Louisville defeats Georgia Tech, 31-19

Survive and Advance

Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

HOTTEST PLACE, EARTH — The Louisville Cardinals overcame a tremendous effort from Georgia Tech and the ACC Referees to defeat the Yellowjackets 31-19 in one of the weirdest games we’ve had since probably last year’s Virginia game. But despite everything being seemingly against the Cards as we all melted in the stands, the team made big play after big play when they were needed most and improved to 3-0 on the year.

EXHALE!

I’m going to need to watch this game a couple times to get my head around whatever the hell i just saw. Let’s go through the highlights of the game and try to piece together the malarkey that the game was.

It was awesome to see the defense come out and immediately shut down the Tech offense and force a 3-and-out. Was hoping that would be a tone-setter for the game, but we’d eventually see an awful lot of late-down conversions from the Jackets. Shough and the Cards made their way into Tech territory quickly after a huge 42-yard catch from Ja’Corey Brooks. But the drive flamed out quickly and Travelstead’s 52-yard attempt was blocked.

But then Tech marched right down the field after their drive got kick-started by a personal foul penalty. Haynes King would scamper for an all-too-familiar touchdown run right up the gut to the south endzone with no defenders to be found. Was not a fan of seeing that same exact play for the second time in two weeks.

A couple drives later Louisville’s defense came up huge with the first touchdown of the game on this incredible effort from Puryear.

A couple drives with questionable calls/no-calls and a missed Tech field goal went by before the Cards eventually found pay dirt on a delicious crossing route from Chris Bell for 37-yards early in the second quarter. Louisville forced a three-and-out then had a drive immediate start in the hole due to another penalty, but the Cards marched down the field and Travelstead finally made a field goal from the right hash.

With a 17-7 lead and less than two minutes in the half, GT got the ball back and Louisville quickly got them into 3rd-and-8 before King converted on quick toss to Haynes. Tech then hit on a huge 51-yard pass and catch from King to Singleton to get the Jackets all the way to the one-yard-line. After for tries from the 1, Tech finally punched it in to quiet the crowd and steal the momentum heading into halftime.

The vibes in the stands during that halftime break were pretty damn weird and everyone seemed super annoyed. The refs were already under everyones skin, as were Haynes King and co. Felt like Louisville had let GT right back into the game when we could have had a comfortable lead at the half. Brent Key talked all week about Tech needing to make the big plays when they dialed them up, and they certainly did just that in the first half.

Louisville looked to steal momentum back in the second half when they got the ball first, but after making it out to their own 48-yard line they got pushed back to their 33 on another timely?/untimely penalty. The drive would flame out and Tech would march down the field and once again go for it on fourth down to extend their drive deep into Louisville territory. It looked like they were about to go for it again, but they ultimately settled for a game-tying field goal.

On the ensuing drive it was desperate times for the offense as they had to answer and show signs of life and they came up huge on a ridiculous 57-yard pass from Shough to Brooks. Words can’t do this catch justice. Just ridiculous. Brooks is going to be a star.

But Tech marched right back down the field and got inside the Cards’ 10 before the refs really made themselves ridiculous. On third-and-goal from the 6, GT didn’t looked to be lined up properly when the ball was snapped past King. King scooped up the ball and threw it away. It was definitely both an illegal formation and false start penalty, and potentially a grounding call, but instead the refs awarded an absolutely ridiculous timeout to Tech which upon closer review looked to come well after the ball was snapped. It was egregious, they even showed it on the video boards in the stadium and the fans let their displeasure finally boil over and the refs heard about it for a while after that.

As many of you know, though, “ball don’t lie”, and UofL got a huge 4th-down stop on the one yard line to turnover the ball on downs. Unfortunately, the Cards let that huge momentum boost go away with one of the more questionable calls by Brohm in some time. Instead of running the ball to get some breathing room as they were backed up against the one-yard line, they ran a play-action pass and Shough slipped under pressure and got called for grounding in the endzone, which resulted in a safety.

Tech got the ball right back and once again made their way down the field before having to settle for a 50-yard field goal attempt after UofL’s pressure finally started getting home against a Yellowjacket’s o-line that had been outstanding all day.

Then something awesome happened....

Just awesome to see Tayon Holloway make a play like that. The staff had been saying he’s shown flashes, but needed to show consistency to get more playing time. Making huge, game-breaking special teams plays is a great way to prove that.

But stop me if you heard this before, Tech got the ball back and made their way down the field with multiple late-down conversions. But the defense stepped up when needed most and got the turnover on downs.

Tech would proceed to run into the kicker right as Louisville punted the ball away to give the Jackets, which all but sealed the game because Tech had used too many timeouts (WHOOPS!!).

Like I said, totally normal game.

Overall I’m just relieved to get out of there with a win. We knew GT was going to bring their best shot with the way they talked all week and we knew it would be a dog fight, and boy was it. But to overcome a hell of a lot of adversity and injuries (more on that in a sec) and get a win in your conference opener is just huge and lets us all keep dreaming the big dream.

I could write another 1000 words about the offense, the defense, Tech’s valiant effort, and the refs, but let’s leave the breakdown for the days ahead and just bask in being 3-0 after a gritty conference win. We get to go to South Bend undefeated and get hyped for what should be an awesome experience for a lot of fans making the trip.

I hope all of the players that got banged up today recover quickly, especially Quincy Riley, and we are ready to roll next week after what was a toasty and bruising afternoon.

Until next week... Go Cards.