Final Thoughts and Observations on Louisville vs. Kentucky

The Cardinals could only muster 145 passing yards and produced three turnovers in their regular season final against the Wildcats.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Taking on in-state rival Kentucky for the annual season-ending Governor's Cup showdown, the Louisville football program was unable to buck the recent trend in the series between the two, falling 26-13 last Saturday at Kroger Field.

Before we close the book on the game and transition to the Cardinals' upcoming to-be-determined bowl matchup, I wanted to provide some closing thoughts and observations from the game:

• First of all, let's get right to the point and call this game what it was: a squandered opportunity. These two teams had been trending in the opposite directions for well over a month heading into this game, to the point where Louisville's on-field product looked better than Kentucky's did. This was head coach Scott Satterfield's best chance to take down the Wildcats since he arrived at Louisville, even with the various depth and injury issues they had up to that point. During the actual game, Louisville still had more than puncher's chance heading into halftime after as abysmal start to the game. Then the half started immediately with a sack, and that momentum they built in the end of the first half was snuffed out. The opportunity for a Satterfield's much-needed win over Kentucky was *right there,* and Louisville just simply fell short. This wasn't just an overwhelming mismatch in the trenches like it was last year, although this area for both sides of the line of scrimmage did not perform nearly as well as expected (I'll get into that later). Kentucky was simply more focused, more locked in, and executed to a higher degree. That falls on players to a degree, but mostly on coaches. Louisville should have won this game. Instead, they wasted a lot of goodwill with the fanbase that had been built up over the last month.
• There's no sugar-coating what I'm about to say. The passing game against Kentucky was absolutely abysmal. Both Brock Domann and Malik Cunningham had awful, awful turnovers on their own side of the field that directly led to Kentucky points. They were responsible for all three turnovers, and combined for just 145 yards on the day. However, the bigger question resides in the decision to start Domann. If Cunningham was healthy enough to play at all, why not start him to begin with? Additionally, when it was clear after the first two drives that Domann did not have it that day, why wasn't Cunningham inserted earlier? I get that he didn't receive that many practice reps that week, but in my opinion, if Cunningham was healthy enough to play, he was healthy enough to start. Then again, even though both were each responsible for a touchdown, the bad out-weighed the good. There were some red flags in the NC State game that Domann was having trouble finding receivers who were wide open, and that trend came back in a big way against Kentucky. He simply couldn't find anyone in the first quarter, and also could not get the ball out fast enough despite somewhat solid pass protection. His fumble that put UK inside the red zone was just bad football. Then there's Cunningham. At this point, we know his pros and cons. Pro? His super impressive rushing touchdown to end the first half. Con? His absolutely mind-blowing decision to throw it into triple coverage for an easy Kentucky pick. Yes, Louisville had had issues with the receiving corps and their ability to get open all season long, and the play-calling certainly had its highs and lows in this game, but this fell more so on the shoulders of the quarterbacks and their performances.
• What's frustrating is that this wasted another fantastic performance from Jawhar Jordan. No Tiyon Evans? No Trevion Cooley? No Jalen Mitchell? No problem. He ended up rushing for the same amount of yardage that Domann and Cunningham combined to pass for. Part of that was because the O-line actually did a solid job in run blocking, especially on the early stretch runs, but Jordan did a great job of navigating the trenches. Maurice Turner had a few solid runs as well.
• It's hard to really analyze what the wide receivers did in this game considering how the quarterbacks played in this game. I will say that they, as well as the rest of the offense and team, didn't quit in the fourth quarter when it was abundantly clear that Kentucky would be winning. For as bad as he played in the first quarter, Domann did have a nice pass to Tyler Hudson in the fourth, which resulted in an even better catch for a touchdown. Like I've said for weeks, it would have been nice to see Ahmari Huggins-Bruce more involved in the passing game, although Satterfield has alluded a couple times in recent weeks that AHB isn't fully healthy.
• Unrelated but somewhat related note: This passing offense would have been so much better if Tyler Harrell hadn't transferred, if Dee Wiggins hadn't gotten hurt early and if Devaughn Mortimer hadn't been an idiot. Hell, even just having one of those guys available would have been a boost.
• Now onto the defense. Before I start criticizing, I first have to offer praise. This side of the ball was the reason Kentucky didn't obliterate Louisville. They were bend but not break for most of the afternoon, forcing the Cats to have to settle for field goals on four of their six scoring drives. Had all six scoring drives been touchdowns, the final score would have been 42-13. Additionally, had Kentucky's kicker not inexplicably turned into Justin Tucker, this game could have eventually turned in Louisville favor even with the passing game handcuffing them. 
• That being said, the defense wasn't perfect Heading into this matchup, this looked like the biggest mismatch in the entire game. Louisville's front seven had been living in the backfield all season long, and Kentucky's offensive line might as well have been matadors trying to avoid the bull. Instead, they didn't seem that disruptive at all. Players struggled at times to get off blocks, however the scheme itself produced by Bryan Brown was not conducive to much success. Kentucky's game plan was to run the rock to the weakside away from Yasir Abdullah and YaYa Diaby. Not only did it work, but it didn't seem like the defensive staff ever adjusted, and this allowed Chris Rodriguez to have sustained success and wear the defense down. By the end of the game, Kentucky had double the sacks that Louisville did!
• Of course, this wasn't just an issue with the defensive gameplan. The tackling and coverage in this game was not great at time. One week removed from missing just three tackles against NC State, Louisville 14 against Kentucky. The amount of missed tackles and blow coverages resulted in the Wildcats tallying 11 chunk plays (15+ yard pass, 10+ yard run), including the tone-setting 70-yard catch and run from Josh Kattus. It was disappointing to see the tackling and big play issue, which seemed to be behind them, reappear in the one of the biggest games of the year.
• While there were some early scuffles in this game, I don't think that played a role in Louisville not being able to execute and stay on schedule like it did in last year's game. So, there's that.
• I hate that I have to bring this up again, but it bears repeating. Once again, it was obvious that this game meant a whole lot more to Mark Stoops and Kentucky than it did Scott Satterfield and Louisville. I don't mean that to say that Satterfield still doesn't "understand" the rivalry, because I don't think that's the case anymore. But you can tell that the Kentucky players got up for this game more so than Louisville's did. I really thought that this would not be the case this year, and I'm not sure what has to happen in order for this to improve.
• I'll close with this thought: Given the amount of improvement that Louisville showed in the back half of the season, I won't go as far to say that dropping this game means that 2022 was "unsuccessful." However, like I mentioned earlier, this was the best chance Satterfield has had to beat Kentucky. With how Louisville looked after the Boston College game, and how they have recruited in the 2023 cycle, winning this game was the last major box he had to check in order to have the overwhelming majority of fans squarely in his corner. Yet they couldn't get it done. Unlike this time last season, falling to Kentucky doesn't (shouldn't) fuel a bunch of rumors regarding his job status, but it certainly throws a wrench into the details surrounding a possible extension. He needs to win the bowl game in a bad sort of way.

(Photo of Jawhar Jordan: Jordan Prather - USA TODAY Sports)

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