N.C. State Defeats Louisville, 31-28
· Yahoo Sports
One might say, “Louisville fumbled away their season today.”
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And they’d be absolutely correct.
Whatever dreams and hopes you had for this team over the long offseason that you came into September with should officially be gone, if they weren’t already after last week.
With three losses already before the midpoint of the season, Brohm and Co. are staring down a rough road ahead as there is virtually no avenue left to turn this season into any sort of remarkable success.
What lies ahead for Brohm and his program is not only difficult, but it’s also bound to make things a lot more uncomfortable. Even if they’re able to miraculously win 8-9 games this year, as he’s done in his first 3 seasons, it will only frustrate fans even more with what could have been.
This team on paper was by all acountings a very talented team, and still appears to be so. What has happened with the coaching staff and their ability to get this team into form capable of winning double-digit games, let alone beating mid-tier conference opponents, has been a massive let down.
It’s malpractice at best.
Tonight’s game featured some of the worst defensive coaching you’ll ever see. N.C. State torched the defensive secondary over and over today, with at least 6 plays of 20+ yards and at one point had converted 6 of 7 third-downs.
The defense was a massive liability all night, as they’ve been all season, and that performance falls solely on the coaching staff. It’s evident that Brohm should have never promoted from within after English left, and he should have taken advantage of the opportunity to bring a real talent at DC instead of doing what he always tends to do, and that’s make the comfortable choice.
It’s a decision that has derailed what was a very exciting and aspirational season. Whatever dreams were left died tonight, and now it’s time for Brohm to salvage whatever is left for this team and make sure his seat isn’t hot going into 2027.
That may seem unfair, but with this team hasn’t appeared to grow any from the first game of the season, with all of its warts, is a major cause for concern. And there is still an awful lot of football to be played. That could either be good news or bad news depending on how you look at it.
Good news is there’s still chances to make something of this season. What that is, I have no clue. But *something* is still out there. Bad news is that whatever *something* is, isn’t going to appease the diehards. And the casual fans/basketball-first fans have already checked out. And because of the lack of any sort of improvement across the board, there’s little reason to have any belief that this season will have some sort of redemption story.
It sucks for a lot of reasons, and it sucked today.
UofL got in hole early, but it was great to see them battle back against all odds and their self-inflicting wounds to give themselves a chance to win. It could have been a cathartic win and something to build on, but instead it was another dark chapter for Jeff Brohm’s 4th season at the helm.
Seemingly every time UofL seized momentum in this game, they gave it right back. When UofL got a stop early in the second half down 20-14, Lincoln Keinholz had his pass stripped from his wind up just two plays later. NCSU stretched their lead to 28-14. After rallying against all odds, and with a boneheaded interception thrown by Bailey when the Wolfpack were about to put the game away for good, UofL got the ball back with the game tied. 3 plays later Keyjuan Brown broke loose for what would be a 44 yard gain and given the Cardinals the ball deep in N.C. State territory with the chance to seize momentum and the game, only for Keyjuan to fumble the ball for the second time this afternoon.
Then N.C. State settled for a field goal to retake the lead 31-28, but UofL got the ball back with plenty of time and all of their timeouts. Instead of marching down the field as they had all afternoon, they went a quick 3-and-out, with some of the worst blocking you’ll ever see, and that was the last time they got the ball as the defense was hapless trying to get the offense the ball back.
That’s the short version. There is so much to unpack and discuss about this game and this team over the coming days and weeks. And there’s a laundry list of concerns to address that will take multiple posts on this site to get through. Things like what the hell is the return team doing bringing the ball out of the end zone over and over, the 0-line disappearing again, etc. There’s just so much to unpack.
But for now I just want to focus on wallowing and whining about how this team with a warrior at QB, who played against the odds and pain today, and a roster loaded with talented (and expensive) players, has completely failed up to this point of the season.
I desperately hope that there’s something to be made of this season, but the loss today was a killer. And Florida State isn’t going to make things easy if we want to start the turn around next week.