LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — This was never going to be easy. Not for 10-win Louisville. Not even after the Cardinals went ahead by 10 points, not once but twice.
A sagging University of Kentucky football team that won one time since Sept. 30 was never going to gift wrap the Governor’s Cup and leave it on the sidelines for the Cardinals to parade around L&N Cardinal Stadium on a brisk Saturday afternoon.
In fact, the Wildcats put the trophy on the team bus and took it back to Lexington for a record fifth consecutive time with a jarring 38-31 victory. The result dropped the Cardinals to 10-2, and Cardinals' coach Jeff Brohm will need a minute before he talks about the 10 more than the two that got away against Pittsburgh and UK.
"This one hurts more than the others," Brohm said. "We wanted to win this game. We put a lot of emphasis on it ... yeah, it stinks."
Kentucky beat Louisville. But you could argue that Louisville beat Louisville.
I would. And Brohm would co-sign on that concept.
These are the two words that Brohm used more than any other words after the game.
Disappointing.
Ridiculous.
Brohm used both words four times in seven minutes to discuss his team's play. Ridiculous breakdowns in pass coverage. Disappointing turnovers. Disappointing penalties. Ridiculous missed tackles.
I'd toss disappointingly bad into the discussion. Or badly disappointing.
You know what I mean. The Cardinals out-rushed the Wildcats. They out-passed the Wildcats. They out-gained them by 114 yards. The Cards trailed for precisely 7 minutes and 6 seconds.
But in the end the Cardinals out-blundered the Wildcats.
To lose it like this … giving up 31 points in the second half, 17 in the fourth quarter … while handing the ball over to Kentucky twice with brutal turnovers … and botching a kickoff return coverage ... and not handling the clock efficiently on their final possession.
"It's bad," Brohm said. "You can't give up that many big plays."
"I think the guys on the team, we wanted to win this one probably more than any of the games on our schedule," U of L quarterback Jack Plummer said. "It just means so much to the city."
Until Saturday the No. 9 Cardinals had won all five one-possession games they played this season. Louisville beat Georgia Tech, Indiana, North Carolina State, Virginia and Miami by a combined 29 points.
That path disappeared Saturday when Mark Stoops’ UK team scored on four of its last five possessions.
Three plays made the afternoon challenging for Brohm’s team:
- The Cards’ kickoff return coverage team split on the right hash mark, allowing UK’s Barion Brown the gap he needed to crackle 100 yards with a kickoff return and cut Louisville’s lead to 17-14 midway through the third quarter.
"The guy went untouched," Brohm said. "Obviously we had too many guys on the boundary. They bounced it to the field and he was untouched."
- A fumble by U of L halfback Jawhar Jordan, the first lost fumble by a Cards’ running back this season, led to a UK game-tying field goal early in the fourth quarter.
"We were just trying for a few extra yards, but we can't let the ball come out," Brohm said. "We didn't do a good enough job of protecting the football.
"We work on ball security every day, probably more so than any team in the country and have done a great job of not fumbling the ball much this year, which is hard to do."
- Another fumble, this one by Plummer, positioned the Wildcats for 20-yard touchdown catch and run by halfback Ray Davis.
"We laid the ball on the ground twice and that will lose you the game in college football," Brohm said.
The mojo turned into a Code Blue after that — and Kentucky earned its victory on a 37-yard touchdown dance by Davis, who split the left side of the U of L defensive line out of a one-back set. It was a first-and-10 play. Kentucky seemed primed to get into possession for a game-winning field goal.
Instead, they delivered their longest running play of the afternoon.
"He was untouched, which is ridiculous," Brohm said.
"This is my third year at Louisville and I haven't beaten Kentucky yet," U of L linebacker Ben Perry said. "Knowing what we have now, the weapons we have now, I feel like we should have finished. We didn't finish today and it's going to be on my mind until next year."
It was a sour ending to a game that was the first time the Cards led against the Wildcats since 2019. Later it was the first time the Cards led by 10 or more points in this game since 2017. Now Stoops has won five straight over teams coached by Lorenzo Ward (filling in for the fired Bobby Petrino), Scott Satterfield and Brohm.
Kentucky’s regular season is over. The Wildcats (7-5) will learn their bowl destination on Dec. 3. Louisville is booked for a bonus game — the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, next Saturday at 8 p.m. in Charlotte, N.C. against Florida State.
"We have a top four opponent that we've got to play next week down in Charlotte," Brohm said. "We're going to have to play a whole lot more efficient football to have any chance to be in that game."
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