Louisville football: 3 takeaways from exciting win over Georgia Tech

3. Even in a win, Louisville football made too many mistakes

Jeff Brohm talked about the Cardinals’ mental mistakes during his interview between the first and second quarters. Immediately after that, a Louisville defensive lineman was late onto the field, and then a Haynes King swing pass to Jamal Haynes went for 46 yards all the way down to the Louisville 12-yard line. The Yellow Jackets found the end zone just a few plays later.

There were multiple drops from Cardinal receivers and multiple misses from Jack Plummer. An especially egregious one came with 2:08 left in the first half. Georgia Tech had just gone up 21-13, and the momentum sat entirely with Brent Key’s team. On 3rd-and-8, Plummer threw a pass that was intended for Jimmy Calloway, but instead found the turf a couple yards in front of the receiver.

On the following drive, King found Chase Lane on a tunnel screen for a 48-yard touchdown pass, putting the Yellow Jackets up 28-13 heading into halftime. Even worse, it could have been 31-13 after a Plummer interception set up Georgia Tech with a chance to kick a 54-yarder as the clock expired on the second half.

Early in the third, Louisville had a chance to regain the momentum, finding themselves in a goal-to-go situation. On first down, tailback Isaac Guerendo ran into the back of his right guard. On second down, Plummer missed an open Nate Kurisky in the end zone. The third down play call was either a designed run for Plummer or an ill-advised scramble that got nowhere. The Cardinals had to settle for a field goal.

All night long, sequences like that made this game so much harder than it needed to be for Louisville. Brohm’s squad fields the more talented roster, according to recruiting rankings, but they didn’t look the part for large chunks of time on Friday night.