Just when it was seeming like it could be so literate of me to consider opening this GameCap with a paraphrase of Sam L. Clemons, a reference to reports of the Cards’ demise being premature; just when BVG’s sometimes tough sometimes not D made the biggest, arguably most important stop in years, one which could have and should have saved the ballgame; just when U of L didn’t exactly go manly man with a grind it out drive but was holding on to the ball with the clock ticking away to secure the victory; just when it seemed like the less than full but boisterous Cardinal Stadium crowd would be C-A-R-D-S-ing its way into a joyous BBQ and brewski-saturated Saturday night; just then, just then at probably this campaign’s pivotal instant, Bobby Petrino inexplicably has his Pete Carroll moment.

Not that Saturday afternoon’s egregious coaching miscalculation was a Super Bowl equivalent gaffe, but it probably blows the season for what is surely now a fragile U of L Cardinal dynamic.

With the clock ticking below two minutes until an unprecedented third ACC W in a row over the Florida State Seminoles, Louisville, up 24-21, had the ball 1st and 10 at Florida State’s 19. The visitors only had two of their allotted three timeouts left to delay what should have been the inevitable.

Bobby Petrino — What????? — called a pass play. Continue reading Louisville CardFile: Florida State →

In the run up to the season opener against Alabama, one of the nation’s football pundits — I forget both his name and the website — signaled an SOS to the L1C4 Nation.

Such is the nature of Nick Saban’s season opening smackdown success at neutral sites, and how it tends to decimate the vanquished beyond the final horn, the Cards needed to be careful that the Crimson Tide not only battered the Cardinals in the game — a given really — but that the loss wouldn’t continue to conquer U of L the rest of the way.

In the wake of two seriously underwhelming performances against Indiana State and Western Kentucky, exclamation pointed by Saturday’s disturbing and deplorable laydown against UVa, one has to wonder whether that pre-Tide warning wasn’t spot on.

So, that’s one conceivable explanation, if certainly no excuse, for U of L’s desultorily poor touchdown-free performance in Charlottesville.

Then there’s this more reasonable interpretation of the Cards’ horrible display Saturday. Continue reading Louisville CardFile: Virginia →

Among those who considered what the Louisville Cardinal offense might be like in the post-Lamar era, there was a significant contingent — myself included — who were sure there would be more balance, less reliance on one player more Petrino 1.0.

Attendant with that line of thinking was a belief that Bobby Petrino would be more comfortable with a traditional QB — heir apparent Puma Pass — whose inclination is to stay in the pocket and leave the rushing for the most part to the running backs.

While U of L was pummeled by Alabama in the opener, Pass, who but for fortune might have been the Roll Tide QB replaced by phenom Tua Tagovailoa, looked like the future for the Cards. He was eerily calm in the pocket despite unrelenting pressure from the Tide, completing 50% of his throws, and generally comporting himself admirably in his first start on national TV against what’s proving might be the scariest pigskin juggernaut in memory.

Fast forward. Here are the signal caller’s numbers of note from the Cardinals’ escape against the Hilltoppers. Ten completions in 18 attempts for 88 yards. A team leading 21 rushing attempts for 129 net yards.

Not Puma Pass. And not exactly LJ, but certainly reminiscent. Contrary to what we pundits might have believed, contrary to what Bobby Petrino was planning, things look just the same as they ever was on O.

Malik Cunningham, come on down and play. Continue reading Louisville CardFile: Western Kentucky →

At some point during the five hour forty three minute slushy slog that was Louisville’s drenched 31-7 victory over Indiana State at renovated Cardinal Stadium, it came to me.

It being how to distill all of the evening’s bizarro twists and turns into a single word.

Furshlugginer.

It is from the Mad Magazine of my youth. When the editors of that ‘zine, who used it often, were once asked by a reader to give a meaning, they replied, “It means the same as potrzebie.”

Just how furshlugginer was it? Continue reading Louisville CardFile: Indiana State →