witch’s brew. Devin Leary will be playing the role of gunslinger in this one. He has thrown for 1,844 yards, and 17 touchdowns on 65.6% passing.

He’s got some pretty solid guys catching those bullets. Emeka Emezie leads the Wolfpack’s receiving corps with 37 grabs for 452 yards while Thayer Thomas and Devin Carter each have 300+ receiving yards and another three NC State receivers have at least 100 receiving yards this season. They spread the ball around all over the field like a giant spider’s web.

The Treats… This Louisville defense started the season in quicksand. But has been a hoot to watch in the last few games. The Cardinals added to their interception total by picking off two more passes against BC to give them nine picks on the year.

The defense tallied three more sacks in Saturday’s win, upping its season total to 21 through seven games matching all of last season, and have at least three sacks in three of the last four games.

Trey Franklin picked off his second pass of the season and is just another guy on this defense along with C.J. Avery (46 tackles), Yasir Abdullah (6 sacks), and Kei’Trel Clark (3 interceptions) stepping up this season.

The Tricks…

For the second-straight game, the Cardinals’ offensive line failed to yield a sack, the first time not allowing a sack in back-to-back games since 2008. Leading to a season-high 331 yards on the ground.

Trevion Cooley, who recorded his first career 100-yard rushing game last week averaging 8.6 yards per carry adds a nice little touch to the backfield. Establishing a solid rush attack and being able to sustain drives gives the guys on the other side of the ball a chance to be better.

Louisville has moved into the top 25 nationally in total offense, averaging 452.0 yards per game. The Cards have totaled more than 500 yards of offense in three of the last four contests. If the story stopped here you’d think this team was rolling and fans were going into today’s game pretty confident about the outcome. But it doesn’t…

The troubLsss… has been on the other side of the ball. Louisville has given up 34 or more points in three of their last four, and the result is the Cardinals going 2-2 in that stretch. In the last quarter of football, this Louisville defense played they gave up 21 points.

Today is where the rubber meets the road for this Louisville Football team and the defense. Defensive coordinator Bryan Brown promised a much tougher brand of defense. At times you can see the light come on for his group. They have made some big plays.

Through the first six games of the season, the cardinals have surpassed their 2020 total of interceptions. The defense picked off two passes versus Virginia to give them seven interceptions on the season. And the big pick to beat UCF.

There is talent on the Louisville defense with young guys stepping up each week. I don’t think players are the issue. I think it’s about Coach Brown getting all of these guys in the right situation to win and finish ballgames. Maybe the 3 man rush, prevent defense should take a back seat.

Linebacker C.J. Avery is attempting to become the fifth player to lead the team in tackles, Linebacker Yasir Abdullah ranks 18th in the country and third in the ACC with 0.8 sacks per game, breakout freshman Ashton Gillotte is second with 3.0 sacks, Kei’Trel Clark leads the team in interceptions with three, and Jack Fagot leads the team in tackles with 42 after recording nine in the loss to Virginia.

Playmakers… Playmakers… Playmakers… too many for the Louisville Defense to be giving away games and that’s what they did two weeks ago. The defensive unit and staff will have all eyes on them today.

They’ve had an extra week to get ready for a Boston College team that hasn’t been an offensive juggernaut this season. They couldn’t do anything after halftime against NC State in their last time out. The Eagles ultimately collected just 291 total yards with 4.2 yards per play and 17 first downs.

Remember when our Cardinals beat Wake Forest to win the program’s first Orange Bowl?

Remember Coach Satt’s win over Wake Forest during his first season? I’m hoping history repeats itself today as the Cardinals travel to Winston-Salem to play the 4-0 Deamon Deacons. They are 2-0 in the ACC after beating Virginia last week.

Wake has had a solid start and been led by a defense ranked 5th in the country in turnovers gained with 11. The Demon Deacon defense also sees themselves inside of the top-25 in several other categories: Scoring D (9th, 14.2 PPG), Redzone D (5th, .545), TFL/G (7th, 8.5), Turnover Margin (4th, +1.75 per game).

