'Critical Mistakes' Pile Up in Louisville's Loss to Clemson

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - You can make the argument that football is the ultimate definition of a team sport. You can have the perfect play call drawn up, or perfect execution from players on the field, and all it takes is one mistake from either a player or a coach to completely derail a play, drive or even an entire game.

On Friday night in their against Clemson, this was the case for the Louisville football program on multiple occasions. Time and time again, despite having several chances to either to come out on top with a win, the Cardinals could not get out of their own way, eventually falling 20-19 to Tigers at L&N Stadium.

“Disappointing loss," head coach Jeff Brohm said. "Losses hurt. They are supposed to. There were critical mistakes at the end. We have to put our head down and go to work and play better next week.”

The main things holding Louisville back were penalties. The Cardinals committed 10 by the end of the night, including an unfathomable seven flags on UofL in the fourth quarter alone. Three of these of these fourth quarter penalties played direct roles in derailing any chance of a comeback.

On their first play of the fourth quarter, Keyjuan Brown ran for a first down and then some while Louisville backed up on their own goal line, but a holding call on Nate Kurisky put them right back to where they were, eventually resulting in a three-and-out. Clemson would score the go-ahead touchdown on their next drive out.

Later in the period, Louisville was gifted an enormous opportunity. Following a muffed Clemson punt, they took over at the 23-yard line, trailing by one, with 2:29 to go. Instead, a false start on Rasheed Miller and an unsportsmanlike conduct - one of three by UofL - from Lance Robinson, knocked them to the very edge of field goal range.

"We’ve tried to clean up penalties," Brohm said. "Sometimes penalties happen, so we’ll keep working on trying to clean them up. The disappointing ones were the ones after the whistle, but those are the ones that we can’t… that’s just not smart.

"Our guys need to realize we have to be locked in the entire game. You have to be focused, have to do the small details. And if you don’t do that, if you can’t do that, we’re not going to win the game. That’s just how football works, especially against good competition. We did not do that tonight, and it’s disappointing. We still had our chances, still had our chances in the end and couldn’t finish it off.”

While penalties were the primary cause of death for Louisville int heir game against Clemson, special teams and game management from Brohm were underlying conditions.

Midway through the second quarter following Louisville's first touchdown on the night, the normally reliable Cooper Ranvier missed the extra point to still give Clemson a 10-9 lead. While he had also made a 51-yard field goal in the first quarter and a 39-yarder in the third, he was given the chance to boot a 50-yarder with 4:06 left, but missed wide left.

The ensuing Clemson drive was the one the resulted in the muffed punt, which was followed by the drive where two penalties put them on the edge of field goal range. But instead of Ranvier going out to try and redeem himself, Brohm instead inserted Nick Keller, who early one in the season was Louisville's long range specialist - but hadn't attempted a field goal since Sept. 27 at Pitt.

The 46-yard attempt from Keller sailed wide left, and never had a chance of connecting.

Brohm's decision to insert Keller was not the only questionable in-game decision. Louisville had a chance to steal a possession at the end of the first half, but clock mismanagement put a pin in that happening.

Then following their second (and final) touchdown of the game in the third quarter, Brohm opted for the PAT instead of trying to go for two to get the point lost from the shanked PAT back. Considering UofL lost by one, this decision wound up costing them dearly.

Because of the comedy of errors, the chance for a truly special season is now officially dead. Louisville was still alive in terms of maybe back-dooring their way into the ACC Championship Game, but now that is off the table. When the AP Poll comes out on Sunday, the Cardinals will certainly fall out of the rankings.

The most frustrating part is that this isn't even the first time we have seen this song and dance this season. In their two other losses, both at home and in overtime to Virginia and Cal, Louisville's inability to get out of their own way played a bigger factor that the other team simply making winning plays. If the Cardinals could simply do that, there's an alternate universe in which they're undefeated and have full control in the ACC title and College Football Playoff races.

"It just didn't all come together. If we play well, we feel confident that we can play against anybody, and if we don't play well, we are definitely understandable that anyone can beat us. That's the way football works in conference play. It's disappointing to lose when you had plenty of chances to win."

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