Final Thoughts and Observations on Louisville vs. Syracuse

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville football program's 2022 season did not get off on the right foot, getting blown out on the road to ACC rival Syracuse.

Before we close the book on the game and transition to the matchup at UCF, I wanted to provide some closing thoughts and observations from the game:

First of all, I can't think of a worse way to start the season. Following the end of last year, I didn't see any tangible way for Satterfield to generate any sort of buzz for this season. Lo and behold, not only was there a healthy amount of buzz and interest heading into this game, but even some pseudo-expectations for the season after Louisville seemingly addressed their various needs. It would have been one thing if they were competitive against Syracuse, only to lose a close one in either a shootout or a defensive slugfest. But to completely fall flat in almost every conceivable aspect of the game, after so much was done to improve their deficiencies from last season, is not only a massive disappointment, it could very well be the beginning of the end for this coaching staff if things don't get turned around quickly.
Let's talk about the offense first. I know that Satterfield is still Louisville's play-caller, but with Lance Taylor coming over as the offensive coordinator, I expected them to shed a lot of their negative tendencies and improve a little bit on those fronts. It's just one game, so I acknowledge that it's a small sample size, but it so far that doesn't look to be the case. There were too many run plays on clear passing down for my liking, they were only 5-for-11 on third downs, and their one trip to the red zone didn't end in points. I already didn't like the decision to go for it one fourth and goal, considering Louisville was only down by 10 just before halftime at that point and were in line to get the ball in the second half. But the play call, a read option, was particularly egregious to me. The only change in Louisville's overall offensive game plan that was immediately picked up on, was that - at least early on - they opted to run more so up the middle than to the edges.
A lot of Louisville's offensive woes in this game, surprisingly, was because of Malik Cunningham. All offseason, we heard that Cunningham had made significant strides as a pocket passer, and quite frankly, it almost seemed like he had regressed as a pocket passer. For most of the night, he keyed on Tyler Hudson way too often, and it didn't appear like he was going through his reads at all. Sure, Hudson did look the part with his eight receptions for 102 yards, but no other pass catcher had more than two receptions. Then he started forcing things in the second half, which resulted in three straight turnovers. His first interception wasn't that bad, it was just a tremendous play by Garrett Williams. But his second interception was a downright awful read. Plus, it seemed like he was way too hesitant to run. You don't want him running every single play, but his legs are too dangerous of a weapon to not utilize them.
A huge surprise was the offensive line's lack of efficiency. They might not have been completely awful, but for a unit that was billed as their offense's strength and maybe the best O-line in the ACC, they were below average in this game. Syracuse got way too much pressure on Cunningham considering their defensive line is a lot smaller than Louisville's offensive line, and the holes generated for the running backs were not as big as they should have been. The left side of the line was particularly bad, which was shocking considering Caleb Chandler is much better than that. Plus, Renato Brown could have killed that Cuse defender on his crack-back block.
The lone bright spots on the offense were the running backs and Hudson. Tiyon Evans is the reall deal and did a really good job even with the small holes, plus Jawhar Jordan is a lot more physical than initially thought. Hudson looks like a true WR1, but the other guys at wideout have to step up.
The defense... woof. I get that Syracuse was going to go with a different offensive attack than they have in the past two seasons, but that doesn't excuse some of the poor effort and broken fundamentals that I saw in that game. That was some of the worst tackling I have seen in quite some time. Most players were content with throwing shoulders, and there were very few attempts to actually wrap up and bring a man down. Not to mention that, unless the defender was right there to make the play, there wasn't a lot of noticeable effort to try and chase down defenders in the open field. Yes, Sean Tucker is a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate and Garrett Shrader is a big body runner that is hard to take down, but at least try.
Like on offense with Lance Taylor, Wesley McGriff was brought in as the co-defensive coordinator to try and help the defense get better in crucial situations. Also like Taylor, McGriff's fingerprints were not immediately noticeable. Defensive backs still played a little too far off the ball, and they allowed some terrible third down conversions - particularly to Shrader on the ground.
Up front, Louisville could not get any consistent pressure. Ashton Gillotte did notch 1.5 sacks, but he was really the only consistent factor. Like last year, YaYa Diaby was close, but just inches short of making a play. Much was made over fall camp about the nose tackle competition between Jermayne Lole and Dezmond Tell, but both guys were non-factors in this game.
The linebacking corps was also disappointing in this game. Yasir Abdullah has the ability to be a game-changer, but only had a pair of tackles. Both middle linebackers in Monty Montgomery and MoMo Sanogo has moments where they either whiffed on tackles or bit on fakes hard. While Ben Perry did have eight tackles to tie Montgomery for the most on the team, he didn't feel like a significant factor.
The secondary was even more disappointing. With the amount of impact transfers and returning veterans, I expected better of them. They played way too soft of coverage for most of the night, though it didn't help that they were schemed that way. Kei'Trel Clark played a lot at the CARD spot, which I'm not opposed to, but he was not the game changer he normally is. Jarvis Brownlee Jr. had some good moments and made his presence felt early on, but even he missed some tackles. Josh Minkins and Quincy Riley also did not have great games in coverage, either. I will say that I did not expect Shrader to sling the ball around like he did, considering he struggled to throw the ball even 15 yards down the field in last season's matchup, but the secondary had several moments where it seemed like they were completely unprepared.
The only other bright spot for the entire game, outside of Evans and Hudson, was special teams. Punter Mark Vassett averaged 45.7 yards on his three punts, one of which was a well-executed coffin corner that pinned Cuse inside the five, and Brock Travelstead was able to boot the ball far on kickoffs. At least there was that.
I'll close with this thought: This was a game in which Louisville could not afford to fall completely flat on their face like they have in past season-openers. Even if they lost, they at least needed to look competitive in one manner or another. Instead, they got ran off the field by the team picked to finish dead last in their division, and many fans are already calling this season a lost cause. Louisville cannot afford the same type of performance against UCF, who by all accounts, is a much better team than Syracuse. If they get ran off the field again, it's going to be hard to see many more wins left on the schedule.

(Photo of Malik Cunningham: Mark Konezny - USA TODAY Sports)

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