By Charlie Lefflersports Editor
After numerous mistakes during last week’s game against Illinois, theLouisville Cardinals wanted to come out sharp. Instead the Cards did theopposite. On the second play of their first possession U of L quarterbackDave Ragone was stripped at the Memphis 22-yard line and the Tigersrecovered. Six plays later the Dante Brown powered into the endzone givingthe Tigers a 7-0 lead with barely two minutes gone into the game.
It was not the start that the 38,256 fans expected to see and Louisville’ssecond possession did not start much better. The Cards were flagged for apersonal foul after the Tiger’s kickoff sailed out of bounds. On the firstplay U of L was called for holding which backed them to the 10-yard line.After a one yard pick-up by true freshman Lionel Gates and two incompletionsthe Cards appeared to be in dire straits. Facing a third down and 19 yards togo at the 11:44 mark of the first quarter, things could have turned uglyearly. Instead, the Cards dug deep and went with their strength. Ragone hitwide receiver Deion Branch on a 29-yard pass down the middle and the race wason.
“That was a big play,” Branch said. “It was a clutch play.” After thereception Louisville moved down the field and capped off the drive with a10-yard bullet pass from Ragone to Branch to tie the score 7-7.
From that point on it appeared that the Cardinal team had come to play.After a 27-yard field goal by Nathan Smith gave the Cards a 10-7 lead in thesecond, Louisville struck again. Ragone hit Branch once again and the seniorwide receiver broke a simple reception into a 69-yard touchdown run as hesprinted down the sideline towards the enzone and gave the Cards a 17-10 leadwhich held until the half.
The U of L defense held the Tigers scoreless until the final two and halfminutes of the game when everything appeared to go haywire as the two teamscombined to rip off a total of 28-points.
“I don’t want to discuss about how they started,” said Louisville head coachJohn L. Smith, “but I’m proud of the way they fought back.”
With the lack of running game a week ago, Smith decided earlier in the weekthat he would burn the redshirt year of Gates and use him in the game. Eventhough Gates produced 68-yards on 16 carries, it seemed that his greatestinfluence may have been to inspire Tony Stallings.
Stallings has been hampered by swelling in his knee this season and has notproduced as expected. But on this day the running back appeared to run painfree and with power. Stallings finished the game with 155-yards on 17carries. It was a career high production and his fourth 100-yard game. Themost outstanding run came with 2:22 left in the game when Stallings defiedthe Memphis blockers, shoving them out of the way en route to a 45-yardtouchdown run.
Stallings said that this week he changed his mindset. Before, he had beendown on himself for not producing. “Man, you’re wasting games,” Stallingssaid he would tell himself. “You didn’t do nothing that game. But now I’veturned it into, ‘you’ve only got eight left, make the most of them. I don’twant to wait and look up and it be my eleventh or twelfth game. It would belike you’re through, you didn’t do nothing, you didn’t try hard. You shouldhave had this urgency earlier. I don’t want to waste a game, a day, a play.””No one can create more games for me once the last one is played,” Stallingssaid. “I take it real personal when I’m not in.”
“It was a good conference win against a quality opponent,” Ragone said. “Theyhave a good defense and we were able to have a good balance today.” The Cardsran 40 rushing attempts for 207-yards. In comparison Louisville ran the ball40-times for 235-yards.
Next up for the Cards will be a Liberty Bowl rematch from last season againstColorado State. The game will be played on Thursday night in Papa John’sStadium and televised on ESPN.