They also have a pretty good QB. Dating back to last season, Sam Hartman has now thrown at least one touchdown pass in eight straight games. Over that stretch he has 18 touchdown passes to seven different receivers. He hung 270 yards and three touchdowns on Virginia last week.

Oh, and did I mention their kicker? Nick Sciba is on his way to becoming the most accurate kicker in NCAA history. During his time at Wake Forest, he is 64-of-71 (.901), the best mark for any kicker in NCAA and ACC history (min. 50 att).

Wake did show some chink in the armor giving up 506 total yards last week against Virginia including 407 through the air and 31 first downs. I think the Cardinals and Malik Cummingham could find similar success on Saturday. But we do have to mention the big red elephant in the room.

After a high octane first half against FSU, the Cardinals went silent in the second half last weekend, finishing on 395 total yards, 4.9 yards per play, and 21 first downs. If the Cardinals can’t get it going on the scoreboard early in this game it could be rough. I’m hoping that Coach Satt just took his foot off the gas last week and that we are going to see a lot of scoring from the Cards in this one throughout.

Cunningham is the leading rusher with 263 yards on the season which is good for 5th in the ACC. He also ranks 7th in the conference with 998 passing yards. He’s starting to spread the ball around thru the air. Louisville had a variety of receivers make contributions last game with Tyler Harrell leading the way with two catches for 61 yards. Meanwhile, team-leading receiver, Marshon Ford hauled in a team-high six catches for 52 yards.

The Louisville defense has stepped it up big time with guys like LB Jack Fagot who made a career-high 10 tackles last week. He now has 25 total tackles on the year and is currently the team leader. His 25 tackles have him ranked 24th in the ACC. The Cardinal defense is right in the thick of things ranking seventh in the ACC (18.5 points). They’ll have to come up big in this one against the very efficient Wake offense.

The game between these teams back in 2019 was the 2nd highest-scoring game in the history of the ACC. I don’t think we can win a shootout here. Just don’t think a high-scoring game gets it done for either side. This game is a tale of two defenses. What side breaks first and breaks the most. I like our defense. They’ve had to stand tough the last few weeks and came thru big and I believe they will today.

Should be a good game. Hope it’s another one of those “remember when”… With a win.

Don’t listen to all of the pundits who say Florida State is a wash… Folks, it’s Florida State and I don’t care what their record is or how they’ve looked until today. I will never buy into a narrative that there is an easy win in Tallahassee. It won’t be easy on our Cards today.

This could be an exciting game between two teams that are offense first and we could see a lot of points put up between the two. Speed and more speed will be on full display when both offensive units step on the field. FSU coach Mike Norvell and Nick Saban are the only two FBS coaches to score at least 500 points every season from 2016-19. Despite being 0-3 Norvell has the weapons.

FSU running back Jashaun Corbin has the longest run play in the country this season with his 89-yard trot against the Irish. He ranks 13th nationally with 7.57 yards per carrying. QB Mckenzie Milton has been the starter the past two games for FSU. He ranks 5th nationally among active players with 8,983 passing yards and 10,081 yards of total offense. He ranks 4th with 280 yards of total offense per game. Oh yeah and QB Jordan Travis. Remember him? He leads the team with 11 rushing touchdowns this season. They also have a nice TE in Camren Mcdonald. He leads the team with 6 catches.

They also have plenty of talent on D. They return their top 4 tacklers from 2020 led by linebackers Amari Gainer, Emmett Rice, and Stephen Dix. Georgie transfer Jermaine Johnson ranks #1 in the country with 7 tackles for loss and 5 sacks. He is a monster on that defensive line. No defensive player in the ACC since 2011 has been a single-game stat stuffer like this fella. The Louisville O Line will face one of their biggest challenges of the season today.

FSU had six offensive plays of at least 20+ yards in that opener against the Irish. I think we could end up seeing a game like this today. From both teams. Louisville has the offensive talent to put points up in a hurry and we can see it with the ‘Noles as well.

Our Cards got them a big win last Friday night. One they almost had to win to keep things moving in the right direction. They’ll need to prove something again today. Coach Satt’s teams have stunk it up 2-8 and losing their last 6 on the road. And the Cards are just 2-10 in Tallahassee.

