Louisville Football: 3 Takeaways from loss to North Carolina State

Louisville football found themselves in an outright slugfest on Thursday night with a talented NC State team. Here are three takeaways from the Cardinals’ loss.

College football fans didn’t have to wait until Saturday to see a matchup of elite teams this week. Thursday night’s game between No. 17 Louisville and No. 24 NC State set a high bar for the rest of Week 6 to live up to. In front of a raucous crowd in Raleigh, NC the Wolfpack defeated the Cardinals 39-25.

The win gives the Wolfpack (5-1) a perfect 3-0 record in ACC play. They join Clemson, Georgia Tech and Miami at the only schools still undefeated in conference play. You might want to read that one more time, slowly. The four undefeated teams in ACC play are Clemson (3-0), Georgia Tech (2-0), Miami (1-0) and NC State (3-0).

Louisville falls to 4-2 overall and 1-2 in ACC play. That’s not bad, but the loss more than likely marks the end of any hope the Cardinals had at a run at the College Football Playoff.

This game was hard-fought and within one score for most of the evening. With Lamar Jackson on the field the margin was never far enough to allow the Wolfpack to feel comfortable. Jackson did his part, but in the end it wasn’t enough to get the job done.

Here are the three biggest takeaways from the NC State’s win over Louisville in Week 6.