Self-Inflicted Wounds Continuing to Plague Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Louisville had plenty of opportunities to take down Florida State this past Friday. The offense took a collective step forward from their subpar outing against UCF the week before, putting up nearly 500 yards of offense in the process. On the other side of the line of scrimmage, the defense also held the Seminoles mostly in check during the second and third quarters of the game.

For a large part of the game, Louisville seemed to be the one in control, and were mere moments from capitalizing on shifting momentum. They could have very easily pulled away from FSU at any given moment. Instead, the Cardinals found themselves on the wrong end of a 35-31 defeat in their home opener.

It's not hard to understand why Louisville lost, despite having multiple opportunities to seize the game. Like what led to their blowout season-opening loss at Syracuse, and what nearly cost them a win at UCF, the Cardinals couldn't stop shooting themselves in the foot.

"I felt we had control of that game, and you go back and watch the film and we had very good control of the game. ... I think our kids played hard the whole game. They didn't lay down, just continued to play, just too many mistakes," head coach Scott Satterfield said. "Offensively, turnovers were the big thing for us. In the red zone there, at least come away with three points. Then we fumbled there around midfield trying to drive and then defensively, it’s just the big plays. The big plays is really what killed us."

The biggest mistake that Louisville continues to make are the abundance of penalties they commit. After being flagged for a whopping 12 penalties at UCF, they committed 11 more against the Seminoles. This included a crucial 3rd and 14 offsides call in the third quarter that extended an FSU drive and allowed the Noles to score a touchdown, and a false start on 4th and 1 later in the quarter. Currently, Louisville ranks 125th out of 131 FBS teams with 30 committed penalties.

What really has drawn the ire of Satterfield and the rest of the staff were the amount of pre-snap penalties Louisville committed against Florida State. Despite being at home, they committed four false starts and one offsides. Satterfield says he can, to an extent, live with post-snap penalties as that is usually a result of playing hard. But pre-snap penalties are completely unacceptable.

"To me, the false starts – we can’t have that, he said. "We are controlling when we snap the ball so we should know when to jump off or not jump off. It is the pre-snap penalties that really bother me more than anything. The post-snap penalties, when you are playing hard you are going to have some penalties.

"There is not any team that goes through that doesn’t get any penalties. It’s the pre-snap penalties that really effect you. Being offsides, false starts, those types of things. We have to get better at that."

Penalties were far from the only self-inflicted wounds that Louisville caused. Friday night was another instance where the Cardinals couldn't seem to take care of the ball, turning it over three times. The first was a fumble in the red zone by Malik Cunningham that came on a botched read option handoff, the second was a fumble by Jawhar Jordan around midfield, and the third was an interception by Cunningham in the final minute that sealed the game.

Turnovers have been just as indicative of the final end game result as penalties have for Louisville. In their win at UCF, Louisville turned the ball over just once. But against Syracuse and FSU, the Cardinals turned it over three times each. While Florida State couldn't capitalize on any of the turnovers, it was still three scoring opportunities for Louisville that were cut short.

"You can’t do that," Satterfield said. "You can’t do that and then win. Teams are too good, you have to take care of the football, end every drive in a kick whether it be a punt or a field goal or an extra point, and that gives you a much better chance to win. As I look back on the Florida State game, they didn’t turn any of those turnovers into points, but it took points away from us, and obviously that was huge."

Of course, the defense isn't absolved from self-inflicted wounds, either, On top of the various penalties they committed, such as three fourth quarter penalties that all resulted in automatic first downs, missed tackles that reappeared after first showing up against Syracuse, and giving up big plays were a horrendous issue.

To be fair, the defense did allow only one score in FSU's seven drives between the second and third quarters. But other than that, it was a complete and total mess. Louisville missed 12 tackles against the Seminoles, with a whopping six of them being attributed to safety Kenderick Duncan. Not only that, but the Cardinals allowed 10 plays that went more than 20 yards down field, including four that went 35 yards or more.

Despite the blatant lack of execution down the stretch, defensive coordinator Bryan Brown is still optimistic. When going back and looking at the film, the scheme - more often than nit - had guys in the right spot, they just didn't make the plays when needed to.

"We were there," he said. "I mean, everybody's seen the film. Our guys are there, and we just missed some tackles. I attribute that to just - we just got to pull our trigger. We're right there. Just go ahead and pull your trigger.

"Game got a little tight, and so that's why I told them, "you guys just got to cut loose." Cut loose and play," he continued. "Don't worry about mistakes, just play fast. When you play fast, you kind of clean up some of the mistakes when you play faster you pull your trigger."

Regardless of the reason that mistake were made, on either side of the ball, it's still very much an issue that Louisville has posted three straight games where they can't seem to get out of their own way no matter which unit is on the field. Even special teams had a pair of holding penalties against Florida State.

If the Cardinals are to generate any sort of momentum moving forward, especially considering that the second half of their schedule currently features five teams ranked in the top 25, they will have to clean up these self-inflicted wounds in a hurry.

In the meantime, the coaches are in the process of attempting to correct some of the on-field discipline issues that Louisville currently has. On top of multiple discussions they have as a staff, these talks have also carried over to the players, as well as activities to try and help deter mistakes such as penalties moving forward.

"We’re going to continue to do things," Satterfield said. "We've run after practice for anything that we do in practice, penalty wise. We ran Sunday for the penalties we had in the game. We talk about it, being disciplined, and being focused, exactly what's going on. ... We’ll continue to harp on it and there will continue to be penalties for our guys. There will be running and some extra activities they’re going to have to do whenever that happens. And that's all you can, is try to deter those actions."

Louisville will get their first opportunity to get back on track when they host USF this weekend at Cardinal Stadium. Kickoff between the Cardinals and the Bulls is set for Saturday, Sept. 24 at 12:00 p.m. EST.

(Photo of Scott Satterfield, Zebras: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)

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