The Seminoles find themselves in a similar position being 0-3. They have something to prove to their rabid fan base. You can bet they will be ready to play. I think this one could turn out to be one of those games that the last team who scores wins.

Not going to make any predictions but I like what I saw out of the Cards last Friday. They rushed for a season-high 191 yards, averaging 5.2 yards a carry with 6 rushes of 10 or more on the then #2 rush defense in the country. Most importantly they were keeping drives alive averaging 9.3 yards on the money down. This offense seems to be coming to life. And the D didn’t look too shabby either with guys like Alderman stepping up.

Our program isn’t rolling but there has been some faith restored. Coach Satt has restored a very good culture at Louisville. A program left lifeless after having the head coach quit on us midseason. We had players walking off the field quitting during the last game that year. So yeah we’ve come a long way. This is just a team struggling to find its identity.

I think a win tonight would go a long way in helping them find some of that and get some good things going. We have talent, athleticism, and speed on both sides of the ball. It just comes down to putting it all together. I think this staff has had to spend so much time working on the culture and off-field stuff they’ve had to overcome especially with covid that they haven’t figured that out yet.

Time waits on nobody. I get the feeling that time is running out for Coach Satt. I know that’s crazy to say in just his third season here but a lot of our fans start getting anxious. When you’ve lived thru Kragthorpe. And while it was a win you just couldn’t help but feel those vibes during the EKU game.

I like Coach Satt and this team. Drove to Atlanta to watch them open the season because I believed in the team they were putting on the field. I still believe… I think a lot of our fans do. Cardinal fans still have hope for this team and program. Can’t let UCF take that back to Orlando with them tonight. A loss tonight could send things in the wrong direction. IMO… Big game! Go Cards!

Our Cardinals have lost four of their last six road games. Tonight the Cardinals will be in Atlanta to face Georgia Tech looking for their first road win of the season to get back to a .500 record. They will also be looking for their first conference win of the young season. I started the season talking about Louisville’s three-headed monster. Malik Cunningham is completing 59.3 percent of his passes for 757 yards, seven touchdowns, and has two or more touchdown passes in six of his last eight games. Tutu Atwell has racked up 230 yards and three touchdowns while Javian Hawkins leads the team on the ground with 313 yards and three touchdowns.

These guys have tried to live up to their end of the hype and the Louisville offense has scored points this season against some pretty good defensive units. Ranking 43rd nationally in scoring offense and 43rd nationally in total offense. The supporting cast has also done their part with Dez Fitzpatrick catching bombs for over 200 yards while Braden Smith has six receptions. All this behind an offensive line that is still figuring it out at this point in the season. That frontline has been this football program Achilles heel for several years now. It’s also been a point of emphasis for this coaching staff so I know it will get better.

With all that being said the offensive unit needs to take better care of the football. Ranked 68th in turnovers lost and turnover margin Louisville has give it up 8 times in three games this season. While only forcing 3 turnovers of their own. They have been particularly bad coughing it up on the road. These guys have all the speed and talent in the world but that does them no good when they keep shooting themselves in the foot week after week. We’ll see if they can hold on to the ball better tonight.

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets also need a victory here to get back to a .500 record. The Yellow Jackets have lost six of their last seven home games. The Yellow Jackets ground game is averaging 221 yards per contest, and their QB Jeff Sims leads the way with 187 yards and two touchdowns. He is a crafty QB and will have this Louisville defense on its toes all night.

An area of concern early on for Louisville is the defensive side of the ball. Defensively, Louisville is allowing 30.3 points and 369.7 yards per game. They are ranked 26th nationally (with teams not playing) giving up almost 6 yards a play this season and ten touchdowns. Some guys are flying around on the field for Coach Brown’s unit. Dorian Etheridge leads the way with 22 tackles, Monty Montgomery has two sacks and C.J. Avery has one interception. There just aren’t enough guys to have flying around. This is another area that this staff is focused on. I’m cautiously optimistic. Hope this side of the ball can gain some confidence tonight against a Georgia Tech team with their turnover struggles this season. Georgia Tech has turned the ball over 12 times in three games, which is the second-most in all of college football.