Louisville Football: Wake Forest routs Cardinals in Week 9
Louisville football went from contender to also-ran in the matter of weeks. Here are three things we learned from their crushing loss at Wake Forest in Week 9.
What happened to the Cardinals? Florida State has had their own issues this season and Clemson is no longer perfect either. Why then, with the ACC Atlantic up for grabs, do the Cardinals find themselves with the second-worst record in the division?
Louisville’s season has been filled with a litany of mistakes and miscues. For the most part however, the Cardinals were always able to find enough offense to keep themselves in games. Lamar Jackson is this team and outside of him it isn’t pretty. That was confirmed, in the worst way, on Saturday against Wake Forest.
Jackson had one of the more mundane games he’s had all season. As a result the Cardinals fell to a mediocre Wake Forest squad that had lost three straight ACC games. The Cardinals’ hero completed 27-of-44 passes for 330 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He rushed for 159 yards on the ground and three scores. That included a 55-yard touchdown run and a 20-yard touchdown pass in garbage time.
The expression “defense wins championships” has become a clichéd feature of American sports culture. That rule is not an absolute, but the inverse is equally true: horrid defense loses you championships. Wake Forest entered Saturday averaging 22.8 points per game in ACC play. They scored 42 points against the Cardinals. Their 625 offensive yards were the second most in school history.
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At this point it’s more than evident that even the best player in college football can’t make up for 21 other position players. Louisville entered Week 9 with the worst scoring defense in the ACC, giving up 38.8 points per game. That’s going to increase after their 42-32 defeat at the hands of Wake Forest. As that number climbs, so does the frustrations of Cardinal fans. Bobby Petrino is wasting one of the most exciting talents to every play quarterback in college football.