5 reasons why Louisville football underachieved against Duke

We take a look at why the Louisville football team underachieved in their 24-14 win against the Duke Blue Devils on Friday night.

The final result in the game between the Louisville football program and the Duke Blue Devils was not what anyone would have expected. Well, at least anyone from the Louisville side of things. Lamar Jackson played okay, but not great. Duke, on the other hand, probably played their best game of the season in a loss.

It was almost scary when O’Hara missed his last field goal attempt with only a few minutes left in the football game when Louisville was up three. It would have been a huge swing of events for Duke who would have also had great field position. If Duke would have scored a touchdown, the game would have been over and Louisville’s season with it.

The good news for Louisville is that they were able to escape, but it wasn’t pretty. However, after losing a close game to Clemson two weeks ago, the Cardinals will be more than happy to take an ugly win. it just it what it is at this point.

Even still, it’s hard not to feel as though the Louisville football team severely underachieved against Duke. However, it wasn’t just the Cardinals beating themselves, the Blue Devils did their part as well.

Here are the five reasons that Louisville didn’t rise up to expectations against Duke.

Oct 14, 2016; Louisville, KY, USA; Louisville Cardinals wide receiver James Quick (17) lunges for more yards as he is tackled by Duke Blue Devils safety Jordan Hayes (13) during the first quarter at Papa John

5. Turnovers

This point comes in two parts: one, the turnovers that Louisville gave up and two, the turnovers that Louisville’s defense wasn’t able to force.

Brandon Radcliff fumbled the football inside of the twenty yard line when Louisville was already up 17-7. If Louisville scores on that drive, the Cardinals pretty much put the game away going up 24-7 or at least 20-7. Duke ran a very slow moving, dink and dunk offense throughout the night. There is no way that the Blue Devils would have come back from that.

It is really troubling that Radlciff, a senior, would fumble the football so close to the endzone. Petrino looked very upset with him and you could tell they had a disagreement on the sideline. Fact in point, Radcliff cannot continue to give up the football.

Secondly, Duke did a great job of not turning over the football. They threw a lot of quick screens that gave Daniel Jones an easy read every play and because of this, the Blue Devils were able to keep the game close in Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium.

Oct 14, 2016; Louisville, KY, USA; Louisville Cardinals linebacker Stacy Thomas (32) tackles Duke Blue Devils running back Jela Duncan (25) during the second quarter at Papa John

4. Duke’s defense

Louisville football fans learned tonight why Duke leads the ACC in sacks. They got pressure on Lamar Jackson all evening and forced Jackson into many under-throws throughout the evening. The pressure forced Jackson to not step into his throws, which cause the passes to be thrown short.

The Cardinals still ran gained a total of 460 yards, but they really couldn’t get going against the Blue Devils. A large reason for that had to do with Duke’s defense playing an incredible football game on defense. They didn’t break on the read-option, which really limited the Cards’ big plays that turn into touchdown drives.

Also, in the red-zone, Duke was able to force Louisville to kick field goals and turn the football over. Each of those things forced a low-scoring contest between the Cardinals and the Blue Devils.

Kudos to Duke’s defense, they were stout.

Oct 14, 2016; Louisville, KY, USA; Duke Blue Devils running back Jela Duncan (25) runs the ball against Louisville Cardinals safety Josh Harvey-Clemons (25) during the second quarter at Papa John

3. Louisville’s terrible field goal kicking

I figured that Louisville would finally be able to figure out who will be their field goal kicker this season, but I guess I was wrong. Every time the Cardinals need a big field goal, Evan O’Hara isn’t able to put the football through the uprights.

Who knows what will happen if the Cards ever play a game that comes down to a field goal. I am not entirely confident that he could make the kick.

He missed two field goals tonight that could have been huge misses for Louisville, but luckily the last one was called back because of a roughing the kicker penalty. If there was no penalty on that play, Duke would have had the ball in great field position, only down three.

Louisville’s defense couldn’t get Duke off the field and that last drive could have been a season-ending drive for the Cardinals.

Evan O’Hara has to figure out what he needs to fix going forward.

Oct 14, 2016; Louisville, KY, USA; Duke Blue Devils quarterback Daniel Jones (17) looks to pass against the Louisville Cardinals during the first quarter at Papa John

2. Duke dominated the time of possession

You really have to give credit to the Duke football team in their loss to Louisville. The coaching staff had a great game plan, they didn’t turn the football over, played great defense, and had long-methodical drives. Louisville’s defense couldn’t get off the field and that almost proved costly for the Cardinals.

Duke held the football for 37 minutes and Louisville only had the football for 22 minutes. It’s not all that surprising that a team would have a better time of possession than Louisville because they usually score so fast. However, this was different because Duke was actually moving the football while Louisville wasn’t scoring.

The Blue Devils used a bunch of screens to create third and short situations where Duke excelled all evening. They were 8-16 on third down and 1-2 of 4th down. It was almost enough to knock of the seventh ranked Cardinals on Friday evening.

Oct 14, 2016; Louisville, KY, USA; Louisville Cardinals quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) looks to pass against the Duke Blue Devils during the first quarter at Papa John

1. Louisville didn’t commit to running the football

This one really surprised me to be completely honest. In the second quarter, rain started to fall and Lamar Jackson’s passes started to become highly inaccurate. Not only was he inaccurate, but he wasn’t making easy reads on the read-option and was getting himself shut down, and in turn, the Cardinals’ offense as well.

Jeremy Smith busted a huge 80 yard touchdown run that have the Cardinals some breathing room, but they never really stuck with pounding the ground game. Duke kept getting pressure up the middle, but Louisville was so intent on passing the football that the Blue Devils never had to back off.

When Brandon Radcliff only gets seven carries, then you know something needs to go back and be re-evaluated. I’m fine with Louisville only winning by 10, but not if it’s because they got away from what they have done best this season: being a well-rounded rushing attack. Lamar Jackson still had a great rushing game, but he alone rushing the football isn’t what has made Louisville great this year.

When the weather got bad and the offense was stagnant, they should have relied on Smith and Radcliff. End of story.