Blown Opportunities, Costly Mistakes Sink Louisville in Loss to Florida State

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It happened again.

Following an up-and-down start to the season, the Louisville football program had the perfect opportunity to show that they are a program trending in the right direction. With a quality opponent in Florida State coming to town, on Friday night in primetime, and in front of a raucous Cardinal Stadium crowd for their home opener, the table was set for the Cardinals.

They had the chance to show the college football world that they were not the team that got blown out by Syracuse in week one, despite multiple opportunities to prevent the blowout. They had the chance to show that they were capable of winning a game in which they didn't shoot themselves in the foot multiple times, like what happened in week two at UCF.

Instead, Louisville took the opportunity to get back on track, and treated like they had done so many times before in the Scott Satterfield era: they squandered it. Instead of seizing the moment and using it to make a statement, it resulted in a soul-crushing 35-31 loss to the Seminoles.

"It's very hurtful and disappointing to not be able to win this game," head coach Scott Satterfield said after the game. "We know Florida State is a good football team, but we were right there and went toe-to-toe with them and in control the whole game until late."

Louisville's showdown with Florida State began to unfold like their previous game at UCF did. Both offenses looked crisp out of the gates, while both defenses were struggling to adjust. QB Malik Cunningham looked sharp both through the air and on the ground, running backs Jawhar Jordan and Trevion Cooley were picking up the slack for Tiyon Evans and Jalen Mitchell - both of whom were out - and the offensive line was getting great push.

But by the time the first quarter was in the books, the Cardinals and Noles were knotted up at 14 a piece - and even led 14-7 after scoring 14 unanswered - because the defense seemingly had no answer for the arm of Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis.

Then like in the UCF game, Louisville's defense found a groove in the second quarter, only for the offense to start shooting themselves in the foot and blowing multiple opportunities to take a commanding lead over the Seminoles.

They blew a red zone opportunity thanks to a botched handoff between Cunningham and Cooley, Jordan fumbled around midfield later in the quarter, and two other drives went three-and-out. Out of their five offensive drives in the second quarter, only one resulted in points after Cooley was able to punch one in on the goal line.

While the offense was sputtering, the defense was busy holding the Seminoles in check. Rance Conner was in the right place at the right time for a tip-drill interception, linebacker Yasir Abdullah also snagged a pick just before halftime, and FSU's two other drives in the period ended in punts.

Not to mention that Florida State lost not one, but their top three players in the second quarter. Travis, defensive end Jared Verse and linebacker Tatum Bethune all had to exit the game during this period due to various injuries. Louisville was, once again, presented a golden opportunity to rally from an inconsistent second quarter and put the game to bed.

But instead, the pistol they used to shoot themselves in the foot turned into a shotgun. Two brutal penalties in the third quarter helped to halt any sort of momentum Louisville had. An offsides call on 3rd and 14 helped extend a drive for Florida State that helped tie the game at 21. A false start on 4th and 1 at midfield - by wide receiver Tyler Hudson no less - helped ensure that Louisville was not actually going to go for it and punt the ball away.

Even with that, Louisville did manage to finally come through in the early goings of the fourth quarter, thanks to a pair of amazing runs by Cunningham. Up 28-21 over the Noles, they had a chance to put to bed one of their biggest negative tendencies from last season: finishing in the fourth quarter.

They had managed to do so in spite of themselves against UCF the week before, but like a lot of other opportunities that had presented themselves, Louisville fumbled this one as well. Even with FSU's backup quarterback in Tate Rodemaker in the game, the Cardinals' defense had zero answer.

The Noles struck fast with a three-play, 75-yard scoring drive where wideout Johnny Wilson looked like the second coming of Calvin Johnson. Even after the Louisville offense was able to get a field goal to retake the lead, FSU struck again with a drive that featured more missed tackles, two penalties that extended the drive, and Wilson doing his best Megatron impression in the end zone.

But not only did the defense falter down the stretch, the offense did as well in the closing minutes. In fact, they had two opportunities in the final eight minutes to string together a drive down the field, and neither materialized.

The first one ended with a turnover-on-downs at midfield after Cunningham's pass to Tyler Hudson was thrown too far behind him. Even then, a missed field goal by the Noles handed Louisville one last chance in the final two minutes. However, this drive ended with an interception on a throw by Cunningham that almost looked like a throwaway pass.

"Just finish. It's what's on the back of our shirts, it's what we trained all summer for," middle linebacker MoMo Sanogo said. "We weren't feeling tired at least on the defensive side. I can't speak for everybody but I know that we weren't feeling tired or lackadaisical.

"We were playing, so it's just going out there and finishing and executing plays. We got to work on that in practice and attack and approach practice the right way every single day and go into every single game ready for blood."

By the end of the game, Louisville had amassed a number of game-changing mistakes and missed opportunities. 11 penalties for 81 yards. Three turnovers (two fumbles and an interception). Several blown tackles, especially late in the game. Yet another fourth quarter where they just could not finish.

Louisville had every opportunity to put Florida State to bed, and use the game as a springboard for not only the rest of the season, but perhaps even the rest of Scott Satterfield's tenure as head coach. Instead, they only came closer to cementing what is could end up being Satterfield's lasting legacy at Louisville: blown opportunities.

He's not quite Scott Frost in the art of dropping one-score games, but the stats are pretty alarming up to this point. Since the 2020 season, Satterfield's second year at the helm, the Cardinals are just 3-9 in one-score games. In fact, not only has Louisville has been tied or ahead in the fourth quarter in five of their last eight losses, but they have out-gained their opponent in 10 of their last 18 losses.

Friday night's game was a crucial one for Louisville. It was a chance for them to set the tone for the rest of the year, recover from an up-and-down start to the year, and perhaps even still attain the bare-minimum goal of getting to a bowl game.

Instead, the Cardinals produced a game that encapsulated every single thing that has ever gone wrong under Satterfield, who is now 19-21 in three-plus years. The seat that he sits on is only getting hotter, and it's getting closer and closer to the point of no return.

There is still time to right the ship, especially with USF and Boston College coming up on the schedule, but is it merely delaying the inevitable? Especially with how loaded the second half of the schedule is? Time will tell.

But since we are now in year four of the Satterfield era, time isn't exactly on his side to start putting out the fires. Maybe Louisville is able to pull off a minor miracle and turn things around down the stretch. Maybe the incoming recruiting class saves Satterfield's bacon.

But maybe Friday night was the point of no return, and we just don't know it yet.

(Photo via Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)

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