By Charlie Leffler
WEST POINT- The final stats of Louisville’s 45-14 win over Army will probably look strange. Total yards: Louisville 446, Army 140, Referees 210.
While Army was flagged for 75-yards on eight penalties once again the major drawback for the Cards was the continually mounting miscues. In the game, Louisville was flagged for 135-yards on 17 penalties.
Even Louisville head coach John L. Smith did not know how to describe the win when he spoke to his team following the game. “I said congratulations on the win guys, but we were…” Smith smiled. The coach said he could not relate the exact words because he was in public.
The penalty problem was emphasized during a fourth quarter drive by the Black Knights, the Cards where flagged six times leading to an Army score. Among the standout miscues was a combo off-sides and personal foul after the play that moved Army 20-yards to the Louisville 19-yard line. “I don’t like what we did there defensively late,” said Smith. Though he had replaced his starters, the coach felt that was no excuse. “You put in all those young guys and they go and make some stupid penalties too and let them go down and score.” The Black Knights scoring drive covered 80-yards on nine plays. Louisville gave Army 41-yards penalties on the drive and it would have been more if the Black Knights had not declined a pass interference call.
“It’s not going to go away until we become more intelligent and learn to play like we should,” said Smith.
Though the offense looked defective at times, Smith feels that penalties were also their greatest drawback. “We get hold after hold, motion after motion and we just killed ourselves offensively. We’re never going to get anything going offensively if we continue that.” At times the offense looked like it was doing a two-step. For every two steps forward they would be penalized two steps back. “We have got to stop the holds. We have got to stop the penalties or we’re not going to be able to move the ball on anybody.”
Once again, it was quarterback Dave Ragone making plays that should have gone nowhere. One of the most spectacular was a first quarter play where the ball was knocked from Ragone’s hands only to be scooped back up by the quarterback who then completed an 80-yard touchdown pass. But like most of the game, the play was called back on a holding penalty. Ragone was 15 of 29 for 240 yards and one touchdown.
“He’s a warrior,” Louisville head coach John L. Smith said about his starting quarterback. “If we could all be like he is we’d go undefeated every year.” And how right Smith was after watching Ragone lead his team to another ‘more difficult than it should have been’ win. Once again, Ragone led the team in rushing, picking up 62-yards on eight carries for a 7.8 yard average. In comparison, the closest Louisville running back was T.J. Patterson who averaged 5.3 yards on three carries late in the game. Henry Miller picked up 56-yards on 20-carries for a 2.8 average.
One of the explanations for the offensive difficulties was Army sought to take advantage of the line the way that other opponents have done. “They came after us,” said Smith. “They’re probably a 20% blitz team and they showed us 80% blitz. And that was a lot different than we expected.”
Once again, the Cardinals looked flat coming out in the third quarter. After jumping to a 31-0 first half lead, Louisville was lethargic on offense returning to the field. “I can’t understand why we have so many problems in the third quarter,” said Smith. “We’re just going to have to a better job.” Just as when they played Duke, the Cards were held scoreless in the third quarter while Army finally got on the scoreboard with a 88-yard fumble return.
The most outstanding play came from special teams, including two blocked punts, one by Brandon Johnson and another by Curry Burns. The Johnson block led to a score and the Cards also had a punt return for a TD. Both special teams’ scored came in the second quarter. With 13-minutes left in the half the Louisville defense forced Army to punt. The Cards’ Damien Dorsey caught the kick cleaning and swiftly evaded defenders to return 81-yards for the score. “Coming into it, we told Damien if we do our jobs right we’re going to get you a touchdown,” said Smith.
“I give all the credit to my teammates,” said Dorsey. “There’s ten other guys out there. I just happened to make a move, one here, one there, see green, go green. I really didn’t see an opening. There were like three guys in front of me I just had to make them miss. After the first wave missed then it’s pretty much home free.”
Still, there was also fault to be found in the special teams. “I thought the kickoff coverage could have been better,” said Smith. “We’ve still got to get the ball into the target area.” Due to insufficient kicks and bad coverage, Army’s William White was able to pick up 109-yard on five kickoff returns. “For the most part I thought our special teams played pretty good and gave us an opportunities to win and they gave us some scores,” said Smith, “which is pretty good for them.”
The game started with the Cards quickly moving down the field on their opening possession to score on with a Miller 1-yard run at the 13:05 mark.
On Louisville’s second possession, they had to settle for a 22-yard field goal by Nate Smith to push the Cards to a 10-0 lead as the clock expired.
After Dorsey’s punt return put Louisville up 17-0, Army was forced to punt again. This time, the Card’s Brandon Johnson came in cleanly and blocked the kick which bounced back into the end zone where Joshua Tinch fell on it for another Louisville score.
“We put him in a situation kind of where we say it’s you one on one,” Smith explained, “if you win, you can get the block.”
After another punt by the Black Knights, Ragone quickly moved Louisville down the field and scored on an eight-yard pass to Dontay Spillman to create the halftime score. On the game, Spillman had seven receptions for 128-yards and one touchdown.
