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With FSU game on tap, Louisville defense rises to occasion in win at UCF

On3 imageby: Corey Clark09/10/22Corey_Clark
malik cunningham
Louisville QB Malik Cunningham (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)

In their first game of the season, the Louisville Cardinals looked listless in a 31-7 loss at Syracuse.

On Friday night, on short rest, they looked like a much different team as they pulled off a 20-14 upset of UCF in Orlando. And the story of the night was the Louisville defense.

Even without its most talented defensive lineman, Arizona State transfer Jermayne Lole, who is sidelined by a season-ending injury, the Cardinals completely suffocated the UCF offense for the final three quarters.

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Here’s what the Louisville defense did to the Knights after allowing two touchdowns in the first three drives of the game: Punt, missed field goal, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, interception and turnover on downs.

That’s 10 straight possessions of nothing for the UCF offense.

If you’re looking to project what that means for this upcoming Friday night game between the Cardinals and the Florida State Seminoles, it’s fair to think the Louisville defense isn’t nearly as bad as it looked in the opener against Syracuse. Then again, it was facing a UCF team that really, really, really struggles at quarterback.

John Rhys Plumlee is playing the position for the first time in three years after playing mostly wide receiver at Ole Miss. He’s an extremely talented athlete, but it became obvious after those first two touchdowns that the Louisville’s defense was going to do anything and everything to make him try to beat it through the air.

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The Cardinals stacked eight guys at the line of scrimmage for the majority of the second half, and they brought six rushers on just about every play — to stop the run and dare the Knights to take advantage through the air.

UCF could not.

Plumlee finished 16-of-34 for 131 yards, no touchdowns and an interception. The pick was recorded by FSU transfer Jarvis Brownlee on a bizarre fourth-down play late in the game, where Brownlee had the ball slip through his hands, right into the receiver’s hands, who then dropped it back into Brownlee’s chest in the back of the end zone.

Central Florida had one more chance after that, down by six in the final minutes, but a Plumlee fourth-down pass to his receiver (who was open) was errant, and the Cardinals celebrated the non-conference win.

While the Louisville defense seemed to improve by leaps and bounds from Week 1 to Week 2, the same can’t really be said for the Cardinals’ offense.

Quarterback Malik Cunningham was terrific as a runner in Orlando. He had 121 yards, including a 43-yard touchdown, on 17 carries. But the passing game still isn’t clicking. He was just 14-of-29 for 201 yards with 0 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.

After the game, head coach Scott Satterfield said the coaches decided they needed Cunningham to run more in this one. And he did, leading all rushers with his 121 yards.

But the rest of the team, outside of Cunningham, had 109 yards on 26 carries. And the receivers were only able to make a handful of big gains all night.

Yes, the Louisville offense looked better Friday than it did against Syracuse, but it is still a big question mark heading into the showdown with the Seminoles.

Through three games, the Cardinals have managed three total touchdowns.

Up next is a Florida State team trying to go 3-0 for the first time since 2015. Third-year FSU head coach Mike Norvell is looking for his first win against the Cardinals; Louisville rolled to a 48-16 rout in 2020 and held on for a 31-23 win last season.

Talk about this story with other die-hard FSU football fans on the Tribal Council.

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